Resolutions. We hear the call to make resolutions at this time of the year. Even when we don’t make them, there is still a part of us that wants to. Or at least wants to make sure that this time – this year, this attempt, this time of transition, this threshold upon which we stand – we do it better. Or we come out better. Or we take better care - of ourselves, our family, our jobs, our community, our world. That we just do better.
What a great plan, or an ideal, a goal to set at this goal setting time. Just do better. As a person, as a parent or child, as a neighbor, citizen, co-worker, partner, follower of Christ. Yeah, you knew I was getting there, didn’t you? Add it to the list, that faith thing. Another item to work into our already over-busy schedule, another fitness program to bring to the table alongside the physical one, and the clutter one and the calendar one. The faith one. Faith fitness. Loose a little sin from the mid-section, pump up those prayer muscles, tone the spiritual physique. You’ll look better and you’ll feel better and you’ll be better. Jesus will love you more.
Sorry. Went overboard there, didn’t I? We know that’s as ludicrous as it sounds. “Jesus will love us more.” Come on. Except, there is a little voice in the back of our heads that thinks that. Thinks that we aren’t loveable as we are. Thinks that if we just work a little harder, practice a bit more, say the right words at the right time, then ... well ... Jesus will love us more. Or, we’ll be more lovable. More worthy of love. Something.
More worthy. What can we say that will make us more worthy? What can we do?
Luke 3:1-6 In the fifteenth year of the reign of Emperor Tiberius, when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, and Herod was ruler of Galilee, and his brother Philip ruler of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias ruler of Abilene 2 during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John son of Zechariah in the wilderness. 3 He went into all the region around the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins, 4 as it is written in the book of the words of the prophet Isaiah, "The voice of one crying out in the wilderness: 'Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. 5 Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be made low, and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough ways made smooth; 6 and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.'"
OK, John’s list of what we can do comes later. Bear fruit, he says, worthy of repentance. (Lk 3:8) Wait, that’s not to be more worthy, that’s because you are worthy. That’s acting out of worthiness. We are worthy, John says, act like it! Worthy of what? Repentance. Oh. So ... we act like we need a savior? No, we act like we know we need a savior. We act like we know we have a savior. Act like a savior has come and claimed us already. Act like we have made room in our lives, that we have cleaned up, that we have lit the lights and unlocked the door, we have aired out the guest room, that we have gone out of our way to welcome the one we need, the one we know, the one we love. We make room for what matters, for who matters. We find time, we ... well, we make the paths straight and fill in the valleys and knock down the mountains that have gotten in the way. Those mountains get in the way, don’t they?
But then, that’s a lot of trouble, isn’t it? We don’t really have to go that far, do we? We don’t really have to engage in major road construction now that it’s no longer Advent, do we? This is Epiphany, just light the light. Just bow the knee, just make the declaration. “The Light has come.” Good enough, right?
What if it wasn’t just a declaration? What if it is was a list? A to do list. A resolution to believe, in the more holistic sense. Believe as in stake your life on, believe as in live your life by, not just believe as in a good idea that makes some kind of sense. What if the declaration had a follow on clause? “The Light has come, therefore ...” And what might that therefore look like? Road construction? Yeah, like that. But maybe more than resurfacing, maybe more than filling in holes and grinding down some bumps. Maybe this construction was down to the bedrock, down to the foundation. This declaration is a starting over, even if we have started over before. Even if we have done it time and time again. We need to ... No, wait ... we are blessed to do it again, to declare it again, to claim it again, to put our feet on the beginning of the path and walk this journey again.
Here’s a list. Or a declaration. Called a Covenant Prayer. Words that speak volumes. Words that are almost actions, simply be saying them you begin to do them. Words are important. Words made flesh in our skin and bones, muscle and blood are importanter. When we speak these words we claim these words. And in claiming them we begin to live them. This is an action statement that begins with a being statement. An “I will” because of an “I am.” And the doing, if you look closely, is less about us and more about God. God is the doer in this list, this declaration. It is plea to let God be active in a life, in my life, in your life, in our lives together. The doing that is ours is the declaring, the covenant making. That is the action in this list, this statement.
I am no longer my own, but thine. Put me to what thou wilt, rank me with whom thou wilt. Put me to doing, put me to suffering. Let me be employed for thee or laid aside for thee, exalted for thee or brought low for thee. Let me be full, let me be empty. Let me have all things, let me have nothing. I freely and heartily yield all things to thy pleasure and disposal. And now, O glorious and blessed God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, thou art mine, and I am thine. So be it. And the covenant which I have made on earth, let it be ratified in heaven. Amen.
Luke says that John was doing what was written in the book of the words of Isaiah. John was doing the words of a prophet hundreds of years before him. He was acting on someone else’s words. But a few verses earlier we see it isn’t Isaiah’s words that motivate John at all. I don’t know if John knew of the book of the words or not. Maybe he did, maybe he grew up in synagogue school like all the other boys his age, his cousin Jesus for example, who seems to know the words of the books like he had written them himself. But, I can’t see John sitting still in recitation class long enough to let the book of the words sink into him.
But Luke says it isn’t Isaiah’s words that motivates John to come out of the wilderness, with his questionable sartorial sense and unusual dietary habits. No the Word of God came to John in wilderness. To John. Luke seems almost amazed, or thinks we should be amazed. We have ruler after ruler, power and authority all over the place. But the Word of God doesn’t come to them. Doesn’t come to places of power, to places of action and might and force, to corruption and narcissism, greed and oppression. No, the Word didn’t come down there, in the bright lights and big city. It came to John, in the wilderness, no less. And he got on the road, the under construction road, he took his shovel and his dynamite and set about filling in valleys and removing mountains.
No, he didn’t don a hard hat and join a road crew. He let the Word become his words and he spoke. He invited, encouraged, cajoled, shouted, begged and pleased, pointed and accused, cried and challenged, he let the Word leak out of him in every way possible and spill out on those who gathered in front of him. The words cascaded down over them, just as assuredly as the hands full of water that he poured out on their heads. They were bathed in the words, cleansed in the words, so that they might be able to claim the Word. Because in an alchemy unexplainable, his words and that water and their repentance and willingness made the Word come alive again in them. And the words and the Word together became their flesh and their bones, became their choices and their actions, their priorities and their attitudes. They lived out that Word. They became a book of the words, no, a book of the Word.
That’s a resolution worth making again. Let the words I say, the words I live by, the words that define me become the Word alive in me. Let me be an instrument of the orchestra of God’s oratorio. Let me be a vessel filled with the Presence of the living God, full of grace and truth. Let the words that I declare in this Covenant worship become the Word alive in my flesh and my bones. I am no longer my own, but thine. I so resolve.
And you?
Shalom,
Derek
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