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I remember vividly the day I first saw Godspell. I believe I was seven, and my Dad had taken just me into New York to see this newfangled off-broadway show. The show opens with what to a seven year old is truly Babel up front on stage. But suddenly, cutting through the noise, from the back of the small theater, came a voice: Prepare Ye the Way of the Lord. Prepare Ye the Way of the Lord.
Today we lit the peace candle. We sang a beautiful rendition of the words “He shall feed his flock like a shepherd” married with the lulling Bach tune of “Sheep Shall Safely Graze.” But this is Advent, and somewhere, in the back of our minds, we are just waiting for John the Baptist to show up shouting, “Prepare Ye the Way of the Lord!”
A funny thing happened on the way to this sermon. Lynn Riker handed me a book, “This Far By Faith: Twenty Years at Cass Community” by Faith Fowler. Faith Fowler is a Methodist minister at the helm of a church that is involved in so much ministry in downtown Detroit that it owns five buildings—from the church to residence buildings to an activity center for adults with developmental disabilities. I want to share one of Faith’s stories with you.
It was Faith’s first Sunday at Cass. It was a holiday weekend, which meant that no one was there except Faith, the five stalwart members of the choir and choir director, and about 12 people who trickled into a sanctuary that could hold 300. But this was Faith’s first Sunday, and as she put it, “[Any religious leader worth his or her salt] wants people to leave the sanctuary, temple, mosque, or auditorium overwhelmed by both our oratory and our spiritual depth. We want them to return for the next service with all the people they have told about our superior skills. It’s hubris, I know.”
Faith continues, “Once I stood behind the ornate wooden pulpit in the center of the chancel, the numbers no longer mattered. I preached as if my life depended on it—employing expert exegesis, moving illustrations, memorable quotes and peppering the sermon with cadence and alliteration. We began doing the dance of call and response. Heads were bobbing and hands were clapping, in agreement, too. I became Howard Thurman and TD Jakes, Joyce Meyers and Bishop Judith Craig, John Wesley and Anna Howard Shaw. Just when I was about to burst into the burning bush, at the very rear of the room, standing directly under the doorway’s thumbtacked exit sign, Harriet thundered at the top of her lungs, “Hey lady!”
I stopped mid-sentence, stunned. This had never happened to me before. In fact, I have since regularly suggested that people try it while they are on vacation to see if they can elicit a similar reaction from the resident clergy person. I lifted my eyes up off my manuscript as Harriet, age 62, developmentally disabled and a regular usher at Cass Church, completed her statement at an earsplitting volume, “We’re out of toilet paper!”
I knew right then that I was in serious trouble. What do you do when all your academic training has left you unprepared for the work to which you have been called? I climbed out of the pulpit, found a roll of Charmin, and walked it back to Harriet. I realized in record time that she wasn’t going to stop yelling until I did and that nothing I had to say would matter if I didn’t.” (This Far By Faith, Faith Fowler, pp 2-3)
We are told to keep awake: To wait and watch. We know we have to cling to hope. But today’s clarion call breaks through our quiet meditations, breaks through our constant yammering about what is wrong in our world, breaks through our focus on ourselves, and issues the blue-prints for God’s people.
Prepare Ye the Way. Get the world ready for God’s arrival. Level the mountains if you have to. Build up the valleys if need be. Smooth out the rough spots. Widen the access road.
It seems as unmistakable as Harriet’s pronouncement. And it is as necessary. Eleanor Roosevelt said, “It isn’t enough to talk about peace. One must believe in it. And it isn’t enough to believe in it. One must work at it.”
So let us light our candles for peace. God knows our world needs it.
Let us enjoy the music and the beautiful images of this season. We all deserve to find moments of rest and peace.
But let us not think that Advent, that being a follower of the baby who is to be born again, is a passive activity.
“Hey, All of Us”
Prepare the Way.
Alleluia, Amen.
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