ARE YOU LISTENING?

Now in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, Pontius Pilate
being governor of Judea, Herod being tetrarch of Galilee, his brother
Philip tetrarch of Iturea and the region of Trachonitis, and Lysanias
tetrarch of Abilene, 2while Annas and Caiaphas were high priests, the
word of God came to John the son of Zacharias in the wilderness. 3And
he went into all the region around the Jordan, preaching a baptism of
repentance for the remission of sins, 4as it is written in the book of the
words of Isaiah the prophet, saying:
"The voice of one crying in the wilderness:
"Prepare the way of the LORD;
Make His paths straight.
5
Every valley shall be filled
And every mountain and hill brought low;
The crooked places shall be made straight
And the rough ways smooth;
6
And all flesh shall see the salvation of God."'
(Luke 3:1-6)
Over the course of time, Ive learned we probably ought to listen
to our kids a lot more often than we do. I got a fresh reminder of that
just the other day. I must say, I dont know what kind of assertiveness
training Stephanie took when she was a baby, but since she was only 3
or 4, she has been about the most assertive person in the family. She
showed it again the other day when I was trying to talk to Lynn, and I
kept hearing this little voice interjecting, Dad. . . .Dad. . . .Dad.
Finally, she propped her hands on her hips, looked me right in the eye
and said, Dad, youre not listening to me. Needless to say, she
stopped me right in my tracks.
Probably no other image fits Israels history before Christ than
this one of not listening. To get a good feel for the continuity of the
New Testament with the old, we must view John the Baptist in a
context of being the last of a long line of prophets. Moses was the first
to be referred to as a prophet, and he testified to the coming of
another prophet, the Messiah, or the Christ. And his significant
comment in that prophecy was, HIM you shall hear. So Moses was
also one of the first to point out the hearing problem so common to
the human condition.
But it goes back even farther than that, to Adam and Eve in a
garden, with only one command given to them, that they should not
eat of the fruit of a certain tree. Throughout Israelite history, we find a
consistent pattern:
--listen for a time and be obedient
--begin to slip, corrupt leaders take them down farther

--the people cry out after some hardship

--God raises up a deliverer
The pattern from Moses to the fall of Jerusalem was one of having the
Word of God delivered thru the prophets--& rejection of that Word by
the people. Jerusalem fell because no one was listening to the Word as
delivered by the prophets. The Word was surrender. Why will you
die? was the question He asked them, and His promise was that after
captivity they would be brought out. But most of them would not have
it that way, and only a remnant remained to return to the land.
The wilderness image is a powerful one here. It is the picture of
desolation on the one hand; yet we find it on the other, to be an image
of renewal in Scripture as well. And so you have this double image of
John in the wilderness, along with the image of the spiritual wilderness
in which Israel finds herself. And tying the two together, unmistakably,
is the short phrase, a common prophetic formulation: The Word of
God came to John the son of Zacharias in the wilderness. This was
the same designation of prophetic authority found in the books of the
prophets, that the Word of God came to them.
It is further linked by the reference from Isaiah, The voice of one
crying in the wilderness. This is significant, because the voice in the
wilderness as we find it in Isaiah is the voice of the promise of
restoration. So Luke is signaling from the very outset of his gospel that
Jesus is coming as the fulfillment of Gods plan of restoration of His
people. And he ties the testaments together in the person of one man,
John the Baptist. You will find a bit further over in Luke that John the
Baptist is compared with ElijahElijah coming toward the end of the
age of the Old Testament prophets and being the most prominent
among them. Jesus later affirmed about John the Baptist, that among
the prophets there was none greater. Jesus also said later that
parables were given, that Seeing they may not see, and hearing they
may not understand.
The theme of this Advent Sunday is preparation and it has to do
with preparing for the coming of Christ. Luke highlights for us with a
series of human interest stories just how few people in Israel were truly
preparing for Him when He came. There was Elizabeth as she received
the angels announcement concerning her own sonbut interestingly,
an announcement that was not initially received by her husband
Zacharias, who was a priest. Then there was the announcement by the
angel to Marybut interestingly enough again, not to her husband
Joseph, as we find it in Matthews account. There was Simeon, who
had been given the promise that he would not die until he had seen
with his own eyes the coming of the Messiah. And of course there was
Anna, who knew this was the Christ child the instant they brought Him
into the temple.

The question arose in my own mind: What do we do, what do

you do, to prepare for the season of Advent and Christmas each year?
I hear it said again and again every year, It just doesnt feel like
Christmas to me, or I just have not gotten into the Christmas spirit
yet. And it came to me that perhaps were not so much different than
these people in Israel were, and maybe we are, in a different sense of
the word, simply not listening. That voice in the wilderness, the
voice of promise, continues to call to us, but why do we not seem to
hear very clearly?
For one thing, I believe we are, as Paul wrote in one place,
caught up in the cares of this life. Were too busy rushing to get
done the things of today, and worrying about the things of tomorrow.
A popular song captures the idea:
Im in a hurry to get things done,
Oh I rush and rush until lifes no fun,
All I really gotta do is live and die,
But Im in a hurry and dont know why. (By Alabama)
Another thing that tends to hinder the Christmas spirit is that
many of us seem to live in a wilderness all our own, or perhaps many
times in one of our own making or choosing. And many times it truly is
the case that sorrow, illnesseither our own or that of a loved one,
strained relationships, anxieties about money, or the world situation,
have been allowed to weigh us down tremendously.
Perhaps some of us are lacking in Christmas spirit because we
have become too well off materially. John wrote to a church in
Revelation which had this problem: You say, I am rich, have become
wealthy, and have need of nothingand do not know that you are
wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked (Rev. 3:17). Jesus gave
warning that if we are not careful with our attitudes toward Gods
blessings, we can let our focus move from seeking Gods heart to
seeking His hand instead.
And then some of us are not in the Christmas spirit mainly
because we simply arent listening. Weve allowed ourselves to
become distracted to the point that even though Christmas is all
around us, we dont have our ears (and hearts) tuned in to it. I
remember when I was a student in Bible College in Kentucky, we would
make an annual school trip to nearby Natural Bridge State Park for an
outing. One year when we went, we had some students who had
grown up in industrialized cities all their lives and were not used to the
wide open spaces that Kentucky offered. I remember a student asking
me at one point, Whats that sound?
What sound? I dont hear anything.
You mean you dont hear that?
Oh, that. You mean you never heard crickets before?

You see, my ears had become so accustomed to the sound that I

heard it, and yet still paid it little attention because I had become
accustomed to it. Often it is the same way with us at Christmas, we
have seen it plenty of times, and it seems there is not that much to b
considered fresh about it from year to year. Maybe this is a sign of not
wanting to hear. Or perhaps we think we will hear something we dont
want to receive about it, and that will require an attitude adjustment
on our part.
Well, what can we do to prepare for receiving Christ once again
this season? Following the road image in the quote from Isaiah in
our text today, I think we have some clear guidelines right in front of
us.
I. BUILD BETTER ROADS
The prophet declares that we are to make His paths straight. I
think of Israel at the time of Christ, and Pharasaism with its crooked
roads made by extra laws.
II. MAKE THE ROAD LEVEL
He also declares here that every valley shall be filled. That
tells me we are to keep an eye out for the low places; that is, to be
mindful of the needs around us, and especially at Christmastime to
lift up the hands that hang down, and strengthen the feeble knees.
III. REMOVE THE ROADBLOCKS
He says, every mountain and hill shall be made low. So often
we let our pride, or our busyness, or self-interest, or self-importance
get in the way.
IV. REPAVING AND REPAIR
The rough roads shall be made smooth. Many people are
given a rough road to travel at this particular time of year. We can see
the other persons burden and pass them by, or we can see them
struggling and come ease the load for them.
V. REMEMBER THAT ON THIS ROAD THERE IS DESTINY AND THERE IS
PURPOSE
All flesh shall see the salvation of God. The things we do and
say, the attitudes we adopt toward this blessed season of the year, will
be the witness we give to Gods most gracious gift to us.

This season as we try to prepare our hearts: What are the things
that hinder your spirit? Are you too caught up in the hustle to make
time for the season to settle in upon your heart? Are you too satisfied
in your comfort zone?
This season I hope we can recognize that getting into the spirit of
Christmas perhaps puts too much dependence and emphasis upon
what we do. Lets make this a season when our road to Christ does
not have signs reading detour or under repair. And understand
that mostly it involves what God does for us, as we put ourselves in the
path of His blessing.