I remember some years ago taking one of my first walks in San Francisco with my then three-year-old twins. I looked at the map, and it didn't seem like such a big deal to go from one place to the other. After all, it looked flat on the map! But as my wife and I began the trek we quickly realized that this was going to be no easy stroll. Shouldering backpacks filled with three-year-old paraphernalia and dragging tired twins behind, we climbed high and hiked low. We were quickly exhausted. We stood on the corner, with children crying and the two of us questioning our sanity, wondering what we would do next when a taxicab pulled up right beside us.

I leaned into the window as the driver stretched across the passenger seat. We met eye-to-eye, nose to nose. "Where are you going?" he said. We didn't have much money, and I stammered as much back to him. "I didn't ask you about money," he said. "You're my free fare of the day! Every day I give one free ride, and you folks look like you could use it." He couldn't have been more right. We climbed into the cab and the steep San Francisco hills melted away as we glided to our destination.

"Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill be made low ..." (Isaiah 40:4a). That day, those words somehow began to mean a little more. I learned that the steep hills we must climb and the low places we have to navigate can be made easier with the help of human hands.

The call that comes in chapter 40 of Isaiah is an amazing one that I don't think we ever fully absorb. We understand the part that tells us God is coming. It's Advent, after all, and we're excited about that. God is on his way, and all manner of good things are about to happen. It makes most of us want to cheer and come out to greet the God who is about to arrive. But in all our excitement about this, it seems to me that we somehow neglect the not-too-subtle truth that we have a role to play in God's coming among us.

Our "warfare is ended," it's true. Much needed "comfort" is offered. That's true, also. But it would behoove us to halt a minute and try to grasp what role we have in the arrival of this holy moment. We are not; it turns out, mere observers. We don't get to snuggle up on the couch with the remote ready, just in case we don't like what we see. We are not called to be consumers of the holy here, but rather participants. "A voice cries out in the wilderness; prepare the way of the Lord! Make straight in the desert a highway for our God."

I don't know about you, but I would like to know exactly what's expected here. What does it mean to "prepare the way of the Lord?" All this talk about straight highways, lowered mountains, and raised up valleys. It's like we're supposed to be some major construction company for God. It may work for some, but my own self-image doesn't involve bulldozers and highway crews. I'm more the "let's sit down and talk over a cup of coffee" kind of guy.

Really, think with me a minute. What does it mean to prepare the way for God to come? Here in this passage, Isaiah, thousands of years before modern earth moving equipment, is suggesting an epic rearranging of the landscape. No. It's not really a suggestion, is it? It's a calling from a God who expects a response.

So what do we say? More to the point, what do we do? Deserts, mountains, steep valleys are all things that tend to block our way when we embark on a journey. Often such hindrances will, at the least, cause us to detour and go the long way round. Perhaps more often still, we won't bother to make the trip. I mean, who among us would scale Mount Everest or drop into the Grand Canyon? Who among us would take a hike through Death Valley? These are some pretty notable obstacles, and they were particularly large for the people who were living at the time of Isaiah's writing.

I'm led to ask about what obstacles might get in God's way here and now? What might it mean for you and me to get up off the couch and help out with this preparing thing? What would it take to make a level playing field for God today?

Prepare the way of the Lord!

I wonder if forty million people without health insurance is a mountain or a valley? Prepare the way of the Lord! Do you think that one in ten children in the United States suffering from malnutrition represents a desert to be crossed? How do we prepare God's way in a world like we have today? Does God find our levels of violence and social rudeness to be an obstacle? Does the Lord have trouble negotiating the mountaintops of our greed and arrogance? Has it occurred to us that we, ourselves, might be in the way of the advent of God?

Prepare the way of the Lord! Straighten out the crooked highways and level the playing field! Knock down the bumps and fill in the holes. This, it seems to me, is our apostolic task as we await the coming of the Christ child. It's a kind of getting ready exercise that God has given us so that we might grow stronger in spirit, deeper in love.

You've heard me list some of the mountains and valleys that I have noted in our national life. What about right here? What can you and I do today that will level the playing field for others, and therefore, for God? What is going on in our town? In our community? In our church? Are there barriers that keep people from the health, wonder, and joy that God created all people to experience? Are there deep crevices in our human interaction that isolates or separates us from other people? I think there are. Moreover, I think we know what they are as well.

So let's make a plan. Let's get up off the couch and stop being observers and consumers of faith. Let us fulfill the partnership that God yearns to enter into with us. Let's respond to the call of the prophet with what John Wesley called the "energy of love." And if we stop to think about it, we know what to do, don't we? What kinds of mountains do the poor people in our community have to climb, simply to get enough to eat or a place to sleep? Bring down that mountain! What deep valleys must be traversed by people in our community who are illiterate or who do not have access to quality public education? Fill in that ditch! Prepare the way of the Lord!

I believe, sisters and brothers, that God's way is made easier when we live the lives that God would have us live! God's presence comes closer as you and I prayerfully practice that presence with one another and with the wider community. The highways through treacherous deserts and dry spots can be made straight and easy to travel if only we will participate in the construction. The playing field can be leveled if only we will grab some shovels and get to work.

God's coming in Jesus Christ, you see, was not merely a one time thing predicted by Isaiah all those years ago. It's that indeed, but it's more. In a very real sense, it is always Advent. Remarkably, we are the ongoing recipients of the prophet's call to "prepare the way of the Lord!" Christ comes among us, and is revealed in his glory whenever we build the community of love that allows his grace to flow and thrive. Christ comes among us and is shown in his childlike wonder whenever we remember to put children first — not last. Christ emerges in power and truth whenever we stand up to defend the friendless and the oppressed. And we need to know down deep that Jesus walks right along side us whenever we walk down the path of equity and justice; when we stand firm and tall for the things that are good and right.

So I ask you the question today. How are you working to prepare God's way? What is it that you do in the moments and days of your life that level out the playing field for God? Perhaps you're like the cab driver giving an exhausted family a lift. Or maybe you're the quiet one who sees that someone is taken care of when there is a need. You see, the wonder of it all is that I know that you have been doing this preparation work all along. I know of the ministries you offer, the love you share.

I know that you hear the call because I hear it, too.

Shall we walk, then, a little further together? Shall we dare, then, to do a little more? Shall we walk, then, a little deeper in discipleship and faith? Yes, yes, and yes. With our God as partner and guide we can do no other.

Amen.