Preparing the way can become an all-consuming endeavor. Unforeseen obstacles often have a way of getting in our way to hamper progress and sidetrack us. Then, Murphy's Law goes into effect: "If anything can go wrong, it will." Plans for the Paris subway system were begun in 1845, but the actual work was not begun until much later. A civil engineer, Fulgence Bienvenue (1852-1936), was assigned the task of preparing the way. His first big task was to dig the network of underground tunnels for the trains.
The workers hit many unexpected problems along the way. A few of the obstacles they ran into included underground springs, rock quarries, layers of chalk and sand, underground caverns, and prehistoric swamps under the a city that was inhabited by millions of residents.
The SeineRiver flows through the middle of Paris, so the subway lines also had to be routed under the river. Removal of the riverbed mud became one of their greatest problems. The solution they arrived at was quite clever, though. The workers froze the mud solid, then cut it into manageable chunks with picks and axes, and hauled it away before it thawed.1
The project lasted forty years, and that persistent engineer in charge stayed on the job until the subway system was up and running. The French government recognized his talent, perseverance, and leadership by presenting him with the Legion of Honor award on four different occasions. Today, the Paris subway system is one of the finest in the world. Millions of commuters depend on it daily to transport them to their destinations, but few know of the civil engineer and the other dedicated workers who toiled long and hard to bring its construction to fruition.
They were the ones who prepared the way for countless citizens and visitors to move about the city of Paris much more conveniently. Preparing the way is not an easy task. Trailblazers are frequently subjected to ridicule and threats, and the prophet Malachi is no exception.
Malachi is declaring to the Hebrew people that a messenger is coming to prepare the way for a new covenant, one that will be written on the hearts of the people. God is enlarging the promises made to the descendants of David with an everlasting covenant because God loves all people with an everlasting love.
Just as God prepared the way through the Red Sea and out of Egypt, God has provided release for the Hebrew people from captivity in Babylon, and the return to the land of their ancestors. The people are now back in their homeland of Judah, where Malachi is concerned because both the priests and the worshipers are not taking their religious responsibilities seriously. The physical exile has ended, but a spiritual exile seems to permeate the hearts of the people. Their devotion is noticeably half-hearted, and contributions to the offering plate have fallen off dramatically.
The priests, who are descendants of Jacob's son, Levi, and of Aaron, are cheating the sacrificial system. They have become complacent and corrupt. Moral standards are practically nonexistent, resulting in a deceptive and selfish people. Those living immoral lives appear to be prospering and enjoying the good life, while others are asking, "Where is the God of justice?"
"Why do good things keep happening to corrupt individuals?"
The people are disappointed that, with restoration of the temple in Jerusalem, the glory days of Solomon have not returned. After all this time, their messianic dreams have not materialized, and appear to be more and more remote as time passes by. The embers of their faith are growing cold, but God is about to stir those smoking remnants and heat things up. A hot God is about to strike a match to the frozen chosen of Judah.
In addition to denouncing religious practices of the day, Malachi also provides a word of encouragement. By the same method that an advance team precedes contemporary politicians on the campaign trail, God will have a crier moving ahead to prepare the way for the new messenger.
One is coming who will cleanse the priests with a refining fire and a powerful soap, resulting in a purified priesthood. The white-hot coals of the refiner's fire will change people in the same way iron is changed into steel.
The Day of the Lord will be no Sunday picnic. God's cleansing power will be more like going through an automated car wash on a bicycle. Malachi calls for a return to faithfulness because the Lord, whose coming is their hope, will not come until the temple and priesthood are purified. When the Lord comes, he will burn as a purifying fire, but first he will send a messenger to carry out reform, and to bring about repentance.
Malachi tells of the messenger sent to prepare us for God's coming, who will purify the unfaithful and rebellious. John the Baptist is a road-builder destined to prepare the way for the coming of the promised Messiah. John's mother, Elizabeth, and Mary, the mother of Jesus, celebrate together as they await the births of two very special babies.
Zechariah, father of John, is serving as a temple priest when confronted with a very pregnant pause. He is rendered speechless for the duration of his wife, Elizabeth's, pregnancy. When he finally regains his speech, he is deliriously happy over the birth of his son. Zechariah speaks to this newborn infant, knowing that John's destiny will be intertwined with that of one who is even greater.
The Gospel of Luke tells of powerful earthly rulers, stretching from imperial Rome to the holy city of Jerusalem, but they will pale in comparison to the one God has appointed. John the Baptist will burst forth into a corrupt world like a cannonball crashing through a stained-glass window, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.
Advent practices focus on the themes of reflection and repentance, and John's vocation is to call the world's attention to the one coming, who will save the people from their sins (Matthew 1:21). The ministry of John the Baptist is concerned with purification and righteousness, and Jesus will take up where John leaves off.
John thunders a revolutionary message of the one greater than he, who is coming to baptize with the Holy Spirit and with fire. This one will separate the wheat from the chaff and will burn the chaff with an unquenchable fire.
Today, we are called to face the future that God promises and into which God calls us. The future that beckons us is to the promised day of the Lord when God in Christ Jesus will establish the divine rule in justice and righteousness and give salvation to all people. Our readiness for the coming of God is witnessed in the love and commitment we have for one another. To love and care for others is a sign of our readiness to face the future in meeting new situations and various people.
You and I are here today because someone else prepared the way for us. That may well include several different individuals and span many years, but we usually can pinpoint one or two special individuals who have touched our lives, making the path easier to travel.
Those who have prepared the way for our faith walk may include the biblical characters whose stories we identify with, as well as the saints throughout history who have built and reformed the church on earth. Those who raised the funds and built this house of worship are included, as well as those who made sure we attended Sunday school and worship as young people, even when we didn't want to.
There are strong connections between preparing the way of the Lord and evangelism. You and I are the twenty-first-century prophets who make the paths straight for other sojourners. You can be a life-affirming source of guidance and inspiration for fellow travelers on the roads of life.
As the age of the prophets draws to a close, it does so in the person of John the Baptist. Malachi and John have prepared the way for a new world order. The great and powerful will be humbled, and the lowly and faithful will be exalted, just as every valley will be filled and every mountain and hill made low. Malachi and John are messengers who are leveling the road, preparing the way for the coming of the Messiah.
It is time for repentance, for a change of heart and mind. In one sense, all of life is a preparation for the coming of the Messiah. Preparation does not mean grim, fearful living, but celebration of the grace of God, and recognition of our need for continual repentance and renewal. Whatever lies in the future, we know that God comes to us in Christ with understanding and forgiveness.
Malachi and John remind us of our vast Judeo-Christian heritage, which comes to us through scripture and the church, and of the many ways God enters our lives. We must then relate our understanding of spiritual truth to this new cybernetic, nuclear, automated, impersonal, computerized age, or we are likely to lose our humanity as new knowledge engulfs us.
We are here to prepare the way of the Lord and make the path straight. Right here where we live is now where the action is. That requires the dedication and discipline the prophets have called for. It requires regular worship and constant effort to be sure we are following the Christ of the church and scriptures, and not the Christ of culture or of our own invention.
In this Advent season, brilliant sights and sounds rush us too quickly toward Christmas, without adequate time for preparation. The world promises bright lights and tinsel, which, like the flowers and grass of summer, will all too quickly fade and wither. We need to take time to listen to the wilderness messengers, who direct us again to the powerful Word of God, which endures forever. The wilderness voice points us to the one far greater and more important than anything else the world has to offer.
The voices of Malachi and John are crying in the wilderness. Listen! There is a message for us, the road builders of today. Prepare the way of the Lord. Make the paths straight. The kingdom of heaven is at hand.
1. Pascal Desabres, "The Parisian Subway, 1880-1900: A Local or a National Interest Line? On the Concept of Globalization," Business and Economic History On-Line, Vol. 1, 2003, online at http://www.h-net.msu.edu/~business/bhcweb/publications/BEHonline/2003/Desabres.pdf
[Accessed September 1, 2005]