December 10, 2006
Luke 1:68-79
Peace: The Road Less Traveled

It seems there are many roads these days that are busy with travelers. Roads packed with weary but determined pilgrims, hellbent on a journey to just who knows where. I’m not talking about city sidewalks, busy sidewalks, with shoppers rushing home with their treasures. These paths are dusty, harsh, and long, but they must be popular, otherwise why would they be so crowded?

What is this thoroughfare? You and I and the world knows it all to well. It is the way of conflict, strife, division, and even warfare. It is everything from backbiting comments whispered over the phone to gang shootings to the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, the Sudan, Chechnya, Congo, Israel, the Ivory Coast, on and on. (1)

Discord and struggle are such familiar ways with us that we hardly question whether or not they are right. Like a fish in water or a bird in the air, we human beings have become at home with conflict. When I was a kid, we’d go visit my cousins out on the ranch in southeast New Mexico. One thing that always fascinated me was that the roads, made of packed dark red clay, would have deep grooves where the wheels of the truck had passed again and again. Sometimes they were so deep, my cousins would have to come and dig out the center berm so that the truck could pass. On this path, the ways of disharmony and dissension are so frequent and familiar, they are like ruts carved deep into the road that makes it almost impossible to imagine another way.

The situation was no different in first century Palestine. The Roman occupiers where masters at war, as well as at provoking their subjects to fight with one another. Religion, politics, commerce, and sport all thrived on tensions and quarrels. They were famous for their roads, which were not built for simple Sunday afternoon jaunts.

The Roman roads were essential for the growth of their empire, by enabling them to move armies. A proverb says that "all roads lead to Rome." Roman roads were designed that way to hinder provinces organizing resistance against the Empire. At its peak, the Roman road system spanned 53,000 miles and contained about 372 links. The Romans, for military, commercial and political reasons, became adept at constructing roads, which they called viae (plural of singular via). These long highways were very important in maintaining both the stability and expansion of the empire. The legions made good time on them, and some are still used millennia later. In late Antiquity these roads played an important part in Roman military reverses by offering avenues of invasion to the barbarians. (2)

Into such a world babies were born all the time. Into such a world two very important babies would be born. One would be to a couple who had long awaited a child, who long since given up having a child. Elizabeth and Zechariah were devout in their faith, the faith of Abraham & Sarah, of Elijah, of David, of the prophets. Zechariah’s devotion to his faith was lived out as a servant in the temple, daily attending to the needs of the priests and the faithful throngs who gathered to worship God. The news of the birth of his one and only child struck Zechariah dumb. Unable to talk for the duration of Elizabeth’s pregnancy, he could only watch and serve and wait.

What is it like to be waiting for a child to be born, but knowing all the while she or he will be born into a world at war, neighbor at neighbor’s throat, tribe battling tribe, nation against nation? Then, as now, it must be a terribly mixed bag of feelings, knowing that with each new child there is hope born anew, but against a backdrop of ancient grievances.

Then, Elizabeth gave birth to their son, and they named him John, and Zechariah was once again able to speak. Without a thought, his first words were a prayer to God, in thanksgiving for the child and in anticipation of the mission this child would be on in God’s name. This prayer, which has come to be called the “Benedictus,” for the Latin translation of the first word, “Blessed,” is not your usual thanksgiving for the birth of a child. It tells of more than what is on the hearts and minds of a mother and a father, but also pronounces eternal longings and world-wide implications. It is firmly rooted in the faith of the Jewish people, and yet it points to a breaking forth for all who live in faith. It is a prayer for this child, of Elizabeth and Zechariah’s, but it talks of another child, one who would bring salvation to all. And it speaks of the way of peace.

What possessed Zechariah to put this prayer for peace into the Child Dedication Service he’s having for his beloved baby? Surely such prayers for peace and the measures to bring it about are more appropriate for world leaders and religious authorities than for a baby only eight days old? If the Roman Emperor and the Senate, all the scholars and craftsmen and artists, the High Priest and all the members of the Sandhedren could not bring about peace, then how on earth could a newborn child, and the one who would follow him, bring about peace?

What if, just what if, we look at the young John’s calling from God. It is not a call to political nor religious office. It is not a call to travel the world nor to gain scholarly stature. It is not a call to even counsel individuals nor broker the law between factions or parties in conflict. John’s calling, clearly named in his father, Zechariah’s, blessing prayer, was to prepare the way of peace by giving knowledge of salvation to the people by the forgiveness of their sins.

What a truly revolutionary calling. Not to parse legaleze in order to extract all the money you can from your neighbor or the government or big business, but to call people to a repentance that leads to forgiveness. Not to lead armies into war to defend the honor of family nor country, but to call people to a repentance that leads to forgiveness. Not to preserve and enforce every jot and tittle of scriptural against the heresies of the day, but to call people to a repentance that leads to forgiveness. This will “give light to those who sit in darkness” and “guide our feet in the way of peace.”

This will be the mission of John the Baptist, as he prepares the way in the wilderness for Jesus. Calling people to a repentance, an acknowledgement of sin, a turning-around, a commitment to be transformed, so that we will know salvation through the forgiveness of sin. Who forgives? God, others, ourselves…

We’ve made the paths to conflict so very easy and now have ruts so deep we cannot get out of them. We’ve made the path to peace so illusive and other worldly that we will never travel it. Why can we not recognize that peace will never be the way of the world. It has too much to gain from our being at war with each other. Jesus reminded us as he gave us his peace. “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives.” (John 14:27) But peace he nonetheless gives, and to this pathway of peace John directs us.
I’d like to imagine a world where confession and repentance are required before any conflict is pursued. What would it mean for our lives as human beings if, before any snide comment was hurled at Coffee Hour after worship, one was required to name 3 things for which you needed to repent? What would happen if, automatically upon writing a flaming e-mail to your coworker, a pop-up screen came up requiring you to name four sins you needed to confess in order for the message to be delivered? How different our world would be if, prior to any war starting, civil or otherwise, that all parties involved would be forced to sit at the negotiating table and go around, one by one, listing at least five personal and five national transgressions and asking for forgiveness for each?

In trying to come up with an example of this, I failed to find a good example from our world. Perhaps there is a perfect illustration out there, and I would appreciate hearing about it from you. But I kept coming back to the story of Jesus, now years after his birth, as he happened upon a woman, caught in adultery, getting ready to be stoned to death by those who had caught her. Bending down and drawing in the sand, Jesus set the tone that Zechariah had presented in his Benedictus, John had proclaimed in his preaching, and to which Jesus was called his entire life: “Let the one who is without sin cast the first stone.”(John 8:2-8)

There are so many paths in our lives which beckon us to follow. There are many with deep, well-worn ruts of hatred, enmity, strife, warfare. Others are hard to see for they are rarely trod upon. They are paths of peace, harmony, mutuality, compassion, hope. There is a price for both roads, but the cost for the latter is odd and unexpected. It is the confession of our humanity and the earnest belief in repentance, transformation. Which road will you take this day?

“Two roads diverged in a wood, and I –
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.” (3)

(1)For a fascinating look at all the current global conflicts, go to: http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/war/
(2) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_road
(3) Robert Frost (1874–1963). Mountain Interval. 1920, “The Road Less Traveled”
 

Rev. Allen V. Harris
Franklin Circle Christian Church
www.FranklinCircleChurch.org


 

Copyright 2006 -- The Rev. Allen V. Harris

Franklin Circle Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)

1688 Fulton Rd., Cleveland, OH 44113-3096