Prepare the Way of the Lord

‘The voice of one crying out in the wilderness “Prepare the way of the Lord”’

(Luke 3: 4 – quoting the prophet Isaiah)

I read this morning that the Cabinet is to discuss again – but with more detail – how to prepare for a ‘no deal Brexit’. I am not going to enter into a debate here with regards Brexit, so don’t panic! What interested me about this news – and puzzled me a bit – was just how you prepare for something when many of the implications and consequences are so unknown. Our politicians may say they know what is going to happen (just as apparently they – and they alone - can accurately discern the motivation of those who voted to leave!). But it seems to me that no-one really knows what happens next. So how do we prepare for it?

(If you have the time it is well worth a long read of the former UK representative to the EU, Sir Ivan Roger’s recent speech. Informative and informed... and somewhat alarming. https://news.liverpool.ac.uk/2018/12/13/full-speech-sir-ivan-rogers-on-brexit/?fbclid=IwAR0yWeCPKqJ7-zDBUoB9uhUZGoHWQB3bD-3ft3g8f8dUGhjt8N3zhtAaVZ4 )

I remember way back in late 1999 when everyone was panicking because of the looming dawn of the year 2000 and the fear that our computer systems would all go haywire and society as we know it would shut down. Scottish Government Ministers sacrificed their normal Hogmanay celebrations to stay up and... well...  and what? Watch and wait, I suppose. Of course, in the end nothing went awry and we all continued as before. But as it was evident in advance that no-one really knew if anything would happen and – if it did – what that might be, how could we prepare? Can you prepare for the unknown? Can you prepare when you are not quite sure what you are expecting to happen? For what are we preparing?

For much of 2018 we have lived with uncertainty and confusion (as previously described!). As I look back on it all now, it does feel to me that some of the agitation was to do with feeling that we ought to be preparing for the future, but being entirely in the dark as to what the future held, or – at least – what the journey towards it might be like. How could we prepare for the unknown?

As now we approach Christmas, we will be breaking with tradition and having a very different kind of family Christmas. This will be a slimmed down, cut back, simplified Christmas. There is an extent to which  after all that has happened in this year that is sensible and welcome and the preparations are not quite so onerous. But because it is so different, the preparations are taking on a rather different feel... as if we are planning in the dark, not quite sure for what we are preparing or what it will be like. It is a rather odd feeling.

It is usual to read the gospel accounts of the ministry of John the Baptist during this season of Advent. He was the forerunner, the herald, the one who was to prepare the way for the Lord. But I doubt he really knew just for what he was preparing or asking his hearers to prepare. And yet, whether he or they really knew what to expect, the message was clear enough. It was a hard message too. The people were to radically change their way of living and turn again to God.

It seems to me that even if we have no idea how the road unfolds in coming days, even if we do not know how the future will look, even if we cannot see how we move beyond the place we are in at the moment, we are still called to be faithful, to continually realign our lives to the values of God’s Kingdom and to watch and wait expectantly.

And perhaps that is the only preparation that is really required of us... or is possible.