Isaiah 40:1-8; Mark 1:1-5
December 12, 1999
Sermon preached by Rev. Donald Ng at the First Chinese Baptist Church of San Francisco.
Traffic Mess
According to a recent national study, the Oakland Maze is one of the ten worst traffic congested spots in the country. With 24, 80, 580, 680, 880, 980 and hundreds of other entrances to the freeways all trying to get cars onto the Bay Bridge to San Francisco, it is always a traffic mess. Traffic now exceeds capacity in more than half of the nation’s 50 largest urban areas.
Did you know that the average American spend 434 hours—18 days—in his/her car this year? That’s up 11% over 1990. Some of us can actually say, “We spend this year’s vacation at the Oakland Maze!”
This past Tuesday, an overturned tank truck deposited up to 500 gallons of human waste from “Johnny on the Spots” on Interstate 80 in San Francisco at the height of the morning commute, creating a huge, smelly mess and causing the “worst traffic jam” in the Bay Area this year.
There is almost nothing like driving care-free on California freeways and the Oakland Maze during anytime of the day. The Dept. of Transportation data show 70% of urban freeways are clogged during the morning rush, compared with 55% in 1983.
Gridlock, traffic tie-ups, and road rage fill our morning and afternoon commutes to the point that we wish we had more roads to ease the traffic congestion. But do you know what? More roads aren’t going to do it. Traffic engineers know that the moment you build a bigger road, more traffic rushes into it creating a monster mess in contrast to what was a mini-mess.
The principle is that work expands to fill the time available for its completion. Similarly, spending rises to meet your income. That’s the reason why your last raise seemed to just disappear. Applying this same logic, the number of cars expands to fill the highway.
In fact, we are not building more roads. The miles of paved highway in the U.S. numbered highway system, those interstate roads that stretch across two or more states, have actually been declining—from 169,000 miles in 1955 to 163,000 in 1973 to 157,000 in 1989. Rather than building new roads, more roads, we are straightening the existing roads.
Highway from Exile
If the U.S. Interstate Highway Department would hire Isaiah as the marketer, his words would make a good slogan for them:
“Make straight in the desert a highway…
Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill be made low;
the uneven ground shall become level, and the rough places a plain.”
For the first 39 chapters of the prophecy of Isaiah, we can read how Judah’s unfaithfulness to God’s plan resulted in the domination of the Assyrian Empire. In exile from their homelands, Judah is described as turning away from God and refusing to be healed. Chapter 39 ends with the forecast of the brutal and much hated domination of Babylon around the eighth century.
Isaiah said to King Hezekiah that during his reign of Judah, all of his treasures in his storehouses will be carried to Babylon. Nothing shall be left. And even some of his sons shall be taken away and will serve as slaves in the palace of the king of Babylon.
For the next 150 years, Judah experienced a long period of painful and disastrous events. Babylon became a superpower. The good king, Josiah died. But most of all, there was the destruction of Jerusalem, the razing of the city and the burning of the temple, the termination of the dynasty, and the deportation to Babylon. This long period of dislocation and exiles produced the cries of grief and dismay we read in the book of Lamentations.
Judah groaned and cried out, as if he was stuck in a gridlock freeway. There was “none to comfort,” no protector, no one to intervene, no one powerful enough to make a positive difference. For a long time, 150 years, Judah in dislocation experienced a life bereft of possibility.
But beginning with Chapter 40, at long last when all seemed lost, the voice of God speaks through Isaiah, breaking the silence of exile and granting pardon and comfort. The decision to forgive Judah is not explained. It is a decision made solely by God himself.
“Comfort, O comfort my people,
says your God.
Speak tenderly to Jerusalem,
and cry to her
that she has served her term,
that her penalty is paid,
that she has received from the Lord’s hand
double for all her sins.
For 150 years, Judah was exiled with no one to come to her rescue. And then suddenly, in Chapter 40, God plans for her comfort and pardon, and no one can prevent it from happening. They can now begin to return home.
For the rest of the Book of Isaiah, we see the prophet trying to convince the people to return home. God not only would allow them to return home, but God desires them to do so. But after 150 years, not everyone is unhappy in Babylon. Many of the exiled Israelites have completely assimilated into Babylonian society. The prospect of returning to a country in ruins, across a vast and dangerous wasteland, is not everyone’s idea of a bright future.
So what does God say to these settled and fearful people? God said that the highway home will be
Straight in the desert; that every valley shall be lifted up, and
every mountain and hill will be made low, and even the uneven ground
shall become level, and the rough places be made a plain.
If they were worrying about the condition of the highway back to their homes, God has already cleared the traffic jams and the gridlocks. The way home to God where they can rebuild God’s temple to only worship God is truly a “freeway” like the word says.
But the task set forth for Isaiah is not easy. The people are too comfortable where they are. They’re not convinced that they are really forgiven for the sins that had led them to the exile in the first place. And secondly, Isaiah had to convince them that they would survive the journey home.
Our Highways to Nowhere
Americans’ fascination with cars over railroads and public transportation is unparalleled to anyone else in the world. We like our cars. They symbolize for us a sense of freedom to go anywhere and anytime we want to.
Living in Pennsylvania, we were on “America’s Dream Road.” In 1940, it was the opening of the first American superhighway connecting Harrisburg with Pittsburgh. It was only a 160 mile of four-lane divided highway, but it gave us our first taste of the straight, smooth, and level highway of the future. And for the past 60 years, interstates and freeways have pretty much connected every city and town of any significance together making traveling anyplace we want to possible.
Our drive to build more highways that are wider, straighter, smoother, and more level is indicative of how we believe we can solve not only the problems of traffic jams, but the problems we have in our lives. Adding more capacity, more time, will not treat the basic issues of how to unclutter our lives and prepare for the coming of the Lord.
As we experience Advent this year, are you feeling like I am the congestion and frustration of driving on a highway that may be the wrong way? We may be caught in a gridlock maze with thousands of other consumers thinking that the highway to the shopping mall is the way home to God.
Or maybe we are on God’s highway, but that it may need some smoothing out. We yearn and want to return to a closer relationship with God, but we see potholes and some roadblocks along the way. These may be conflicts and disagreements we have harbored for some time with our spouses and family members. And every time, you think that you’re on the road to God, these potholes and roadblocks of life suddenly appear and you need to slow down and navigate through these threatening problems.
Or perhaps, it might not be the road conditions at all. It may be the travelers on the road. We don’t need to better the roads, we need better travelers. Perhaps we need to get rid of some old baggage.
Our normal human tendencies are to seek solutions through our American genius for efficiency—the straight, smooth, level highway philosophy applied to life. If we have traffic jams, we demand better highways. If we want more money, we look for a better job. If we want the newest craze for gifts under the Christmas tree this year, we want bigger stores. If we want to stay healthier, stay younger, or control everything that’s happening with our bodies, we want a better pill. And we often succeed, at least for awhile.
This isn’t what Isaiah was talking about.
When we understand Isaiah’s good news of a new highway, it shocks our American highway building sensibilities. There’s no municipal bonds to sell or new taxes to pay or new bridge tolls to pay. God builds these highways. We don’t have to bridge the valleys or level the mountains or smooth the rough ground. In Isaiah’s prophecy, God does these things because he is merciful to his chosen people. Isaiah is not calling the Jews of his day to an arduous highway building plan; he is announcing the good news that God will make their journey easy.
Centuries later Christians saw in the highway of Isaiah’s prophecy a prophecy of John the Baptist and Christ. John the Baptist is the voice crying out in the wilderness.
“Prepare the way of the Lord, make his path straight.” (Mk.1:3)
Once again, we don’t have to do the heavy work of building a highway. That is the work of Jesus Christ, who is our highway. Jesus said, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life.” (Jn.14:6). Like Isaiah, John the Baptist is announcing the good news—the Messiah is almost here, so get ready.
How do we get ready? Getting ready for the coming of the Lord is not found in our tendencies to believe in our American genius of solving any problem that we have with efficiency. It’s not going after the straight, the smooth, the level solutions. Preparation is not a matter of us just building another better highway, it’s the faith the God has built the highway home to him in Jesus Christ. Getting ready is repenting of our sins and to know that God’s love and grace for us makes this all possible.
Walking Billboards
There’s less than two weeks left before Christmas. And before you panic that you still have so much to do before Christmas, consider spending one hour less shopping or attend one less party and use that time to spend three minutes a day sharing with God how you need him in your life. Confess to him the times when you came up short with what you should have done and didn’t do. And ask for God’s tender mercies of forgiveness.
The prophet Isaiah said, “Comfort, O comfort my people. Jerusalem has served her term and her penalty is paid. She is pardoned for her sins.” Jesus Christ has pardoned our sins and all we need to do is to ask for his forgiveness.
A couple of months ago, I was driving in the Oakland Maze approaching the Bay Bridge. With my $2 in hand, I was ready to pay my toll. When I got to the toll plaza, the toll taker waved me on. Reading my perplexed face, he pointed to the car in front of me. I was a victim of a random act of kindness! At first, I couldn’t believe it. But then I wore a smile on my face all day long. I told Joy about it. I e-mailed Lauren about it. I told everyone I came in contact with that day as well as days that follow.
In this little act of generosity by a total stranger, I changed. I wanted to do something nice for others too. So in the midst of traffic jams and gridlock, why don’t we make an effort to let someone go ahead of us in traffic? Or maybe we might forgive someone who cut us off in traffic, or pray for someone stuck with us in gridlock?
If every Christian took such an attitude in traffic, maybe perhaps we can begin to see our lives changing.
I was on 101 coming into the city this past week so I try counting the number of billboards. There were too many. Highway billboards tell a message. Perhaps we are like highway billboards announcing the good news that Jesus Christ is born. We can advertise that sins are forgiven and they are pardoned. We can proclaim with neon lights and bright colors that if they need directions to find God’s highway, God is waiting to hear from them.
Just as the Lord told Isaiah to “Cry out,” we too must cry out to the whole world that even if people won’t listen like grass that withers and flowers that fade, we must proclaim that the “word of our God will stand forever.”
And we must not be stationary billboards either—hoping that people might see our good news messages. We must be “walking billboards” spreading the message of Jesus Christ wherever we may travel through life’s journey.
The prophecy of Isaiah was fulfilled when the Jewish people returned to Jerusalem in 538 B.C. after five decades if captivity in Babylon. The prophecy of John the Baptist was fulfilled in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Though both prophecies will only be fulfilled completely when Christ comes again in glory, our straight, smooth, level highway is already in place. The highway was won for us on a Cross.
Sometimes, contrary to our American approach to life, a better highway won’t ease the congestion and frustrations in our lives.
Sometimes the answer is using our freedom to become better travelers. In this season of Advent, it is time for us to find God’s highway built by Jesus Christ so that we can come home to him.
Let us pray.
Dear merciful and loving God, we give thanks for the forgiveness that you have granted to us because of your boundless love. Lead us to your highway to heaven that is only found in Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior. Equip us to be your messengers of hope, peace, and love in this traffic jammed life that we have. In the name of Christ Jesus that we pray. Amen.