12-6-23 - Level Ground

You can listen to this reflection here. Sunday's gospel reading is here. 

In his lifetime, John the Baptist was often associated with the prophet Elijah – many wondered if he were in fact Elijah returned. But the prophet the Gospel writers most closely linked him with was Isaiah, particularly his prophecy of an estranged Israel reconciled with her God. This passage, also an appointed reading for this Sunday, speaks tenderly of restoration; it provides much of the libretto of the Christmas portion of Handel’s Messiah. (Here is a rendition, conducted by Sir Colin Davis at the Barbican.)

We looked yesterday at this passage's command to “prepare the way of the LORD, make straight in the desert a highway for our God.”

But the prophet has more in mind than building roads – in his vision, the whole topography is to be reconfigured: “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.”

There is a leveling principle at work here, paralleled in the Magnifcat, the Song of Mary, that hymn to economic equity – "He has cast down the mighty from their thrones, and has lifted up the lowly.” Both of these movements are evident in the incarnation of Jesus, Son of God, born to the lowly woman to whom these words are attributed, lifting her up even as he consents to leave his heavenly throne.

Is the in-breaking realm of God about smoothing out the uneven ground, bringing down the hills and raising up the valleys? That could make for a dull landscape. Yet it also enables movement, reducing barriers between peoples.

And what if, once more, we look inward and view this leveling process as an inner movement? What if the hills and valleys of our hearts, of our moods, became more even, our “rough places” became a plain? Would that make us dull – or more serene, content, better containers for God’s power and love, vessels of God’s healing?

I invite you, in prayer, to think about the valleys inside you; reflect back on your life and look at the “valley times.” Do the same with the mountains and hills, the high points, the high places. What if they came together more?

Where is the ground in your life uneven? Would you like God to smooth it? Where are your “rough places?” Envision them as flat and true as a prairie – is that a fruitful image for you?

Isaiah, speaking for God, said that a beautiful thing will follow this great leveling: "Then the glory of the LORD shall be revealed, and all people shall see it together, for the mouth of the LORD has spoken."

We can glimpse God’s glory every time we level a road so everyone has the same access, whether in the realm of money, power, justice – even feelings. We help reveal God's glory.

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