Signs from God

John 3:7-18

Did you hear about the “holy cow” that was born last week in Connecticut? If you didn’t hear about it, this brown jersey Holstein calf was born with a distinct birthmark. Just between his eyes, there is a white marking that is clearly in the shape of a cross. People have been coming from all over to see this special calf, which children near the farm have named “Moses.” That’s a great Christmas story, isn’t it? It’s heartwarming. It’s special.

If you read the Bible, you’ll find out that God shows up in all kinds of places. God shows up in chaos of an unformed creation-and shapes it in our world. God shows up in a burning bush, speaking to Moses (the real Moses!). Later, God shows up in Egypt with frogs and darkness, with rivers of blood and locusts, and frees an oppressed people. God showed up in a vision to the Prophet Jeremiah of two baskets of figs. So, maybe God does show up in a white, furry cross on the forehead of a newborn calf.

This image, by the way, gets way more publicity, far more press, than the image we have in front of us today: “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath that is to come?” This is how John the Baptist greets the crowds who have ventured all the way out into the wilderness to see him and listen to what he has to say. This is the same John, by the way, who Matthew tells us was dressed in camel’s hair and a leather belt, and who ate locusts and wild honey.

When you open your newspaper or turn on your television and see the story of Moses the Calf, my guess is that your response will be something like: “Awww.” When we read about John the Baptist-a half-naked man with bugs in his teeth, shouting at us and calling us names, we may be more likely to go: “Ewww.” And that’s why you’ll hear stories about Moses this calf this Christmas season, and none about John the Baptist.

Who knows if this calf’s special cross marking is more than just a nice story to read in the paper around Christmas time? Who am I to say that God can’t send a vision of Jesus on a piece of toast, or a picture of Mary burned into the face of an iron? How can we know for sure that God doesn’t regularly make Himself known through grilled cheese sandwiches?

But, before Jesus arrives on the scene, God sends us John-shouting about vipers, calling for repentance, and warning us of sharpened axes and fiery flames. The only thing he and Moses the calf have in common is that they both get our attention. And I think that’s the idea. John wants your attention. More importantly, God wants our attention.

This season God calls us to get ready for the coming of Jesus. More than anything, to do this-God seems to tell us- we must pay attention. Pay attention, John says. If you’ve got too much stuff, if you’re constantly grasping after more, and if you’re not treating people with compassion and understanding-pay attention, because now is the time to make a change. Repentance means exactly this: get ready. Give up what you don’t need, stop grasping, and revisit your relationships. Now is the time.

When I think about it, this is probably why we hear more about calves with crosses and visions of Mary on irons, and less about guys like John the Baptist. John brings a mandate for change, and not only is change difficult, but change is often unpopular. We don’t like change.

Whether we like it, or not. Whether we’re ready, or not. In just a couple of weeks a big change is coming. In a couple of weeks, the image in the toast, the cloud in the wilderness, the burning bush, and all those other images will pale in their significance and their impact-when all of a sudden God shows up as clear as day and looks back at us through the eyes of a baby boy.

Jesus and Moses the calf have a lot in common. They were both born in a stable. They were both cute. They both could make us stop and look and say “Awww.” But the most important thing they have in common is that they both bore the mark of the cross. Moses has it gently placed in the fur on his forehead. Jesus carried it on his shoulders.

God shows up in all kinds of places-some are clearer than others. The clearest place, though, is a place that doesn’t always get the most publicity, but it is the most important. The cross stands as a sign of how far God is willing to go for you. The cross is the reminder that there is nothing God won’t give up for you. The cross is the place where God grasps not for life or power, but instead resigns himself to give it all up and die. The cross is the place where God makes sure that you and I will have a relationship with Him forever. It’s like Paul says when he writes: “For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”(Romans 8:38-39) Paul was paying attention. Are we?
If we haven’t been, it’s ok. It’s ok, because there’s still plenty of time. Plenty of time to drop everything and head for the wilderness for awhile. Plenty of time to listen to John’s advice and get ready for Jesus’ arrival. Plenty of time to repent and change.

God may show up in all of those great stories we hear throughout the year-Jesus burned into a piece of toast, Mary on the grilled cheese, and Moses the cross-marked calf. God definitely shows up through John and his message this week to repent and get ready. God always shows up in the suffering world-walking with the crosses we carry and carrying us to new life beyond them. Have you heard this story? Have you seen his cross? Are you paying attention?

God's Positioning System

Luke 3:1-6

Do you have a GPS unit in your car? Do you have a Garmin, or a TomTom? Do you have one that came installed from the factory? Do you find comfort in that voice that guides you along the way as you drive? Have you come to rely on that voice that comes from your GPS unit to get you where you need to go? Are you, at this point, used to typing in your destination and then listening as that familiar voice guides you through each turn?

Did you know that you can download different voices for your GPS unit? So, instead of the standard voice, you could get your directions from Clint Eastwood, or Marilyn Monroe. If you wanted, you could set your GPS so that it was Darth Vader or Yoda who was guiding you along the way. There are tons of voices you could use if you wanted: John Cleese, Sean Connery, Mister T, Knight Rider, Austin Powers, or Homer Simpson. In today’s world, if you have a GPS, then you could listen to any voice you choose as you navigate your way through life.

In our gospel lesson for today, there is a definitive voice that is about to speak. He’s in a remote place, that the residents of ancient Israel may have needed a global positioning device to find. Before Jesus arrives, it’s this voice that is guiding people to God. In the words of Isaiah, his is a voice that is crying out in the wilderness-and his message for the people is: “PREPARE”!

In a way, you might say that John was God’s GPS in those days. Before there was GPS he was calling everyone who would listen to take to the highways-make the paths straight, cut out the crooked roads, and flatten the mountains along the way. He was guiding people, giving directions for them as they prepared for this amazing thing that was coming their way.

It’s no different today. Where are the deep valleys in your life? What lies at the bottom of them? Where are the mountains that stand in between you and your relationship with God? What are they made of? Where have the roads that were once straight, easy paths, become crooked and treacherous? How did they get that way?
The good news is, no matter how deep the valley, how high the mountain, or how crooked the road, God has given us a positioning system-a way to level the rough terrain of life. God has given us a clear direction-a message that takes the twists and turns that leave us dizzy and disoriented and makes them straight once more.

God’s positioning system has a voice, no longer crying out in the wilderness, but speaking to your heart. God’s positioning system is here, closer than the Garmin that sits on your dash, clearer than the TomTom fixed to your windshield, and easier to use than your factory-installed navigation system. His is the voice that John called the people in the wilderness to prepare for. His is the voice that calls us to direct our lives toward God’s unending love. His is the voice that we will hear in just a few short weeks in a baby’s cries from the manger.

God’s positioning system calls us to drop everything during this season of hope and prepare for a fresh start, a new day, a brand new destination. When John stood in the middle of nowhere and shouted-“PREPARE!”-this is what he was talking about.
God’s positioning system will guide us this season by starlight, to an out-of –the-way town where everything will change forever. God’s positioning system will guide us to the stable beneath the inn-open to the night air, and wide open for anyone who wants to come in and see. God’s positioning system will guide us to forgiveness in the flesh, the birth of possibility, and the child who will lead us to new life.

He brought a message that no one before him, and no one since has dared to share quite the way he did. He set his own positioning system for the places in the world that needed God most. He met people who had been buried under mountains of illness-and he healed them. He walked with people who had been living in valleys of rejection and pain-and he guided them into pastures of peace and acceptance. He met people traveling along roads that had become crooked and twisted without the real presence of God-and he straightened them so that people could see that God was there for them all along.

In the end, he navigated a path that led from the table to the garden, then from the garden to the cross-going to the place that leaves us all lost. He charted a course through the darkness of death, walking through that dark valley guided by God, until he emerged on the other side to stand in the sunshine of the resurrection.
You can’t download Jesus’ voice for your GPS, but you can carry it in your heart. No matter where you go, his words can guide your path-leveling mountains of worry, guiding you through valleys of fear, and straightening the twists and turns of life-leading you straight into God’s undying love.

Where are the places in your life that need to be leveled? Where do you need to be lifted up the most? What turns seem to leave you lost again and again? How can you use God’s positioning system during this season of hope to prepare for the one whose voice can guide you through it all? How can you set your heart to God’s guiding voice? There are so many voices out there to listen to, but only His can get you to where you really need to go. Let God’s voice be your guide through the dark valleys, over the mountains, and through the twists and turns, and before long, God promises-you’ll see the Son.