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I stand before you at a critical point in Earth’s history. We’re in the midst of a time of uncertainty, being as we are, this Sunday morning, in that liminal space… between Strictly Come Dancing – the dancing and Strictly Come Dancing – the Results Show. Tonight, we get to find out who has got through to the final next Saturday. Will it be Ellie or Layton, Bobby or Annabel who get to lift the glitter ball trophy next week?

I realise that you may not all be avid watchers, and with all that’s going on in the world you may think that’s a frivolous start. But bear with me.

On a journey

Any fans of Strictly, or similar shows, will be familiar with people going on a journey. Or people trying not to say that they’re on a journey, but it slips out anyway. Even those knocked out in the early rounds, thank their professional partners for the journey that they’ve been on together as they learn to lose their inhibitions and to embrace the sequins – and, yes, hopefully in the process, pick up a few dance steps too. And we journey alongside them, inextricably drawn into their stories and how they grow and develop along the way.

This week, all our readings are marked by journeys and paths, ways and roads – though, disappointingly, there’s not a hint of glitter or fake tan in sight.

HS2

Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight we read in Mark. Isaiah goes further. In a transport scheme worthy of a successfully implemented HS2 high-speed rail link, we have every valley lifted-up and every mountain and hill laid low; the uneven ground shall become level, and the rough places a plain. No mention of protected woodland or areas of archaeological interest.

In Psalm 85, the psalmist proclaims: Righteousness will go before him, and will make a path for his steps. And in 2 Peter, we are advised to wait while Christ makes his way to us: Therefore, beloved, while you are waiting for these things, strive to be found by him at peace.

My favourite blessing continues the theme: May the road rise to meet you, may the sun shine warmly on your face, the wind blow strongly at your back, the rain fall gently on your fields. And may God hold you in the palm of his hand, until we meet again.

Far from reality

I’m sure for people in places like Ukraine and Gaza, that blessing may be very far from their reality. In this time of destruction, their landscape can be both literally and metaphorically devoid of roads. They are in unchartered territory. It’s hard for anyone to know where things will go and what will happen next. They are having to beat their own path as they go, with all the fears and challenges that this brings.

And it’s really not so long ago that we here were in the midst of Covid with everything closed down, the streets deserted, churches shut – and we too weren’t sure what the future would look like.

Yet Advent is a season that calls us to remember that there is a path, perhaps semi-hidden, that lies beneath the way that we are going. Others have travelled before us, each in their own fashion yet providing pieces that we can use: their prayers and reflections, hymns and sermons, paintings and stories. Fragments that help us to find our way and, in turn, enable you and me to raise a valley a little or to lower a mountain a fraction for others yet to come.

Songlines

Today’s scriptures reminded me of the Songlines used by indigenous Australians. It’s said that a knowledgeable person is able to navigate across the Outback by repeating the words of a song, the origins of which are lost in time, and which describe the location of landmarks, waterholes, and other natural phenomena.

By remembering and singing the songs in the appropriate sequence, a person could navigate vast distances, often travelling through the deserts of Australia’s interior. The continent of Australia is criss-crossed with an extensive system of Songlines, some of which are hundreds of miles in length.

Perhaps we would do well to memorise the prayers and hymns of those who have gone before us? To catch echoes of songs sung on trails in the past and create our own Songlines? Maybe it would help us to better navigate through our own unknown territory? To not be so fearful of unfamiliar surroundings?

Old certainties gone

The book of Isaiah is a good place to start. It was written before, during and after the exile into Babylon. All the old certainties were gone. The destruction to Jerusalem then was similar to Gaza now. Homes destroyed, people displaced. Their way of life, how they did business, where they worshipped… it all changed. They had to make it up as they went along. To travel light, without the normal baggage. Amongst all that, the prophet was still able to talk of comfort.

Of course, in some sense we are all creating the road as we travel along it. Yet those semi-hidden paths were trod by those who have gone before, who followed the God who called them to the journey, who gave themselves to preparing a way for the One who came into the world to walk with us.

Leaving a trail

Along with our friends from Strictly, I wonder what journey you are taking this Advent? What do you find along the way that helps you create the road as you go? Who in your past, or perhaps your present, has helped to fashion that path and provided the inspiration to walk it in the way that is uniquely you?

But I also want to ask in what way are you preparing the way and becoming part of the way for the Christ who comes to us? What trail are you leaving for others who may follow? Because Advent invites each of us to stop looking down, to lift our heads, to raise our eyes, to look toward the horizon and dream of the way by which the Christ will come to us.

In calling us to look toward the horizon, Advent does not draw us away from the present or ask us to avoid the difficult world around us. Advent invites us instead to stand in the thick of life and open our heart to the road that Christ wants to make, not only for us but also in us and through us. When Christ comes, the horizon he appears on is not so distant, after all. Because the place where he shows up is always here, in our very midst.

We finish with this blessing from Jan Richardson…

Blessing the Way

With every step you take, this blessing rises up to meet you.

It has been waiting long ages for you.

Look close and you can see the layers of it, how it has been fashioned by those who walked this road before you, how it has been created of nothing but their determination and their dreaming, how it has taken its form from an ancient hope that drew them forward and made a way for them when no way could be seen.

Look closer and you will see this blessing is not finished, that you are part of the path it is preparing, that you are how this blessing means to be a voice within the wilderness and a welcome for the way. Amen

‘Strictly on a journey’ was given by Ian Banks at St Margaret’s, Heywood on Sunday 10^th December 2023. It was based on Isaiah 40:1-11.

References:

• Chatwin, B. (1988). The Songlines. Picador.
• http://adventdoor.com/2011/12/01/advent-2-blessing-the-way/