Good Morning Friends,
Today we consider the character of John the Baptist and how he prepared the way for the Lord and we contemplate the roads God has paved that have led our lives to this point in history. We consider how the roads in the Bible guide us to walk a highway of hope in the way we think. Early on God diagnosed the problem and designed a solution so we might appreciate the invitation to join Jesus in the Big Story of Holy History. But frankly I am concerned with the way of the future. I am still optimistic but am ever the more aware of the challenges that face us as humans. Today is the second Sunday in Advent. And the theme is preparing for the coming of Jesus and along those lines repenting in a way that prepares us for the future. And if you have read any Science Fiction you know that that means the robots take over… at least our jobs and the wealth gaps widen, and technology moves so quickly we never get a chance to cope with the changes. No, that is not in the Bible, but a solution to our problem today is. Part of the challenge from the beginning has been our bias. But it is worse now and a weakness. People of ill will are ready to exploit our bias. You see we still have the emotions of people who lived in caves and participate in institutions with traditions thousands of years old, but we have technology that appears Godlike. Biases may help our brains work by streamlining the decision-making process. And so too computers. However, our cognitive biases today are used by others to manipulate us and can cause us to make faulty instead of informed decisions. Friends, there are more than 180 cognitive biases that can interfere with how we process data, think critically, and perceive reality. Paul had a bias against Christians but was able to change. We can too, but make no mistake, even Christians are not exempt from partiality. Paul had invested a lot of time in being a good Jew. Breaking with that tradition was not easy. So too, we seek those with similar views even if we hold on to something that is not true. So, friends, this morning we ask a simple question about seeking the truth. Are We Prepared To Repent Of Bias That No Longer Helps Us Walk On A Path That Honors God?
Scripture: 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. A voice cries out: “In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God. 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. Then the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all people shall see it together, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.” Get you up to a high mountain, O Zion, herald of good tidings; lift up your voice with strength, O Jerusalem, herald of good tidings, lift it up, do not fear; say to the cities of Judah, “Here is your God!” See, the Lord God comes with might, and his arm rules for him; his reward is with him, and his recompense before him. He will feed his flock like a shepherd; he will gather the lambs in his arms, and carry them in his bosom, and gently lead the mother sheep.
Isaiah 40:1-5, 9-11 (NRSV)
But do not ignore this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like one day. The Lord is not slow about his promise, as some think of slowness, but is patient with you, not wanting any to perish, but all to come to repentance. But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a loud noise, and the elements will be dissolved with fire, and the earth and everything that is done on it will be disclosed. Since all these things are to be dissolved in this way, what sort of persons ought you to be in leading lives of holiness and godliness, waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be set ablaze and dissolved, and the elements will melt with fire? But, in accordance with his promise, we wait for new heavens and a new earth, where righteousness is at home. Therefore, beloved, while you are waiting for these things, strive to be found by him at peace, without spot or blemish;
2 Peter 3:8-14 (NRSV)
The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. As it is written in the prophet Isaiah, “See, I am sending my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way; the voice of one crying out in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight,'” John the baptizer appeared in the wilderness, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. And people from the whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem were going out to him, and were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins. Now John was clothed with camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey. He proclaimed, “The one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to stoop down and untie the thong of his sandals. I have baptized you with water; but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”
Mark 1:1-8 (NRSV)
A highway shall be there, and it shall be called the Holy Way; the unclean shall not travel on it, but it shall be for God’s people; no traveler, not even fools, shall go astray.
Isaiah 35:8 (NRSV)
Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God—what is good and acceptable and perfect.
Romans 12:2 (NRSV)
Message: I do hope you remember the roads you have travelled with Jesus and how they have prepared you for the rest of the journey. Some may be emotional and other paths more physical. All are experiential. There is a message in the earthly journey that can be enlightened through a better understanding of the journeys in the Bible. There are a lot of roads in the Bible and some of them about getting out of the wilderness. The Roman roads brought soldiers and order and one kind of peace. There were the trade routes connecting Jerusalem to the World that brought commerce. The 18-mile journey from Jerusalem to Jericho that descends 3,500 feet through desolate mountains brings us the story of the Good Samaritan. The Road in the Wilderness tells of temptations. The Road to Calvary shares with us the sacrifice made so we could have a better life. And the Road to Emmaus shares with us a walk with Jesus so our eyes can be opened. One of my favorite roads is the Road through Samaria and its story of the woman at the well receiving Jesus but still facing rejection but nevertheless bringing results of witness. All of them are instructive as to the steps of Jesus and the direction God would have us to follow. In them I hope we see our Christian function and on this Advent Sunday to preserve and season life in a covenant, to reveal danger, dispel darkness, to show the way, to be a marker on the road and not a roadblock. And it is here that the pilgrimage parade of preparation stops for a moment to consider the footsteps of Jesus at the crossroads of kingdom and community. Now standing at the crossroads on this Advent Sunday as we contemplate the convergence of the Star of Bethlehem, and we consider what path will we choose. Friends, most of the world is not a sanctuary. We need to be transformed to survive and discern the truth.
And So, on a deep level Jesus, I think, understood that what we are experiencing now is all part of the plan. But I also think that he knew we are to repent of the way we go about thinking and reacting. We need to think more with God. Jesus is human as well as divine so understands about cognitive bias. He had to overcome it and deal with it in others. Jesus leads us on a path to think differently. And here we are led to understand that among all cognitive capabilities, attention is the primary skill everyone should always try to improve for it is tied to the whole idea of being prepared and ready to act in a way that honors God. We really should train our mind to realize when and how our attention wanders and how to bring it back to include a focus on God. It is a relevant topic for those living between the exodus from a life enslaved to entry into the Promised Land. Our logic and reasoning, mobility and speed, and even social and emotional learning can be improved through attentive practice and it is interesting that for the Hebrew Nation this kind of work was begun in the wilderness when they were given a cloud by day and pillar of fire by night to follow. And it is also interesting that Jesus was tempted in such a place and that John the Baptist called out from the wilderness for us to repent for our lack of attentiveness to God. Maybe that is why the Bible suggests that we pray continually even in the face of thirst and danger and barrenness if we want to improve our chances of getting out of the wilderness of our biases. The purpose of prayer in some ways is therefor to hone our critical thinking in discerning the truth, but we have some problems. We are like hacked computers that need to be reprogramed because the hearts of our hard drives are corrupted. We have cognitive biases that we substitute for the truth for it is more comfortable and often easier. We need to repent of our poor thinking and break out of our numbness and reject our helplessness by actively attending to repenting and resisting the sins of our lives and that means giving up our natural biases that no longer serve us well in today’s world. And the beauty is that in doing so we become less fearful and more resilient in dealing with difficulties and amazingly more alive. Being able to repent may well hinge on giving up the cognitive biases that are keeping us from objectively processing the information in our lives. For sure we see it in politics where our biases are preyed upon by those wishing to sow discord. Unfortunately, our theology is also susceptible to sabotage by cognitive biases. But unlike politics, it can be harder to recognize our theological biases or to see them as a hindrance to discerning Biblical truth, since our biases often lurk behind our religious traditions. We can become blind to our own imperfections. We are even tempted to believe that the wilderness we see is really all there is, and that God is not really in charge and there is no real purpose or meaning in it all. We can begin to believe that there no real promised land. We can begin to think all our religion is something we made up to help us deal with the barrenness of our lives. But hope blooms even in a desert and if we prepare well good things will come. Still it is difficult to change our theological biases because we all have the proof texts to back them up and it is really hard to consider alternative texts that might challenge our bias.
We do not start out our Christian lives by working out our faith for ourselves. It is mediated to us by Christian tradition, in the form of sermons, books and established patterns of church life and fellowship. We read our Bibles in the light of what we have learned from these sources; we approach Scripture with minds already formed by the mass of accepted opinions and viewpoints with which we have come into contact, in both the Church and the world. Friends, it is easy to be unaware that it has happened. It is hard even to begin to realize how profoundly tradition in this sense has molded us. But know this. The world has changed, and we need to be aware of what must change in us.
Pray we overcome our biases or at least be aware of them. Pray we repent of those things in us that no longer serve God. Pray that we see salvation on the road ahead and are transformed and enabled to walk on it into a brighter future. Pray we learn the importance of self-discipline and endurance on the road to spiritual maturity that gives us not only cyber security but also community security and mental security. Pray that we seek the small gate and the narrow road. Pray that we follow Jesus on paths of righteousness. Pray that we are followers of the Way. Pray that when we come to a cross in the road that we take the path of Jesus as a witness of love for our children but more importantly as a witness to the love of our heavenly Father. Pray we are prepared for the coming of Jesus. Pray we choose the transformation highway over the information highway. Pray we realize there are no hopeless situations; there are only people who have grown hopeless about the path to something better.
Blessings,
John Lawson
Daily Devotionals 