“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” Very familiar words. Maybe even better known than John 3:16, Genesis 1:1 is where all this began.
Even though God created all things in a specific order that conveys His sense of order, there is also a “wild-ness” about creation. But it is not the kind of wild-ness that we have become accustomed to. The original wild-ness were lambs lying down with lions and a world in which a baby could play in the nest of the cobra. Now that’s wild!
Then came the Sixth Day and God created the pinnacle, the crown, of creation. You and me. John Eldredge makes the basis of his book, Wild At Heart, the fact that God created Adam outside of the Garden of Eden and then put him in it to work it and tend it. But think landscape architect, grounds-keeper and gamekeeper instead of a mere gardener.
God then creates Eve and the two lived in perfect love and harmony.
At least for a while. But like any Epic story, there is a bad guy and twist in the plot.
God is the master a story of Epic proportions. Epics are all the rage these days. The Lord of the Rings, The Chronicles of Narnia. Star Wars. All sweeping, vast, stories that –at their heart – are simply a story of good vs. evil. But anyone who knows anything about these stories knows they are anything but simple. And so is our story in God’s Epic. Even though it also is a story of good vs. evil, it involves intrigue, betrayal, adventure, excitement, daring escapes, and monumental quests.
The Fall of Adam and Eve plunged the world in darkness, despair, and death. Yet there was a light at the end of the tunnel. The Light of the World, the Lion of Judah, was coming. Prophecies and prophets would foretell the coming of one who restore Eden and all that was lost so long ago.
But even as there was a choice between two paths for Adam and Eve – to obey or disobey – so there are before us are two roads.
“Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,” wrote Robert Frost in perhaps his most well-known poem, “The Road Not Taken”:
“And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as long as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth. . . .”
“As we stand at this intersection of God’s calling, we look down two roads that appear to travel in very different directions. The first road quickly takes a turn and disappears from our view. We can’t see clearly where it leads but there are ominous clouds in the near distance. It is hard to say if they hold rain, snow, or hail, or are still in the process of fermenting whatever weather they intend to unleash upon us. Standing still long enough to look down this road makes us aware of an anxiety inside, an anxiety that threatens to crystalize into unhealed pain and forgotten disappointment.” [John Eldredge & Brent Curtis, The Sacred Romance, adapted from the website www.epicreality.com]
“Faced with such mystery and irritating vagueness, we cast our glance down the other road. It runs straight as far as we can see, with the first night’s lodging visible in the appropriate distance. Each mile is carefully marked with signs that promise success on the leg of the journey immediately ahead if their directions are carefully followed. It is safe, but clearly uneventful. Some might say boring, even.” [John Eldredge & Brent Curtis, The Sacred Romance, adapted from the website www.epicreality.com]
We have been lead to believe that the Church is the boring road. But the Church that God founded on the rock, the cornerstone Jesus Christ, is really not the boring road. It is the road less traveled.
Unfortunately, we have been led to believe that the Church – with its regulations and requirements and boring regularity – is the True Church. But it isn’t true. The True Church is not a boring and staid worship service. It isn’t a place that puts a damper of freedom and joy with its rules about morals and ethics. It isn’t a place that you are forced to go as a child and made to feel guilty for not going as an adult.
No, this isn’t the True Church. That Church is the straight and wide road that has little adventure because it has little excitement. It is predictable, it is “safe.”
No, the True Church is wild, it is adventure. The True Church is a Paradise on Earth! For a picture of the Church the way God intended it to be we look at the Garden of Eden before the Fall into Sin.
Wild yet perfect. Untamed yet magnificently livable. A place where we can know and be fully known. Where we can commune with God, live in His presence. That was Eden. That will be the Church … someday.
Today, the Church is not quite perfect, in that it is not quite complete. We are awaiting the return of Jesus Christ – and that is what Advent is all about. It is about looking down the two roads that are before us, anticipating what awaits us at the end of either one. But it isn’t simply a matter of stepping on one or the other. We have other items available to us. Two “maps” actually!
“One is a torn and smudged parchment containing the scribbled anecdotes and travelers’ warnings by a few who have traveled the “road less traveled” before us. They encourage us to follow them but their rambling journals give no real answers to our queries on how to navigate the highway.
“Each heart has its own turns and necessary overnights,” they say. “Only God knows where your road leads. But come ahead. The journey is purifying and the destination is good.”
The other is a crisp map, a new map, which assures us that the straight and easy road is the best way for us. This road will not be a challenge. It promises rewards beyond the dreams of avarice.
As we turn to look at the old parchment one more time, our eyes find the sentences left by one former traveler, “Don’t be afraid of embracing the disappointment you feel, old or new. Don’t be scared of the unreasonable joy either. They’re the highway markers home. I’ve gone on ahead. Yours Truly.”
We snort with disdain at such quaint sentiments, and our choice made, we stuff the parchment into our pocket and strike off down the straight highway of discipline and duty.” [John Eldredge & Brent Curtis, The Sacred Romance, adapted from the website www.epicreality.com]
In Matthew chapter 1, read by Pastor Mallmann, we have the account of the first coming of Jesus. His first coming was an adventure. There was intrigue and excitement. And we’re told that Joseph faced two roads. Take the acceptable road of divorce because of the scandal of having a fiancé that is pregnant by someone else. That’s the easy road, the straight path that is well-marked. But Joseph is counseled to take the road less-traveled. To take the hard road, the road that the end of he could not see.
Then there is Isaiah. Look at Isaiah 11 on page 575 in your Bibles. Here is the “map of Advent” for us. The “road less traveled” is marked out for us here. The path of Christ follows a history – “the stump of Jesse” the father of King David. It includes “wisdom and understanding” – which never seem to come easy, as you might remember from school. But there is a “counsel” greater than the “Counsel of Elrond” in The Lord of the Rings. There is “might” greater than any Jedi Knight. And there is “the fear of the Lord” that makes this Advent road before us an adventure.
But then Isaiah tells us that the “road less traveled” that is the “Paradise of the Church” looks and feels different from anything we have ever experienced.
The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the young goat, and the calf and the lion and the fattened calf together; and a little child shall lead them. The cow and the bear shall graze; their young shall lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. The nursing child shall play over the hole of the cobra, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the adder’s den.
That is a wild-ness that the straight road, the easy road, the safe road cannot compete with. This is the Paradise of the Church that even now Christ is preparing for us. He has given us a glimpse, a fore-taste, here today.
Coming soon will be Christmas Day – it is on that day that “the root of Jesse, who shall stand as a signal for the peoples—of him shall the nations inquire, and his resting place shall be glorious.” But not yet. We still have some traveling to do. Just as we’ve got some traveling to do before Christ comes again.
Take the road less traveled. Take the adventure of the Paradise of the Church.
