Preparing and Making a Path to Hope

By Jared Warner

Willow Creek Friends Church

December 8, 2024

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Click to read in Swahili

Bofya kusoma kwa Kiswahili

Luke 3:1–6 (ESV)

¹ In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, Pontius Pilate being governor of Judea, and Herod being tetrarch of Galilee, and his brother Philip tetrarch of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias tetrarch of Abilene, ² during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John the son of Zechariah in the wilderness. ³ And he went into all the region around the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. ⁴ As it is written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet, “The voice of one crying in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. ⁵ Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be made low, and the crooked shall become straight, and the rough places shall become level ways, ⁶ and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.’ ”

There are times when being a pastor can be pretty fun. As you know I have the privilege of teaching the students’ bible study before our Meeting for Worship. For quite a while we have been utilizing the Right Now Media video streams to do this and we used to mainly watch bible based cartoons. I would like to say the kids picked it out, but the truth is I wanted to watch them too. And yes the kids do pick out what we study, at least to start with. When we get to the end of a series I ask them to pick another one and we will watch it and discuss what they thought was interesting.

Some of the series we have watched are great, some of them I could have been better. But what I find really awesome, is that recently they decided to venture out of the animated realm and we have been discussing the Bible Back Roads. This series goes through various books, it gives a history of who wrote it and then it gives a general overview of what is in that book. The discussions we have had are deep, fun, and at times completely off topic.

I mention this because a few weeks ago we finish a series on the letters by Peter and John. It was very good and I encourage you to go to my website and create a password so you can watch it at home, because it is worth while. But the past couple of weeks we started a series on Luke’s Gospel.

In this video the host took the time to tell us about who Luke was, and how he came to write this Gospel. When we think about how we obtained what we now call the Bible, many of us may not know how the books were chosen. Some have said that a council of Bishops decided what was right and wrong and pushed some out. That is not really how things happened. It was much more organic. The ancient church before the Protestants and Catholics and between the East and the West occurred splits occurred the church was organized in regions under a bishop. Each bishop was equal in authority and they obtained their position from the blessing of the previous bishop.

As Friends we do not have bishops, and the leaders we have are more directors or advisors as the Meetings, the monthly, area, or yearly meetings make decisions based on a sense of the meeting instead of individual directives. But it is important to know history, and how we got to the place we are today.

Each bishop of this ancient church was the main pastor or leader for a geographical area. At the council of Nicaea in the year 325, the first Ecumenical council there were between 250 to 320 bishops, but most will say that there were 318 because that is what one of the most influential early church theologians counted. That seems like a pretty large number, but there were nearly 2000 bishops invited. These bishops discussed many things while they met together. They came up with what is called Church Cannon Law at this council, which established how the organization would function on a larger scale. They also discussed the nature of Jesus. They discussed this in length because there was a great deal of confusion in the early centuries of the church. Do we believe in one God, three Gods, one God with three manifestations? Oddly enough that council took place nearly 1700 years ago, and we still argue about similar things. And this discussion got heated. Many of us might know one of the Bishops that participated in this council a bishop by the name of Nicholas from Myra which is in Turkey. This is the saint who eventually became known as Santa Claus. We often think of St Nick as being a jolly man, but he took theology very serious. And it is said that he got pretty riled up during the council and actually punched someone in the nose. Obviously this story makes me laugh so he became my favorite saint, even though as Friends we tend to shy away from calling people saints.

I also have an affinity for St. Nicholas because he was the patron saint of sailors, and because of this he became the saint the city of Odessa Ukraine picked to represent their city. That was the city in Ukraine I spent time in and one of my students gave me a St Nicholas Icon that I still have today. I have gotten a bit off topic, but St Nicholas has a place in this season.

That council that St Nicholas attended came to the conclusion that there is one God, in three persons. They explained this by saying that Jesus is fully human and fully God, that he is of the same substance as the Father. I bring this up because history is important, but mainly because there were nearly 2000 bishops in the church 318 made that trip to the council. They met for three months from May to July and they came to an agreement. Some say that agreement was close, but according to the historians twenty-two came opposing the contemporary majority teaching but after the three months of discussion only five refused to sign.

Another side note on this council. I said that it established cannon law. This organized the over 2000 bishops into regions or patriarchates, they recognized that Rome, Antioch, Alexandria, Constantinople, and Jerusalem as being the five Patriarchates. Each of these were equal at that time and each of the 2000 bishops could trace their succession through one of those five churches.

Now the real reason I mention Nicaea is that many say that the books of the bible were chosen in this council, they were not. Each bishop had their own listing of the books they thought was authoritative as scripture. And they chose these works based on certain criteria. The first was if it was in the Old Testament. If it was in the Old Testament it was included, but that brings up an issue. Some used the Greek translation, while others used the Hebrew. These differ which is why Protestant bibles do not include some of the books some of the other churches use. The second criteria is if it was written by or directly influenced by one of the Apostles. Matthew was said to have been written by the Apostle Matthew, John was written by John. But then there is Mark and Luke. They do not appear in the lists of the twelve apostles. Traditions tell us that Mark and Luke were written by close friends of Peter and Paul.

Luke though is a bit different. Luke begins by saying that he wrote these words, after taking an account of the many eyewitnesses to the events that had been happening among them. He wrote a two part story the Gospel and the Acts of the Apostles and he wrote them to a man named Theophilus. We are not completely sure as to who Theophilus was, but some scholars believe that Luke wrote to provide case notes for Paul’s trial. Luke, as tradition tells us, was a physician so he was a man that studied and worked with people as he tried to provide ancient healthcare. But he wrote details that are important, like in today’s passage. “In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Ceaesar, Pontius Pilate being governor of Judea, and Herod being tetrarch of Galilee, and his brother Phillip tetrarch of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias tetrarch of Abilene, during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas.”

Luke lists off a bunch of names, and a year. He did not list these off to make me look bad as I attempt to pronounce them, but he lists these off because these were names people in Rome would have been aware of. They could look back through the records and see that these names were on a list at the same time periods. He does this because Luke is a man of research, he needed evidence of some sort for him to believe. He was a man of primitive science, so he needed a reason to believe. And he begins by saying this happened at this time while these people were in government offices over these areas. And these were the high priests during that time so if you were to look at the religious trials under these people’s reign you can verify aspects of this story.

I say all of this because Luke asked questions. It is important to ask questions and to take those questions and find answers. If we are afraid of questions this tells us something profound. It means we are afraid, it means we have deep seated doubt in our lives that we do not want to admit, and because of this we are afraid that our lives will crumble if we question anything.

I have a lot of questions. I have had questions that threatened my faith, and questions that I have never found an adequate answer for. Yet here I am. I am here because people like Luke showed me that we should have questions, we should seek answers, and at times we cannot find them. What do we do then?

What do we do when we cannot find an answer?

We each have this struggle. We need to examine it in prayer and contemplation. Is my believe in God and evolution something that I can find some sort of harmony in? Is my understanding of human nature and scripture something I can rectify and if not can I continue to live with myself? These are scary questions because they shake our foundation, but I have looked at others that had faced doubts and what they have done to come through them. People like St. Nicholas, George Fox, Dr. Francis Collins, and people within my family. Each of these people have holes in their logic, but I have noticed something with each. When they cannot find an adequate answer to their question, they resort to hope.

Luke said, you can look up these people. You can look at the timeline, these were real events. And during that time, “the word of God came to John the son of Zechariah in the wilderness. And he went into all the region around the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.”

I have taught about John in the past. So I will not go into detail today. John was the son of the priest that went into the holy place and came out unable to speak. We today do not fully grasp how important this was, but the priest that entered that portion of the temple went in carrying the prayers of the people to God. They entered representing all of Israel. And they came out representing God, as they spoke the blessing over the people. Zechariah entered and came out unable to speak the blessing on the people. This was scandalous, reports would have been made. Why has God withheld his blessing?

This son of a priest, went out into the wilderness. He left the priesthood. I really want you to remember this. John left what we would call the dominate cultural religion. He would have been taught and trained to become a priest like his father, that was his vocation and his calling. It was his inheritance and blessing from God. Yet John walked away and instead took everything he learned out to the isolated and some might say unclean places. And as he taught he quoted the words of Isaiah.

“The voice of one crying in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be made low, and the crooked shall become straight, and the rough places shall become level ways, and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.’”

We have seen these words many times throughout our lives. We read them often as we prepare our hearts for Christmas. They give us hope. But why? What do they mean? Is John just identifying himself as the one Isaiah said would come or is there something deeper?

I think there is a lot to these words. There are two commanding verbs in this section, “prepare and make.” Prepare the way and make his paths. These words are indicating discipleship or a righteous lifestyle. This is why I think it is important to note that John left what his contemporaries would have said was the righteous lifestyle. We would think that the best way to prepare the world for the coming of the messiah would be to be a leader within the religion the messiah was going to bless. But John left that behind. Which takes us to the descriptive portion of the passage. The command is to prepare and make the way and path, but how do we do this?

“Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be made low.”

What do you think about when you hear of valleys and mountains?

The ancients of the areas surrounding Israel regarded mountains to be holy places. Their gods lived atop the mountains. We do not have to look that hard to know this Zeus lived on Mount Olympus. They believed this because it is difficult to get to the top of a mountain. In their minds it was impossible to make it to the top and they obviously reach to heaven so that is where the gods live. Even the teachings of the Hebrews point to this commonly held belief. Moses received the commandments on top of a mountain where he met God and when he returned his face would shine. Elijah took the prophets of Baal up to a mountain top to prove which God was real. They went to that mountain because it was closer to the divine realm. And even today we speak of mountain top experiences. Are we pagan when we say those words? No, we are understanding that we felt close to God.

The mountains and hills will be made low. Isaiah is saying that God will come down to us. What was once dividing God from humanity will no longer keep us apart. The mountains will move.

But what about the valley? Civilization begins in valleys because that is where the rivers flow. The cradle of civilization is found along the Nile, between the Tigris and Euphrates. It is along the Ganges, the Dnieper, the Amazon. If there is a major river system flowing through a geographical region, that river system most likely had some important civilization emerge along its banks. We might know of them or we may just be learning about them, but they are there. Even the Arkansas River had an indigenous civilization that emerged in the area by Camp Quaker Haven.

John and Isaiah are telling us humanity will be lifted up to and God will come down to meet us. This is a powerful image. One that my theology professor would describe as the vicarious humanity of Christ. Where Jesus brought God to us and Jesus lifted mankind to God. With us and for us.

There is even more to this mountain and valley concept. Where did the fall of humanity occur? We say the Garden of Eden. We do not know exactly where this Garden was but scripture often says that it was on a mountain. And from that mountain flowed the rivers that irrigated the great ancient civilizations. And some have taught that it was on a mountain that the rebellious angels came down from to corrupt humanity prior to the great flood Noah survived in his Ark. And the languages that divided our nations were initiated when humanity attempted to build an artificial mountain to make a name for themselves by taking a seat within the heavens.

Isaiah and John are telling us that the strivings of humanity to become great, to obtain the wisdom and knowledge of God for their own gain, will be reversed. We strive to go higher, and we end up digging a deeper hole. I have mentioned this often over the past few weeks as we discussed the where and how power is used in the kingdoms of men. Those that seek the power want to be on top. They want to be CEO, they want to be president, king, or god. What happens to the kingdoms of men? Turn on the news. A CEO was shot. You might have heard that there are a few wars being waged, and one in particular has a national leader on the run. The kingdoms of men often seek power for themselves, everyone around them are only there to make them greater. I recently saw a shared tweet from a CEO, that spoke in anger about the recent murder of a CEO saying that this is what happens when we do not contain the greed of middle management and their staff. I read that in shock. I was in shock because that particular CEO is deemed the richest man in the world.

Are we here to lift the leaders of the Kingdoms of Men up to the top of the mountain? I want you to really think about that. That was the mindset of Pharaoh, of the leaders of Persia, of the Kings and Queens throughout Europe, of the Tsars. These were and are men of renown, either the sons of god or people that have Divine right to rule. They are above the law and untouchable by the common individual. They live on the mountain, but the mountain shall be made low. It is being brought down as the valley where the common individual plants their crops live. And those valleys are rising up.

“And the crooked shall become straight, and the rough places shall become level ways.”

Where do we feel most unsafe in our world? In the places we cannot see. In ancient Israel the road between Jericho and Jerusalem was treacherous. You had a rapid ascent in elevation and as you climbed through the steep path, there were switch backs and outcroppings where bandits would often hid. Jesus once told a parable about this pathway.

John and Isaiah are telling us that there will be a leveling of society. And as there is a leveling there will also be a decrease in criminal activity. You might think that is a stretch, but think about it. When cities focus on making areas safer they can do two things. One is increase law enforcement. This is force against force. But there is a second way to reduce crime. We mow the lots, replace the lights, we actually clean up the places that were once in shambles. This cleaning ushers in hope, it encourages people to take pride in their community and this often spreads. There is a third option. And this is a leveling of force and service, where the first two work together. We saw this in Europe after the second world war. We used force, but we followed it with assistance to rebuild. We did not force our former enemy to repay the damage. We instead made an effort to work with them as they rebuilt their society. That method ushered in the longest period of peace in Western civilization.

I feel like I am spreading my own propaganda here, but this is what I believe. Hope.

We grow by asking questions and finding answers. We grow by helping the people around us instead of exploiting them for our own gain. We grow by giving hope and showing a different lifestyle. We prepare the way and make a path. We love God, embrace the Holy Spirit and live the love of God with others.

I see this hope in the students that are among us. I see it in their desire to have fun and ask questions. I hear it as we let them process what they found interesting and we talk together. I see this hope as our Congolese Friends come to worship with us, and as those that were here already tried to help them feel welcome and at home, and I hope you all feel at home here. I have hope because we have face trials and have found a path forward. I have hope because when one of us is sick, we call our friends to pray with us. I have hope. Not because I am on the mountain or in the valley, I have hope because I am with you and we are with God. I have hope.

“And all flesh shall see the salvation of God.”

What will they see? Jesus said as the disciples marveled at the sight of the great temple of God in Jerusalem that not one of those stones would be left standing. The rubble of that great building would be so scattered that generations after could not even imagine the splendor. It is not our buildings or our tanks or bombs that make us great. But the people. People desire hope. They will move toward hope if they can catch a glimpse. Or they will fall deeper into the despair of the rough places. What type of world do you want to live in? One predicated on fear or hope? One where we hate or encourage? One where we oppress or one where we liberate?

I have been in the darkness of doubt. I often find myself in those places. But as I walk though those valleys I see or read about people that were in similar places. They saw tragedy and they thought if I just did this one thing maybe one person might not be forced into that tragic lifestyle, so St Nick tosses a coin into a stocking to provide a dowery so a girl can get married instead of being sold into slavery. Or George Fox returning to jail after being given a pass to walk around the community because he wanted to honor his word. Or my dad praying over his morning bowl of cereal reminding me that we do not move through this world alone. I see the salvation of God because it lives in each of us. We are the instruments God is using to shine light into the darkness, we are the bearers of the image of God that right now shines dimly but in the last days will be as the sun. We are the hands and feet that carry hope to the hopeless. Let us embrace and live that life this week.

Previous Messages:

Living Stones

By Jared Warner Willow Creek Friends Church May 03, 2026 Click here to Join our Meeting for Worship Click to read in Swahili Bofya kusoma kwa Kiswahili 1 Peter 2:2–10 (ESV) 2 Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation— 3 if indeed you have…

by jwquaker May 3, 2026May 3, 2026

Endure

By Jared Warner Willow Creek Friends Church April 26, 2026 Click here to join our Meeting for Worship Click to read in Swahili Bofya kusoma kwa Kiswahili Query 4 (Faith and Practice of EFC-MAYM pg 61) Do you provide for the suitable Christian education and recreation of your children and those under your care, and…

by jwquaker April 26, 2026April 26, 2026

Ransomed to Love

By Jared Warner Willow Creek Friends Church April 19, 2026 Click here to join our Meeting for Worship Click to read in Swahili Bofya kusoma kwa Kiswahili 1 Peter 1:17–23 (ESV) 17 And if you call on him as Father who judges impartially according to each one’s deeds, conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time…

by jwquaker April 19, 2026April 18, 2026

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