Prepare The Way Of Peace

Luke 3:1-6

(Singing) Prepare ye the way of the Lord.

That song has been in my head all week. So has the scene from the movie; the opening scene to Godspell. I’m not sure how many of you have seen that movie, but if you did then you’ll remember the scene. John the Baptizer’s voice can be heard echoing through the streets of New York City, calling to everyday people as they go through their everyday lives.

One by one we watch as a waitress, student, dancer, and others listen to that call and merge at the fountain for one of the best baptism scenes I’ve ever watched in a movie. As the new-found friends splash and dance with pure joy in that fountain, I can honestly see how their escape from the everyday doldrums of their previous lives bring a renewed meaning, a renewed purpose. They are born anew with a sense of peace which can only come from being in the presence of Jesus Christ – which they are after he enters the fountain to be baptized by John.

That opening scene from Godspell does a really good job at showing how hearts and lives are changed because it was important enough for one person, the Baptizer John, to truly want God to forgive people’s sins; to reconcile people with one another as well as with God.

In a way it can be said that the everyday people who heeded the call of John found a way to make straight the paths of their lives. Paths which were crooked, and filled with deep valleys and high mountain passes. The paths these people traveled separated them from one another as well as from God; so John did what all Christians are called to do: help people overcome the obstacles in their lives which make it difficult to live out Jesus’ great commandment to love one another as we love ourselves and to love God above all else.

These paths, which in today’s society really seem to be crooked and filled with high mountain passes and deep valleys, are once again upon us, don’t you think? It seems that all we hear about or see on the news is talk about the negative things in our world. If I didn’t know better, I’d say that the path which leads to God is getting more crooked and difficult to travel every day.

But, I do know better. Not a day goes by when I can’t see, hear, or feel God at work in the world today. Especially through the heroes of this world. I’m not so much talking about the first responders to an act of public violence or about those who fight for our freedoms around the world or here at home, just everyday people who do and say extraordinary things which help humanity see an easier path into God’s peace.

One such hero is Mattie Stepanek.

Mattie just so happens to be among my top 2 or 3 heroes of all time. The things this young man did to promote peace around the world amazes me to this day.

Matthew Stepanek was born in 1990 and suffered from a rare form of muscular dystrophy called dysautonomic mitochondrial myopathy. It’s a disease which shuts down the muscles at the cellular level. He shared this disease with his 3 older siblings and his mom

At the age of 3, Mattie began writing poems as a way to cope with the passing of one of older brothers. Most of his poems had to do with finding peace within one’s self and those around them. By the time Mattie was age 13 he had written 6 volumes of poems, known as “Heart Songs”, all of which became national best sellers. A book called “Just Peace”, a collection of essays on the topic of peace was also published and made the national best sellers list as well. That book also included a collection of email correspondences Mattie had with President Jimmy Carter, who said of Mattie that he was “the most extraordinary person whom I have ever known.”

Mattie was a very spiritual person. He was baptized a Catholic and at the age of 9 began serving as a Minister of the Word, reading from the Bible during weekday and Sunday Masses. At the age of 10 he began teaching Sunday school to 6 year-olds and at the age of 11 he began teaching Sunday school to 6th graders.

Many of Mattie’s poems and essays reflect his friendship with God.  While he embraced Catholicism, he also respected and studied the diverse faiths of people around the world, believing that God creates and loves all people, and that a message of hope and peace is a gift to be offered to everyone.

Mattie believed that we are each born with a “Heartsong” — or a reason for being and a purpose in life. He shared and celebrated that “Hope is real, peace is possible, and life is worthy!” — if we each choose to embrace such truths in attitude and action, for ourselves and for our world.

Mattie envisioned a world at peace, and saw humanity as a “mosaic of gifts, to nurture, to offer, to accept.” He said “peace is possible” and that while ending war matters, “peace begins within each person when we have our basic needs met.” He said that when we have access to what we need to survive — food, water, shelter, healthcare… — and also access to what we need to thrive — education, trust in others, hope for some next moment… — then we are able to choose to be “okay with who and how we are as a person.” When we are able to be okay with who and how we are, we can then choose gratitude, and turn our thoughts and attention and resources outward, and tend to the needs of others – “our neighbors around the block and around the world” — so that despite differences, they, too, can be okay with who and how they are as people.
Such wisdom, such an amazing insight, and all from a boy who is barely an adolescent.

Mattie died in 2004, a few weeks before his 14th birthday, but not before his message of peace for our selves and peace for the world could be shared. Mattie called out from his wilderness, which was a wheelchair, hooked up to tubes that basically kept him alive, and did his best to straighten the paths of those who would listen to his message, a path which in his heart led directly to the peace God intended for all of humanity.

My absolute favorite poem by Mattie was written by him at the age of 11, on September 11, 2001. It’s a poem which cries out for our world to find the calm, peace, acceptance, and understanding we will all need during such a difficult and trying time. His words ring just as true today as they did then.

For Our World
By Mattie Stepanek 

We need to stop.
Just stop.
Stop for a moment...
Before anybody
Says or does anything
That may hurt anyone else.
We need to be silent.
Just silent.
Silent for a moment...
Before we forever lose
The blessing of songs
That grow in our hearts.
We need to notice.
Just notice.
Notice for a moment...
Before the future slips away
Into ashes and dust of humility.
Stop, be silent, and notice...
In so many ways, we are the same.
Our differences are unique treasures.
We have, we are, a mosaic of gifts
To nurture, to offer, to accept.
We need to be.
Just be.
Be for a moment...
Kind and gentle, innocent and trusting
Like children and lambs,
Never judging or vengeful
Like the judging and vengeful.
And now, let us pray,
Differently, yet together,
Before there is no earth, no life,
No chance for peace.

The prophet Isaiah says there will be a voice crying out in the wilderness, calling people to prepare the way for Jesus Christ; a voice that will plead for all of humanity to make our paths straight and to flatten the deep valleys and high mountain passes that divide us. In this Advent season that voice, my friends, belongs to us. Let us be the voice which shows the way that leads to the Christ child; a voice that cries out for peace within humanity.

(Singing) Prepare ye the way of the Lord.

God is always with us.  Amen.