In the wilderness prepare the way of the Holy One,
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 God shall be revealed,
and all people shall see it together
—Isaiah 40.3-5
Hills and valleys of money and power:
prepare for them to be leveled.
Mountains of privilege and exclusion,
unreachable heights, insurmountable summits:
God surmounts them.
Even the strongest are condemned.
Valleys of racism and sexual violence,
of incarceration and abuse, bear God’s sign:
“Clean fill wanted.”
Don’t count on the mountain to stand on,
or the valley to hide in, the prophet says.
The glory of God is not for the few,
the gated, the elevated,
but for all people when,
no longer separated by hills and gullies,
we are finally together.
Together.
Mind the carols you sing this dear little baby.
He means to upend your world.
Herod will fall to the dream of a peasant girl.
The emperor’s throne will become a pit.
Even the deep grave will become
a mountaintop experience.
Don’t build your house on a treacherous slope.
Upending is coming.
—December 7, 2017