Mark 1:1-8
Chris Ayers
The Curviest Street In The World: Make His Paths Straight
When you marry a mountain woman, like I did, you marry someone who can drive on curvy roads. Victoria, in fact, took her Driver’s Education test on Saturdays on the road to Valle Crucis near Banner Elk, North Carolina where, if you don’t know - and even if you don’t want to know - where they have the annual wooly worm festival.
But back to curvy roads. According to my wife, and she’s never been wrong before, the road to Valle Crucis is the curviest road in North Carolina.
Is there anybody present today who would like to argue with my wife on this point? I didn’t think so.
Now – what Victoria doesn’t know, and what you may not know, is what is the curviest road in the United States. Anybody got a guess?
Photos of the road are on the front of the bulletin and in the inside of the bulletin.
It’s Lombard Street in San Francisco. Lombard Street is an east–west street in San Francisco, California. It is famous for having a steep, one-block section that consists of eight tight hairpin turns that have earned the street the distinction of being the crookedest, most winding, curviest street in the world. The curves were born out of necessity in order to reduce the hill's natural 27% grade, which was too steep for most vehicles to climb. The crooked section of the street, which is about 1/4 mile long, is reserved for one-way traffic traveling east and downhill and is paved with red bricks. The speed limit in this section is 5 miles per hour.
Now here’s our Advent homework. We’ve got to straighten out “Lombard Street.” Yeah, we’ve got to make Jesus’ paths straight. Read it. Mark 1:3, “Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.”
In what ways is your life like Lombard Street? What's the curviest street in your personal life?
Are you making it hard to Jesus to do anything with you or to you?
How is your church like Lombard Street? Inronically, do congregants make it hard for church members to do stuff Jesus did?
What might you start doing this Advent to make it easier for Jesus to travel in your life and in your church and in the world near you?
