December 5, 2021 – Second Sunday of Advent

How will you answer the announcer of God’s word? 

You could miss that the word of God comes to John (the Baptist), son of Zechariah. The word is a holy revelation embedded deep within multiple layers of context – political, familial, prophetic. Before the word can come to John, Luke paints a picture of the governors, measures the landscape by the rulers of regions, accounts for the faithful by naming their high priests, and tells us who John’s father is.

Luke wants us to know who was in the land, and when. These many centuries later, you and I probably don’t care much about Luke’s antique litany of politicians. And we could be forgiven for not caring very much. But in the midst of the list, wedged between the once-mute Zechariah and the prophetic Isaiah, it comes: the word of God, to a lone mystic in a desolate wilderness, a no-man’s land.

The terrain is wild, ungovernable, harsh. The same may be said of John, himself far from family, palace, and temple. In the wilderness. Beyond the reach of clan. Out of the influence of provincial bigshots. John can finally hear himself pray.

And the voice that speaks is not his own.

Stop. Linger. Right here. Before John embarks upon his tour of the Jordan River. Ask yourself… To whose voice have I been listening?

If you could pull off the road for a time and take a rest on the shoulder and stare at an unobstructed horizon, would you bother? Would you dare? If there were an empty space for you similar to John’s wilderness, severe and desolate, just plain, would you take a detour to get there? Would you power off your car radio? Your watch? Your cell phone?

Luke drops the required names. And then John repeats Isaiah’s summons – as it is written in the book of the words of the prophet. Isaiah’s ancient bellowing still packs power to hush our mouths:

“The voice of one crying out 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 be made straight,
and the rough ways made smooth;
and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.’”

WE are all flesh. All flesh includes the rough and crooked likes of you and me. And when I’m done with this sermon, I’d better take Isaiah’s words to heart, and practice, not just preach, his message. Our task – my task and yours – this Advent is to let a single voice, not our own, have its say. It speaks to us as it penetrates all flesh, all ears, all persons. Our discipline this season is to listen, to hear, as the banner hanging in the back of the church reminds us. We must leave our unprotected selves exposed and receptive. This is far harder than it sounds.

What will it mean this Advent for our highs to be lowered? For our depths to be raised up? For our rough edges to be sanded smooth? What will we lose when the promised Lord saves us? We are sure to be changed. But the question is: will we run towards or away from the change? Will we participate and collaborate in our transformation by choice as John would have us do? Or will we have to be pursued and overtaken, wiped-out by God out of our old skin into a raw, renewed, renovated life? 

Ann Weems wrote in her book Kneeling in Bethlehem:

Our God is the One who comes to us in a burning bush, in an angel’s song, in a newborn child. 

Our God is the One who cannot be found locked in the church, not even in the sanctuary. 

Our God will be where God will be with no constraints, no predictability. 

Our God lives where our God lives, and destruction has no power and even death cannot stop the living. 

Our God will be born where God will be born, but there is no place to look for the One who comes to us. 

When God is ready God will come even to a godforsaken place like a stable in Bethlehem. 

Watch…for you know not when God comes. 

Watch, that you might be found whenever, wherever God comes.

This day, the Lord’s way is ours to prepare. The Lord’s paths ours to clear. Turn down the radio. Turn off your cell phone. Attune yourself to greater news. God’s word – of freedom, of deliverance for all people – is not just John’s to hear.

How will you… how will I… answer the announcer of God’s word?