Advent 3 - A Voice in the Wilderness

Isaiah 61.1-4, 8-11; 1 Thessalonians 5.16-24; John 1.6-8, 19-28

Last week we thought about Advent as being a time of waiting. But it's a waiting that's not idled away. It's a waiting that is a preparation; and so it's a very active waiting. It's not time simply to be filled in. It's time to be used towards an end.

In that waiting, last week we were introduced to John the Baptist, the Forerunner and Prophet. It's his voice that calls us to make the waiting useful. It's his voice that calls us to prepare. And I want to think, for a few moments, a little bit more about St. John and his call, and about us, and about Jesus, and Advent and Christmas. Just for a few moments.

'Who are you?', asked the priests and Levites of John. 'What do you say about yourself?' So many people at the time had raised themselves up to show people the way to God, to enlightenment, to the answers to life's big questions. As there are so many these days. We have so many gurus around telling us how best to live our life and our death and beyond. John was emphatic. 'I am not the Messiah'. 'I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, "Make straight the way of the Lord."'

I'm sure we all have that picture in our minds eye of this wild man shouting his threats and promises. Maybe we see him as a little mad, deranged because of his time alone in the desert. Maybe he comes across as a bit frightening. And because of that maybe we don't listen as we could or should. Yes, we see him in the wilderness, shouting out his message. 'Prepare the way of the Lord'.

I wonder if you've ever thought of the wilderness as being yourself; being you and me? John, the wilderness man is crying INTO the wilderness that is your heart and soul and body; and mine too. And he's crying into the wilderness that is our contemporary culture. But you'll say, 'how can I and this time and place be a wilderness? I have everything I could possibly want. I want for nothing.' We can also say, those of us here, like the pharisee, like the rich young man, 'and we come to church too, we are of the faith, we've listened to the message, we hear'.

Well, yes, we have all we want, we have all we need; we think. But almost all of it is temporary and goes away quickly. When the hot winds of misfortune come along and the sand storms of chaos roar across the landscape of our life, how quickly what we see as the good things of life dry up and shrivel up and die. So what we thought was abundance and which we put such great store by was impermanent. We thought we were in a land flowing with milk and honey when all we had was a brief flowering like those desert plants that flower quickly after rain then die away just as quickly.

And isn't the desert also our mind and heart and soul and spirit? We come to church, we hear the message. But do we really know the living God? Do we really love the living God? Maybe you do. Millions upon millions don't. And those who do know God and love God can always know and love Him more. So in that sense we are always a wilderness. There's always that part of heart, mind and soul that remains parched and longing for the life-giving water that is God in Jesus Christ. So the cry of St. John the Baptist is for us too, we who have at one time answered the call and come. Still we need to come more and see more. Still we need to 'Make straight the way of the Lord'.

And notice too something else that John says. 'Among you stands one whom you do not know, the one who is coming after me...' He stands here amongst us and yet we don't know Him. We can come week by week and stand alongside our Lord and still not know Him, just as those priests and Levites did 2,000 years ago. And He stands in the world, in the streets, right beside people, in front and behind them; they look Him in the face and they still don't see, don't know. How many will again this year, look at the crib, give the gifts, wish others a happy Christmas, even come to church and still not know Jesus Christ, still not see Him?

And we can be like that too, it's so easy; so easy to get so caught up in ourselves that He comes and stands alongside us and we still don't know Him. And so we are still a wilderness and St. John still calls to us. And maybe we hear his voice but do we listen?

Let's listen. While there is time let's listen. It might be the last time we hear the voice and it's never too late. And this is the way to listen, in what St. Paul said to the Thessalonians; 'Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. Do not quench the Spirit. Do not despise the words of prophets, but test everything; hold fast to what is good; abstain from every form of evil. May the God of peace Himself sanctify you entirely; and may your spirit and soul and body be kept sound and blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. The one who calls you is faithful, and He will do this.'

When we listen in this way then we may know in our hearts what Isaiah prophesied; 'The wilderness and the dry land shall rejoice, the desert shall blossom and burst into song.....For waters shall break forth in the wilderness, and streams in the desert; The ransomed of the Lord shall return with singing, with everlasting joy upon their heads. Joy and gladness shall be theirs, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.'