by Pastor Kelli Schmit

Holiday preparations are underway. Bright, colorful lights are on eaves, bushes, and trees. Photo-filled cards are being addressed and sent. Gifts are purchased and, if you’re on the ball, some are even wrapped…mine are not…  But we’re getting ready.  We’re making preparations for holiday gatherings and time with family.

Maybe you are preparing for guests that carry with them some significance or clout, like those Luke names in our reading. He rattles off Emperor Tiberius, Pontius Pilate, Herod, Philip, Annas, and Ciaphas. They are the governor of Judea, ruler of Galilee, ruler of Iturea and Traconitis and Abilene. Not only are these names difficult for modern speakers to pronounce, Luke is clearly naming the powerful, influential, movers-and-shakers of the day.

Our reading starts off pretty grandiose and then takes a sharp, unexpected left turn. Luke lists power-player after power-player and declares that the word of God came to John, son of Zechariah? Zechariah was a priest, but not a super important one, and the word of God didn’t even go to him but to his animal fur-wearing, bug-eating, wilderness-dwelling, nomadic son. It’s a far stretch to go from Herod to John…but that’s exactly the point Luke is trying to make.

Side note – Luke loves to name-drop.[1]  He uses this same narrative technique – of listing big wigs but highlighting and emphasizing a seeming nobody – Luke did this in the previous chapter, which we will hear later this month. We will hear about a decree going out from Emperor Augustus that all the world should be registered. At the time when Quirinius was governor of Syria, Joseph and his pregnant betrothed, Mary, go from Nazareth to Bethlehem. But more on them later.

John and Zechariah were living in occupied territory.  Rome had invaded Israel, was a constant physical threat and had no issue dolling out extreme violence to squash even a whisper of rebellion or opposition. Tiberius, Pilate, Herod, Philip – they were all leaders in the Roman Empire. Even the high priests, Annas and Ciaphas, were “subject to regulation and annual appointment by Rome.”[2] Everything is under Rome’s thumb and Rome’s eye.

So the fact that the word of God came to John in the wilderness is ironic and comical, but its significance cannot be missed. John was not under Rome’s influence. The word of God did not answer to Rome. As big, powerful, vicious, and all-encompassing as the Roman machine was…it could not touch God’s word. God’s word has no part of the empire. By showing up to John it is clear that God is up to something unexpected, something different, something new. 

Luke doubles down on God’s tendency to show up in completely unexpected places with the quote from Isaiah. The prophet and his fellow Israelites had been forcibly removed from their homes and transplanted in exile in Babylon.[3] The Babylonians severed the Israelites’ connection to their homeland, their culture, religion, jobs, neighborhoods, community, and identity. Because of the exile, they feel as if their connection to God has been destroyed. Pastor Frank Honeycutt teaches that “exile is linked to rebellion and disobedience.”[4] Here, God is calling them home.

This beckoning is some of the most beautiful in our scriptures: “Comfort, O comfort my people, says your God.  Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and cry to her that she has served her term, that her penalty has been paid.  […] Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill be made low…” (Is 40.1-2; 4) We will sing the song “Comfort, Comfort, Now my People” during communion. I invite you to pay close attention to the lyrics.

God is calling God’s people out of exile to come back home. When the depths are raised and the heights lowered, God is removing every obstacle to their return. The topography of the land between Israel and Babylon is metaphorically leveled so the people may return that much quicker. God is eager and excited to be together again. God is so desperate to be with God’s people that God is getting rid of any barrier or hindrance that would slow them down.

Through the prophet Isaiah we hear, “Comfort, O comfort my people, says your God.”  My people.  Your God. The Israelites thought they were completely cut off and detached from God all the way out there in Babylon, and yet the words of the covenantal relationship remain.[5] My people. Your God. Even when forcibly separated, God is still connected to them. God shows up in completely unexpected places, renewing and strengthening connections, and revealing the depth and power of God’s love for us. 

God shows up in places we wouldn’t expect God to be, like among exiled peoples in Babylon. Like among people suffering under-occupied oppression.[6] Like among a seeming nobody wandering in the wilderness. But the word of God does come to John in the wilderness.

We all know that the wilderness is a fantastic and powerful metaphor because it’s not really a challenge to make feeling lonely, scared, abandoned, and being surrounded by unknowns resonate with our lives. We all know that reality so I’m not going to dwell on what the possibilities of your wildernesses might be because you know your struggles, your sources of pain and isolation. The fact that our wilderness experiences exist is second only to the promise of God’s presence even in places we wouldn’t think God would be, like the wilderness. But, in the words of Dr. Audrey West, “It is precisely in that wilderness place of vulnerability and danger that God appears.”[7] There is promise in God’s determination to not let any wilderness element keep God away. When we are experiencing loneliness and fear and uncertainty, we can trust that is exactly where God shows up and calls us back home, back to our relationship with God, into a deeper relationship with God.

So when we’re feeling insignificant or unseen or flat out forgotten – God shows up. When we’re lost and wandering around, unable to find our bearings – God shows up. When we’ve messed up in a huge way and can’t seem to find a way out and conclude that we’re not worthy of grace – God shows up. When we feel like this place that we’re in is so broken, that the struggles are so big that God possibly couldn’t be here – God shows up. God shows up in completely unexpected places, renewing and strengthening connections, and revealing the depth and power of God’s love for us. This is the God whose coming John proclaims in the wilderness.

Throughout our scriptures, time in the wilderness is a time of formation. Dr. Karoline Lewis frames Advent as “not just a passive waiting around but this time of formation” as we look for God’s presence.[8] If we were to spend this season, not just eating one tiny chocolate behind a little cardboard door every day, but if we spent time intentionally looking for God’s presence in our midst – looking for the places where God is revealing hope – how might we be changed? How might our outlook on life be influenced if we are constantly on the hunt for God’s expansive love and God’s fingerprints in our world?

As lights are strung, envelopes are stamped, and gifts are wrapped, God invites us to engage in a different kind of preparation…preparing ourselves to recognize God’s presence, preparing ourselves to see the salvation of God, and preparing ourselves to joyously greet a God who shows up. Thanks be to God.

Amen.

[1] Thanks, Kjersten Sullivan, for this awesome phrase in this context.
[2] David L. Tiede, footnote to “Luke 3.2” in The HarperCollins Study Bible: Fully Revised and Updated NRSV ed. Harold Attridge (San Francisco: HarperOne, 2006), 1767.
[3] J. J. M. Roberts, footnote to “Isaiah 40.1-55.13” in The HarperCollins Study Bible: Fully Revised and Updated NRSV ed. Harold Attridge (San Francisco: HarperOne, 2006), 961.
[4] Frank G.Honeycutt, Marry a Pregnant Virgin: Unusual Bible Stories for New and Curious Christians (Minneapolis: Augsburg Books, 2008), 11.
[5] Roberts. “Isaiah 40.1-2”, 961.
[6] Joy J. Moore from: Working Preacher, “Brainwave 815: Second Sunday of Advent – Dec. 5, 2021” Nov 29, 2021, video, 28:20, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IlUX4i6vYfQ.
[7] Audrey West, “Preach This Week, December 5, 2021, Gospel Reading, Commentary on Luke 3:1-6,” Working Preacher from Luther Seminary https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/second-sunday-of-advent-3/commentary-on-luke-31-6-5 (accessed November 29, 2021).
[8] Karoline Lewis from: Working Preacher, “Brainwave 815: Second Sunday of Advent – Dec. 5, 2021” Nov 29, 2021, video, 28:20, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IlUX4i6vYfQ.