December 8, 2024 at Saint William Catholic Church in Naples, FL
Baruch 5: 1-9 + Psalm 126 + Philippians 1: 4-6, 8-11 + Luke 3: 1-6
This is chapter three of Luke’s Gospel, and most scholars believe it to be the original beginning. The Annunciation to Zechariah and to Mary as well as the birth stories of John and Jesus were added later. So, we should not miss the point that every one of these men named right at the start of it all are all involved in violence and death. It all begins in the “wilderness.” With leaders like those men, you are in a wilderness of self-serving, self-protecting violence. For Luke, it is the political landscape that will be smoothed out and straightened with the coming of the Lord.
In this world events are often numbered by the reign of rulers. In God’s eyes, events are numbered by the voices of prophets. Rulers come and go, but the Word of God lasts forever following a different and straight path.
There is an invitation here to explore the wilderness that often finds us lost and confused, struggling over what to do next with our lives. That is what John was doing out there; figuring out what to do with his life. This is an invitation to consider venturing beyond the comfortable and safe routine we often treasure and stand in the unknown and unfamiliar. As John the Baptist discovered, in that wilderness the Word of God might well come to us.
It seems to me that most religious people are not inclined to listen to wilderness prophets. Too many prefer to listen to people like the ones on the list that began today’s Gospel. I think this is what accounts for the popularity of many political leaders and many celebrity preachers who pack in thousands of fans and personally profit by saying what people want to hear rather than what they need to hear. John the Baptist was a wilderness prophet, way out of the mainstream who would never make the “A” list of first century power players, all because he went to the wilderness.
These verses offer an invitation to all of us who sometimes feel as if we are lost and alone in a vast wilderness. It is a frightening experience. There is a suggestion of hope here that in the most difficult and darkest of times God may speak to us and reveal what we are to with our lives. What Luke tells us today is that the Word of God comes in the wilderness, if we can just calm our fears and embrace the possibility of something new, unexpected, and totally out of the ordinary. What could be more unconventional than a Virgin birth? For that young woman in Nazareth it was a wilderness of doubt and confusion as the ordinary routine of her life collapsed leaving her bewildered and what to do with the rest of her life. Yet, the Word of God came to her in that wilderness of doubt and confusion, and look what happened. In strange and unconventional ways there is always a God who saves, heals, and restores us.
The Word of God seems to thrive unthreatened by the dark powers of the urban landscape. Today it must be the Church that cries in the wilderness, and that does not mean an institution of Bishops or priests. It means all of us. Whatever in this world stands between us and God’s vision for the human community must go. Barriers of race, ideology, gender, education, and even religion must go if they keep us from the reconciliation promised in and by Christ.
By our baptism, we are a prophetic people. John’s prophetic voice was silenced by one of those men on that list, but our voices remain crying out for Justice and for Peace.