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The Voice of One Crying in the Wilderness Gospel: Luke 3:1-6
This is the Sunday when those stirring words are read from Luke’s Gospel, as the Evangelist recalls for us the ancient prophesy from Isaiah, chapter 40. I wonder if you realize that Luke has chosen to quote only the opening two sentences of a much longer piece from Isaiah--one that would have been so familiar to his original readers that he didn’t have to go on to the rest of the text. Let me try to capture for us who are living today, some twenty centuries later, a bit of the excitement and energy of the whole thing by re-casting it in more contemporary language. The message might come out sounding something like this:
See, the important thing here is the tone of the message. It’s not a faint whisper, the voice of weakness or distance. No, it is a powerful roar, like a lion or a rumbling explosion that shakes the whole landscape for miles around. There are three voices, not just one, and each is the herald of a stunning announcement. These three voices are the messengers of a whole new way of thinking and seeing. No one in the whole history of humankind has ever heard such words before. Three voices are shouting a revolutionary, radical proclamation, directly from the mind and heart of God, breaking into the consciousness of People who had pretty much given up hope. The first voice is an excited and unmistakable announcement directed to people who feel cut off and powerless. It says that they are wrong to think that God has forsaken them, gone away, or withdrawn. No, God is still in charge and God is getting ready to return, like a conquering hero. The ancient prophecy of Micah is being fulfilled:"The Lord whom you seek will suddenly return to his temple.” The first voice is one of PREPARATION: “Get ready, God is on his way!” The second voice addresses all the “go-it-aloners”, the “do-it-yourselfers” of the world who think that earth’s future is entirely random and that we human beings are dependant solely on our own ideas and resources if we are ever to achieve harmony and peace. The second word from God is a word of PROMISE: The message for the cynical and discouraged is simple and direct: “I made a promise and my enduring Word will never fail!” The third voice is one of reassurance, telling us that God has a plan, a strategy by which God intends to work out his purpose. It is a breathtaking vision, one that will be accomplished not through miraculous lightning bolts or tricks of magic, but through the faithful response of ordinary human beings, inspired and strengthened by God’s own indwelling Spirit. The third voice is one of PROVIDENCE; God will provide everything we need, every grace and gift necessary, if we will only open our hearts to receive it. Preparation, Promise, Providence--these three themes are at the heart of what the whole season of Advent is all about. Into a weary and struggling world, whether in the first Century or the twenty-first Century, come these timeless words of life, breathing hope and energy once more into our heavy hearts. The three voices of this Sunday’s Gospel reading caution us against giving in to the shortsightedness that tempts us to look at reality only from the severely limited perspective of beings whose life span is merely the twinkling of an eye, when viewed through the lens of the eternal. There’s a remarkable little book that I want to suggest as Advent reading for everybody. The title is unusual in itself. It’s called The Five People You Meet in Heaven and it’s written by Mitch Albom, the same author who gave us just a couple of years ago the wisdom and insight of Tuesdays With Morrie. The whole premise of this current book is that we human beings are like ants, running across an elaborately patterned rug. The carpet is beautifully and intricately woven, with astonishing colors and curiously connected intersections of design. But we’re much too close to the surface to see all that. We just scamper about, focused only on our busy tasks and schedules. We wrongly think that there’s nothing but coincidence and confusion behind everything that happens to us. This book offers a different take on all that. It suggests that what happens when we die is that we, finally experience sufficient distance from which to see it all very clearly--to have an ultimate “Ah-Ha!.” Mitch Albom suggests this artfully crafted alternative view--a metaphor in which Heaven reveals the Truth. What Heaven is all about is that each one of us, in eternity, encounters and learns from five different individuals exactly how all the apparently random aspects and experiences of our life actually fit together into a coherent, meaningful journey. For each of us, those five people include ones who are close aquaintenances as well as total strangers, but all five know those key intersections and connections that allow us to make complete sense of our lives. Things aren’t really random and meaningless. It all is part of God and God is part of it all. God is fully and completely present at every single moment--whether we know it or not. Advent Season is all about listening to a different voice--not the silly Christmas music that pours our of electronic gadgets all over the mall, not the newspaper headlines that deplore the international violence and destruction raging in far corners of the globe, not the endless doctrinal and ethical disputes that threaten to undermine completely the credibility of religious groups, nor even the discouraging statistics revealing yet again our continuing national political greed and selfishness. The voice of Advent thunders through all that, pushing it off the airways so that we can hear clearly the eternal Truth. The voices of Advent tell us in no uncertain terms: The ultimate and final decision has been made. The glorious Good News is being shouted from Heaven to earth:
Which voices and what message are you listening to this year? Copyright 2003 Calvary Episcopal Church Gospel:
Luke
3:1-6 |
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