Finding our wilderness

Luke 3:1-6

In the fifteenth year of the reign of Emperor Tiberius, when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, and Herod was ruler of Galilee, and his brother Philip ruler of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias ruler of Abilene, during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John son of Zechariah in the wilderness. He went into all the region around the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins,

as it is written in the book of the words of the prophet Isaiah,

“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.’ ”

In the Name of the Creator, the Redeemer and the Sustainer. Amen

In the fifteenth year of the reign of Emperor Tiberius…Pontius Pilate was governor…Herod and Philip and Lysanias were rulers of the regions. Annas and Caiaphas were high priests…and John was in the wilderness - perhaps as far removed from all this power as it was possible to be.

John the Baptist was born into a priestly line - his future was pretty much mapped out - to serve in the temple.

Instead, he chose to follow God’s call to be a prophet.

Giving up the luxury and status that he might have known, John followed a much rockier, uncomfortable path as a prophet.

And so, miles from all the power and posturing, John was in the wilderness preaching repentance.

And, by all accounts, people flocked to hear him and to be baptised by him.

People, longing for something different, went to hear John in the wilderness - at the edge, far from all the political turmoil and oppression.

That made me think about us today.

In the midst of political sleaze, where global pandemic rules apply to some and not others, and where access to vaccination depends on where in the world you live… where those already struggling are plunged further into deprivation… In the midst of all this - where is our wilderness?

Where is that place to which we can retreat- and hear something different?

Where can we be engaged in a new way of being- that’s not about power or posturing?

Where is that place that we can own our vulnerability and confront our fear and find ourselves met? Perhaps even changed?

Wilderness places hold out the promise of transformation.

When we stop running.

And stop trying to talk or think our way out of our current predicament.

When we simply take a moment to acknowledge how hard things are.

How weary we are.

How worried we are.

Not because we don’t have hope. We do.

But that doesn’t mean we don’t still worry.

That doesn’t mean we don’t feel weary.

Almost two years of a life we would never have imagined takes it’s toll.

The wilderness, wherever that may be for you, that place of pause, is not an escape.

But it is an opportunity to sit with our vulnerability.

To acknowledge loss and longings.

To confront our fears.

And, in our wilderness, to be met by God.

To be met by God, who doesn’t condemn us for our weariness or our fear…

To be met by God, who does not dismiss our longings…

To be met by God, who does not even comfort us, telling us everything will be alright…

To be met by God, who sits with us in all the darkness, a constant companion.

To be met by God until we are ready to listen again to words of hope - like the words in today’s gospel - all flesh shall see the salvation of God 

That is the promise- that things will be turned on their head - the mighty shall be brought low, the humble will be lifted up - that all flesh shall see the salvation of God.

And in the meantime?

In the meantime, God comes to us in all our wilderness places.

God enters our lives here and now, simply to be with us.

Yet into our despair God pours hope

Into our sorrow, God pours joy.

Into our darkness, God pours light.

Our wilderness is transformed by good news.

Good news that is for all the world.

And so, however long it takes, however long we need God simply to sit with us.

In the end, like John, we are called to Prepare the way of the Lord.

We are called to sit with others - for as long as it takes.

And, when the time is right - to be light in the darkness, to be joy in sorrow, to be hope in fear and to be the good news that our world needs today more than ever.

Prepare the way of the Lord until all the world sees the salvation of God.

May we all become more familiar with the wilderness places this Advent.

For the glory of God.

Amen