A story is told of Daniel Boone, the 18th century American explorer. When he was an old man, Daniel Boone liked to sit out on his front porch and tell stories. He described his adventures on the American frontier and his audiences loved it. He drew big crowds and told big tales. Once, when he paused for a breath between stories, someone called out, “Tell us, Daniel, did you ever get lost out there?” Boone straightened up and said, “Lost?! No, I never got lost!” Then his face became serious and his eyes took on a far away look, and he said, “But I sure was bewildered on several occasions.”
Bewildered: being in the wilderness. In Boone’s day the wilderness was full of dense forests and wild animals and danger. In our day, the wilderness is different and the danger may not come from nature but from us, from the human community. This week we have heard voices cry out from the wilderness: voices from Darfur, voices from Iraq, and voices from Roxbury. There are cries of regret and lamentation. Hope is dying in the wilderness and mourning is heard across the land.
There were other voices raised this week, too, and these were distinctive, high profile voices. Ten voices spoke from across the political spectrum of leadership in this country. Ten seasoned leaders were chosen to study the American war in Iraq. Their report was published this week and there have been many different reactions. Our own newspaper editorials expressed cautious optimism on one page and declared the report “dead on arrival” on the next. The commentaries on the commentaries have now begun and conversation around the Iraq study group’s report will continue for a long time.
The report’s publication is timely. With the American casualty rate in Iraq approaching 3,000, cries of mourning can be heard across our land. The Iraqi deaths number in the hundreds of thousands and it has become a nation of lamentation. Now the wilderness is found in the urban streets of Baghdad. The wilderness is in the suburban American homes where soldiers will never return. Wilderness stalks the Iraqi civilian population that lives in fear and devastation. The Iraq Study Group’s report has come at a critical time.
One of the things that I appreciate about Trinity Church is that there are so many different opinions here. In this room we hold a full range of political ideals and yet we are one Body in Christ. It is a dynamic that holds and stretches us and I will always seek to honor this gift. So today, I neither promote nor criticize the report from the Iraq Study Group, because that is not my role or my expertise. My role is to read the news through theological lenses. When I do that with this report I discover something very interesting. The structure of the Iraq Study Group report has a remarkable resemblance to the Gospel of Luke which we have just heard. What John the Baptist says in a few sentences, the report says in many pages. But each calls for confession, for change, and for new relationships. These are the themes of Advent and they are useful to us as a nation and as individuals.
The Iraq report’s cover letter begins with a confession of the authors’ limitations. It says: “There is no magic formula to solve the problems of Iraq.” The report goes on to call for change, and then it asks for the creation of new relationships. Hands must be extended across bi-partisan lines within our government and with other Middle Eastern countries in order to achieve peace.
Confession, change, and new relationships: this is also the message of John the Baptist in the wilderness. Luke tells us that “the word of God came to John…in the wilderness. He went into all the region around the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.”
The people came out from all over to hear this eccentric man’s message because they knew that he spoke the truth. They knew their lives were not working, they knew they had to change, and they also suspected that they could do things differently if they made the effort. Then John made them a promise. He promised them a new relationship with God that would transform their lives. In fact, he borrowed from the prophet Isaiah to describe how life and all relationships can change. He used Isaiah’s imagery of road repair in anticipation of a royal procession in the wilderness: valleys are lifted, mountains are made low. Imagine this scene in a modern city: streets are repaved, potholes are filled, T tracks are repaired, and junked cars are removed. And the whole point is that if the physical landscape can be transformed, surely the human heart can also be changed.
John the Baptist’s message does not come to us from a place of comfort; it comes in the middle of the wilderness. You and I may not be lost, but we sure have been bewildered as we make our way in life. We have been confused and afraid and perhaps have known despair. Each of us in our own way will visit the wilderness, even if we never leave home. And then the day comes in that wilderness when we are finally ready to hear the prophet’s voice. We reach our limits and we have to change and begin again in our relationships with God and our neighbor. Confession, a call to change, and new relationships: these are the gifts given to us in the wilderness.
When the Iraq Study Report came out this week, I spoke with a man whose wisdom and experience I trust. Chaplain (Major General) Kermit Johnson is the retired Army Chief of Chaplains. He is also an ordained Presbyterian minister who has written eloquently about ethical issues in American military policy. I asked General Johnson, “What do you think about this report?” He described it as a new step, as part of a larger and necessary process.
And then he spoke as the chaplain: “Remember: the report may be prophetic, but it is not transcendent. In the Church we should seek a transcendent voice, a voice of clarity and direction which can turn things around, which can turn us around, a word which can cause us (and perhaps other peoples) to change and to seek reconciliation and forgiveness.” We chatted a bit longer and at the end of our conversation Kermit Johnson recalled the Advent season and he said hopefully, “Here, in our wilderness wanderings, it may still be possible to discover “the way of the Lord” in real-world events.”
This is why you and I are here today. This is why we come into this sacred space week after week, searching for the way of the Lord in the real events of our life and our world. We listen for the Voice that calls above all the other voices. We want to know that God is still with us and for us and speaks to us even when everything outside is in chaos. We need God’s voice, God’s guidance, and the deep hope that only comes from God. Today on this second Sunday of Advent we hear the prophet’s words in our modern wilderness and we know that God wants to live among us, once again. Christ, the Prince of Peace is coming, so make his paths straight.
Prepare the way of the Lord.
AMEN |
