“Paying Attention To Time In the Wilderness”

“Paying Attention To Time In the Wilderness”
John 1:6-8, 19-28 Advent 3 December 11, 2005


We like to be in control, you and I. We like our lives to be orderly, according to schedule, and convenient. We like it when our children have only good news for us, and when they don’t disturb our schedules, because then we feel as if we’re in control.

We like being healthy and youthful and energetic. We don’t like to have to go to the doctor, or to have to figure out the new Medicare drug plan, because, when we’re sick, we can’t pretend we’re in control.

We like comfort and security. We like jobs that pay well and offer generous retirement benefits. We don’t like news about poor people, or about war, because that makes us uncomfortable and then we don’t feel in control.

We like our cars to be comfortable and reliable and safe – because those other drivers are out of control.

We don’t like surprises, especially the scary experiences of being out of control – because that reminds us that, in reality, we are never really in control; that that’s just an illusion. But we cover that up quickly when things settle back down, and we believe the illusion again, and everything is fine again.

Or is it?

In the Bible, a chief metaphor for being out of control is to be in the wilderness. The wilderness is a hostile place. It is a dangerous place. In the wilderness, life is hard.

That’s where John the Baptizer is, in this morning’s story from the gospel of John, when the Jews [send] priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, “Who are you?” He’s in the wilderness. He’s beyond the Jordan!

It’s important to notice, in the story, that the priests and Levites come out from Jerusalem. That’s where the temple is – in the city, in civilization. In the holy city, the religion of God’s people is set, securely and comfortably. The religion is organized according to a system of laws stipulating purity and proper behavior and worship. It’s easy, then, in Jerusalem, for the priests and the Levites to think they have God under control; that God is captured by the system of the religion.

But in the wilderness, nothing is under control. In the wilderness, everything, by definition, is wild! Including God! And John the Baptizer, in particular, frightens the priests and the Levites!
At the time, there had been at least two centuries of wild expectations of the coming Messiah. That kind of thing does not fit neatly into a system of well-controlled, well-defined, well-organized religion. It is a scary thing, if God is working through John the Baptizer!

And so, the emissaries from the systematic and organized and under-control religion of Jerusalem ask John questions having to do with those expectations of a Messiah. “Are you Elijah?” they ask. (You see, since Elijah was transported into heaven without dying,[1] some of God’s people expect him to return just before the coming Messiah.[2]) John tells them, “No.”
So they ask, “Are you the prophet?” (This is probably the expectation of an end-time prophet-like-Moses to come.[3]) Again, John the Baptizer says, “No.”

Then they said to him, "Who are you? Let us have an answer for those who sent us.” (“Those who sent us”: in other words, those back in Jerusalem who are anxious to recover the illusion of control, that God is acting according to their expectations.) “What do you say about yourself?" they ask John the Baptizer, trying to identify, to define who this guy is who’s making them so anxious!

In response in the story, Isaiah 40:3 is adapted to become messianic prophecy. John the Baptizer declares:

"I am the voice of one crying out in the wilderness,
'Make straight the way of the Lord,' "
as the prophet Isaiah said.

John makes striking use of this verse out of Isaiah. He understands himself to be preparing a way, out in the wilderness: out where life is anxious and scary and out of control. Notice: It’s a way not for people to come to God, but so that God can come to the people! Because that’s how it works, out in the wilderness. John the Baptizer sees himself called to soften peoples’ hearts to God, leveling peoples’ pride so they will become open to God. (Are you hearing the themes of Advent in all of this?)

What softens your heart to the advent of our God?

Are you ever really open to the coming of God when everything is neat and tidy, and under control? Be honest, now! I’ll simply confess that, for myself, when I’ve got everything in a box, even though I maintain a discipline of prayer and reading, time set aside to focus on God’s presence, I’m probably only focusing on my idea of a God who is warm and fuzzy and comforting. But God is wild! God is beyond our control! God is way beyond any idea we have of God. And so, God is scary! God stretches us, and pulls us, and challenges us!

I forget that about God, when I’m back in civilization, where everything is organized and according to schedule. I forget about God’s wildness when I am not in the wilderness, out beyond the Jordan. Is that true for you, too?

Because, for absolute sure, God leads you out into the wilderness, at least occasionally. Those are frightening periods of time. In the wilderness, you and I desperately need that way to be straight – that way that Isaiah and John the Baptizer talk about – so that God can come to us. Even though it’s a scary thing to do, you and I need to enter into and to pay attention to time in the wilderness – to understand our need for God, and to understand who God is, and to understand what it is that God is doing with us in the wilderness.

And so, for instance, parent is in the wilderness when his child is struggling with addiction. (That’s a sign of the demonic.) A parent is in the wilderness when her children are not speaking to each other, or to their parents, because of some grudge that they won’t let go. We need to pay attention to time in the wilderness, as scary as that is, to be open to God’s advent. How desperately do parents and children in conflict need God to come to them along the straight way, through the wilderness of such anguish!

A person is in the wilderness when he is enveloped in depression. We need to pay attention to time in the wilderness, to be open to God’s advent. How desperately does he need God to come to him along the straight way, through the wilderness of such sadness!

A person is in the wilderness when she is enclosed in grief. We need to pay attention to time in the wilderness, as scary as that is, to be open to God’s advent. How desperately does she need God to come to her, with the Good News of hope and joy, along the straight way through the wilderness of such heartache!

Here’s what I suspect. I suspect that we prepare best for Christmas when we pay attention to time in the wilderness.

A preacher named P.C. Ennis said this:

What is it we expect – really expect out of Christmas – as we await the one who comes? Someone has observed that people tend to make out of life pretty much what they make out of Christmas. … So, if Christmas means little more than the annual midwinter solstice, a break from winter doldrums, bonus time, Christmas carnival time, a boost for the economy, entertainment for the children, and an increasing endorsement of American consumerism – if that is all we expect from Christmas – then life – once life returns to normal, returns to the meantime – life will probably amount to little more.[4]

But what if you and I look for Christmas to be the radical entrance of One who literally wants to change the way the world thinks, and operates, and perceives reality?

Isn’t that what God wants to do?

Could it be that it is only when we are in the wilderness, when life is out of control, that we are aware of our desperate need for God, and alert for how it is that God comes to us?

We need to pay attention to time in the wilderness.

In the name of God who is Father and Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.


Pastor Andy Ballentine
St. Stephen Lutheran Church
Williamsburg, Virginia
[1] See 2 Kings 2:11.
[2] See Malachi 4:5.
[3] See Deuteronomy 18:15.
[4] P.C. Ennis, “Waiting” (Journal for Preachers, Advent 2005), page 24. Wording in the next paragraph also comes from this article.