Please note: The following sermon is provided as a resource for the thought, prayer, and meditation of the members and friends of St. Mark's. It is the residue of a verbal event, and thus it does not have academic footnotes and other details that would be expected in a written document. The writer gladly acknowledges the prior thought and work of many Christians before him.

We're recognizing something really wonderful, the marvelous realization that words can really do something,

that they are more than idle sound filling up the emptiness of life.

It is not disingenuous political talk;

it is not slick salesmanship;

it is not coffee-shop chatter,

nor is it undefinable dreams.

The Word of God came to John in the wilderness, Luke reports, and things happened because of it.

The word that is here translated “came to” should perhaps be translated in a bit stronger way than that.

The Word of God “came about”

             “came to pass”,

            filled completely;”

            it “happened” to John,

and because of that, he engages in his bold speaking out in the wilderness.

How is it that the Word of God happened to John? We don't know.

We only know the results.

The Word of God happened to John, and it made him...annoying.

We get annoyed when someone speaks the truth, the kind of truth that we really don't want to hear,

the truth about frailties and failings,

the truth about good intentions that came all unglued before the year even gets started,

the truth about our love for Jesus that is wonderful on the surface and  rotten soft on the inside,

the truth about our care for our neighbor that is all straight in our imagination

            but in reality is twisted up

            with self-interest.

We get annoyed with preachers like that.

The Word of God happened to John, and through him annoys us, chastens us,

and, as we discerned last week, smelts and refines us,

so that life can get going in a new way, in the right direction,

since we have heard the truth about ourselves,

and are now allowing the process of transformation to begin in us.

There was an old movie called The High and the Mighty.

The action took place in a transoceanic airplane flight.

The voice of the captain came over the loudspeaker and announced, ”There is a problem. We cannot correct it. 

I don't think that we are going to make it to land.

I'm telling you this so that you might prepare yourselves.”

An elegantly dressed woman began to remove the diamond pendant from her neck.

and the large ring from her finger.

She peels off the false eyelashes,

wipes the makeup from her face.

A large scar is now visible on her forehead that the makeup had always concealed.

She is preparing herself for the end.

She will go as she really is.

By the skillful flying of the captain, the flight is saved; they make it to the airport.

But the woman has changed.

Honesty was offered to her

            and she took it, gladly.

She took off her mask,

            and she became who she really was, and left the plane in new-found freedom.

Can that happen to us?

Can God's Word happen in our lives in a way that makes the Good News of transformation take place in us?

A person got the nerve to write an email to me and ask, “Can we talk?”

And talk, and talk we have,

            about life and death,

            and sorrow and regret,

            and confession and forgiveness

            and living with thanks.

It is God's Word happening in our lives.

A person knew that the end was near, and wanted to hear once more the precious words of Jesus in Holy Communion: for you, for forgiveness, for life everlasting.

With those words, anxieties can be laid aside, loneliness overcome, and reassurance given.

Whatever hours or days or decades that we have in front of us in this life

now have a different frame of reference.

It is God's Word happening in our lives.

And youth are willing to ask some of the big questions, such as:

“If Jesus is the Son of God, couldn't he have gotten out of dying on the cross?”

And very soon, the conversation takes another turn, “Why do I have to die?”

And as we ponder these things together, God's Word of promise is happening in us and around us.

Oh, yes, the Word of God can happen in a person's life, and things are not the same thereafter.

I wish I could tell you that they would all be comfortable things; but they won't be.

There are some scholars who think that John the Baptist spent some time in the Qumran community on the northern coast of the Dead Sea,

so he would be somewhat accustomed to the intense heat of the lower Jordan Valley.

Still, does anyone think that he perfectly enjoyed roaming around in that peculiar costume

and eating that exotic diet of locusts in that region of deadly heat in the time after the Word of God happened to him?

Does anyone think that he enjoyed speaking the painful truth to those who needed to hear it?

Does anyone think that the teenage girl enjoyed confessing “I am a Christian” before being shot by the Columbine killers?

Does anyone think that William Wilberforce enjoyed being taunted, threatened, and harassed for years as he was waging his campaign to end the slave trade in England?

Does anyone think that is a barrel of laughs for our teens to participate in the Prayers at the Pole each fall before school?  They have to do that all on their own.

When the Word of God happens, we may be quite uncomfortable

and perhaps we will annoy others.

That is a cost of discipleship that goes with the blessings.

But it is a cost worth paying, for in that discomfort comes the possibility of growth and life renewed in ourselves and those whom we meet each day.

God's Word happens out in the wilderness.

The wilderness is a hot, dry, dangerous place to be.

The wilderness has a powerful way of focusing one's attention on what is crucial:

food, water, shelter, time, companions, and God.

There were times before John that the wilderness plays an important role in the life of God's people.

After they were rescued from Egypt, the Hebrews spent 40 years in the wilderness,

            --learning what was important,

            --pruning away what was useless,

            --giving up to death what was evil.

But throughout the process, there was also the invitation to the land of promise.

They emerged from the wilderness a much different people than the disorganized rabble that fled from Egypt in haste.

They were toughened, ready for a new chapter as God's people.

They knew that they were dependent upon God for food, water, and life itself.

They knew that they needed to trust the Word of God.

That is what can happen in the wilderness.

It is a dangerous thing, this opening of the Bible and actually engaging the narrative.

When we do it, we discover

            “Hey, this is my story!

It is more than old stuff;

            it happens with me this way too!

I know that I am in the wilderness, daily.

I realize that these old words from John

            are now addressed to me, too.

It is now become my prayer

            that the needed cleanup proceed in my life, too.

Focus my life on what is important, Lord.

Toughen me for the hard days ahead.

Give me the vision of your victory that will be mine in your good time, as you have promised.

Feed me with the food I need most, your very self in body and blood.

In the wilderness, the Word of God happened to John ,

            and is happening to us.

 Thanks be to God. Amen.

St. Mark's Lutheran Church

142 Market Street

Williamsport, Pennsylvania

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