# Sermon for the Second Sunday of Advent December 12, 2023 - [ Blog ](/news-categories/blog) *By the Rev. Dr. Calvon Jones Assistant Minister in the Memorial Church of Harvard University* *(The following is a transcript of the service audio, Dec. 10, 2023)* ![The Rev. Dr. Calvon Jones](/sites/g/files/omnuum7126/files/styles/hwp_1_1__360x360_scale/public/thememorialchurch/files/121102calvonjones5_wed_0.jpg?itok=0su7Upbr) I would like to place a tag upon the text that you have heard, for it constitutes the context from which we will attempt to teach and preach this morning. A prophet's cry in the wilderness. A prophet's cry in the wilderness. It is easy or easier to love prophets when they're dead. It is easy to create sanitized versions of them when they are no longer present or alive to challenge systems of oppression. Politicians, preachers, leaders, and renowned figures who would have never supported prophets when they were alive, will show up at events to celebrate them and commemorate their lives. It is easier to love prophets when they're dead. Prophets evolve from dangerous criminals to holy saints once they're dead. It was the poet and Arthur Carl Wendell Hines, Jr. Who pinned a poem entitled, Now that He Is Safely Dead in the 1960s. This poem was written after the murder of Malcolm X, however, it is more often associated with the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Carl Wendell Hines writes, "Now that he is safely dead, let us praise him. Build monuments to his glory sing hosannas to his name. Dead men make such convenient heroes, for they cannot rise to challenge the images that we might fashion from their lives. It is easier to build monuments than to build a better world. So now that he is safely dead, we with eased consciences would teach our children that he was a great man, knowing that the cause for which he lives is still a cause, and a dream for which he died is still a dream, a dead man's dream." The prophet, Dr. King, who was associated with this poem is now beloved by so many in death. When he was alive, he was hated by most Americans. When he was alive, white, moderate preachers wanted him to slow down and be quiet, which led to Dr. King's famous letter from a Birmingham jail. When he was alive, he was even hated by his own people. When he was alive, J Edgar Hoover said he was the most dangerous man in America, because he was threatening white supremacy. He was assassinated because he had a vision of love and equality. He was assassinated because he was a prophet who cried out in the wilderness. Prophets are often not beloved in their lifetime. Prophets who challenge the status quo confront imperial powers, preach truth to power, do not itch the ears of heroes, are often portrayed as weird, different, crazy, unruly, and radical. Prophets who cast down idols and demand the powers that be to remember the oppressed are often portrayed as agitators and are relegated to the margins of society. Prophets who often remind the people of God, of the promises and laws that God calls us to walk into are often depicted as extremists. Author and scholar of the Hebrew Bible, Walter Brueggemann in his book, Prophetic Imagination writes that, "The task of the prophet is to nurture, nourish, and evoke a consciousness and perception alternative to the consciousness and perception of the dominant culture around us. The prophet does not ask if the vision can be implemented, the prophet imagines before implementation. Royal consciousness shrinks imagination because imagination of a prophet is a danger. Thus, every totalitarian regime is frightened of the artist." In the Gospel of Mark, we are introduced to a prophet who imagines, a prophet who most likely was not loved when he was alive. The writer of Mark opens up the text with the good news of Jesus Christ. However, the writer does not begin with the appearance of heavenly angels, the splendor of a baby in a manger or glorious shepherds in the field. The writer begins with an unconventional prophet in the wilderness, and I place a heavy emphasis on unconventional. The writer of Mark opens up with John the Baptist, also known as John the Baptizer, john's hair is all over the place, y'all, and most likely John has a bit of an outdoor stench. He's wearing camel clothing, a big leather belt, and John has a weird diet of eating honey, bugs and wild locusts. This prophet is most likely not beloved by the Roman authorities. They certainly would not have appointed him as the prophet in the royal courts or the temple. This is the type of prophet that you would not want to be seen taking a selfie with, come on somebody. This is the type of prophet that you would not want to be seen on Twitter, Facebook, Snapchat, or Instagram. This is a type of a prophet who would probably go viral today because of his radical appearance and wilderness theology. Nevertheless, John, this prophet has a word from God. Yes, this unconventional prophet has a word from God in the wilderness, and in the words of that great Lutheran pastor, Nadia Bowles Weber, "The word of God came to the likes of this smell for wearing honey and locusts eating, crying out in the wilderness, down by the river, baptizing, repentance and forgiveness, preaching, Jesus freak name was not Tiberius or Lysanius, nor Pontius Pilate or Herod, but his name was simply John, just John, the son of Zechariah. And he wasn't from anywhere that mattered or that you could find on a map. He was out in the wilderness down by the river somewhere, if you could find him." It's easy to love prophets when they're dead, because when they're alive, they're often depicted as crazy. John, this crazy prophet who left the city, who left areas of comfort, who wasn't concerned with fitting inside the box, who wasn't concerned with being a part of the elitist groups that were connected to Rome. He probably wasn't even concerned about losing his job. See, sometimes we'll speak a little radical justice, but not too much if our job is on the line. But I don't think John was concerned about his job. He was no longer concerned about status, no longer concerned about saying the right political statements, no longer concerned about losing invitations to speak at large conferences. He was probably no longer concerned if the church ostracized him because his messages were not flattery to the ears. I don't know about you, but sometimes I struggle being a prophet. Sometimes I'm scared to even say it Because when you're truly a prophet, many people will not like you. John, this wild prophet, he left the areas of comfort because he had a cry deep down in his soul, John dared to be a prophet in the wilderness. –– Embed [Harvard Memorial Church](https://soundcloud.com/memorial-church "Harvard Memorial Church") · [The Rev. Dr. Calvon Jones - Dec. 10, 2023 | Sunday Sermon](https://soundcloud.com/memorial-church/the-rev-dr-calvon-jones-dec-10-2023-sunday-sermon "The Rev. Dr. Calvon Jones - Dec. 10, 2023 | Sunday Sermon") –– John came to the wilderness where those who did not fit in society could be found. He came to a wilderness, a baron place, a place of not much vegetation, a place of isolation. John came to the wilderness where the zealots rebels, revolutionaries, visionaries went to declare liberation and freedom to those who suffered as a result, a Roman occupation. Mark begins the gospel with John the Baptist in the wilderness. Mark knows that Jesus will show up to be baptized soon and that Jesus will later also go into the wilderness. Mark places the prophet John in the wilderness because it is in the wilderness where John physically and metaphorically connects with the people who are suffering and are in need of God's love. "Can you hear the cry from the wilderness?" He gives voice to the ancient words of Isaiah who spoke to a people who were in exile under Babylonian captivity. He echoes those ancient words, "I am sending my messenger ahead of you who will prepare your way. The voice of one crying out in the wilderness, prepare the way of the Lord, make his path straight." John echoes the words of what scholars call sacking Isaiah that came to a people who were in exile, and then he speaks to the contemporary reality and future of those who were living in Jerusalem, in the Greek old Roman world. Other scholars say John is perhaps speaking to the exile of Gentile Christian minority in Rome. Some say that perhaps he's speaking to the exile of Jewish Christians in Palestine, feeling the direct threat of the Roman Empire. And as we heard last week as Matt so eloquently preached, "John is no stranger to the apocalypse. He has seen chaos, wars, killing, danger, abuse, destruction and pain all around him. It is clear that John was crying out for persons who was suffering under the pain of Rome." John's cry in the wilderness was a cry to repair and restore and reinvent the broken social, cultural, political, religious systems of the world as we know it. John's cry, A prophet's cry, should be our cry of today. In the words of Walter Earl Fluker, professor of ethical leadership, "There are many voices calling us from the wilderness. They talk, walk, and stalk us In our gardens of innocence. I will learn ignorance and forgetfulness, demanding how we will identify and locate ourselves in the human struggle for justice." We are called to cry out for justice. Can you hear the cries this morning? Voices deep in the darkness of despair, crying out, hoping that their worth is heard, hoping that the light of Christ that shines within is seen and felt. Can you hear them? Crying out through unjust policies, religious documents, theologies of hate and senseless violence? Can you hear them? Years of not being seen, not being valued, desert tears, desert cries. Wilderness moans, wilderness proclamations, wilderness shrills. Can you hear them? Cries of black and brown bodies in a white world. Cries of women who have been pushed aside, cries of men, women, children who have been sexually assaulted. Their hearts are beating, hearts aching. Can you hear them this morning Memorial Church? Wilderness cries in the slums of America's ghettos and impoverished areas. Wilderness cries of mothers who do not have enough money to feed their children. Wilderness cries of black bodies slain by police brutality. Wilderness cries of persons whose full humanity have not been honored. Wilderness tears of those who have been relegated to the margins of the church. Can you hear those cries this morning? Desert cries of those who have been incarcerated because of petty crimes or for sacrifices that they had to make in order to feed their children and now they cannot reenter into society. Can you hear the cries in the desert? Cries of indigenous people who are cooped on reservations, cries of immigrants who have been placed in cages, cries of migrants who have been placed on buses and dropped off at cities across America with no sense of help and direction. Can you hear the cries from the wilderness? Can you hear the prophets cry? And taking a stance for justice won't be easy. You may not be liked, you may not be honored, and John later in his life would be beheaded. I believe that John invites us in this Advent season to cry out for those who are in need of justice. John, a prophet who is in the wilderness, beckons people to come. He invites us to cry out for justice and he calls us to repent. And as I go to my seat, I know sometimes we do not like the word repentance. I didn't use to like that word because I grew up in a church where it's just like, repent because you bad, repent because there's something about you that just ain't right. But I can clarify something to you? Repentance is not for you to beat yourself up. Repentance calls for us to slow down, to move from places of comfort. Repentance in the words of Professor Wendy Wright, "Does not necessarily mean that we have to be this gloomy, self-loathing practice that we sometimes make it out to be. Repentance consists not so much in flagellating ourselves over our failures, as in courageously and painstakingly reorienting our priorities, unlearning old patterns, turning our faces to God's radiant light." May we prepare for God's coming? May we hear the voice of John and the different voices crying out in the wilderness? And maybe just maybe in this Advent season, we will meet Jesus in the wilderness. The good news of Christ is bound up in the willingness to change our hearts and prepare the way for Christ. To tear down roadblocks, to speak out against the senseless violence in Israel and Gaza, to say that all lives are precious, children, men and women. And to call for a ceasefire. May we speak up. May we speak loudly and cry out in the wilderness. Trusting and believing that the valleys of despair will be filled with God's goodness. That the mountains of hatred and prejudice will be brought low. That the crooked past of systemic injustice will be made straight. And one day in the words of that great hymn writer, "Comfort, comfort ye my people, hark the voice of the one that cryeth in the desert far and near, calling us to new repentance, since the kingdom now is here. Oh, that warning cry, obey. Now prepare for God away. Let the valleys rise to meet him and the hills bow down to greet him. Will you be that prophet crying out in the wilderness?" Amen. See also:- [ Sermon ](/archive/sermons) Share on:- [ Facebook ](#) - [ Twitter ](#) - [ Linkedin ](#)