Second Sunday of Advent

By the Rev. Dr. Calvon Jones
Assistant Minister/Director
Memorial Church of Harvard University

(The following is a transcript of the service audio, Dec.8, 2024)

In the 15th 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 Iturea and Trachonitis and Lysanias, ruler of Abilene, during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the Word of God came to John, son of Zachariah, in the wilderness."

Why does Luke give such a mouthful of an introduction? Does he think we need to know every ruler at the time when John went out to preach? Surely, one or two reference points would've been enough. Amen.

Maybe Luke, being the great historian, begins this introduction this way because he wants his audience to know that the story of Jesus breaks history open. Luke places the story in history firmly in time that the work of God happens in time. Perhaps Luke is trying to tell us that the birth of Jesus is particular. This is not a legend that takes place in some other time. Jesus is born into history, into a particular context, time, and place. Christ does not come out of the blue; He is a part of the history of Israel.

But why does Luke name all of these political and religious leaders? I believe that Luke wants us to understand that God is doing something new, that God is initiating a new order, one that is not of this world, one that is not steeped in power nor empire. Maybe Luke names all of these household names to show us that this reign of God will not be connected to Rome, that the Word of God will not come to these political leaders, it will not come to the most powerful, it will come to an unknown, seemingly unimportant man who lives in the desert named John.

The important people are not as important as they think they are. Luke wants us to know that the old power structures are coming to an end. It is a kingdom not located in Rome but will be centered in the wilderness and ultimately located in a crib and stable in Bethlehem. Luke's litany of imperial regional and religious authorities does more than date John's ministry. It also contrasts human kingdoms with God's reign.

In one commentary, the author writes that Luke sets the stage for John the Baptist's prophetic call by introducing an A-list of earthly powers. Indeed, the world to which God sends the Messiah is a world held captive by earthly forms of domination and influence. But the Word of God comes to John, a country preacher who would be a witness to a new order. The Word of God comes to John, one who would challenge the religious aristocracy and the unfair theocracy. The Word of God comes to John, for John saw the death-dealing conditions that his people had been living under for centuries as a colonized people living in an occupied territory. For Rome was a link to a long chain of uninterrupted occupation, from the Assyrian occupation to the Babylonian occupation, to the Persian occupation, to the Greek occupation, and now the Roman occupation.

Then the word came to little old John. John stood up and challenged empire, empire that was about controlling the resources for those deemed second-class citizens, Roman imperialism that crushed the poor, the marginalized, the disenfranchised, that excluded certain groups to maintain a status quo. Then the word came to little old John, not Tiberius, Pilate, Herod, Philip, Lysanias. It came to John, John who proclaims a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sin and says, "As it is written, the voice of one crying out in the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord, make His path straight. Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be made low."

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John the unconventional prophet comes with an unconventional message, "Repent. Repent." For God wants us to change our inward ways because God wants to build an astonishing highway through the desert. God wants to rearrange the topography of the wilderness. John calls for us to be baptized, a repentance that changes our hearts and reorients our mind. But some may ask the question, "Why do we need to be baptized? Why do we need to repent? Is God's love contingent upon our repentance?" I say that God's love has nothing to do with pardon and forgiveness. God's love is here in spite of our brokenness and despite our failures. John invites the audience to repent. Not to win God's love, but to repent because God needs us. God calls us to repent because Christ wants us to change the world. God is inviting us to participate in His salvation story.

Repentance is not so much about changing from bad to good, from wrong to right. It's about freedom from our past. It's about a change of heart that lets ourselves be laid claim by another. The Word of God laid claim to John's life in a way it did not lay claim to the powerful. Perhaps political power, economic security, and religious power certainly had laid claim to their lives, but John was laid claim by something more powerful. In the midst of the wilderness, the Word of God came to John.

And for you all who have gotten to know Reverend Jones, you know that I love preaching. And I love the field of homiletics, and this particular context, Luke 3, was preached by one of my favorite preachers. If you don't know him, go look him up by the name of Reverend Gardner Calvin Taylor. He preached an Advent message, and one line that stood out to me when he preached this message was during the height of racism. Listen, Reverend Gardner Taylor says, "Dwight D. Eisenhower, being president of the United States, and John Patterson, the governor of Alabama, J. Edgar Hoover, the omnipotent autocrat of the FBI, Billy Graham and Norman Peale, the high priest of middle America, but then the Word of God came to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in the wilderness of America. He did not fit even the notion of Black people as to where the Messiah should come for. He came from a lineage of preachers maligned and caricatured as merchants of escapism, unrealistic, not reality, discerning the sign of the times. Yet, the Word of God came to Martin Luther King Jr."

Perhaps the Word of God is reaching out to you today, beckoning you to imagine a new world, beckoning you to imagine a new America, beckoning you to join in with God to transform society. The Word of God bypassed the power of the state and the influence of established and institutionalized religion, and it came to the wilderness and seized John. May the word seize you this day. The word is searching for the vulnerable, the alienated, the disenfranchised, the despised, and the dispossessed. Like Martin Luther King, Jr., like Fannie Lou Hamer, like Kathy Day, like (Dietrich) Bonhoeffer, may the word seize you.

Whatever you may be going through, whatever wilderness that you may be in today, on the second Sunday of Advent, I declare unto you that the word is calling your name. In the 15th year of the reign of leaders, the Word of God came to John. And may I say in my homiletical and sanctified imagination, in the year of 2024, in the age of political and religious divisions, may the Word of God come to you. In the year of 2024 with unbreakable and unbearable breaking news, clips of wars and violence and storms and climate change, and raging waters and fires and melting glaciers, may the Word of God seize you. In the year of 2024 when it seems like the church wants to be silent, may the Word of God seize you. In the year of 2024 with campaign promises and conference debate after debate and protest after protest and Christian platitude after Christian platitude and whisper musings, may the Word of God seize you. In the year of 2024 when people are attempting to erase the humanity and value of people, may the Word of God seize you like John the Baptist.

As William Lamar writes, "John's baptism of repentance is not simply a call for piety and morality. It is nothing short of labor pains preceding the inauguration of God's reign. John is calling for the world to change spiritually, economically, politically, and socially." In this Advent season, Memorial Church, I beckon unto you under the sound of my voice to join in with John and spread the Word of God. God invites us to prepare for Christ, to wait and to hope. This is not a baseless hope, but this is a fierce hope. A hope that's sweet and everlasting, but also fierce. And in the words of Pauli Murray, hope is a song in a weary throat. Yes, yes, sometimes you may be weary, sometimes you may be discouraged, but beloved, don't give up on hope. Keep on being like John and shouting from the rooftops, "I'm going to prepare a way even when it seems like there is no way."

Today, we shall witness this hope. Today, we shall see this child, Anna, Elisa, and the adults be baptized, and this is a sign that we have always been loved by God. This endless love will be seen as they are washed in the water, and new life will begin. In this Advent season as I go to my seat, like John, may you carry the word. May we join in with the chorus of those great cloud of witnesses who carried the Word of God, who fought until the world realized the truth that they already knew? May we hope, may we work, may we prepare the way. Like Fanny Lou Hamer, may we prepare the way of the Lord. Like Frederick Douglass, may we prepare the way of the Lord. Like John Brown, may we prepare the way of the Lord. Like Cesar Chavez, may we prepare the way of the Lord. Like William Lord Garrison, may we prepare the way of the Lord. Like Margaret Leonard and Allan Boesak and Coretta Scott King and Abby Keller and Susan B. Anthony and Nelson Mandela and Rosa Parks and Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Harriet Tubman, may you prepare the word of the Lord.

May we prepare the way of the Lord so that mountains of discrimination can come down, so that mountains of housing inadequacies can come down, so mountains of prison labor can come down, so mountains of sexism can come down, so that valleys of healthcare despair may come down, that valleys of hatred and evil will be filled with love, valleys of war and violence and genocide can be filled with hope, so the crooked places of exploitation may be made straight. In the 15th year of Emperor Tiberius, the Word of God came to John. In the year of 2024, may the Word of God come to you.

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