PRAYER

We could ask this morning whether John the Baptizer’s message is still relevant to us today. He appears out of nowhere, the wilderness area around the Jordan River, and preaches a fiery sermon about repenting. The poor, the powerless, the handicapped all listen with urgency and hope. The rich and powerful listen with disdain and skepticism. What about us? Some would say we live in the wilderness but with our modern conveniences surrounding us. Cell phones and computers bring the world to us. Can that scruffy, locust-eating prophet have anything to say to us this morning? Perhaps it depends on which wilderness we find ourselves in.

I think our confirmation students saw one kind of wilderness that some people are caught up in right around us. It is the wilderness of poverty. The students served the Wednesday night meal at Grace House, located at Zion Lutheran in Grand Rapids. Some who came through the line did not have enough money to buy a meal. Some were living at the church because they were homeless. Some were struggling with mental illness. There was John the Baptizer proclaiming a baptism of repentance. It was a call to turn toward God because he had need of servants to help his most needy children. And our students responded to the invitation to serve.

I asked the students why we were there. "Because we have to as part of confirmation. Because we were told to. Because people need help. Because we are part of the church. Because we want to help people. You see how the repenting takes place, the turning toward God? It is an awareness that moves from self to others, from not thinking of God, to realizing God is part of their lives. I said it was putting what we learn in confirmation into action. So we move toward God when we are away from our comforts and in the wilderness feeding the hungry.

Some people are in the wilderness of an incurable disease, one’s own or someone in the family. That can be a anxious and frightening place to be. Yet in that wilderness you can become very aware of God’s presence. It comes in the prayers said on your behalf, the caring comments made by friends and neighbors, the sense of being uplifted by a whole community of faithful witnesses to God’s presence in Jesus.

Right now many in our affluent nation are experiencing the wilderness of the recession, where people are out of work, out of their home, out of health insurance coverage. It is difficult to imagine being secure and happy one moment, and suddenly life is uncertain and out of control the next moment. Steve and Peggy Boggs understand that kind of wilderness experience as he lays recovering in the hospital.

There is John, out there in the wilderness, calling for us to repent, to turn toward God. And maybe out there in whatever wilderness we find ourselves in, the voice and presence of God can be more clearly heard.

What we are reminded of this Advent is that we need to make an effort to put aside all the distractions around us, to be able to see God acting on our behalf and on behalf of the neighbor. We won’t find God in the parties and the shopping, and the judging of the faults of others. If we want to turn from the world’s distractions, temptations to greed and selfish ambitions, we have to go to the wilderness and once more listen for God’s voice.

Living in the wilderness of Northern Minnesota isn’t for everyone. There are long, cold winters, isolation, few job opportunities, and some distance to services like hospitals and schools. It can be somewhat dangerous at times. One person I recently talked with about living here made another observation. When someone is in trouble or needs a helping hand, many people become good neighbors. People know each other, are willing to give of their time and resources when others need them. There is a sense of repenting, turning toward the source of mercy and love that comes to those in wilderness situations. It happens even among those who don’t often pass through the doors of a Christian church. Those of us who do frequent such a church have the opportunity to joyfully proclaim God’s presence in such loving encounters. For we know that John’s cries of repentance in the wilderness are preparing us for the ultimate reality of God’s presence among us, the birth of the Christ child. Whatever our wilderness experience might be, we know the promise of Immanuel, God with us, will bring us into the joy of the abundant life God has prepared for us in Jesus. Amen.