My First Sermon on the Streets

This season is a really hard time for me. For some of us, this holiday season is a time we remember what we have lost or what we have never had.

The person in our gospel, John the prophet, came to his people in a time of hardship. The people of that time were living in fear and loss. They had lost their homeland to a foreign ruler. They had lost children and loved ones. They had lost their freedom. Many lived in terrible poverty. Worse, they were losing hope.

And along comes this guy named John who lives out in the wilderness and eats bugs and wild honey. He comes as a prophet. He comes to tell people that there still is hope. That, in spite of everything happening, in spite of all their suffering, there is hope.

But before John could give this message, he went out into the wilderness. You might say he went on pilgrimage—only it was a rather long one, where John went out into the desert to search for God. It might have been a long search. It is hard to search for hope. I feel like that is what those of us who went on pilgrimage were doing a few weeks ago; it is what we are all doing every day. Searching for God. Searching for hope.

Sometimes hope is hard to find. When I remember the times in my life of pain and darkness, sometimes I can only ask the question that Jesus did on the cross. “Why, God why?” Sometimes that is where we are. We cannot always see hope. Hope is a scary thing. When things seem to get worse and worse, when there seems to be no answer to our problems, we are afraid to hope. I’m sure there were many people who listened to John’s message of hope, John’s message about the coming of Jesus, and simply thought; “I can’t see any way out right now. How can there really be hope?”

I think God understands that. In another story, this prophet John loses hope himself and Jesus has to assure him that it will be ok in the end. Sometimes all we can remember is that God is there, with us, in us, suffering with us, walking with us in our pain. Finding hope is often a long, painful journey. This advent season is a time of hoping against hope. Sometimes it means just grabbing at that tiniest, smallest bit of hope that God is still with us and that things can get better.

There is another thing I find interesting about this gospel reading. When God sent a prophet to announce Jesus’ coming, to give people hope, God did not send a well educated person. God did not send a king or a trained religious leader. God sent John, a man without a home, a man who lived in the desert, a man most people probably thought was crazy. God usually does things like that. God always chooses to speak through people who the rest of world doesn’t think much of. God sends salvation through people who everyone else thinks are nobodies.

In this community, I have met many prophets. Oftentimes, in bible study or in this service, I don’t say much because I feel like I need to listen to the amazing wisdom of this community. You have all taught me so much. And so I want to step back now and do just that, listen to your wisdom.