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“In the fifteenth year of the reign of Emperor Tiberius, when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea,…” Oh, wait. I’m sorry. I’m reading from the wrong translation. Please allow me to start again. How embarrassing. You would have thought after eight weeks of being your pastor that I would have more on the ball… One more time. “In the first term of the presidency of Barack Obama, as Ben Bernanke tried to secure a second term as chairman of the Federal Reserve, while Hilary Clinton served as Secretary of State and Bev Perdue was the governor of North Carolina, during the reign of Queen Elizabeth II in England, when Rev. Bruce Reyes-Chow was the moderator of the PCUSA and Rev. Gradye Parsons served as its Stated Clerk, the Word of God came to a chicken farmer named Joe Bob in the small North Carolina town of Ivanhoe, population 311.” There—that was the translation I meant to read. Have I gotten your attention yet? It is a little shocking isn’t it? After hearing the list of all of those powerbrokers in politics, in English royalty, and even in our own Presbyterian denomination, after hearing the names of all the newsmakers of our day, we are suddenly taken to Ivanhoe, North Carolina—a town I did not even know existed until I started playing with this sermon—to a chicken farmer named Joe Bob, to whom God decides to send God’s Word of repentance and new birth for all of the world. It is hard for me not to laugh as I say it. I mean, really—Joe Bob? Small town, southeast, North Carolina? A word for all the world coming from out of there? That would be hard to believe, wouldn’t it. It would make more sense to me that if God really wanted to start something happening in the world, God would send the Word to President Obama or Secretary Clinton or Governor Perdue. They are, after all, the people who cause others to sit up and listen—people whose faces and voices are all over the news—people who are involved in serious world politics—the movers and the shakers…Those are the ones to whom we would choose to send a Word for the world. But, following Luke’s logic, our mysterious God would choose to send the Word proclaiming salvation for all flesh (a pretty important job, by the way) to a chicken farmer named Joe Bob. God would choose to send as the preparer of “The Way” a no-name, no-power, outside the beltway, outside most everywhere, chicken farmer. It is just ridiculous sounding. And yet, that ridiculous-sounding action of God is exactly what Luke offers us this morning, on this second Sunday of Advent. Luke starts out this third chapter with a listing of everybody who was anybody in the time of John and Jesus. In the political arena, we learn it was the 15th year of the rule of Tiberius Cesar. Pontius Pilate was govenor of Judea. And, 3 of the 4 offspring of Herod the Great were currently ruling in different parts of the region. Furthermore, Luke lets us know that over in the religious house, the chief priests were Annas and Ciaphas. Clearly, it was important for Luke to give us John and Jesus’ historical context and to tell us who was in charge, both politically and religiously. But then, just after Luke sets that stage, just after he wets our appetite to hear about another famous newsmaker, just as the Today Show introductory music starts to play, Luke makes a dramatic and quick shift. Right after he sets us up with all the movers and the shakers, he suddenly changes direction without warning. “When all these people were large and in charge, the Word of God came to a no-name prophet living on the outskirts of everything, smack-dab in the wilderness.” The sudden shift causes auditory whiplash. In these first 6 verses, Luke proclaims to us the amazingly good news that the Word of God came into our time and history. But strangely enough, the Word did not come to any of the power elite. The Word did not break into their courts or into their offices. The Word did not arrive in the lap of luxury nor into the corridors of power. Instead, the Word of God came into the wild wilderness—a space in which one never knows what might happen or who might be lurking. And furthermore, the Word of God came to John, son of a barren woman named Elizabeth and a disbelieving old man named Zechariah. In other words, the Word of God came, just as it had been promised from generation to generation, but it did not arrive in any of the ways we might have predicted. Rather, the Word of God came to a crazy prophet named John, who, as far as we’re concerned, might as well have been a chicken-farmer named Joe Bob from Ivanhoe, North Carolina, population 311, a complete outsider to the system. And God’s sudden move shocks our sophisticated ears. But it also gets our attention, doesn’t it. For who would ever expect that when the Word of God came, it would come through such an unlikely person and in such an unlikely place? Who would have ever expected that when God decided to get us ready for the liberating Word of release and salvation, God would decide to use a person that did not register even a small blip on the societal radar. And we have to ask why, don’t we? Why in heaven and on earth would God choose that one to serve as the Preparer of The Way? Maybe it was John’s no-nonsense bluntness. If you keep reading Luke’s Gospel you quickly see that John preached exactly what he thought. He did not worry if he had built up enough trust as their new preacher, or if anyone was going to decrease their pledge or leave the church due to what he said in the pulpit. His favorite way to refer to his congregation was to call them a brood of vipers! And I can promise you that calling one’s congregation names is certainly not seminary-recommended. Actually, John’s whole way of relating to his congregation is really not seminary-recommended. But perhaps God chose John because God knew John would speak loudly God’s truth about all flesh seeing God’s salvation—no matter where he was or who was around. John had no problem speaking truth to power. And I would guess that kind of profound courage would be an important quality needed in the one who was to be the Preparer of the Way. But I also wonder if there was another reason God chose crazy prophet, no-name John. Given all the historical set-up that Luke offers us in this chapter, I just can’t help but wonder if one of the biggest reasons God chose John as the Preparer of the Way is precisely because none of us would have chosen him. Think about it: When a company is looking to fill a high-profile position, they do not instruct the headhunter to look for someone with unknown experience, little education, and a talent for offending people. That is not the profile one typically wants in a leader. So in all honesty, if God has asked you and I to choose the person who would be the Preparer of The Way, we would probably choose someone who was one of our world’s movers and shakers. Because we all know who they are. We are inundated with their pictures and their voices on a daily basis. If we wanted to, we could probably even learn what they wore to the first White House state dinner. And I guarantee you that none of them wore the clothing of a prophet. If we were asked to choose the person to be the Preparer of The Way, John would have been as far outside our imagination as chicken-farmer Joe Bob from Ivanhoe, North Carolina. That is just human nature. But part of what we see in the beginning of Luke’s chapter 3 is that while that kind of decision-making process might be human nature, it is apparently not God’s nature. It is not God’s nature to only see the movers and the shakers, the ones on “Meet the Press” or “Entertainment Tonight” as the ones who count. It is not God’s nature to only look at one’s education, or one’s money, or one’s experience, or one’s family upbringing, or even one’s church membership to determine worth or possibility. Quite the contrary. From what I read in Scripture, it occurs to me that God usually likes to go first to the most-outrageous, least-expected candidate for the job. Think about the murderer named Moses. The young widow named Ruth. Consider the Pharisee named Saul. The no-name, no-power prophet named John. Remember the young, unmarried woman named Mary. The manger in Bethlehem and the newborn peasant baby named Jesus, God-with-us, God’s very love made our flesh. It seems to me that one of God’s favorite activities is to take what we think we know about how the world works; to take what we think we know about how salvation works; and to even take what we think we know about how God works; flip all that “knowledge” upside down, and shake us up and turn us inside out. God is always pushing us out of our reality into God’s reality. God is always challenging our vain attempts to keep eating from the forbidden tree in the Garden because we want to know what only God can know. God keeps us creatures off-kilter. And when you realize this tendency of our God, you do have to stop and ask… what on earth will God do next? For we can almost guarantee it will not be what we expect. And moreover, we have to wonder, through whom will God work in our lives, in the life of our church, in the life of our world? Again, we can almost guarantee it will not be the ones we expect nor the ones we might choose if we had the choice. For with these first six verses of chapter 3, one thing Luke helps us realize is that God does not seem to be limited by our vision or by our imagination about who is worthy to be chosen. God does not seem to look at things and people the same way as you and I. So perhaps, part of our preparation this Advent might be to help each other expand our field of vision, our depth of imagination, and stretch our normal limits of noticing – perhaps even as far as Ivanhoe, North Carolina, and into the wilderness of Judea. Because, just between us, one never can tell just who God might send. One never can tell just who might be called to be a Preparer of The Way. One never knows who might burst onto our scene and announce the day when all flesh shall see the salvation of God together. It might just be a chicken farmer named Joe Bob. It might be a crazy prophet from out in the wilderness. It could even be a little child from Black Mountain. Or, it might just be that the one who God is calling to be a Preparer of the way is the same person who looks back at you in the mirror. Who knows! Only God. So get ready. And be prepared. For our God makes some wonderful outside the box kinds of moves in order to get the Gospel news out and loose in the world.
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