We are in the Christian liturgical season of Advent. Advent is a Christian season of anticipation of the coming of Christ. It is a season of expectation and anticipation that something transformative is about to happen.
One of the biblical texts of the Advent season is found in the gospel of Luke. In Luke the third chapter starting at the first verse it says “In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, Pontius Pilate being governor of Judea, Herod being tetrarch of Galilee, his brother Philip tetrarch of Iturea and the region of Trachonitis, and Lysanias tetrarch of Abilene, while Annas and Caiaphas were high priest, and the word of God came to John the son of Zacharias in the wilderness.”
The writer of Luke presents a socio-political, and salvation-historical perspective for the upliftment of the poor and working class of the North East African region of Palestine. If you read those six verses over and over again you will discover a literary rhythm that Luke uses to make a profound point.
Luke lists all of the names that the politically elite in Judea believe had true authority. He runs down from top to bottom the pecking order of Power in Judea and in particular Jerusalem. Yet Luke tells us that the creator of the earth sidestepped all that the society deemed important to deliver a transformative word to someone who would have been seen as a derelict and a homeless vagabond. Think about that. The word of liberation and deliverance from the one who has all power bypassed the opulent palaces of Caesar in Rome, bypassed the plush roof top penthouse of Pontius Pilate, bypassed the hedonistic haberdashery of Herod, bypassed the profusely palatial pad of Philip, ignored the Luxurious lodgings of Lysanias and didn’t even think about the exorbitantly expensive abodes of Annas and Caiaphas, the High Priests who prostituted themselves to Caesar in Rome, only delivered that word to someone on the margins of society.
The bible says “The word of God came to John the son of Zacharias in the wilderness.”
In this season of Advent as the political stage has been set and uncertainty and fear begin to envelop landscape because it seems evil is ascending to the halls of power in January let us remember that the power to transform a society and world does not reside in the Oval Office or a board room, or the backroom but real power has been vouchsafe to those that polite society looks down upon.
John took up residence in the wilderness where polite society avoided. John wore the real Camels hair clothes not the refined smooth comfortable clothing of the “have mores.” John ate the desert food of locust and honey, but John represents those who have been disinherited but have been granted by God the power to uplift the downtrodden and change a society to include everybody.
The text of Luke says that John quoted the Prophet Isaiah in saying “a voice calling in the wilderness prepare the way for the lord…” The text is reminding the common people, the ordinary poor and working-class people of biblical Palestine to remember what God did when God led them in an Exodus from Egypt to become a new nation. The text is suggesting that what God did then God is looking to do again and grant a new Exodus from the bondage of healthcare companies that deny the claims of people so that investors can gain more wealth off the backs of those same people.
God is opening a new highway of deliverance from political charlatans who lie and manipulate the emotions of people in order to ascend to positions of power. The text is saying that God in this Advent season is reminding the people that in the darkest night when corporations have placed profit above principle and people that God is still sending a word to those who are the least of these to overcome the oppression of greedy wealthy robber barons.
It may be dark but God is reminding all of us who strive for equity in an unbalanced society of needless suffering that when it is darkest that is the very moment that the stars of heaven can be seen the clearest.
It is a season of anticipation of how God works through ordinary people to do extraordinary righteous and compassionate good to those on the bottom of society.
It is a reminder that God is not on the side of Pharaohs, Kings called Nebuchadnezzar, Caesars or Presidents but God is on the side of those who are demeaned by the high and mighty. It also reminds of that God dismisses pandering priest, preachers and High Priest who align themselves with the political structure more than the theology of Jesus “who came that all might have life and have that life more abundantly.”
Finally, as Parker Palmer explained in his book “let your life speak,” the word vocation comes from the Latin word for voice.” There is a calling in all of us from the eternal spirit to “level every hill and elevate every valley. To straighten every crooked area and to make every rough path smooth,” so that every human can gain access to enough of what they need to live a life of dignity and abundance regardless of their ethnicity, race, gender, sexual identity or age. We are in the season of Advent therefore never forget that it is a season of anticipation of the “last becoming first and the first becoming last.”
Be well, be authentic and stay work. Uhuru Sassa!
Rev. Dr. John E. Jackson, Sr. is the Senior Pastor of Trinity United Church of Christ-Gary, 1276 W. 20th Ave. in Gary. “We are not just another church but we are a culturally conscious, Christ-centered church, committed to the community; we are unashamedly Black and unapologetically Christian.” Contact the church by email at [email protected] or by phone at 219-944-0500.
