Rev Hugh Perry
Readings
Isaiah 40:1-11
The voice that cries out in verse 3 is one from the heavenly council of divine beings mentioned in chapter 6. Maurice Andrew says it is not a prophetic voice of someone in the wilderness that leads to the Christian application in introducing John the Baptist as ‘a voice crying in the wilderness’. The wilderness is an allusion to Exodus and, in this case, is the way back from exile in Babylon. The valleys being lifted up etc are lyrical metaphors for the way home from exile being made easy. [1]
Like all the prophetic writing this passage is about events at the time of writing but, just as Isaiah makes allusion to the Exodus wilderness, the gospel writers make allusion to the voice crying in the wilderness and, even though they read new meaning into it, that process is part of the genre of Hebrew sacred writing.
Mark 1: 1-8
Now we truly go to the beginning of Mark’s Gospel and our Advent preparation for the birth of Jesus in a sort of a walking backwards to Christmas. In spite of what Maurice Andrew might think, the gospel writer is sure that John the Baptiser is ‘the one crying in the wilderness’ from our Isaiah passage and that is an important feature in his explanation of Jesus’ divine credentials.
Part of the traditional expectation of a messiah was the understanding that Elijah would return to earth to announce the arrival of the messiah. Verse 6 describes John as clothed in a camel hair coat with a leather belt around his waist which is an allusion to the description of Elijah in the first chapter of 2 Kings (2 Kings 1:8) It is also worth noting that John the Baptist appears in Josephus’ Antiquities of the Jews (Ant.18:5:2) where his baptising activities are mentioned along with his popularity and his execution by Herod.[2] This reference gives an historical affirmation for John outside the gospels.
Sermon
Jeff Bell’s cartoon in The Press on 28th of November the cartoonist quoted Napoleon Bonaparte saying, ‘If you wish to be a success in the world, promise everything, deliver nothing’.[3]
Regardless of who the cartoonist was lampooning, this was an interesting quotation at a time when Reading Cinemas were screening the film Napoleon here in Christchurch. So, I turned to Mr Google to see if I could find a context for when Napoleon said that. After all, with my limited knowledge of European history I would not count Mr Bonaparte as totally successful. Names like Trafalgar and Waterloo come to mind.
Sadly, although my brief search confirmed the quote as Napoleon’s, it did not give any context. But one website also included a quote from someone most people would admire. Apparently, Albert Einstein said:
‘Strive not to be a success, but rather to be of value’.
That is indeed a statement in the world of humanities and theology to match E=mc2 in the world of physics, the universe and everything.
I can think of a recent president of the United States who could well agree with Napoleon’s statement. However, the recent death of Rosalynn Carter reminded me of the many pictures I have seen of her and her aging husband Jimmy Carter, in their post Whitehouse years, building houses for Habitat for Humanity. Regardless of what President Carter achieved, or failed to achieve, as one of the most powerful men in the world, both him and Rosalynn were people who strived to live lives of value rather than what the world might see as a success.
Certainly the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize is a substantial measure of success but, putting on a builder’s bib and creating homes for the less fortunate is both of value and to some extent a voice crying in the wilderness.
In a world focused on economic growth those, who speak out for marginalised, are easily regarded as voices crying in the wilderness.
Those scholars who have commented on today’s readings have pointed out the allusion to the exodus saga in our Isaiah passage. There is also a reference to the Isaiah passage in framing the story of John the Baptist. Mark adds further allusion that describes John as an Elijah figure. Elijah would certainly fit the contemporary understanding of someone crying in the wilderness. People who express an idea or opinion that is not popular like spending their retirement building homes for the homeless.
Greta Thunberg was certainly a voce crying in the wilderness and the future of the planet would appear to depend on more and more voices joining her.
But wilderness voices can and do bring change. On the 1st of December 1955 Rosa Parks refused to move to the back of the bus and by that action she became a voice crying in the wilderness.
After her death in 2005, the Rev. Jesse. Jackson wrote: ‘With quiet courage and non-negotiable dignity, Rosa Parks was an activist and a freedom fighter who transformed a nation and confirmed a notion that ordinary people can have an extraordinary effect on the world’. [4]
The myth of Rosa Parks is that she was tired after a long working day. The truth was she was a long-time political activist who exploited an opportunity when it presented itself. She was nevertheless one of the significant voices that cried out in wilderness of the struggle for civil rights in the United States and, as Jackson noted, ‘she changed the world’. For millions of African Americans, Rosa Parks made a highway through the desert of racial discrimination even if some of the rough places still have to be made smooth.
Isaiah was not calling for the construction of a motorway between Babylon and Jerusalem. Isaiah is recognising the change in imperial policy that is allowing the exiles to return home without impediment. Isaiah is also claiming that the change in policy is not just because of a change of emperor, it is God’s will and the emperor had very little choice.
Isaiah was pointing out that his people’s release from captivity was not because of a generous emperor but the inevitability of the covenant with the only true God who called them out of slavery in Egypt. That same God was making the way smooth to travel back to Jerusalem. Isaiah also makes mention that their time in exile was a penance that has now been fulfilled.
Mark picks up both these themes of preparation and penitence as he introduces John the baptiser who prepares the way of Christ by proclaiming a baptism of repentance.
In Mark, Matthew and Luke it is the gospel writer who quotes Isaiah to position the Baptist as the one who prepares the way for Jesus’ ministry and mission. However, in John’s Gospel, which is the newest of the four and the one written the furthest from the Jesus event, priests and Levites came from Jerusalem to ask who John was. It is then the Baptist who answers by declaring that he is the voice crying out in the wilderness.
Church history shows that all the early communities of Jesus’ followers were voices crying in the wilderness of their world. Voices that prepared the way for change in a pagan world of a multiplicity of gods and emperor worship. These first followers of Jesus lived in a world where the Christian insistence on worshiping only one God was regarded as atheism and from time-to-time Christians were martyred for that insistence. The first followers of Jesus were very much voices crying in a wilderness of disbelief, unequal distribution of wealth, slavery and the exploitation of marginalised and conquered peoples.
Jesus’ followers were the voices who cried out for peace through an inclusive society where everyone was fed, the sick were healed, prisoners were freed and injustice was replaced by lovingkindness.
The communities of Jesus’ followers that inspired the writing of the gospels were a pack of disruptive subversive nutters.
Those nutters prepared the way, not for the Jesus who was baptised by John, they prepared the way for the Risen Christ to enter people’s hearts and transformed their world.
The strength of that community is demonstrated by the way it survived and grew after Jesus was also executed.
The gospel writers focused on Jesus, and he undoubtedly led the community of disciples in a radical enough way to be executed.
All this reminds us that although voices that cry in the wilderness occupy unique places in history their voice has often been shaped and sharpened by their community.
Rosa Parks was born in 1913 and was the granddaughter of slaves. Her grandfather taught her courage during a wave of racial violence in 1919 when he sat on his porch with a shotgun telling young Rosa that he dared the “Ku-Kluxers” to come.
Rosa went to her first meeting of the National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People
in December, 1943. She was the only woman at the meeting so she was asked to take notes then elected group Secretary and remained so for the next twelve years.[5]
The myth of Rosa Parks invokes emotion and inspiration, but the hard facts tell of someone moulded by circumstances to change the world.
But myth filled with metaphor and imagery has a far greater chance of inspiring others and creating change which is why the gospel writers draw so heavily on their religious heritage and scripture.
Josephus, a chronicler of his time, places John in history. He mentions John’s baptising activities, the fact that he called people to repentance and notes that the crowds of people who were coming to hear John worried Herod, so he had John killed.[6]
The Gospel writers on the other hand place John within the divine plan and within the tradition of their religious scripture. For Mark and the others John is a prophet in the fiery Elijah mould, who is not only a voice crying in the wilderness because he speaks a truth others do not want to hear, but he preaches in a real wilderness.
John performs the Gospel curtain raiser on the very stage where Elijah was carried up to heaven in a whirlwind accompanied by a chariot of fire.
With no birth narrative Mark portrays the beginning of Jesus’ ministry on this stage of religious heritage, that may lack the special effects of Weta Workshop, but certainly shows the craft of a master storyteller.
Unlike Josephus, who wants to record the facts, Mark is a true evangelist who uses story, metaphor and allusion so his readers do not only know about Jesus but feel the Christ presence in their very being. In this episode Mark is not just telling us that John prepared the way for Jesus, he is calling us to also speak uncomfortable truths.
Mark is calling us to be the ones that cry out in our own secular wilderness of market forces, child poverty, domestic violence and a growing gap between rich and poor. Like so many others we may just be the odd one out, the one woman at the meeting who ends up being secretary for twelve years. But just as Rosa Parks was surrounded by a community of those determined for change, we are all part of the Community of Christ, part of the church. Advent is a season of preparation and over two thousand years Mark’s Gospel calls us each to be the voice that cries in the wilderness.
We prepare to celebrate the birth of Jesus more than two thousand years ago. We must also make the unpopular prophetic calls that simply seem to be voices crying in the wilderness.
Yet our voice crying in the wilderness can still prepare the way for the birth of Christ in the hearts and minds of the people of our world.
[1] Maurice Andrew The Old Testament in Aotearoa New Zealand (Wellington: DEFT 1999) p.443
[2] William Whiston Trans The Works of Josephus (Peabody, Massachusetts,1989), p.484.
[3] Jeff Bell The Press (28th November 2023) p14
[4] https://time.com/3603948/jesse-jackson-rosa-parks/
[5] http://www.huffingtonpost.com/paul-schmitz/how-change-happens-the-re_b_6237544.html
[6] William Whiston Trans The Works of Josephus (Peabody, Massachusetts,1989), p.484.