![]() ![]() In Luke’s account, emperors, governors, rulers, and high priests - the folks who wield power - don’t hear God, but the outsider from the wilderness does. The Gospel highlights a startling juxtaposition between those who experience God’s speaking presence and those who don’t. Perhaps the first wilderness lesson, then, is a lesson about power. But God’s word doesn’t come to any of them. Seven Very Important People occupying seven Very Important Positions. Seven centers of authority, both political and religious. That’s seven seats of wealth, power, and influence in just one sentence. Our Gospel reading for the week takes pains to position John very carefully in time and space: “In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius,” St. Luke writes, “when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, and Herod was ruler of Galilee, and his brother Philip ruler of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias ruler of Abilene, during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas,” John heard God’s word in the wilderness. So again, why the wilderness? Why does Advent begin in the wilderness? As baffling as it may seem, the holy drama of the season depends on the locust-eating baptizer’s opening act. John’s gaunt austerity is the only gateway we have to the swaddling clothes, angel's wings, and fleecy lambs we hold dear each December. I’ve never seen John the Baptist featured in an Advent calender or a Christmas display, but all four Gospels place him front and center in Jesus’s origin story. The place where we stand, the terrain we occupy, the space from which we speak - these things matter. ![]() ![]() Why the wilderness? Why such a barren and desolate setting? If you have any experience in real estate, you know the mantra: “Location location location.” Location is key. In this week’s Gospel, we read that the word of the Lord came to John in the wilderness. ![]()
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