Based on Luke 3: 1-6
"The voice of one crying out in the wilderness."
It’s John the Baptist crying out for righteousness.
It’s Oxford high schoolers crying out in lament.
It’s our entire Great Lake State crying out in shock.
It’s 15-year-old Ethan Crumbley, lost in a wilderness of his own.
This past week has seen a lot of us crying out... for:
Hana St. Julia, age 14
Tate Myre, age 16
Madisyn Baldwin, age 17
Justin Shilling, age 17
And for the 6 students and teacher wounded by alleged shooter Ethan Crumbley, for whom we also cry out in anger, pain, and distress.
Tuesday's shooting in Oxford was tragic, frightful, way too close to home, and will not be forgotten in any of our lifetimes.
And like Columbine, Sandy Hook, Parkland, and the dozens of school shootings that have occurred in the last few decades, with no substantive change in the way Americans behave towards our weapons or those most vulnerable to use them to wreak school havoc, it feels like those calling for change are also crying in the wilderness.
Is there anyone listening?
This is not working!
Where are the changes most Americans want?
Most people don’t want to take guns away from hunters - or anyone else who’s healthy, qualified, and trained to own one.
Most of us simply want:
Sensible gun laws.
Universal background checks.
The elimination of automatic handguns and rifles.
Even smart technology that relies on biometrics to prevent someone from firing a gun they don't own.
Can we not do better to keep our children safe?
To have them run ‘active shooter’ drills before, and go to crisis counseling after?
Is the status quo just fine by us?
No.
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The status quo wasn’t just fine for John the Baptist either.
His was a job of shaking up a world that was sleepy, stuck, and indifferent - His job is our job.
And just as John's preaching was dangerous, uncomfortable, and inconvenient - so is the Church's as we approach this sticky subject of gun safety.
And just as John was not a legislator, governor, or billionaire - he paved the way for truth by having the one thing most essential for solving the problems that beset us: John the Baptist had hope.
And hope is what we need.
We’ve been at this a while - and it’s a minefield of a topic - that great minds have been unable to find a way through for quite some time.
We know we need to find a way through.
And we suspect the way through is together - together in hope - and hope that you and I are asked to preach and to spread. Things can change!
We know that what we need are ways to bring our differing voices, our siloed opinions, and our politicized preferences, to the table, to agree that we have a problem, then to put those great minds to use and hash out a response.
And to do that means we have to keep vigilant, determined, focused, humble, but above all, do what the church is called to do no more clearly than in Advent: to be hopeful.
Not to lose sight of the possibility for a better world - but to hold out in hope.
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2 years ago Anne Jeannette Young went through the most harrowing experience of her life.
Just off work, she’d arrived home at her townhouse, poured herself a glass of wine and was getting changed, when a barrage of Chicago policemen broke down her door stormed into her home.
Stark naked, she was handcuffed as she said, more than 40 times - “What are you doing here, you’ve got the wrong house!”
Police didn’t respond - they didn’t even let her get dressed - until later when they figured out she was right, and left.
Traumatized by the incident, Anne Jeanette called the police department and asked for an explanation.
Her requests went nowhere.
She went to her church and asked for help.
Thankfully a few lawyers there listened to her and also asked the City of Chicago for an answer.
They also got nowhere.
So these attorneys started filing paperwork to get ahold the body-cam video from the 9 officers who broke into Anne Jeanette's home.
The City eventually coughed it up - but precluded her from airing it publicly.
She did it anyway - and it went viral - and it finally forced the police department to act - suspending several officers and finally admitting guilt.
"Justice finally came," says Anne Jeanette, “But we sure had to keep at it - be determined, focused, and above all, to have hope”
Anne Jeannette was hopeful that the truth would win out - because that’s what stands the test of time -
When all else has rusted, washed away, and burned out, truth is what’s left.
And that’s what we’re standing for - Jesus Christ - the way, the truth, and the life - who promises things can get better – we can live together more safely, more harmoniously - and invites us to hope.
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Civil rights reform, women’s rights reform, mass incarceration reform, climate change reform - all of the great reformations we’ve witnessed in our collective lifetimes have started with one thing: hope.
And while churches may not be filled with lawyers, legislators, or even activists - this is a place where we do find hope; God’s gift to a tired, weary, battered and bruised world - the gift of hope.
How is God asking you and me to be hopeful today?
How are we looking at that insurmountable problem before us - is it with hope?
For we have not been abandoned - we serve a God who is always with us.
We believe John the Baptist - who sought to reform a religion and ended up a foundation stone in the largest faith tradition in the world - did it all with hope.
The ‘one crying out in the wilderness’ believed Isaiah’s words that in the end, ‘all flesh shall see the salvation of God.’
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Lawyer and social justice advocate Brian Stevenson has made it his life’s work to bring about justice for the incarcerated. He’s helped spring many wrongly-convicted people from prison.
He says hope is a superpower. Hope is the enemy of injustice. When we allow ourselves to be hopeless, we become part of the problem - we give a nod to the status quo.
But when we hope - ah! We open the doors of possibility - possibility that things can change, that a new future can come to pass - that things can get better.
John the Baptist calls us, above all, to be hopeful - to see that there can be a new, different, more just, more peaceful world.
What is our role in that?
For when we think about it, we see that there is no neutral place. There is no middle ground here -
On one side, there is hopelessness, where we succumb to our problem as insurmountable, that this injustice has been here too long, and won’t ever be uprooted.
On the other side is hope. This sees possibility. That sees things are fluid, and always having the potential to change.
When we dissect it, we see that hopelessness can win because people haven’t had enough hope and confidence to believe that we can do something better.
We suspect John the Baptist saw this.
No matter how many people told him to sit down-
No matter how many people told him to pipe down-
No matter how many people told him to take a shower - laughing at what he wore, what he ate, and what he had to say - he did not let his hope die out.
This is the job of the Church as we face this overwhelmingly daunting task - to have the moxie, the hutzpah, the outrageous gall to think that swashbuckling, gun-toting ‘Merica can change.
Talk about crying in the wilderness…
But that’s what John did - and he was right.
Maybe, just maybe, those of us who believe things can change, are right too.
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Jerome Felder was born in Brooklyn, New York in 1925.
Just a few years old, he contracted polio, and lost the use of both his legs.
He had to make his way around using crutches.
Sure, this bothered him - but at least he had not lost the use of his voice, or his sharp, creative mind. You see, Jerome Felder loved music. And he was good at it. In fact, his dream was to have a number one hit.
As a young man on crutches Jerome changed his name to Doc Pomus, and made his living singing in black blues clubs, writing songs, and performing them to adoring crowds. He recorded them, and had them sent to record companies.
One company loved what they heard - and was ready to sign a contract with him. But when Doc showed up at the office, the executives discovered he was a disabled Jewish guy, and they said, ’No thanks.’
But Doc still hoped.
He kept writing, tunes, he kept dreaming up lyrics. Until one day, a talented young woman agreed to marry him. And on their wedding day, Doc watched as his bride took to the dance floor - unable to dance with her husband - and instead, danced with friends and relatives as Doc looked on - certainly a bit sad, but also hopeful.
Three years later, Doc was still scribbling lyrics - and he found himself writing on the back of an unused wedding invitation - which took him back to that night - when he watched his lovely wife in the arms of others. And he came up with the line,
‘But don’t forget who’s taking you home and in whose arms you’re going to be. So darling, save the last dance for me.’
Doc began shopping the song around - in hope...
And sure enough, a band called the Drifters would record Doc’s song - as would Dolly Parton, Emmylou Harris, and a host of other people - but back in 1960, it climbed and climbed up the charts - and finally, as Doc had always hoped, it became a number one hit.
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Friends, it all starts with hope.
We can pay attention to the culture around us and surrender to apathy and indifference - and that’s not just on the subject of gun safety - but on that nagging problem and towering dilemma you and I brought into church today - be it medical, financial, or relational - we are so, so tempted to surrender to complaining and the status quo - but don’t do it!
The one crying in the wilderness says:
God has a way!
God has a plan!
Around, over, under, or straight through - God has not given up on us!
This is where our Gospel takes us - this is where Advent takes us - as we cry to God in the wilderness - for change - we so deeply desire.
God has not forgotten about us -
God has not given up on us -
And we align with the hopefulness of God by having hopefulness for what’s ahead-
Our best tribute to Oxford -
Our best tribute to ourselves -
Is to embrace that hope, that promise, that surety - that all will see the salvation of God.
Amen.