December 6, 2015
Advent 2C
Luke 1:68-79; Luke 3:1-6
Pastor Luke Kuenzli
St. John Lutheran Church
Mineola, IA
If a tree falls in the woods, and no is there to hear it, does it make a sound?
You’ve heard that question before, I’m sure, and debated the answer with friends
or family. If no one hears it, there must be silence. But when a tree falls, it crashes,
so there is a sound. Which is it? Sound, or silence?
If a voice cries in the wilderness, does anyone hear its words? Maybe the
voice is crying out a warning; “He’s coming! Better get ready!” But who is there,
in the wilderness, to heed that call? And even if someone happens to be passing
through, and hears the call, why listen to a guy shouting at bushes and rocks,
especially when he is calling for everyone to change their ways?
The world we live in is a world full of sound, so much louder than the world
our ancestors lived in. In many places, even remote places, the noises made by
mechanical engines, ranging from cars and trucks to helicopters and jets, are heard
more than 80% of the time. And the other 20% of the time is a far cry from natural
silence – there are people talking, doors opening and closing, and guns fired at
whatever prey happens to be in season. Sounds surround us. We live a surroundsound world.
Silence, in many ways, has become a foreign concept to our ears, to our
brains. Often, when we are overwhelmed by noise or commotion, we say to our
kids, or to our spouse “I just want a few minutes of quiet!” And in order to get
those few minutes, we put on headphones and turn our favorite music on. That’s
not silence, just a different type of noise.
Our world is noisy, perhaps noisier than it has ever been. And my guess is
that all the noise with which we are constantly surrounded, can make it a challenge
for us to hear the voice of one crying out “Prepare the way of the Lord!”
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December 6, 2015
Advent 2C
Luke 1:68-79; Luke 3:1-6
Pastor Luke Kuenzli
St. John Lutheran Church
Mineola, IA
Maybe John had a similar struggle. It may be that he had tried speaking his
prophetic word of preparation, of repentance, in the busy and noisy places of his
day. I can imagine him shouting in the marketplace, “Prepare the Way!” competing
with the cries of those selling their wares. I can see him on the street corner, “Make
straight the paths of God!” drowned out by the clopping of horses hooves and
camels feet, by the calls of those clearing the way for the scribes and the rulers, for
the important people to get to their destinations.
And so, in order to be heard, John moves away from the crowds, out of the
city, into the wilderness. Perhaps there are fewer ears to heed his calls, but those
few might have a chance to hear, uninterrupted by the noisiness of life. Are our
lives too noisy to hear God’s word? Are God’s hopes for us drowned out by our
surround-sound world? I fear that they may be, at times. I fear that there is so much
going on, so much noise, that we completely miss that still, small voice that calls
us to prayer, that speaks hope and peace and joy and love. There’s not enough
silence for our ears to catch that quiet but persistent call.
John, I’m guessing, grew up hearing about the power of silence from his
parents. You may recall what happened to his father, Zechariah. He was a priest,
serving the Lord in the Temple. As he went in to make the incense offering during
the worship of the Hebrew people, he was visited by the angel Gabriel, who told
him that he and his wife Elizabeth, in their old age, would have their prayers
answered, and would bear a son, and that this child would turn many of his people
back to God.
Zechariah, however, wanted a sign to know that it was true. Gabriel gave
him a sign, alright. He shut his mouth and made him mute, from that day until the
day his son was born. Nice months of silence, of not being able to speak. I don’t
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December 6, 2015
Advent 2C
Luke 1:68-79; Luke 3:1-6
Pastor Luke Kuenzli
St. John Lutheran Church
Mineola, IA
know about you, but when I am not allowed to speak, I tend to do a much better
job listening. And after listening, without speaking for a time, I find that the words
I have to say are better thought-out, more meaningful.
Put yourself in Zechariah’s sandals for a moment. You haven’t been able to
speak for nine months. For three of these months, your wife’s young, unmarried,
pregnant cousin Mary has been staying at your home, telling Elizabeth that she,
too, had a visit from Gabriel, and that her baby is the one for whom your baby is
preparing the way!
What is the first thing you say, when you have your voice back? Is it a litany
of all the things you wanted to say to Elizabeth but couldn’t? Is it to finally tell
your story to the mother of your Lord? Do you open with a rant about how much
you hate silence, and hope you never, ever, EVER have to go through that again?
What sound do you make, to break the silence? Zechariah, when his mouth was
opened, began to praise God. He was filled with the Holy Spirit, and he began to
prophesy, saying,
“Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for he has looked favorably on his
people and redeemed them. He has raised up a mighty savior for us in the
house of his servant David, as he spoke through the mouth of his holy
prophets from of old, that we would be saved from our enemies and from the
hand of all who hate us. Thus he has shown the mercy promised to our
ancestors, and has remembered his holy covenant, the oath that he swore to
our ancestor Abraham, to grant us that we, being rescued from the hands of
our enemies, might serve him without fear, in holiness and righteousness
before him all our days. And you, child, will be called the prophet of the
Most High; for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways, to give
knowledge of salvation to his people by the forgiveness of their sins. By the
tender mercy of our God, the dawn from on high will break upon us, to give
light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our
feet into the way of peace.”
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December 6, 2015
Advent 2C
Luke 1:68-79; Luke 3:1-6
Pastor Luke Kuenzli
St. John Lutheran Church
Mineola, IA
What a way to break the silence. Praise, prophecy, the promise of pardon,
the promise of peace. Silence can be powerful, and the breaking of silence can be
powerful, too. Zechariah’s first words broke the silence. Not only his own silence
of nine months, but the silence of God’s Word spoken to God’s people.
Four hundred years, it had been, since a prophet had spoken God’s Word.
Malachi was the last. It is no coincidence that the last prophet spoke the same
words as the first new prophet. I am sending my messenger to prepare the way;
you, my child, John, will prepare the way. The silence had broken, and God’s
Word was being spoken. Prepare the way of the Lord!
Can you hear it? Can you hear the word of God, spoken into the silence,
shouted into surround-sound cacophony of our world? It is calling out peace, to a
world embroiled in war! It is calling out pardon, to a world of sinners! It is calling
out a prayer, that all flesh might see the salvation of God! It is recalling the
promises of God, calling out a promise kept. God’s Word has come to God’s
people again.
The silence has been broken, and the sounds of the broken world have been
silenced. He is coming! He has come! God’s Word comes in flesh, that all flesh
might see salvation. Take a moment, just a moment, to sit in the pregnant silence
of that promise…………….………….…and now we break the silence, and cry out
with Zechariah, with John, with Jesus – blessed be God! Prepare the way! Amen!
Hymn of the Day: ELW#250 “Blessed Be the God of Israel”
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