But take a closer look! -- Unlike the TV preachers of this early 21st Century, John the Baptizer doesn’t dress the part.  He wears no Rolex on his wrist or expensive Italian shoes on his feet -- but, instead (according to Matthew and Mark), rough clothes of camel’s hair.  And John preaches in no huge stadium or auditorium or mega-church ornate temple with gleaming chandeliers and candelabra and tuxedoed and be-gowned singers crooning melodies, but, instead, out in the wilderness, the desert!

    And yet it’s to eccentric hermit John that God’s Word comes--in all its power!  Luke here, in our Gospel for today, puts it this way:  “In the fifteenth year of the reign of Emperor Tiberius, 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, the word of God came to John, son of Zechariah, in the wilderness!”

    AMAZING! -- God’s liberating, saving Word comes NOT to Caesar Tiberius, ruler of the world from his palace in Rome; NOT to Pontius Pilate, in his general headquarters in Caesarea or Jerusalem, NOT to Herod the King, in his fancy dwelling in Palestine, or to any of the other notables -- but, instead, to John the Baptizer, in (of all places) the wilderness!  The desert, the lonely, hot, barren wasteland of Judah.

    And just what is this Word from God that John preaches to the crowds there in the desert?  I call it “Tidings Tough, Transforming.”  God’s Word is tough, first, because the people have to journey into the wilderness to HEAR it.  They must leave cool, comfortable Jerusalem (or wherever else they may live) and descend to the dry desert lands around the Dead Sea, in order to find John the Baptizer.

    But, friends, isn’t that usually the case?  Don’t you and I hear God’s Word most clearly NOT amid the hustle and bustle of hectic, daily life.  And no time of the year can be MORE so than these pre-Christmas weeks!  Yes, don’t you and I hear most pointedly God’s Word NOT when we’re surrounded by those things that make our existence so comfortable - -those luxuries that we’ve come to regard as necessities -- but, instead, when we’re struggling to survive in some wilderness?  When we realize we can’t go it alone, and thus throw ourselves back on God’s mercies and promises?

    Tomorrow is December 7, Pearl Harbor Day.  You know, 68 years ago, Sunday, December 7, 1941, was, like today, the Second Sunday of Advent.  And I’m thinking of the remarkable story of Mitsuo Fuchida, the Japanese naval pilot, who led the bombing raid that struck not only the great Navy base but also Hickam Field, Schofield Barracks, and other military targets on Oahu. A fanatical militarist, Fuchida worshiped the emperor as a god, and he was crushed, three and a half years AFTER Pearl Harbor, when Japan suffered total defeat.  After the war, in deep depression, Fuchida, at one point, was about to commit suicide.  But his life was turned around by an encounter with an American whose story was somewhat similar to his own.

    That American was Jacob Deshasser, who had also been a pilot during the war. In fact, ironically, Jacob had flown with Jimmy Doolittle, in 1942, on the very first bombing raid on Tokyo—an attack that didn’t do much damage to the Japanese capital, but did boost morale in the U.S.A., which seemed about the lost the war at that point.  Yes, Jacob, after the bombing of Tokyo, had been shot down over China, captured, and imprisoned for the rest of the war in a Japanese  P.O.W. camp.  Life in that camp was horrible.  The guards tormented Jacob and the other prisoners, and there was little to eat.  Jacob came to hate the Japanese with all his heart.

    But one day, in that wretched camp, he picked up a New Testament, and he began to read it.  Profoundly moved, Jacob finally surrendered his life to Christ.  And his hatred for his captors turned to love.  After the war, Jacob went back to Japan -- as a Christian missionary in that nation, where less than one percent of the population is Christian.  And that’s when Jacob met Fuchida, the Japanese leader of the Pearl Harbor raid, on the verge of suicide.  Fuchida heard God’s Word of love from Jacob’s lips and became a Christian himself.  And the two remained friends for life.

    You see, for both men, it was only when they found themselves in the wilderness--for one, the wilderness of lost war and lost hope; for the other, the wilderness of terrible imprisonment--that they were able to hear the good news of Jesus Christ and respond to it.

    And, friends, the same is true for most of us, I’m convinced.  One pastor, David Salico, puts it this way:  “For me. . .the times of barrenness, anxiety, even depression, have been the times of growth.  Some of the best of our Advent hymns are in the minor key.”

    Yes, Tidings Tough, Transforming.  Tough because they come to us, most often, in the wilderness.  But tough, too, because of what they call us to undergo.  Listen again to what our Gospel here says that John the Baptizer told those crowds in the desert:  “He went into all the region around the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.”

    To “repent” means to turn around, to make a U-turn, so that we go in a completely different direction -- and see everything in a totally different light!   And repentance involves God’s totally transforming us into new creatures.  Maybe that’s the toughest part of all!  Malachi, in our First Lesson today, puts it like this:  “The Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple. . . .But who can endure the day of his coming, . .?  For he is like a refiner’s fire and like fuller’s soap. . . .”

    In other words, FORGET what that TV evangelist may have told you about repentance.   That U-Turn isn’t so much something that you and I do alone and unaided, perhaps as the choir sings the 59th verse of “Just As I Am,” but something that our Sovereign God does to us!  It’s a wonderful, glorious change of direction, that none of us has the strength in ourselves to do, so God does it FOR us.  And yet the process, at the same time, can be painful, even frightening!  It’s like being scrubbed clean in the waters of baptism by the powerful suds of the fuller’s soap, leaving our spiritual skins all pink and new and, maybe, raw -- like the skin of a new-born baby!  It’s even like being burned in the hottest of flame, like the goldsmith or the silversmith fires the ore -- NOT to make us suffer punishment for our sins, but to refine us. --To melt out the impurities that make us so dull and colorless, and to leave us gleaming and shining and precious in God’s sight and in the sight of God’s people!

    Yes, Tidings Tough, Transforming!

    And, finally, God’s Word is tough because it calls you and me not only to be changed but, in the Lord’s strength, also to transform creation to prepare for Christ’s great coming!  Listen again to our Gospel.  Luke, quoting Second Isaiah, says this:  “The voice of one crying out in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.  Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be made low, and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough ways made smooth; and all flesh shall see the salvation of God!’”

    Indeed, friends, startling as it may seem, God calls you and me to deal with the valleys, and with the mountains, and with the crooked and rough places -- in the world, in the church, and in our individual lives!  We aren’t just Christians within the walls of a building, closed off from life, but God calls us, in the strength of the Holy Spirit, to go out and CHANGE creation, redeeming it!

    Who can possibly deny the existence of the looming mountains all around us in our time? --The mountains of resentment and jealousy and pride?  The racist and sexist barriers that soar even in the best of our institutions!  The religious and ethnic terrorism and violence that so threaten our planet!  Global warming and the destruction of the environment entrusted to us by our own greed and selfishness and idolatry!   God calls you and me, by the power of the Holy Spirit, to LEVEL those mountains.

    And God calls us, too, to fill up the valleys!   --To reach out and lift those all around us today -- and maybe especially in this holiday season -- who are grieving, lonely, depressed.  To raise them up in prayer and in fellowship.  To lift up the needy, the poor, and the hungry, who cannot now enjoy the view from any mountain.

    And, finally, God calls us to make straight the crooked roads. --To stand up to the corruption and deceit all around us--in our families, our churches, our society.  God calls us to oppose the abuse, the neglect, the violence that hinder so many, often the young and the innocent, from seeing the coming of the Lord!

    And, friends, when this is done, all flesh shall INDEED see THE SALVATION OF GOD!”

Prayers:   
    Almighty God, who sent your servant John the Baptist to prepare your people for the coming of your Son: inspire us, the stewards of your truth to turn our disobedient hearts to the law of love; that when he comes again in glory, we may stand with confidence before him as our judge.    Merciful Lord, who gives us tidings tough and transforming, help us always to hear clearly your Word of truth and grant us courage, in the power of your Holy Spirit, to prepare the way for your coming to rule all creation.
    Hear now our prayers of thanks:  for all your gracious gifts to us, especially for your Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, who became one of us, to live with us, die for us, and be raised to defeat the forces of death and evil; for the gift of his Holy Spirit, who stands by us and makes us victorious in him; and for all your promises to us by your grace that has shown in our hearts.
    Bless your Church throughout the earth, and especially this congregation of your people and those parishes and congregations represented here today.  Bring Christ’s peace to all lands and peoples, that war may cease, and all your children live in harmony and unity with one another.  Particularly grant your wisdom and guidance to the governments of the U.S.A., of Canada, and the commonwealth nations, and of every commonwealth on land, that all may enjoy that righteousness that exalts a people.
    God of all healing, let your blessing now rest upon those of your sons and daughters in this holy place today who may be hurting now, in body, mind, or spirit.   Heal the sick. Comfort those who mourn.
    Finally, God of eternity, we remember with thanks those of our brothers and sisters who have gone into your full presence in heaven.  Keep us in fellowship with them until we, too, join them before your throne.  For we make these and each of our prayers, in the name and for the sake of Jesus Christ, your Son, our Lord.   Amen.