Will God Use Your Voice?
Luke 3:1-6
by Jim Westmoreland
He was a rare man. He was an unusual man. It is not every one who is reared in an orphanage out in the desert with very little contact with human civilization or the city. Not every one is reared without a mother or father, without brothers or sisters. Not every one is reared by a group of old men in a monastery out in the desert far away from the city. Of course, he would turn out a little strange. Wouldn’t you? He was a very unusual man.
It’s not every one whose childhood toys were lizards and scorpions, snakes and giant sand spiders, who talked with cactuses in the morning and counted the stars at night and whose world was a gigantic sandbox all day long. Of course, he would turn out a little strange, wouldn’t you? He was a very unusual man.
It is not every one who grows up alone, so very alone in the quietness of the desert. Alone with the gods of the desert. Alone with the sounds of winds and shifting sands. Alone with the endless time of the desert, the endless nights and the endless days. Of course, he would turn out a little strange. Wouldn’t you? He was a very unusual man.
His total life was entirely dedicated to God out there in the desert sands and all alone. What else is there to do out in the desert, night after night, day after day, except to talk with God? To be immersed in God.
Then, strangely, they started to come, first by the hundreds and then by the thousands. All these people came to hear him preach. Walking ten, twenty, thirty miles out from their cities, out into the wilderness, to listen to this desert prophet. I mean, that is a long way to walk for a sermon. And, a voice no one had heard before God began to use for His purposes.
These people came out into the desert to hear him preach. Not because his sermons were racy, spicy or sophisticated and polished. Not because of trained choirs, favorite hymns, orchestras or praise bands. Not because they had some desire to see old friends that they hadn’t seen all week. Not because of some childhood habit of being in the synagogue on Friday nights. And so, A voice no one had heard before God began to use for His purposes.
They left their cities and they walked twenty, thirty, or forty miles out into the desert because they wanted to see a rare phenomenon. They wanted to see a man who had been totally immersed in God, whose soul had not be corrupted by the pollution of the cities, whose personality had not been hallowed out by the need to prove its worth to others. They wanted to hear; they wanted to hear an authentic Word from the Lord. And so, A voice no one had heard before God began to use for His purposes.
They didn’t want to be tantalized; they didn’t come to be entertained; they didn’t come to hear some trendy speaker. They came because they wanted to hear an authentic Word from the Lord for their lives. And so, A voice no one had heard before God began to use for His purposes.
And more than that, they sensed in this man was the powerful presence of God. The people from the city wanted to find what he found in the desert and what they were unable to find in the city or the cities of life. So these people came looking; they came looking for an authentic, Godly life. They came searching to find what he had found in the desert. Some had never been willing to listen before, but now, A voice no one had heard before God began to use for His purposes.
The message of this desert prophet was essentially one word. Prepare. In the wilderness, prepare for the coming of the Christ. In the desert, prepare for the coming of the King. In the wilderness, be washed, be clean, be pure, repent. People’s lives were being pointed to God! A voice no one had heard before God began to use for His purposes.
Your imagination. Your heart. Your mind. Your voice. May these be washed clean, so Christ can come into you and live(1) and use your voice.
When we have the opportunity to speak to another, to share with them how God makes a difference in our lives, to encourage them to prepare for the coming of God, will we get the message right? Or, will we talk only about the incidentals and not what is important?
On Sunday December 17, 1903, a young woman received a telegram from her two brothers who were vacationing in North Carolina. In the brief, cryptic style of many telegrams, the message read, "First sustained flight today fifty-nine seconds. Hope to be home by Christmas." In her excitement and joy, she rushed down to the local newspaper and gave the telegram to the editor. The next day in bold letters, the headline read, "Popular Local Bicycle Merchants To Be Home for Holiday."
We should probably allow that newspaper editor a certain degree of latitude for misunderstanding the message. After all, he was a good friend to Orville and Wilbur Wright, and no one had ever flown an airplane before, although many had tried. However, if he had only asked the sister a few questions, Dayton OH, would not have missed one of the most important events of the century.(2)
When we take the opportunity to share with another person about what having a real and life-directing faith in Jesus Christ means to us, what will we say? When the moment comes when God is depending on our voice to prepare the way for another person to come closer to God, will our voice be heard and what will we say? Will we share what is really important or slide by with peripheral talk?
What a message for us at Advent! "Let every heart/Prepare him room" we sing. Perhaps we would do well to say let every heart get out the bulldozers and backhoes, the rock crushers and road graders. There are mountains that need to come down - mountains of racism, sexism, ageism, and any other "-ism" that blocks our way to healthy relationships with one another and with our Lord.
There are valleys to be filled, valleys of depression, despair, loneliness, grief, pain, any of which can keep us from the rich relationship the Savior offers and that keep us from enjoying the fellowship of the faith.
There are crooked places to be made straight. Yes, there is perversity, even among those we might never imagine. Fine exteriors mask rotten interiors of abuse, neglect, immorality, even violence.
There are rough places to be made smooth, rough places that have come because of oppression and injustice.
There is work to do!(3) God needs voices to speak for Him in the wilderness in which we live. We are needy people living in a world of other needy people, people who need encouragement, people who need direction, people who need to hear from others about a faith that stays with them through really hard times, a faith that makes a difference. Here is God’s method. Here is His way of working among us. And so, A voice no one had heard before God began to use for His purposes. Will God use your voice? Amen.
Century Christian Church, December 10, 2006 - Sermon by Jim Westmoreland
www.centurychristian.org
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1. Introduction from Edward F. Markquart, Senior Pastor, Grace Lutheran Church, Des Moines, WA, " A Parable: The City and the Wilderness."
2. Glendon Harris, "Getting the message for Christmas", Pulpit Resource, Vol. 10, No. 4, 34.
3. David E. Leininger, One Shock after Another.
