“The Power of a Voice”

Luke 3:1-6

If you ever saw the 1970’s musical Godspell you’ll remember that in the opening scene a scraggily, unkempt character strolls onto the stage, holding a bucket of water, and slowly starts singing, “Prepare ye the way of the Lord…Prepare ye the way of the Lord!”

And then colorfully costumed people emerge from the shadows, and melodically join the song, “Prepare ye the way of the Lord… Prepare ye the way of the Lord!”

And then…all heck breaks loose!

The song explodes into Rock ‘n Roll, with drums pounding, electric guitars wailing, people dancing and singing, and the scraggily, unkempt character – who is John the Baptist – reaches into the bucket, throwing on everyone within reach the waters of baptism as he announces the coming of Jesus, the Savior of the world.

It is a big, bold, brash opening number that really gets your attention.

It sure got mine.

I mean, John first spoke those words two thousand years ago in the wilderness of Judah.

And yet, here was John’s voice being heard once again in the wilderness of America in the psychedelic1970’s.

And even today – December 7^th, 2003 - more than thirty years after I heard John’s voice singing from the stage of the old Shubert Theater in Boston, I heard it again in the Scripture lesson just a moment ago. Did you hear it too?

Luke 3, verse 4:“The voice of one crying in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord!’”

That’s one powerful voice, don’t you think? John’s words are still being repeated – generation after generation – now, two millennia later.

Now, I don’t know how it is over at your house, but over at ours, words usually have a much shorter shelf-life. Sandy says:

“Honey, if you go out of the Village today, will you stop at Wal-Mart and get some things for me?” “Sure!” “Here’s a list. Don’t forget!” “I won’t!”

Three hours later. “Honey, I’m home!” “Did you get the stuff at Wal-Mart?”

“What stuff?”

“The stuff on the list!”

“WHAT list?”

I’m sure that sort of thing doesn’t happen at your house! Although, if you have kids something similar happens! Parents are famous for saying to their kids things like, “How many times do I have to tell you…to clean your room…or change your underwear…or do your homework before you watch TV?”

And the amazing thing is that we ask this question despite the fact that we already know the answer! How many times do you have to tell them? UNTIL YOU’RE BLUE IN THE FACE, that’s how long! UNTIL THE 12^th OF NEVER!

A lot of the things we say don’t have much staying power.

But sometimes they do. Words that cut – and hurt – and criticize – and injure…some words can last a lifetime. I’ve spoken words like that. I’ve had words like that spoken to me. Maybe you have, too. Once they’re out there, they’re awfully hard to get back. Some things we say can still have an impact years and years later.

But not just negative words. Some words have lasting significance for us because they’ve helped shape our lives in positive ways. When I went off to college and received in the mail a letter from my father telling me how proud he was of me, those words lifted me and made a lasting difference. When Franklin Roosevelt was inaugurated in 1933 in the midst of the Great Depression, he inspired the nation with the unforgettable words, “we have nothing to fear, but fear itself!” And those words shaped the direction of America through the Depression and through great tragedies like the attack on Pearl Harbor which took place on this day 62 years ago.

Martin Luther King said, “I have a dream…” and those words still ring loud and clear as a call for us to be engaged in the pursuit of racial equality and reconciliation.

Words have power! Words can bring life!

“The voice of one crying in the wilderness,” the Bible says of John, “’Prepare the way of the Lord!’”

There is power in a voice!

There is power in your voice!

Have you ever thought about the fact that the words you speak have the potential for affecting for better or worse your family, your neighbors, and the world for a long, long time to come?

Well, they do! And today I want to share with you what I believe are some of the most important kinds of words you can ever say.

Here they are: “Prepare the way of the Lord!”

You know, the people John was speaking to were just like us and the people all around us. They were pretty battered and bruised by life. They lived in difficult economic times, they were oppressed by forces they had no control over, they faced all the difficult things of life that people in our day face. They got cancer, and went through divorces, and had family troubles. Most people of that day died before the age of 40. They were directionless, and had little hope for the future. They struggled to get by – sometimes needing to turn to things like prostitution, or tax collecting just to make ends meet.

Like us today, John was surrounded by people who had lost all sense of life and purpose. They lived, for the most part, simply to get old enough to die.

I know some people like that. Don’t you?

Well, think about what John said to those people.

“Prepare the way of the Lord!”

These words strike me as a call to believe that your life counts for something more than just visiting this planet for a few decades and then checking out to oblivion. Oh, I hope that’s not what you’re doing with your life! I hope that’s not what you’re letting your children, and grandchildren and neighbors do with theirs either. You see, to prepare the way of the Lord means that there’s more to life than just hanging around for 70 or 80 or 90 years and then kicking the bucket! It means there is a sacred mission that each of us has in this lifetime.

And the way this mission is described by John is as the most amazing construction project ever imagined. Did you catch it in the reading? Our mission is to lower mountains, and raise valleys, and straighten out curves, and smooth over bumpy places – so that the world can experience the redeeming love of God! As Isaiah puts it, our job is to build highways straight from heaven into this world – into refugee camps, and nursing homes, and centers of government, and corporate offices, and prisons, and drug houses, and orphanages, and war zones, and mental hospitals, and ghettos, and suburbs, and Planned Unit Developments, and churches, and synagogues and mosques…everywhere that people gather.

And over the highways we build, John tells us, God will travel into peoples’ lives. Over that level, straight, smooth highway, God will come in love, and the world will be made beautiful for EVERYONE!

“Prepare the way of the Lord!”

What does it look like to do that?

Well, it looks like the African Children’s Choir! I hope you got to experience them! 26 orphaned children who have nothing in this world. Yet there they were, sharing with us everything they had - singing their hearts out with a kind of joy that’s hard to describe. As I listened to them, it hit me like a ton of bricks that, back in 1984 – when Idi Amin was inflicting genocide on the Ugandan people – it was a young man named Ray Barnett who heard a report on the BBC about the plight of the Ugandan children. He remembered his own travels to Africa, and how he had once given a ride to a small child from one city to another. The child had sung all the way – with a sweet and melodic voice. And it was in that moment that Ray Barnett got an idea about building a highway from God to the children of Uganda. He dreamed about forming a choir of children that could be cared for in their need, and at the same time tell the rest of the world about the needs of the tens of thousands of other Ugandan orphaned children who still live in abject poverty.

And so Ray Barnett built a highway to those children! And God came across!

Did you see their faces? Did you see their joy? Did you see their faith? These kids have nothing. And yet, they truly have EVERYTHING, because someone prepared the way of the Lord.

That’s what Joyce Peterson and the kids of our Sunday School are doing in this new relationship they’re building with a school up in Pike County, Kentucky. Joyce and the kids are constructing a highway to them – lowering the hills, raising the valleys, straightening the curves, and smoothing the bumps. And the Lord is going to use that highway to bring his love and beauty to those children and their families.

Prepare the way of the Lord!

Oh, I believe some of the most powerful words you can ever speak to your spouse, or your kids, or your neighbors are words that go something like this: “Let’s get together and do something to bring God’s love to that group of people over there.”

“There” might be another house in your neighborhood – or a juvenile detention facility – or an orphanage in Kenya – or a neighborhood in Baghdad – or a hospital where they care for AIDS patients – or a local pub where people hang out and talk.

You can be really creative with where you build a highway to!

Today, as in every time, humankind longs for the coming of a Savior who will make the world right and beautiful.

They don’t need judgment – they need highways.

And you can help build some.

“Prepare the way of the Lord!”

What a powerful thing to say to your family and friends, enlisting them in God’s great cause!

What a powerful way to live your life!!