“Prophetic Peace” Colchester Federated Church, December 7, 2025, Second Sunday of Advent (Matthew 3:1-12)

On the Second Sunday of Advent, we find ourselves out in the wilderness with John the Baptist preparing the way for Jesus Christ to come.  We think about peace—peace for safety and security, peace and hope for all people to be treated with dignity and respect.  For “peace requires us to pay attention to the needs of those around us.”[1]  We remember that John the Baptist appeared in the Judean wilderness (in the desert, really).  His appearance and prophetic message would have immediately brought to mind a prophecy found in the Old Testament Book of Isaiah— “A voice cries out: ‘In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord; make straight in the desert a highway for our God.  Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill be made low; the uneven ground shall become level, and the rough places a plain.”[2] 

John the Baptist is quite the character as he comes onto the scene in the Judean desert, calling on people to change their hearts and lives.  We are told in the Gospels that John wore clothes made of camel’s hair with a leather belt tied around his waist.  He ate locusts and wild honey.  Perhaps it is no wonder that people began to come from Jerusalem and all around Judea and the Jordan River to see John the Baptist and hear his feisty message about repentance.  John soon began to baptize people in the Jordan River and proclaimed that someone special was coming after him.  John said, “I baptize with water those of you who have changed your hearts and lives.  The one who is coming after me is stronger than I am.  I’m not worthy to carry his sandals.  He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.”[3]

John the Baptist is known as someone who prepared the way.  Though he was rough around the edges (to say the least).  If we have in mind someone wearing soft robes and lighting candles and quietly offering reflections by the cozy fireplace during our Advent season we might find it especially jarring to experience John shouting in the wilderness with his words of fire and his images of axes and trees.  John the Baptist was baptizing with a sense of urgency and speaking truth to power when religious leaders came onto the scene to see what he was all about.  John warned folks that in order to truly have peace there needs to be justice.  We could think of John the Baptist as a sacred disruptor.  Because he is preparing the way for Jesus not just with sweet decorations or being super sentimental, but with unflinching integrity and fierce honesty.  In so doing, John is calling on us to examine what gifts we bring to our community.  John is still calling on us to turn toward God’s kingdom as it draws near.  To remember that when we act with loving-kindness we are helping to usher in the kingdom of God on earth as it is in heaven.[4]  We are empowered as God’s people to be the church.

It’s worth remembering that all of this takes places out in the wilderness, out in nature, out in the wild well beyond the confines of human-made structures and cities.  John the Baptist is intentional about being the voice shouting out in the wilderness.  He didn’t show up in the middle of Jerusalem.  He didn’t show up on the tranquil shores of the Sea of Galilee.  John showed up and got to work in the desert.  And that matters for how we understand his story and how God is still speaking to us through his story. 

Thinking about John the Baptist on this Second Sunday of Advent reminded me of some of the compelling work of theologian Brian McLaren—a leading voice in “wild theology.”  It’s this idea that theology (the study of God and religious beliefs) is at its best when in conversation with the “wild world” that flows and flourishes well outside the walls of our homes or classrooms, our offices or even our church sanctuaries.  Believe it or not there are “wild churches” who are intentional about leaving buildings behind to connect to God and to one another in the natural world. 

Brian McLaren reflected, “More and more of us are imagining a wild theology that arises under the stars and planets, along a thundering river or meandering stream, admiring a flock of pelicans or weaver finches, watching a lion stalk a wildebeest, gazing at a spider spinning her web, observing a single tree bud form, swell, burst, and bloom.  We imagine a wild theology that doesn’t limit itself to Plato and Aquinas but also consults the wisdom of rainbow trout and sea turtles, seasons and tides.  We imagine a wild theology whose horizons are measured not by thousands of years and miles but by billions of light years.”[5]

This Gospel story is about a wild prophet out in the wilderness preparing the way for Jesus Christ who will come to us and live among us.  Jesus who will reach out to the lost and the least, who will teach us “wild” ideas about God’s love for all people and who will save us for new life.  The thing is, wilderness is sometimes spoken about in a negative way in our sacred stories.  We remember that the Israelites wandered in the wilderness for 40 years to get to the Promised Land or that Jesus faced temptation in the wilderness after John baptized him and before he began his own ministry. 

Wilderness is sometimes symbolically presented as a place of danger or chaos.  Wilderness too often became a landscape that had to be tamed and mastered because there had to be order made out of chaos according to some folks.  As if life can be so tamed and ordered anyway—good luck with that!  As scholar Diana Butler Bass explains, “Oddly enough, wilderness is also a refuge to hide from your enemies and retreat from the evils of the ‘civilized’ world.  It is a place of encounter where we come face-to-face with ourselves, our environment—and our horrors, hallucinations, hungers, and hopes.  We find ourselves—and God—in the wilderness.  And there, everything is far more and far different from what we imagined.”[6]

On this Second Sunday of Advent it matters that we are out in the wilderness with John the Baptist, the wild prophet who dared to call on people to think differently and to change their hearts and lives.  John reminded us that peace requires us to pay attention to the needs of those around us.  Because we are not in this world alone.  Perhaps we are far from what we imagined in our lives.  We certainly are far from who we may have imagined would point to the Messiah to be born among us.  So thanks be to God for the wilderness and the wild places and the unexpected ways we encounter the divine.  Amen.

[1] Advent Candle Lighting in The Will to Dream Worship Liturgy from Illustrated Ministry, © 2025 Illustrated Ministry, LLC.
[2] Isaiah 40:3-4, NRSVUE.
[3] Matthew 3:11, CEB.
[4] Character Spotlight of John the Baptist in The Will to Dream Commentary & Preaching Guide from Illustrated Ministry, © 2025 Illustrated Ministry, LLC.
[5] Brian McLaren as quoted by Diana Butler Bass in A Beautiful Year: 52 Meditations on Faith, Wisdom, and Perseverance, pg. 26.
[6] Diana Butler Bass, A Beautiful Year: 52 Meditations on Faith, Wisdom, and Perseverance, pgs. 26-27.

Photo by Rev. Lauren Ostrout.