December 9, Advent 2C (Luke 3:1-6)
John the Baptist’s proclamation for a world of Tiberiuses and Trumps
Great preaching expands imagination. It can also stifle originality. Have you ever heard a sermon that was so good that it changed your view of a text in perpetuity? It’s as if the preacher hijacked your exegetical prowess and is holding your creativity hostage. Case in point: Gardner Calvin Taylor’s exquisite sermon entitled “The Strange Ways of God.”
I heard a recording of this sermon nearly 20 years ago, and I cannot escape its gravitational pull. Taylor’s mellifluous baritone rings in my ears whenever I encounter Luke 3. The prince of preachers declared, “Dwight D. Eisenhower being president of the United States and John Patterson the governor of Alabama, J. Edgar Hoover the omnipotent autocrat of the FBI, Billy Graham and Norman Vincent Peale, the high priests of middle America, the word of God came to Martin Luther King in the wilderness of America.”
Tiberius, Pontius Pilate, Herod, Philip, Lysanias, Annas, and Caiaphas existed in a world long ago and far away. Many readers, however, will have living memories of Ike, Patterson, Hoover, Graham, and Peale. Taylor contemporized Luke’s Gospel and coaxed music from it. And that music has become embedded in my preaching mind.
