• Isaiah 40: 1-11

After decades of threats from neighboring super  powers and then invasion by the Assyrians followed by the Babylonians, “Isaiah” hears an unidentified voice that announces, “In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord….  Then the glory of the Lord shall be revealed.”  The dialogue between this unidentified voice and the prophet continues.  Cry out,” demands the voice.  “What shall I cry,”pleads the prophet?  First, state the obvious, comes the reply: human existence is transient and fragile.  Then declare the not so obvious: “the Word of God will stand forever.”  Like the warrior and the shepherd, “the word of God” protects, restores and nurtures.  With no justification, the prophet places hope in the very act of announcing the power of “the word of God” to rescue and to renew.

• Psalm 85: 1-2, 8-13

The psalmist invokes a past-future vision.  As in the past, so in the future– God rescues by speaking.  When God speaks (and is heeded) the result is distinctive: “Kindness and truth meet/justice and peace have kissed.”

• II Peter *: 3-15a

Anticipation of the return of Christ was an essential claim of the teaching in the early church.  The writer of Second Peter provides a standard summary of that belief, but heightens the drama by asserting the total destruction of the earth by fire.  However, this destruction is for a specific purpose: “a new heaven and a new earth where righteousness is at home” will come.  Anticipate that new reality by living it now, the writer instructs.

• Mark 1: 1-8

Jumbling phrases from various sources in the Hebrew scripture, but attributing them to Isaiah, Mark portrays the well-known work of John the Baptizer, (the Jewish historian Josephus documents the historic appearance and critical work of John the Baptizer in his contemporary history of the Jews).  Mark casts him as that “voice crying in the wilderness.”  People leave the capital city, Jerusalem, and travel into the hostile wilderness.  They find a man, who, in appearance and message, is depicted with details that evoke stirring memories of the great prophets of the past.  His ministry is marked by a cleansing with water.  But, John declares, One is coming who will cleanse/renew with spirit/fire.

One of the most influential essays by Jacques Derrida is his meditation on Plato’s Timaeus, entitled “Khora,” which is included in On the Name.  Derrida contemplates “an apparently empty place– even though it is no doubt not emptiness.”  (p. 103)  This “place” precedes human language and conceptualization.  “The bold stroke consists here in going back behind and below the origin, or also the birth, toward a necessity….”  (p. 126)  This “place” that Derrida imagines destabilizes/haunts human language. It is a “place,” a voice that precedes human coherence and, therefore, displaces conventional thinking and expression.

The “voice” Isaiah hears is outside, beyond human origin.  It is unidentifiable, from an unknown/unknowable source, and unexpected.  It begins as an inarticulate cry, a wailing.  In dialogue with the prophet, it endows a message, an announcement: “the Lord’s glory will be revealed.”  From somewhere outside/beyond  human invention, (which always flourishes, fades and dies), “the word of God will stand forever.”   What is always distinctive about “the word of God?”  It always has the exact same impact/result (this is the way we can know for certain it is God’s words!) :  It protects and saves us from threats to our well-being, just as a shepherd cares for his sheep.  Or, as the psalmist rhapsodizes, kindness and truth become one and justice and peace embrace.  These are always the consequences when the “word of God” is announced, even though it can at first seem inchoate.

Mark does not begin his story with a birth narrative.  Rather, it starts in the barren wilderness, near the capital city of Jerusalem.  The exact phrase Mark carefully selects to begin his story is: “a voice crying in the wilderness.”  This “voice” announces that an even greater voice is about to be heard.  What is all this shouting about?  In biblical texts, the “word of God” is always experienced as the difference between extinction or survival, meaning or nihilism, creativity or chaos.  When it cannot be heard, human existence is barren, harsh and feels futile, hopeless and desperate.  But when God “speaks” and those words are heeded and treasured, life flourishes; Life is rescued, renewed and “righteousness” feels at home again.   Human words are temporary, but “the Word of the Lord will stand forever.”   And One is about to appear among us who announces and embodies (with “spirit” and “fire”)  the “word of God.”  Brace yourself!  It is a primal cry for justice.  That is how we know it is from God