With steadfast faithfulness, Professor Willie James Jennings illuminates the prophetic impulse at the heart of the gospels. As he reflects on Luke 3:1-6, I hear the interweaving of his voice with God's voice, his human love with God's love.
Dr. Jennings proposes that hearing God's voice, listening to God's love, "the world itself will make room for its Creator. Valleys filled, mountains and hills made low, crooked roads made straight and rough ones made smooth--all will be made to angle toward the divine life present in the world.... John announces a new question. No longer do we need to ask, "Where can God be found?" Now the only question is "Do you see the God who is coming to you?"
God comes to transform this world, Dr. Jennings shows: "If God will be seen, so too will the clandestine operations of evil and injustice. They will no longer hide in the shadows and behind closed doors. Plans made and structures created that destroy the creation and damage the creature will no longer be able to hide through their political and social rhetoric or through those mechanisms that blind people to what is in front of their eyes. All flesh means that all creatures--not only all peoples--will see and experience God's salvation."
Many times, in reading the gospels, we rush past John the Baptist to get to Jesus. Yet Dr. Jennings asks us to read the gospels afresh: "Jesus heard John. Jesus heard the voice from the wilderness, speaking to him.... We read this text poorly if we bypass this hearing as though it was inconsequential, as though Jesus would have come forward even without John." Amen, Dr. Jennings. Jesus heard John.
Dr. Willie James Jennings is Associate Professor of Systematic Theology and Africana Studies at Yale Divinity School. His commentary on Luke 3:1-6 can be found in Connections: A Lectionary Commentary, Year C, Volume 1, p.31.