A voice cries out, "Prepare the way of the Lord."

A voice. In the beginning, it was God's voice that created all things, that spoke all of us into being. It was a voice calling from a burning bush that brought Moses into his ministry. It was the voice of angels that told Mary she would bear the Son of god, that led frightened shepherds to the baby's side. It was a voice that told the disciples that Jesus is God's Son in whom he is well pleased.

A voice. Speaking of God, speaking for God Speaking to God. It is the voice that enflames passions, calms fears, blesses and curses, prays and distains.

When Zechariah heard from the voice of an angel, he didn't believe and so the angel took his voice. Imagine losing one's voice. This man was a priest. Perhaps some of you think that there are times when you would like the priest to lose his voice. But, for a priest to suddenly lose his ability to speak, to lose his voice would be terribly frightening and limiting.

The loss of ones voice. We can lose our voices in many different ways. Of course there is the literal physical loss, where the parts of ones body that makes speech do not function as they should. But I'm speaking of something different. I'm talking about losing ones prophetic voice. The voice that cries out at injustice. The voice that cries out in pain and suffering. The voice that tells the truth.

Did you know that there some people who criticized the Disney movie, the Little Mermaid (and I guess Hans Christian Anderson's fable on which it is based.) The criticism is that Ariel, the mermaid, had to give up her voice to become human. Some saw an implied message that women should silently endure rather than exercise their own prophetic voice. I can see their point. My 3 girls all saw that movie as has my granddaughter and it hasn't shut them up.

There is a fable about a prophetic voice. You may remember it. It's called the Emperor's New Clothes. Some people think it's about a gullible king, but it's not. It's about a boy prophet. In the story, the king gets duped into buying an invisible set of clothes. Only the smartest, most sophisticated people could see them. Of course, the king and all the people pretended to see the clothes so that they could be a part of the in crowd. Except for the boy. One day when the king was strutting his stuff, so to speak, this little boy hollered out, "the King's buck naked. Put on some clothes." The prophetic voice speaking the truth.

We enjoy, in this country, the freedom to have a prophetic voice. Imagine that being silenced. Imagine a world without the voices of Martin Luther King, Sojourner Truth, Gloria Steinem, and so many others.

Sadly the prophetic voice is being silenced all over the world. People who are afraid to raise their voices. We're seeing this now in the search for baby Bryan Dos Santos Gomes. People who might have information are afraid to go to the authorities for fear of arrest and deportation.

The world needs the voice of the prophet to help us see the nakedness of the king, the powers and principalities which try to tell us that we just aren't good enough, patriotic enough, smart enough to see the clothing on the king.

See, that's the voice, the prophetic voice Zechariah lost.

Then, he did what God asked and his voice returned. And, he immediately began to speak the prophetic word, in the canticle we just heard. He began to speak God's truth about this boy, strangely born and strangely named. And in this song, Zechariah passed the voice onto his newborn son.

In his day, John used his voice to prepare the way for the coming of Christ. A voice crying in the wilderness, "prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight." The voice warning all who could hear that the truth of God's will and plan is coming. Warning that the religious elite, the puppet Monarchy and the occupying force were naked. Truth wasn't to be found in the existing structures of the powerful, but in the words of a sacrificial lamb.

There are a lot of people who claim to be prophetic. They know what's best for the world. They hold the truth. Instead of claiming their own views, they puff the message up to that of intrinsic truth. Not everyone can be right. Not everyone who calls themselves a prophet is one. Sorting out the voices is an important first step in hearing a prophet.

John would be killed for telling the truth. So would Jesus. And Peter, Paul, James and all the other apostles with the possible exception of John. The powers and principalities don't like the people seeing their nakedness.

Perhaps that's a good indicator. Is the speaker willing to bear the cost of their message? Us priest types joke with each other about that one sermon we'd really like to preach, but we know that we'd better have our bags packed. Some things are worth dying in a ditch over, and some things are not. Hmm. I wonder where pews would fit in that scenario?

You know, there are some things I'd like to say that might be prophetic, but I won't. The reason I don't is that ones voice is not allows theirs alone. A lot of good people get in trouble needlessly. An example. If Sheriff Mike Scott speaks, even in civilian garb, who do we hear? Mike the citizen, or the Sheriff. His predecessor a couple back got into trouble with that. It would be difficult for me to speak without it being heard as the voice of this congregation.

Some congregations do speak with one voice on many different issues. Perhaps then, the leadership has public voice. One of our greatest virtues is that we are a diverse congregation in terms of philosophy and politics. That has consequences. Heck, we've had people threaten to withhold their pledge if we change our seating arrangement. What will happen if I speak out about the war or abortion or the blessing of same sex unions?

At diocesan convention a man rose to, I believe, give a prophetic word. He believes that the national church structure should operate on the tithe from dioceses as our diocese does from congregations. He offered an amendment to our diocesan budget to reduce our giving to the national church from 21% to 10%. Not for political reasons, but because he believes that it's how organizations should operate.

Those who shared his vision, of course voted for the amendment. However, so did those who wanted to withhold money from the national church for political reasons. The amendment passed. For many of us, that action was very hurtful and frustrating. So, now, in addition to allowing individuals to ask that the portion of their pledge that would go to the national church be diverted to the Dominican Republic, we also have a provision to allow people to divert a portion of their pledge to the national church. It is an absolute travesty. Money is a tool to an end. Just as any tool, it can be used to build up, or it can be used to tear down. Shame on us for using money as a weapon.

My point is that prophetic speech has consequences beyond the sound of our voice. And while it can be dangerous, it can also be very, very good. It takes discernment and a careful ear to hear the truly prophetic in the midst of the cacophony of would be prophets hiding safely behind their radio or TV persona, spewing hate and ideology that is more like a hammer than a beacon of light.

Many people saw John as a dangerous radical. Perhaps he was. But his prophetic message of Prepare ye the way of the Lord is the battle cry and litmus test for all the prophets to come.