"When the Word Breaks the Silence"

In this vivid and deeply personal Advent message, Reverend Billy Cerveny reflects on the powerful moment when, after 460 years of prophetic silence, the Word of the Lord comes to John the Baptist in the wilderness. With humor, story, and rich biblical insight, Reverend Cerveny explores how that silence-breaking word speaks not only to the desert of Israel’s history, but to the wilderness within every human heart.

Framing John the Baptist as both the last Old Testament prophet and the herald of a new era, Cerveny highlights the significance of God speaking not in temples or thrones, but in desolate, chaotic places. He compares the wilderness to the broken, sin-shadowed world we inhabit—our uprooted lives that feel normal only because we’ve hung curtains over the pain. But it is precisely in those wilderness places that God speaks, moves, and calls us to prepare.