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First
Reading
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Psalm |
Epistle |
Gospel |
| Isaiah
11:1–10
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Psalm
72:1–7,18–19
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Romans
15:4–13
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Matthew
3:1–12
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John the Baptist was never in the running for the Mr. congeniality award of the year. For some, he seemed like a wild man! While according to Luke, John and Jesus were born only a few months apart, John always seems much older. I would picture him with piercing pale blue eyes, a deep gravely voice, weighing at least 250 pounds, long hair, scraggly beard, and when he looked at you, you were unnerved. John would be the first to admit that people were often uncomfortable in his presence, and he very well could have liked that. While he traveled and preached to crowds of people, his true home was in the desert, living off the land, eating grubs and wild honey. If he had lived in the Adirondacks and porcupines were considered kosher, he probably would have clubbed a couple and eaten them for breakfast. He was tough and rugged
According to what we know, John never appeared to preach on the expansive courtyard of the temple were hundreds of pilgrims would have been. He did not knock on the doors of the governor’s palace. He called from the wilderness, outside the places of power and influence, miles from Jerusalem, along the banks of lonely stretches of the river Jordan.
We can identify three sources of information about John: the writings of the Jewish historian Josephus, the Gospel writings, and writings of John’s own disciples, that later, the Gospel writers incorporated in their own Gospel accounts. What comes through all these sources is one who had a profound influence on people, yet was always one who didn’t quite fit in and hence was very difficult to classify. John was neither an Essene who cut himself off from society, nor was he someone who reached out to include Samaritans and Gentiles. John adhered to strict dietary habits of purity; he would not eat with tax collectors, notorious sinners, gentiles, or any who were considered to be ritually defiled. However at the same time he realized that simply being born a Jew was no warrant for an easy and smug self-righteousness and that God had a larger vision of universal salvation. John understood that he was only a forerunner and could not begin to fully articulate that vision. That is why to everyone, John was a person out of focus, or should we say that he challenged the focus of the world. He began to radically stretch the world’s horizons.
It is often easy to be a critic of society, even if it may be a lonely and dangerous task. With modest intelligence and perception many are able to become agitators and protestors for change. But John was much more than that. John was a midwife of profound and lasting change, helping people to focus on a new reality for a coming age. Such people of transition often do not get the credit they deserve. They are honored in neither age, but nonetheless they play the critical role in freeing people from the quicksand of their past and moving them into a fresh and liberating future.
I’ve observed, that in Ithaca we have our critics and protestors galore, and we need at least some of them. However, God also calls people of faith to a much more difficult role, to serve as midwives and facilitators, helping to bring us all to a broader level of understanding and a wider appreciation for the possibilities of the future. John, in effect, warned us that God never lives up to our expectations, God always goes beyond and deeper than them. That is why John the Baptist is a forerunner for unsettling, unimagined things. John is the midwife of true hope and of peace that the world cannot offer. John announces the future shaking of the world’s very foundations.
John the Baptist is the special saint of the sadly neglected season of advent. Like the season of advent itself, John doesn’t quite fit into our busy and self-assured society today and so he is often ignored or quickly passed over. He is clearly out of sync with much of the so-called holiday spirit around us. I’m always amused that every year in the weeks before Christmas, newspapers and magazines include articles on the “holiday season,” that carefully manage to avoid mention of John, much less, Jesus, Christianity, and the church. There is voluminous counsel on celebrating the season and on blending different customs of the holidays, apparently with no reference to anything that might be construed as a historically valid or meaningful religious tradition. Reflection and self-examination play no part.
This time of year it is usually a futile attempt for people of faith to ignore the cultural milieu we live in. John the Baptist might have understood, but would not have surrendered. The witness of John tells us it is more important to struggle seeking truth and reflecting where God is calling us, than merely seeking political correctness and relevancy in the present. John knew that the political and cultural centers of any age don’t have a monopoly on wisdom. Through the centuries John teaches us to be on the lookout and hospitable to the genuine midwives among us.
John realized he was only a forerunner, and he openly acknowledged his uncertainty and questioning over who Jesus was. Yet he knew that repentance, self-examination, openness to face change and the willingness to courageously live with the challenge of not knowing were prerequisites of new birth. His witness is as a facilitator of the bold journey into a new world. The transition into a fresh reality is the special gift of advent he leaves us every year.
And I offer this to you in the name of the Living God, Amen.
