John the baptizer
appeared in the wilderness, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the
forgiveness of sins. (Mark
1:4)
You’ve got to love John
the Baptist, that wacky, bug-eating guy who always shows up in our gospel
lesson on the Second Sunday in Advent (Mark 1:1-8 this year). Sometimes God
uses crazy people to get our attention, and, as Jewish prophets go, John really
isn’t much more bizzaro than Ezekiel or Jeremiah or Hosea. He’s out in the
wilderness, a figure set apart, wearing his camel skins, a no-nonsense, call-‘em-as-I-see-‘em
kind of guy. He might seem a little scary, but he’s come to rattle our
collective cages and shake us out of our torpor.
If you’ll recall, John
got himself in no small amount of trouble by criticizing Herod Antipas, the
King and ruler of Galilee. It seems old Herod had married his brother Philip’s
ex-wife, Herodias. To us, taking your brother’s cast-off missus doesn’t seem
like too big a deal, but in the world of the text it was definitely a no-no. I
might be a little more liberal in my views of divorce and remarriage, but I have
to agree with John in one aspect: if the leader of the land breaks the law (and
Herod did it pretty flagrantly), what does that say to the people he’s supposed
to be governing? When corruption and indolence become the norm for leaders,
doesn’t that give license to everyone else to slack off in their observance of
God’s laws?
I’ll bet if John were
with us today he’d really have his work cut out for him. Our American national leadership
has shown so much partisanship and such a disgraceful lack of decency and
civility that it almost makes one want to lose one’s lunch. We’ve been willing
to elect the boorish and the unqualified. Both major parties have seen in
recent years individuals with no government
experience at all claim they can be the leader of the Free World. It’s
enough to drive you to despair. Indeed, I’ve heard any number of folks claim
they no longer even want to vote given
the bad behavior of the people from whom they’d have to choose.
It’s very tempting to
throw up our hands and say, “What can you do?” Yet John wasn’t one to give up.
He was on a mission. The leaders can affect the people, but the people can also
affect the leadership. If the people hunger for and demand righteousness,
justice, and compassion, perhaps the leadership will respond. John calls the
people, who cannot change their leadership, to change themselves in preparation for a new leadership they’ve never
imagined.
The First Sunday of
Advent is always a call to wake up, recognize the impermanence of things, and look
forward to what God is doing. The Second Sunday in Advent is a call—from the
voice of John the Baptist—to get our own act together. We can acknowledge the
world is changing. We need to be ready to make a change in ourselves. It’s time
for us to use the time of waiting and preparation to take a bath and wash off
the things which hold us back from being God’s righteous people. It’s time to
repent—to change our minds—and inventory the issues in our lives that keep us
from being the people God created us to be. Time to wash off anger, resentment,
past grudges, unfair judgment of others, and prejudice. It’s time to be a
little more careful about what we say to each other. It’s time to recognize
where and how we can be better friends, better neighbors, better parents,
better partners, better Christians. We cannot demand more from the world unless
we demand more from ourselves.
John tells us the one who
is coming is powerful. The coming
Messiah has the ability to set our hearts on fire. John wants us to wake from
our sleep and clean up our lives just as we would clean up or homes for an
expected visitor. He’s asking us to set our expectations higher, to be lights
in the darkness, and be the people who believe and can proclaim with integrity
the hope of the world.
Keep your light shining,
and thanks for looking in on me this week.
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