2C Advent
8 Dec 2024
John the Baptizer: The Movie. It begins with a satellite view of the earth. It starts to slowly zoom in, first to Europe, then the Mediterranean basin, then faster and faster it hones in on Palestine, and eventually Lake Gennesaret and the Jorden River come into clear view, with the camera finally focusing on John himself in his survivalist clothing surrounded by not much of anything but the desert and the Jordan River. We see him crunching on a locust dipped in honey. Did you notice, as the camera comes closer and closer to John by the Jorden the opening lines about who was not the focal point? Not Tiberius, not Herod, not Philip or Lysanias or even the priests Annas and Caiaphas. The camera, the Spirit of God heads straight for a then unknown prophet, the last prophet. John is preaching from a place where no one of importance goes, but one inhabited by the rural peasantry, the common folk of Judea.
Rural Iowa is not the wilderness near the Jorden; it’s flyover country where little attention is paid to anything other than the best ways to extract its resources and keep its citizens in ignorance. Probably the people who came to John knew more about their oppressors than we know about our elected officials. Yet in some ways we are very much alike: we are the ones who provide the work and the resources that benefit others much more than ourselves. In truth, we live in an extraction economy rather than one that benefits those of us living here. Your food, which could for the mostly be grown within a few miles of here as the Rosmanns are doing, is imported from God knows where. But I digress a bit too far.
Remember that Advent is the season of hope, peace, joy, and love. It is a time not so much to dwell on our sins as to prepare and turn back to God. Repentance is as much about changing how we do things as it is about being sorry for our misdeeds. Indeed, if you do not re-orient yourselves, there is no repentance. Advent for some is a reminder of the need to repent; for many it is a need to remember to whom John, and Jesus, came. They came not to those in power, although both preached and pastored to wealthier members of society (think Zacchaeus, Nicodemus, and Mary and Martha), but rather to the most vulnerable in their society. I see John amongst homeless preaching the need for social justice for them; Jesus offering his mantle all the while speaking to those who have no justice and perhaps not even clothes to call their own. No one has reason to keep two blankets when they only need one, no one should cheat on their taxes.
I think we have feet in both worlds; there are some things for which we need to be held in account, but there are others for which others are accountable. Most of us have more worldly goods then we need, or that are even good for us, yet we drink water that is tainted and face loss of those things like public schools which benefit all of us.
How, then, should we read John’s message to us? If I am one of the wealthy, whom John lovingly calls a brood of snakes, then I need to look at the cross. If I am one of the poor, John tells me to share what I have but look at the resurrection. We are all in need of both forgiveness and repentance. Sometimes, though, the people who are in the greatest need of both forgiveness and repentance see the need for neither. We need to ask forgiveness and then to turn, to repent, and start in another direction. Turn your hearts. Then you can prepare. Prepare for the coming of the reign of God not by building bomb shelters or storing up a year’s supply of dehydrated food, but by loving your neighbor. Prepare by being angry, yes angry about injustice and disparity and then do something about it. Prepare by putting love and God into everything you do. Brother Lawrence, who was found to be incompetent in all the things that monks thought were most important, like writing manuscripts or singing or even saying the rosary, learned that he could find God in everything, even as he said, the flipping of an omelet.
Yesterday I found God in the people of the Iowa Farmers Union gathered to try to make Iowa farming and the lives of farmers, and of all Iowans better by respecting and working with God’s good creation rather than looking at all of it as a source of wealth for a few.
Be intentional! Put God in your daily walk, in your making a cup of coffee, in remembering to check on a friend whose spouse is in the hospital, in giving back of your time, your talents, and your money.
In Celtic spirituality, God was everywhere, from the waters to the mountains. God was in your rising, your working, and your coming home. There was, and is, a prayer for everything. Indigenous Americans see everything as in some way sacred. Everything is holy.
Let us start living as John implores us, understanding that God is very near and that we can live lives that are worthy of our sacred calling as humans.
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