Advent 2-B
December 4, 2011
The Rev. Marguerite Alley
John the Baptizer is one of my favorite characters in the Bible, but not for the reasons you might think. If we were looking for the perfect person to announce the coming of the Messiah, John would not be the one we would choose. If we were looking for a prophet to tell us where we were going wrong, John the Baptist would not be the model by which we would measure ourselves. If we were looking for someone from the religious establishment to help us understand the role of and the need for a Messiah, we would not ask John the Baptist. In short, JB would not be the kind of person we would want to have a conversation with, a meal with, or even be in the same room with!
First, he lived outside civilization. He lived alone in the desert. I am reasonably certain that he was hygienically challenged. I doubt any of us would want to sit near him. He separated himself from “socially acceptable” people in more than geographic ways as well. He wore nothing but a camel skin tunic. His hair was probably wild and matted. I would guess that on a diet of bugs and wild honey that his breath was disgusting and his teeth were rotting.
Second, he taught outside the religious establishment. He was not a trained rabbi, therefore he had no “right” to interpret scripture. He had no standing or office in the temple. He did not sit as a pupil at the feet of any of the great rabbis. His understanding of Jesus and Jesus’ pending role in the religious establishment of the day, came to him in a “non-traditional” way: directly from God.
And finally, John the Baptist had very poor social skills. He didn’t seem to be able to withstand the exchange of pleasantries. He would not last ten seconds at coffee hour in the Episcopal Church. If you asked him how he was, he would probably say that he was miserable, sick with worry and sin…and then go on to describe in detail how you were too. He didn’t pick up on social cues very well either. When folks suggested that his message might be somewhat subversive, he went right on preaching it. When he had the opportunity to re-cant he didn’t. Eventually, he lost his right to speak out at all when his head ended up as the first act in the royal evening’s entertainment.
So, if we were to look for someone to “follow”, someone to teach us, someone to be our spokes person…it would likely not be John the Baptist. He was creepy. He had no credibility. He told anyone who would listen that this person was going to build a new world. That’s just silly. We don’t need a new world. We just need one that works the way we think it ought to. He preached this “new world” idea to the religious establishment and I doubt they appreciated his comments. The establishment was all wrapped up in ceremony, rules and doctrine. The light was all but extinguished under the guise of “the law”. So God decided to step outside the temple and into the wilderness. Remember now that in Genesis, the wilderness is a good place. It is the garden where all good things grow! The light, out in the wilderness can grow and be tended by this wild man……this cast off from polite society. Dressed in animal skins with matted hair and bad breath, John tells us with such urgency and passion that someone is coming; someone so different from what we expect; someone so radical and challenging, that the announcement COULD NOT be made within the religious establishment of the day! John also told us that we cannot sit back and just wait for this amazing person to arrive. He said we have to work, to prepare, to make a pathway for him.
A gospel always starts off with a “message” of some sort. God always chooses someone special to deliver the message…whether it is a flaming angel appearing out of nowhere, a burning bush, or a wild man in the desert. God doesn’t usually choose someone “socially acceptable” as his delivery man. In this case, having chosen one totally removed from the “church” and from polite society as the messenger, only the ones who were willing to go “outside the lines” so to speak could even hear his message.
I imagine that we all know that this wilderness is both literal and metaphorical. There is a lot of empty desert space in that part of the world. One would not have to travel very far to find themselves in the wilderness. Today though, it might be more of a challenge if you are trying to think of it literally. Figuratively though, it is easy to imagine what our wilderness might be. Perhaps being more open minded, or community minded, or globally aware. Perhaps our wilderness might be heading off to college or to a new job or into a new relationship. It could be allowing ourselves to experience new things, to get to know someone better, to do something that makes us a little bit uncomfortable or to start up a conversation with a stranger. For each of us, the fear that the wilderness stirs up in us may come in different forms. We can also probably find a hundred reasons not to go there. We are quite comfy right here. We worked hard to get here. We deserve this. Why should we look for God anywhere else than right here in our favorite little church? I can’t imagine unless it is that voice from the wilderness that calls us. The one we can’t really hear over the din and clatter of our daily lives. It is that voice in the wilderness that holds the light for us and calls us from the darkness into the light. It is John the Baptist who reminds us that God uses the most unlikely people to deliver the most important messages and that we may have step outside the doors of our comfort zone to hear it. It is that crazy man in the wilderness who reminds us that we have work to do to prepare our hearts and our lives for the coming of the Messiah.
