Advent 2: John Shows up
Luke begins his description of John by
placing him in living history—in a particular time…
7 years into the
Presidency of Barack Obama, in the 5th year in which Chris Christie
was governor of New Jersey. Putin ruled Russia, Assad still held sway in Syria,
and Hollande was responding to the attacks on his country.
When Francis was Bishop in Rome,
Elizabeth Eaton Presiding Bishop of the ELCA and Bartholomew Bishop of New
Jersey.
The year when there were mass shootings
in Colorado and California and 351 other places.
I hope you notice the messiness
there—Republican Governors and Democratic Presidents,
America, Russia, Syria
and France,
Catholics and
Lutherans,
Violence stalking just
around the corner.
—we know the messiness
of all that, the shading of our present reality
…Romans and multiple
high priests
—multiple high priests holding the singular office of High Priest
—something stinks…
rulers with a variety of control over the lands they claimed, even if those
lands that did not claim the ruler back.
And out of this mess, this wide broken
window of history, this painter’s palette of the powerful…
a magnifying
glass is given to you, swooping down from the heights of power—the grandiose
swatch of the past,
to a priest,
To a particular
priest.
To the Priest
Zechariah…
Zechariah, whose song we spoke
together.
This priest surprised and scared silent
by the Angel of the Lord in the Holy of Holies itself,
He was acting as an
atheist even as he functions as a leader of the faithful. Told that God will
act and give him a son, he protests… and the angel puts a cork in it.
Think of it, there where God is said to
stay, you go about your work. Minding your own business, just getting things
done—then God acts,
“Hey, you, Zechariah,
you’re going to have a son.”
“Nah,” you reply…
to which the angel
responds, “yeah!”
For the next nine months he suffers in
silence, until he is asked for a name. Then he opens his mouth and says,
“Yo-cha-nan”
“The Lord is Gracious”
or to you and me, he
says, “John.”
And then he sings that this name is
true
—that the Lord is
Gracious.
He sings, in the face of tyrants and
the violent messiness of his times
—of all times
—of our time
He sings to your life, in this very moment, that God will set
free, and send a savior
—save us and show us
mercy, never forget us, but free us.
Free as well, his Son, Yochanan, John,
“The Lord is Gracious.”
Free John, to be who he is, a prophet
of the Most high,
free to prepare the
way,
free to be a
magnifying glass for that dawn from on high
—shining it brightly,
a spotlight for the one who himself is
the light.
Free to be a path
clearer, forging a way to the one who is peace
—the one who is God’s
grace itself.
Free to be Isaiah’s words in the flesh
—a person on whom to
peg the precious image of God’s people freely returning home after being
imprisoned in Babylon for a generation
—no crooked path,
no steep and
treacherous valley,
no back breaking climb
—only return
—only salvation.
Yes, John as the re-enactment and
fulfillment of Isaiah’s promise. He, out by the Jordon, calls people to repent
of their sins
—because he is preparing the way.
Think of your preparation for guests
—chucking the pile of
papers from the side of the dinning room table into a big green plastic tub and
sticking it out of sight out of mind.
Think of the scrubbing and dusting that
gets done only when your in-laws and outlaws come to visit.
Think of the vacuuming and tidying up,
fresh sheets / getting the guest rooms ready, preparing!
John preparing the way
—that you will repent,
so that you might be ready when the Salvation of God comes.
John preparing the way
—scrubbing clean, that
our honored guest will find us glistening.
John preparing the way
—in a world so messy,
with Emperors and Governors and High Priests,
so messy you could be excused for not repenting.
John preparing the way
—not allowing us to have excuses,
because in the midst
of all the tumult and terror, the rulers and opinion makers, moving us like
marionettes
—in the midst of all that, we still are called to repent.
John preparing the way
—that even at your
most religious
—when you’ve reached
the station of his father Zechariah
—you can still be
stunned into silence by God’s amazing acts.
Preparing
the way for the Graciousness of God, Jesus Christ.
A+A
