12/9/2007 - The Rev. Robert Carlson - Advent 2

John the Baptist, a cousin of Jesus, was a strange and controversial figure of the first century. While Jewish prophets were often austere men, living apart, they were not expected to be hermits, living in the wilderness, surviving by eating insects and other "natural foods." John was a man who did this, and yet who had an eloquence that attracted people from all over the country to hear his message, despite the fact that it was not a particularly attractive message. At one point, we are told, he shouted at his audience, "You brood of vipers! Who warned you of the wrath to come?"(In seminary I taught my students never to preach that way, especially on Christmas and Easter when you may be tempted to preach that way! John the Baptist also spoke out against immorality and corruption wherever it was found, calling men and women to change their ways and to express their desire for cleansing by coming to a ceremonial washing in the River Jordan. He attacked not just "safe" targets like the poor or even the middle class, but the palace crowd too, even those in Herod's family. His courage eventually cost him his head, the prize in a notorious "dance contest."

John was not the first righteous Jew to call men and women to repentance, especially in that grim period of conquest and occupation by foreign powers. For two hundred years, first under the Greeks and then under the Romans, the Jews had been oppressed. They began to put great stock in the doctrine of the Messiah, the deliverer, God's special leader who was to liberate them from political and spiritual oppression. One pious theory had it that if every single Jew would keep the law for just 24 hours the Messiah would come. Repentance and righteousness were tied to the Messiah's coming. In that regard, John was like other prophetic figures of his day. Baptism, however, was John's special mark, and he baptized both Jews and non-Jews alike - something of a scandal in that day of national and religious segregation.

But in the midst of John's mission at the Jordan River, a strange event occurred, and that was the appearance of Jesus who came there to be baptized by John. It is this event which is the first recorded incident in the written record of Jesus' life, Mark's Gospel. Mark does not start off with the birth stories, but with the story of Jesus' baptism in the Jordan by John. For Mark it obviously meant the beginning of Jesus public ministry. He tells of Jesus' coming up out of the water and seeing the heavens open up and "the Spirit, like a dove, descending upon him." He tells of Jesus hearing the words, "You are my Son, my Beloved; on you my favor rests. This must have been a personal religious experience, one which John did not share, because if John had experienced it, he hardly would have had a need to send a messenger from his prison cell to inquire of Jesus if he were the Messiah.

The incident of John's sending a messenger to Jesus is an interesting one. For a long time John had been content to preach without worrying much about who the Messiah was to be, declaring only, "Repent and be ready, for he is coming." Part of the miracle of John's personality was his willingness to go ahead without knowing the final outcome of his work. Most of us insist upon some kind of guarantee and are not willing to act in faith. John was curious, though, because he saw in his second cousin, Jesus of Nazareth, certain evidence that he was the Messiah. Jesus had begun preaching with authority about many things, and attracting more interest and greater crowds than even he had attracted. At last John sent two of his followers to Jesus. John knew that his time was running short, and so he indulged himself by seeking an answer to this burning question: "Are you the one who is to come, or are we to expect some other?" Jesus replied with a definite answer: "Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind recover their sight and the lame walk, lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, and the poor have the good news preached to them." John would know very well that these things were spoken of by the prophets as signs or indications that the Messiah had come. Jesus might just as well have said, "I am." Shortly after this, John was beheaded, and we do not know his reaction or his response to Jesus' words. Perhaps he did not live long enough even to hear the words. The baptism, or washing which John practiced as a symbol of repentance and new life, was to become the sacrament by which men and women became part of the "New Israel," the community of faith which Jesus began.

But even more significant than John's use of baptizing was the tremendous sense of expectancy which he conveyed to those about him. It was a sense of the "comingness" of God, a sense that God was about to act. One summer I was fortunate to spend a few days in Yosemite National Park with my brother-in-law and his wife. One morning we were hiking through some woods to the rim overlooking the valley, when my brother-in-law gestured to us to stop, be still, and look ahead to the side of the trail. There, about twenty feet ahead, was a beautiful elk with large antlers. The elk froze too, and catching our scent, dashed away into the underbrush. If we hadn't stopped and tuned in all our senses, we would have missed the sight. It was a hushed expectancy not unlike the expectancy which John convened to his hearers. "Be alert, for God is about to act." This sense of alertness, of expectancy, is a vital ingredient of faith.

God is about us. God is closer than breath or sight. God is about to speak in the form of our own needs for understanding, purpose, the giving and receiving of love. But it is only as we have a sense of the "comingness" of God, a sense that God is about to act, that we can be ready for God. Christians are called to look forward, open to what is about to be. An essential element of faith is a sense of the "comingness" of God. God is ready to act in healing, restoring, saving. God is about to enter into our lives and put order where there is chaos, forgiveness where there is guilt, healing where there is pain, love where there is indifference. But it is through the door of our expectancy, "comingness," faith, that heGod comes.

John summarized his message in these few words, "Repent, for the Kingdom of God is at hand." In other words, "Turn about from where you are and where you have been, for God is about to act to bring something new into your life. John knew that a prelude to faith, to a sense of the "comingness" of God, is a willingness to let go of the past. He knew too that this is not easy, that most of us tend to cling to the past, past resentments, past losses, past failures, past successes, rather than letting go of them and moving on to the future. Therefore he called men and women to repent, "turn about" from the past to God's future. It is only as we are willing to do this that we are able to be open to God=s coming in our lives. John's message to the people of his day is even more significant for us who know about the coming of the Messiah, his death and Resurrection and the gift of the Spirit: "Turn about from where you are, for God is about to act."

- Robert W. Carlson






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