ADVENT 3C

THE REVEREND E. WAYNE ROLLINS

The two middle Sundays in Advent focus our attention on John the Baptist, son
of Zechariah and Elizabeth, and a cousin of Jesus. He is considered the last of the type
of prophets found in Hebrew Scripture, and the forerunner of the Messiah. The Gospels
tell us that John lived and preached in the wilderness near and in the Jordan River. He
reinterprets a familiar cleansing ritual that had been in use for centuries when converts
joined Judaism. He baptizes Jesus, the meaning of which we’ll consider in a few weeks.
John’s description and his own words tell us that he does not fit the category of a
refined gentleman, and he definitely did not pass or even attend the Dale Carnegie
course in making friends and influencing people. He doesn’t have time for that. He
wears a cloak of camel’s hair, not the same as a camel hair coat, mind you. He eats what
he can find growing wild, a favorite seeming to be locusts with a wild honey sauce. Not
something you’ll find at a local drive through, although some trendy entrepreneur may
be tempted to try to do that. Coffee hour suggestion?


John makes folks curious. He’s not really an outsider. His father was a priest
serving in the Temple. But his message and demeanor arouse interest—and suspicion.
He challenges authority, and is none too subtle about it. Seeing some religious
authorities nearby, he yells out, “you brood of vipers . . .” I doubt it was warmly
received on the banks of the Jordan, although it could serve as a call to worship in
certain places in the hollows of West Virginia and eastern Kentucky.
Imagine a lone figure, unwashed, unshaved, wearing ragged clothing, standing
in Brandywine Creek calling all of Wilmington to repentance. Why, folks from as far
away as Hockessin and Chadd’s Ford might even show up to see what’s going on. I
wonder how that figure might respond to our own queries. Then, I wonder if we might
care to stop to listen to him, or just go on about our business with a “nothing to see
here" attitude.


To imagine someone like John calling out to us, we have to imagine ourselves in
a time and place where life isn’t easy, when we’re continually looking over our
shoulders to make sure someone isn’t ready to pounce on the slightest misdeed. We see
a type of that behavior when drivers slow down to the speed limit when a curve or hill
is ahead, just in case a trooper with radar is out of sight.


Another thing we’ll have to do is be aware of those aspects of our lives that call
out for repentance. John’s urgency is due to the imminent arrival of the promised
Messiah. We’ve been waiting for the return of the Messiah for quite some time, so
maybe, to continue the analogy, it’s not on our radar.


1I think that our own reality is that we’ve basically given up on the Messiah’s
return, so we look for another to fill the position. I’ve wondered about that through
several election cycles, and have heard the rhetoric about a particular candidate being
chosen by God. This falls in my “be careful what you pray for” listing, because
scripture tells us that, while there are many who are chosen by God who do good
things, God has also chosen some because, well, we need to learn a lesson. We must
remember that God chose Nebuchadnezzar, too.


But we make those bad choices when we look to only serve ourselves, only to
discover to our dismay that our prayers have been answered and the consequences of
our choice are not what we hoped for. Yet, even then, we’ll probably turn a deaf ear to
the call to repentance, instead blaming others for our own actions.


To our surprise, we might find that God turns our sin into a place to do ministry.
Look at the lasting effects of enforced poverty, of ways of life that offer a quick fix
instead of a lasting solution. Look at how we’ve established ways of living that are
based on long-held biases against those who differ from us. Look at how we force
others to live so that we might save a few dollars by paying a sub-standard wage in
order to get cheaper clothing and food. Take a hard look at how we’ve taught that it’s
okay to abuse, even hate those who question identities based on gender and sexuality,
or just happen to be born something other than white and male.


And we wonder whether John of the Brandywine might have something to call
us to repent for. Maybe when those priced out of affordable homes no longer suffer the
indignity of the removal of a bench to sit on because luxury apartments are going up
down the street, we can wonder. Maybe when those who cannot tolerate being in an
enclosed space because the last time they did, a war-time enemy attack caused that
place to explode and they barely made it out alive, we can wonder.


Maybe when a struggling young adult discovers that, even if he or she is honest
about who they are, there’s still food on the table and a warm place to sleep in the home
of those who are supposed to love them most, we can wonder whether we as a society
need to repent.


Now, you may be thinking “I didn’t do those things. Why should I repent?”
Many of those things are done by those we choose to make decisions for us, and they
are often made in the name of the same one we claim to follow in this place. If we don’t
acknowledge the need for repentance on our own part, we deny the opportunity to
grow as a community with those around us who seek the life-changing truth of the
Gospel.


Maybe, when the full reign of the promised Messiah is finally established on
earth, John can take a break. After all, when that happens, the true people of God will
live in the fullness of redemption. Maybe, when we repent of the idea that those will be
folks just like us, they’ll ask us to join them.