December 8:The Second Sunday of Advent – Our Saviour
Homily
Bumping into …
Some years ago I was at a retreat center to the west of Chicago. I was there for a provincial working group dealing with issues related to small churches. It was a Catholic retreat center and had what I thought was a wonderful chapel. I am a sucker for places with significant baptistries, having been taught way back when in seminary of the primacy of baptism for understanding who we are as Christians.
There was a wonderful pool for a baptistry at a Protestant seminary in Indianapolis. I like the font at Mary Pat’s family parish back in Dayton. There is a large pool, about 10’ across and then a small font that flows into it – obviously used for dabbing infants with a few drops of water.
At this particular retreat center there was a great baptismal font – not as large as the one in Dayton – but it was placed in a small chapel at a small retreat center. You walked in through the back doors and within a few steps there you were at a tiled font. It was about 5 feet high, with a large basin, that flowed in stages down to a larger basin at the floor level.
I had occasion to discover and talk to the person who had designed the font for them. I related how much I liked it. The designer said that he particularly likes the way anyone who comes into the chapel will immediately bump into their baptism.
I, too, like that a lot.
John the Baptist is a little like that.
Before we encounter Jesus, we have to bump into John the Baptist. Here we are – Advent 2 – and we bump into John.
And not just because he was a baptizer.
All four gospels provide testimony that John was the forerunner of Jesus. He was older and part of an older tradition.
You may not be aware of how few elements of the gospel narrative are present in all 4 gospels. They tend to be the basic building blocks of the narrative:
- crucifixion and death
- condemned to death by the Romans
- accused by Jewish authorities
- betrayed by one of his own
- triumphal entry into Jerusalem
- feeding of the multitude
- Peter’s profession of faith
- calling of the disciples
- John the Baptist was a forerunner and (as it were) introduced Jesus
Clearly John’s place in the Good News of Jesus Christ is important.
He was preparing the way for Jesus.
When I taught at a college in the 80’s, I was especially blessed by the core curriculum we taught with. One of the things that it allowed was a good rationale for inviting significant speakers to campus, often the speakers were authors of books that all of the student body read together in the core curriculumand that much of the faculty taught. Two that I remember were Maya Angelou and Martin Marty.
My place in the faculty was to revive a Philosophy and Theology department that had been disbanded some years previous. I was the theology guy – so I was the one they asked to introduce Marty when he came to speak. He was a major church historian from the University of Chicago. The work he did on the rise of fundamentalism in the 1980’s was important and still relevant today.
I felt intimidated and inadequate to the task of introducing him. I think I did ok – but the point of it all was not me, but Marty.
John the Baptist was a little like that in “preparing the way” for Jesus.
John’s message had to do with threshing.
Separating the true believers from those who were just hangers on.
This is threatening to many of us because for many centuries the church has been dominated by hangers on. Really century after century there have been reformers, looking out at a church that seems to be just coasting, and they have proclaimed “out with the chaff – in with the wheat.” They are the voice of John the Baptist for new generations.
It can sound like fire and brimstone preaching. It’s really about harvesting, getting the job done.
We have to encounter John on the way to Jesus. He is preparing the way for Jesus. He is preparing for those who come after so that they will be able to meet and know the Lord. He himself is not the Lord.
His message was: Baptism for forgiveness. Baptism as a chief sign of conversion of life, a turning from going in the wrong direction.
Taking stock of John
For much of my adult life I have regularly prayed the Morning Prayer canticle Benedictus Dominus or Song of Zechariah – canticle 16 (p. 92) in the BCP. The prayer, from the gospel of Luke, was offered by John’s father at the time of John’s birth. It includes the following:
And you, little child, you shall be called Prophet of the Most High,
for you will go before the Lord to prepare a way for him,
to give his people knowledge of salvation through the forgiveness of their sins,
because of the faithful love of our God
in which the rising Sun has come from on high to visit us,
to give light to those who live in darkness and the shadow dark as death,
and to guide our feet into the way of peace.
That prayer has allowed me to absorb the vocation of John into my own life. To appreciate and incorporate the spirit of John, the initiator, the preparer, the forerunner of the Gospel.
I have imagined that I was the “little child” being referred to here. That it was I who was charged with preparing the way for the Lord. That it was I who was the advanced man sent to arrange for the major entrance of the only one who’s really important. That I had some importance because if I screwed up, the ones who come after may not get to hear or see the Lord.
John is a strong reminder that there can be no hangers on. Everybody is important in making sure that the world knows and hears and meets the Lord – who is to come.
If we are to follow in John’s steps we must be ready to be advanced laborers, preparing the way.
If we are to follow in John’s steps we must be patient to introduce all comers to the one who is to come after.
If we are to follow in John’s steps we must be prepared to discard the chaff for the sake of the wheat.
We are all prophets. We are all called to live into our Baptism – for we have been baptized with the fire of the Holy Spirit, in the name of the Trinity.
How might you be ready to prepare the next person you meet to encounter the Risen Lord?
Notes
lectionary
Blessings
Advent
May Almighty God, by whose providence our Savior Christ came among us in great humility, sanctify you with the light of his blessing and set you free from all sin. Amen.
May he whose second Coming in power and great glory we await, make you steadfast in faith, joyful in hope, and constant in love. Amen.
May you, who rejoice in the first Advent of our Redeemer, at his second Advent be rewarded with unending life. Amen. And the blessing of God Almighty, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, be upon you and remain with you for ever. Amen.
May the Sun of Righteousness shine upon you and scatter the darkness from before your path; and the blessing of God Almighty, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, be among you, and remain with you always. Amen.
Wreath
Lord our God,
we praise you for your Son, Jesus Christ:
he is Emmanuel, the hope of the peoples,
he is the wisdom that teaches and guides us,
he is the Savior of every nation.
Lord God,
let your blessing come upon us
as we light the candles of this wreath.
May the wreath and its light
be a sign of Christ’s promise to bring us salvation.
May he come quickly and not delay.
We ask this through Christ our Lord.
R. Amen.
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