Advent 2
Opening
It was many years ago. I was still a youth. I'm not sure where I learned it. Was it that I had a physician and a nurse for parents? Was it that I was an oldest child? Was it learning about people like Mother Teresa? I don't know. But I knew, deep down, that the lives we lived were not primarily for ourselves, for our enjoyment or fulfillment, but for others.
Man for others was the title of an address by the head of the Jesuits in 1973. 1
I also may have heard it in connection with the movement of the 90's, focused on men and led by the football coach of the Colorado University football team: Promise Keepers
Called to prepare the way
We are not here for ourselves. We are here for those who come after us. That is a startling thing to acknowledge. It is shocking to try to put it into practice.
If we are not for ourselves but for others, it is clear that we are not not even here for our generation, but for those we will not even meet in the next generations.
That is a frightening set of claims if we pay any attention to them at all. But perhaps it is even more frightening not to pay attention.
We are not here for ourselves but for those who come after us.
Transition between eras
Last week I spoke about the anxiety that occurs as one era passes from one to another. The times we live in are part of the passing of eras that are measured in decades and centuries, not weeks or months.
It is not only our generation that is living in an "in between time". It is our parents and our children as well.
The former times are passing away, and the long-expected "world to come" has not yet arrived.
The prophets of Israel centuries ago spoke of these things. Prophets of our own time are well aware themselves. Prophets appear for us and are sent for our benefit because they can see the passing of times. They are a link between eras.
Word of God came to John and he was empowered to be a link -- a go-between if you will -- between the age that was passing away and the new era emerging, by Christians it is understood from the Old Covenant to the new Covenant.
The collect for today describes the vocation of the prophets and our responsibility to pay attention to them:
to preach repentance and prepare the way for our salvation: Give us grace to heed their warnings and forsake our sins, that we may greet with joy the coming of Jesus Christ our Redeemer...
Canticle: Song of Zechariah
The canticle associated most closely with morning prayer uses these words for Zechariah (the father) describing the vocation or calling of his son (John):
You, my child, shall be called the prophet of the Most High, * for you will go before the Lord to prepare his way,
To give his people knowledge of salvation * by the forgiveness of their sins.
In the tender compassion of our God * the dawn from on high shall break upon us,
To shine on those who dwell in darkness and the shadow of death, * and to guide our feet into the way of peace.
I began regularly praying the Canticle of Zechariah while still in my 20's. By my 30's I somehow interiorized the words, made them my own.
It has been both a gift and a burden to understand that I am responsible for going ahead of others, "before them", in order to prepare the way for the Lord of heaven and earth to enter into their lives.
Of course, I'm not the only one responsible. That's the whole thing. We've all been called to that.
I am indebted to those who made me who I am, and I am accountable to those who come after. Preparing the way. We are preparing the way for those who come after us.
Ultimately, this becomes an identification with the prophets. We walk in their shoes. It's an awesome responsibility. We walk in their shoes. Accountability is passed on to us.
John's Day
This Sunday is John's day like no other. He is the featured voice.
John has an out-sized place in the gospel as we have received it. He appears at the beginning of each of the 4 gospels. His message seems to have been passed on to Jesus who then molded it and shaped it in his image.
Cf. Advent 2 2019
All four gospels provide testimony that John was the forerunner of Jesus. He was older and part of an older tradition.
I have said this to you before, but it is important and worth repeating. There are only a few elements of the gospel narrative that 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 as a forerunner and (as it were) introduced Jesus to the world
Clearly John’s place in the Good News of Jesus Christ is important.
In the hands of the gospel writer, John is linked to the prophets through the words of Isaiah:
"The voice of one crying out in the wilderness: ...
'Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.
Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be made low,...'"
The work has begun.
There is a rich heritage at St. Paul's. The memories run deep here. I have been asking folks for months now, "Why did you come to St. Paul's? What attracted you in the first place? Why did you stay?"
Many of you have pointed to "the people." "It is the welcome and acceptance I experienced."
This speaks to who we have been. And it is a noble and respected placed. Paul the apostle would be proud of you just as he was of the Philippians.
But we are in the transition to a new era. If we grew and were strong because of our care for one another, now we are in a different posture. We look to a future that is only beginning to emerge.
A new day is dawning.
You may know that a "day" in Judaism is reckoned to begin at sunset. I used to think that that was just a quirk -- and not the way we measure a day.
More recently I have come to see a deep wisdom in experiencing a new day beginning with sunset. It means that a day begins in the dark. "It's darkest and coldest just before the dawn."
We really experience that. Physically, out in the slowly changing dark of night, the air is crisp, but it seems colder somehow. And then the fiery ball peaks over the horizon. And it seems better.
But we experience it figuratively, too. In the transition to a new job. A new project. A new relationship. Living alone where once we were a we. Living as a we where once we were alone. So many transitions. From time-past to time-future.
It often seems to be most difficult just before the breakthrough when it becomes -- what? becomes good again.
The rock group "U2" wrote a song titled "Yahweh." It includes these lines:
Take these hands
Teach them what to carry
Take these hands
Don't make a fist
Take this mouth
So quick to criticize
Take this mouth
Give it a kiss
Yahweh, Yahweh
Always pain before a child is born
Yahweh, Yahweh
Still I'm waiting for the dawn
We are in this place where we have begun a good work. Our prayer, our hope, our expectation is fulfilled in what comes ahead.
Paul, writing to the church in Philippi, gives thanks for all that the church has accomplished. They have begun a good work and that is a cause for rejoicing and praise.
But there is more. There is expectation and hope, focused on the coming "day of Christ." It will not be easy and it will be a labor of love, "having produced the harvest of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ for the glory and praise of God."
As the sun rises over the horizon, it signals a time for us to rise up, not a time to rest. Our equipment is the love of Christ that it may "overflow more and more with knowledge and full insight."
Our first reading from the book of Baruch provides a vivid image of the hope and expectation I am describing.
We don't hear from Baruch very often in church readings. The only other place it is scheduled is at the Easter Vigil.
Today the words are addressed to Jerusalem -- as if in song.
Take off the garment of your sorrow and affliction, O Jerusalem,
and put on forever the beauty of the glory from God.
Put on the robe of the righteousness that comes from God;
put on your head the diadem of the glory of the Everlasting;
for God will show your splendor everywhere under heaven.
As St. Paul's begins a new work for a new era -- the "Jerusalem" in Monroe, NC -- let us put on the "robe of righteousness" and may we wear the "diadem of glory" to be a light to reveal "the glory of the Everlasting."
Note for e.g. of contemporary prophet
source: https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2021/08/12/philip-agre-ai-disappeared/ author: By Reed Albergotti August 12, 2021 at 1:30 p.m. EDT
Philip Agre predicted technology’s pitfalls and then he disappeared - The Washington Post
Excerpt
Philip Agre earned his PhD in 1989 in computer science, but his greatest impact came when he left the technical side of the field and helped create the field of social informatics, or the study of how technology and humanity interact. Then he disappeared, leaving behind a legacy of work that was eerily prescient in predicting how technology would impact society.
https://onlineministries.creighton.edu/CollaborativeMinistry/men-for-others.html MEN AND WOMEN FOR OTHERS by Pedro Arrupe, S.J. Superior General of the Society of Jesus 1973, Valencia, Spain↩
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