Second Advent, Year B, 2005:

      A man who thought he was John the Baptist was disturbing the neighborhood, shouting at people, hurting local business, and was finally committed for psychiatric observation.  He was put in a room with another fellow and immediately went into his routine.

     “I’m John the Baptist!  Jesus sent me to tell people to get ready!”

     The other fellow looked at him and said, “I did not!”

     Those who suffer from a Messianic complex are very often the subject matter for jokes.  Sadly, some take themselves seriously and wind up as very popular TV evangelists.

     We are invited to continue our Advent preparation with a detour out into the Judean desert.  If we are to make this trip through Advent and reach the destination designed for us, we must go out to the wilderness and stop at the Jordan River and go through the painful experience of hearing the genuine John the Baptist.  He does not suffer from a Messianic complex.  Just the opposite is true for him.  He does not consider himself worry of performing the duties of the lowest servant with respect to this one to whom he points.  In order to get people to hear, those then and those present today, he sows unpleasant words and looks rather strange as he does so. 

     Do we dare listen to this man named John the Baptist?  What impact might he have on us?  How will our listening affect our Advent preparation?  I would suggest that if we listen we will, first of all, see and hear a man who lived his message.  Here is a life with no deception about it.  Out of protest against corruption by those who call good evil and evil good, John moved out to the desert.  Out of the need to hear the still, small voice of God John chose to live under the stars, using a cave for shelter, eating what nature might provide, and living by the will of God.  His clothes were the clothes of the Old Testament prophets.  The soft feel of washed, finely spun wool and the luxuries that so often kill the human soul, harden the heart, and close the mind were not for him.  His food was what the poorest of the poor might eat.  He would not place himself above any of them.  Mark tells us that all the people of Judea and all the people of Jerusalem went out to him because he lived his message. 

     Advent is a time to confess that we have too often denied the message we have promised to proclaim by the life we live.  Our Advent prayer is a petition to God to help us bring our life more in line with the message we are asked to proclaim and the priorities we demonstrate by that living.

     John was also a man of deep humility.  That humility made his message that much more effective and it came from knowing his role and subject so totally.  John was God’s spokesman, he had come to see that, and he knew it.  His own verdict about himself was that he was not fit for the duty of the lowest servant when it came to Jesus.  The sandals were made of leather soles, fastened to the foot by straps that passed between the toes.  The roads were not surfaced and were pretty much dry dust when it did not rain, which was most of the time, and rivers of mud when it did.  To remove the sandals was the duty of the servant who was lowest in the pecking order, the one with the least seniority.  John asked nothing for himself and everything for the one whom he proclaimed.  John’s singleness of purpose, his commitment to the task, and his deep humility caused people to listen to him.

     We so often say it, but do not always behave like it; that is, recognize that the only authority granted Christians in this world come from our service in God’s name.  When we move away from paternalism, from making decisions on the basis of political expediency, to genuinely caring about another of God’s children we begin to understand humility.  The best definition is that we remain open to God’s teaching.  Humility is that attribute that may be attained by God’s grace that helps us learn from the broken and oppressed of this world.

     Last of all, John’s message was effective because he pointed beyond himself to something and someone greater than himself.  He pointed to the one call Jesus the Christ.  John readily admitted that his baptism involved water for the symbolic washing associated with repentance.  The baptism that Jesus the Christ would bring involved not just water, but the Holy Spirit and purifying fire.  Water may clean the body, but only the Holy Spirit can clean the heart, soul, and mind of sinners.

     John’s one aim in life was not to occupy center stage himself but to connect people with the one greater and stronger than himself.  People listened to John precisely because he pointed not to himself, but to the one whom people needed most.

     It is a moment of sheer grace for me when I am reminded that I do not do miracles, but I know one who does do them.  It is the task of every Christian in their life and witness to point not to themselves, but to the one needed most in this troubled world.  That one we know as Jesus the Christ.

     So, in this time of preparation, we need to honestly take a look at the deserts about us.  The busyness of a holiday season with pressures, stresses, and demands can be terribly dry.  The noise of blaring music wishing us a “White Christmas,” “Feliz Navidad,” “A Jolly, Holly Christmas,” “Joy to the World,” or “Silent Night,” (which those playing the music hope you do not have) can leave us parched.  The desert of feeling the pressure of attending every event to which one may be invited and being “cherry and bright,” may cause not just a weight gain, but sensory overload as well.  Some other desert may lay claim to our time and energy. 

     Out of all those voices and all that noise we need to hear another voice crying out in the desert, “Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.”  Our task is to hear it, give heed to it, and give evidence that we have been shown the one who is behind it all.  That voice will head us in the right direction and we will come closer to getting home. 

     For all of that we thank the man who lived his message, was deeply humble, and pointed beyond himself.  Because he did so, we have a chance to see the source of it all.  Amen.