Shouting In the Wilderness

Sometimes I feel as though I’ve been speaking in Martian. When I try to talk of current crises or needs nearby, people often put on a plastic smile and stare at something over my shoulder, or suddenly need to consult their iPhone about the latest TVland gossip. What, you too?? I’ve been told that I work too hard; overwhelmed by year-end appeals, I tend to throw them ALL in the circular file. But readings for this Second [Sunday] in Advent yield a shared urgency to keep on…

MALACHI is one of the minor prophets who was enlightened for a specific assignment and then dismissed. But in 3:1-4 we read about the foreseen messenger of the covenant, who will bring such a fire that the base metals will burn off the gold and silver, and the People will please YHWH “as in the days of old”. Readers may well ask, ” What part of my life needs refining? and will it hurt?” And the answer according to Malachi probably is, “A great deal of it; and yes, it will hurt”. But that day is on its way, he says, gradually unfolding before and within us. We could deflect this to describe the Surrounding Culture–yet this analogy is for down deep within us…

When St. Paul wrote to the PHILIPPIANS (1: 3-11) he seemed to expect that The Day of the Lord would come tomorrow or soon thereafter. He spoke to them about COMPLETING the process, and left little room for the ongoing creative aspect of the redeemed earth. He prayed that “your love may overflow more and more with knowledge….having produced the harvest of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ….” Each Advent that comes and goes reminds us one more time that the immanence of God is right now.

LUKE 3:1-6 tells of the coming of John the Baptizer “proclaiming a baptism for the forgiveness of sin(s)”. Then comes a remembrance of II Isaiah (memorialized in music by G. F. Handel–can we read this without singing it?), “the voice of one crying out in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord…'” Although John had momentary success, his novelty soon wore off and folks turned elsewhere for their entertainment. Did he feel as though he were speaking Martian? There’s an urgency here that addresses each generation about their callousness concerning poverty, homelessness and hunger. Each Advent displays these social needs as well as a personal need to become more sensitive to our own wildernesses.

In the musical “1776”, George Washington sends his regular request to Congress, finishing “Is anybody there? Does anybody care??” What, you too? Fellow Martians UNITE!

In the process of unfolding, Horace Brown King

Join me each Tuesday to be both comforted and afflicted by the readings assigned to the upcoming weekend–at horacebrownking.com