God Is God. I’m Not.

This week’s readings take us from the individual preparation for the Christ Child into the promised community of believers who are entrusted to Change the World. Most of us are sitting here enduring the fusty sermon while thinking of the best places to get window candles and candy canes. We bemoan current events but don’t think about how we can change things. By ourselves, we can’t. But when we see ourselves as members of a Great Movement, the Church of Jesus, we have nothing to restrain us but restraint itself.

Please remember that the Third ISAIAH is aimed at just such a community, that of the returned Exiles from Babylon who yearned for the Good Old Days. In Chapter 61:1-4, 8-11 he speaks often of “they”, meaning the People of the Vision: “They shall build up the ancient ruins…they shall repair the ruined cities…all who see them shall acknowledge that they are a people whom the Lord has blessed.” One by one, they have no real strength to accomplish these things; but with their neighbors…!

The final words of St. Paul in the FIRST LETTER to the THESSALONIANS are sent to the congregation(s) there working as a minority to influence the system. “Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances…” Not words for individuals who go into their private quarters for meditation, but instructions as to the public perception of the collected Believers. Advent is a time to know who we are as a congregation. “Advent is a time for the tongue to be loosed and the mercies of God proclaimed.” (W.C.Turner, in FEASTING on the WORD, B 1:67)

The prologue to the Gospel of JOHN includes references to John the Baptizer, whose strangeness attracted large crowds, many of whom were baptized in the River Jordan. “He came as a witness to testify to the light”, although he himself was not that light. And when the Holy Ones asked him who he was, he humbly acknowledged his own humanity by rejecting their myth and affirming only that he was the Voice Crying Out in the Wilderness. I suppose that had he admitted to these things, he coulda claimed his fifteen minutes of fame–but he didn’t. John the Baptizer points to the One who WAS Messiah and prophet–and calls the Church to do likewise.

So Advent is the season when the story is shouted out in the wilderness of me-first, fraud and posturing. The message of the failed world cultures is that we can do little good by ourselves; there’s always another devil waiting in the wings. These words tear into our benign assumptions, and the tinsel-covered wish they would go away. But God doesn’t, and these are our reminders to know and accept God’s work.

In the process of unfolding, Horace Brown King

My thoughts about the scripture to be heard on the upcoming weekend can be found every Tuesday at horacebrownking.com