Last week we heard the familiar tune to “It’s a Beautiful Day in the Neighbourhood” at the start of our worship. Today, instead of Mr. Rogers catchy tune, we heard the choir sing the ancient words that floated over the Jordan River – Prepare ye, prepare ye the way of the Lord! Did you know that the river Jordan starts at the top of a mountain where four water sources come together, flowing as one, snaking through the high mountains, down into the rolling hills, down again into the desert of Judea, past Nazareth, Jericho and Jerusalem before spilling into the dead sea some 320 Km from it’s beginning?
But we’re getting ahead of ourselves a bit, so let’s take a step back to where the Jordan turns away from the populated areas into the desert. Out in the distance are the mountains, imposing yet familiar, strong and firm. On the banks of the river, sand turns to mud, and life thrives in the water and soil… and it’s here that we find a peculiar looking man.
This is John, and probably the best place to start describing him is his hair for no comb or brush has ever touched John’s hair. Its tangled, and long enough that it gets hard to discern where the hair stops and the beard begins. His skin is dry from living in the desert, and his hands are calloused. And his clothes! No one can call John a fashion icon – what with his tattered robe of camel hair. You thought a pure wool sweater was bad for being itchy! It’s not that John was born into poverty, we know his story – he was born to Zechariah, who was a High Priest! But John has turned his back on this comfortable life choosing instead to live out here, in the wilderness. Rumor has it that he survived on locusts and honey. Choices…
And it’s John who heralds in the second Sunday of Advent every year. The impact that John the Baptist has had on Christianity and the role he plays in not only the Christian story but in Jesus’ story is significant. It must be because all four of the gospels mention his birth, while only two of them carry the story of Jesus’ birth. Now, he isn’t as present as the other disciples – Mary, Martha, Peter and Judas get more attention than John. But somehow John’s message reaches out through the centuries and echoes each year during Advent. His message is clear: Repent for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand!” Which is a challenging message when you are trying to do an advent series on the countercultural ways of Mr. Rogers.
Mr. Rogers (see the segue here?) once said: “You’ve made this day a special day, by just your bring you. There’s no person in the whole world like you and I like you just the way you are.” What an incredible message that each and every person needs to hear, and yet somehow seems in stark contrast to what John is proclaiming from the river bank. John is not just calling for people to repent, he is commanding it. He wants people to change their ways, to do better, to be different… this is fire and brimstone preaching the likes of which many of us have never heard. Mr. Rogers tells the world, “It’s you I like… just the way you are” while John is shouting: “Turn yourself around, change the way you’ve been living.” Mr. Rogers offers a gentle peace that comes with unconditional acceptance while John does not. Unfortunately for us, it’s John and his demand for repentance that is mentioned in the Bible, not Mr. Rogers.
Repentance, though, is a funny thing – for most of us the word carries a tinge of negativity, like the word is steeped in judgment leaving a bitter taste in our mouths. At best it we think it means we need to apologize for some crummy thing we’ve said or done while at worst it means we must leave behind our crummy personality traits or habits and simply become better people. No easy feat for sure.
For the most part, though, many believe that to truly repent we have to change who we are. But that doesn’t really capture the flavour of the word “repent” which is more about turning around and heading back than changing ourselves or making apologies. We don’t have to change who we are, rather we are meant to take note of what direction we are headed in, and change course towards God whenever necessary.
Commentator David Lose wrote: “repentance…underscores that change isn’t necessary for change’s sake but rather change is necessary …,[when]… we’ve become aware that our actions are out of step with God’s deep desire for peace and equity for all God’s people.” This means that John wasn’t demanding that people change who they were innately, he wa calling them to turn around and come back to who God created them to be.
Now his tactics were a little, um, harsh. The people sought him out even though he called them names (best insult: you brood of vipers) and called out their hypocrisy while threatening them with an axe and unquenchable fire. But never ever did John seek to separate people from God or who God was calling them to be, rather, from the very beginning, his purpose was to bring people together in peace.
On the day of John’s birth, his father Zacheriah sang:
And you, my child, ‘prophet of the Highest’ will go ahead of God to prepare his ways. You will present the offer of salvation to God’s people, the forgiveness of their sins. Through the heartfelt mercies of God, God’s sunrise will break in upon us, shining on those in the darkness…showing us the way, one foot at a time, down the path of peace.
THAT was John’s job, THAT’S what John wanted. As he prepared the way for the one who would baptize with the Holy Spirit, he planted the idea that when our path takes us in the opposite direction of God, all we have to do is turn around. We are to be aware of where we are, where we’re headed and choose to embrace the vision God has for us rather than anything that the world is trying to sell.
In 1955 Thomas Merton wrote “the beginning of love is the will to let those who we love be perfectly themselves, the resolution not to twist them to fit our own image. If in loving them we do not love what they are but only their potential likeness to ourselves, then we do not love them: wo only love the reflection of ourselves we find in them.” It makes me wonder a little about what John’s parents thought about all of this… the wild hair, the camel hair preference. I wonder if there were some sleepless nights for them and some deep deep sighs.
John should have followed in his father’s footsteps. He should have worked in the temple. Rachel Held Evans noted that “the miracle child of Elizabeth and Zechariah, John was probably expected to become a temple priest. There, he might have assisted faithful Jews as they washed in ceremonial baths to cleanse themselves of impurities. But John didn’t stay at the temple among the baths. John went out to the river’ and there shouted “prepare the way of the Lord”
I want to return to Mr. Rogers for just one more moment. He explains that “when I say it’s you I like, I’m talking about that part of you that knows that life is far more than anything you can see or hear or touch. That deep part of you that allows you to stand for those things without which humankind cannot survive. Love that conquers hate, peace that rises triumphant over war, and justice that proves more powerful than greed.” This is the self that God created us to live into the world, and John’s call from the river bank is a reminder to us that no matter how we stray from this true self, we can always turn around and make our way back to God.
This Advent, as we prepare for the One that John was telling us about, I pray that you take time to celebrate who you are, who we are in a way that allows us to see where we are on the journey and that encourages us to turn around and come back so that we are always headed in God’s direction. And if we stumble, remember that God echoes back to us the words of Fred Rogers: There’s no person in the whole world like you and I like you just the way you are. Let us hold this truth – Mr. Rogers truth, John’s truth, God’s truth, your truth – as we prepare our hearts and minds for the arrival of the child. Amen.
