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Advent b December 10, 2017
Is. 40:1-11 Psalm 85:1-2,8-13
2 Peter 3:8-15a,18 Mark 1:1-8
Lectionary Link
In the many calendars which govern the times of our lives, a large number of Christians subscribe to the Christian church calendar to organize the annual cycle in the presentation of Christian events of our identity.
The church calendar is a curriculum catechetical device to do an annual review in various Christian themes. Christian truths are divided up into topic matters instantiated in the events in the life of Jesus Christ and the church. We divide Christian themes up and give different emphasis to the various themes during the church seasons.
In the season of Advent, an oft forgotten penitential season, the figure of John the Baptist appears in our lectionary. More than any biblical figure, John the Baptist lived what seems to have been a perpetually life of penance. If we give up things for the season of Advent, consider John the Baptist; he gave up everything for his entire life.
He travelled very light; just the camel hair on his back and he lived off the land. He ate locusts, surely the kosher variety and one could not blame him for chasing the bug diet with wild honey.
With his life style, John was saying, "I am self-reliant; I don't need anyone. I can't be bought. You cannot pay me to say good things about you. I do not have to do any fundraisers for my community. And if you don't like it, don't come out to see me."
What did John the Baptist need? He could have stayed in the wilderness as a hermit. He could have avoided all human contact. John the Baptist must have studied in the Judaic tradition. He must have observed the religious leaders of his time. We are told that his father was a priest of the Temple, so he had probably begun in the Sadduceean tradition of Judaism. Being the son of a priest, he would have in line to be a priest as well, but he went to the wilderness instead. If Jesus went to the wilderness for forty days of temptation, John was a perpetual wilderness dweller.
John was a wilderness preacher and he must have had quite an effect because his preaching and his baptism became a draw for the people of the cities and the towns.
Why would anyone go out to the wilderness to see John? Why would the Jews of his time and location submit to his baptism?
In the time of John, there were purification rituals but immersion in "living water" was a ritual requirement for non-Jews who were converted to Judaism and received into the community.
The baptism of John the Baptist could have been seen as a delegitimizing the practice of Judaism of his time. A person who was born into a Jewish family had no need to undergo a conversion baptism to Judaism, but John the Baptist was requiring it. It was as though, he was making them return to the Jordan River, the last river crossed when the people of Israel entered the Promised Land. It is as though John was saying, the practice of the Jews of the past was no substitute for a renewed practice of commitment to God.
"Come to the Jordan and be baptized. Receive your chosen status again in the renewal ritual of baptism. Your automatic group identity can not be a substitute for the current practice of moral and ethical living."
The message of John the Baptist was not just a reformation of Judaism; it was start of a renewed community.
Why does John the Baptist figure so importantly in all of the four Gospels? It could be that he was an early mentor of Jesus. It could be that Jesus joined the "church" of John the Baptist as an expression of solidarity with John the Baptist and his followers. The presence of John the Baptist in the Gospels, probably means that there were a significant number of members of his community. History indicates that his community persisted long after churches became established. The Gospel indicates that some of the early disciples of Jesus were former disciples of John the Baptist. This means that their lives modelled moving from John as their leader to Jesus as their leader. Moving on from John to Jesus is perhaps one of the most obvious persuasive purposes of the Gospel. John is shown in favorable light and he is shown as one honored by Jesus. He is shown as one who recommended Jesus to his followers.
So why didn't the community of John the Baptist persist and last? One might speculate that unlike the Christian church, the community of John the Baptist was most likely limited in its appeal to Palestine and to the Jewish people. It was perhaps more geographically based close to the Jordan River which was the primary location for the ritual of baptism. The locations in Palestine were devastated by the invasion of the Roman Army, and the community of John the Baptist did not prove to be community that fared well when follwers had to flee their homelands. There is no indication that John the Baptist made an appeal to the Gentile peoples in his time and his followers did not either, though Apollos in the book of Acts may be an exception.
The community of John the Baptist could be regarded as a proto-Jesus Movement. The Jesus Movement and the church transformed the community of John just as they did with the traditions of the Hebrew Scriptures. A dominant interpretive practice within Christianity was to take what came before and "spiritualize" it.
For Christians, heaven was the new Jerusalem, the church was the New Israel, the work of the Holy Spirit was called the New Creation.
So how was John the Baptist spiritualized within the Jesus Movement? The church understood that John limited himself to the water ritual of baptism along with the requirement of repentance. The church contrasted Jesus to John the Baptist by presenting the confession of John about Jesus: "He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit."
The Christian practice came to add to the practice of baptism, the understanding that Christian baptism was not a external physical washing of the body, rather it was accompanied by the baptism of the Holy Spirit as a sign that the work of Christ is to recreate our lives by giving us the presence of the Holy Spirit.
In Advent, Christians present John the Baptist as the one who prepared the people of his time to embrace Jesus Christ as the expression of God's destiny for many people. Christians believed that there would be smooth continuity from following John the Baptist to following Christ.
To say the very least: The Gospel writers present a highly appreciative view of John the Baptist as the Water-man who persuasively recommended Jesus as the Spirit-man. Amen
Is. 40:1-11 Psalm 85:1-2,8-13
2 Peter 3:8-15a,18 Mark 1:1-8
Lectionary Link
In the many calendars which govern the times of our lives, a large number of Christians subscribe to the Christian church calendar to organize the annual cycle in the presentation of Christian events of our identity.
The church calendar is a curriculum catechetical device to do an annual review in various Christian themes. Christian truths are divided up into topic matters instantiated in the events in the life of Jesus Christ and the church. We divide Christian themes up and give different emphasis to the various themes during the church seasons.
In the season of Advent, an oft forgotten penitential season, the figure of John the Baptist appears in our lectionary. More than any biblical figure, John the Baptist lived what seems to have been a perpetually life of penance. If we give up things for the season of Advent, consider John the Baptist; he gave up everything for his entire life.
He travelled very light; just the camel hair on his back and he lived off the land. He ate locusts, surely the kosher variety and one could not blame him for chasing the bug diet with wild honey.
With his life style, John was saying, "I am self-reliant; I don't need anyone. I can't be bought. You cannot pay me to say good things about you. I do not have to do any fundraisers for my community. And if you don't like it, don't come out to see me."
What did John the Baptist need? He could have stayed in the wilderness as a hermit. He could have avoided all human contact. John the Baptist must have studied in the Judaic tradition. He must have observed the religious leaders of his time. We are told that his father was a priest of the Temple, so he had probably begun in the Sadduceean tradition of Judaism. Being the son of a priest, he would have in line to be a priest as well, but he went to the wilderness instead. If Jesus went to the wilderness for forty days of temptation, John was a perpetual wilderness dweller.
John was a wilderness preacher and he must have had quite an effect because his preaching and his baptism became a draw for the people of the cities and the towns.
Why would anyone go out to the wilderness to see John? Why would the Jews of his time and location submit to his baptism?
In the time of John, there were purification rituals but immersion in "living water" was a ritual requirement for non-Jews who were converted to Judaism and received into the community.
The baptism of John the Baptist could have been seen as a delegitimizing the practice of Judaism of his time. A person who was born into a Jewish family had no need to undergo a conversion baptism to Judaism, but John the Baptist was requiring it. It was as though, he was making them return to the Jordan River, the last river crossed when the people of Israel entered the Promised Land. It is as though John was saying, the practice of the Jews of the past was no substitute for a renewed practice of commitment to God.
"Come to the Jordan and be baptized. Receive your chosen status again in the renewal ritual of baptism. Your automatic group identity can not be a substitute for the current practice of moral and ethical living."
The message of John the Baptist was not just a reformation of Judaism; it was start of a renewed community.
Why does John the Baptist figure so importantly in all of the four Gospels? It could be that he was an early mentor of Jesus. It could be that Jesus joined the "church" of John the Baptist as an expression of solidarity with John the Baptist and his followers. The presence of John the Baptist in the Gospels, probably means that there were a significant number of members of his community. History indicates that his community persisted long after churches became established. The Gospel indicates that some of the early disciples of Jesus were former disciples of John the Baptist. This means that their lives modelled moving from John as their leader to Jesus as their leader. Moving on from John to Jesus is perhaps one of the most obvious persuasive purposes of the Gospel. John is shown in favorable light and he is shown as one honored by Jesus. He is shown as one who recommended Jesus to his followers.
So why didn't the community of John the Baptist persist and last? One might speculate that unlike the Christian church, the community of John the Baptist was most likely limited in its appeal to Palestine and to the Jewish people. It was perhaps more geographically based close to the Jordan River which was the primary location for the ritual of baptism. The locations in Palestine were devastated by the invasion of the Roman Army, and the community of John the Baptist did not prove to be community that fared well when follwers had to flee their homelands. There is no indication that John the Baptist made an appeal to the Gentile peoples in his time and his followers did not either, though Apollos in the book of Acts may be an exception.
The community of John the Baptist could be regarded as a proto-Jesus Movement. The Jesus Movement and the church transformed the community of John just as they did with the traditions of the Hebrew Scriptures. A dominant interpretive practice within Christianity was to take what came before and "spiritualize" it.
For Christians, heaven was the new Jerusalem, the church was the New Israel, the work of the Holy Spirit was called the New Creation.
So how was John the Baptist spiritualized within the Jesus Movement? The church understood that John limited himself to the water ritual of baptism along with the requirement of repentance. The church contrasted Jesus to John the Baptist by presenting the confession of John about Jesus: "He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit."
The Christian practice came to add to the practice of baptism, the understanding that Christian baptism was not a external physical washing of the body, rather it was accompanied by the baptism of the Holy Spirit as a sign that the work of Christ is to recreate our lives by giving us the presence of the Holy Spirit.
In Advent, Christians present John the Baptist as the one who prepared the people of his time to embrace Jesus Christ as the expression of God's destiny for many people. Christians believed that there would be smooth continuity from following John the Baptist to following Christ.
To say the very least: The Gospel writers present a highly appreciative view of John the Baptist as the Water-man who persuasively recommended Jesus as the Spirit-man. Amen
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