2 Advent A December 8, 2019
Is. 11:1-10 Ps.72
Rom.
15:4-13 Matt. 3:1-12
Joni Mitchell wrote a very idealistic song about Woodstock, when she missed being able to go to Yasgar's farm, the location of Woodstock. "We are star dust, we are golden and we've got to get ourselves back to the Garden." Certainly the peace movement, love and over-optimism about new found pharmacology was part of the hippie attempt to get back to the Garden of Eden. The prophet Isaiah wanted to get back to the Garden of Eden too. He wanted to turn the clock back to the mythological time before the Fall and having to live under the consequences of knowing good and evil. Would that the entire world could be the utopian impossible world of no predator-prey relationships. This is the universal aspiration of everyone, which is more poignantly felt when the world is so weary with pain and loss and injustice. But it is a world that still is actually experienced by a certain group of our population. There are people who live in the perfect Garden? Who and why? Babies and infants and those in the stage of innocence live in the Garden of Eden because they don't know any different. Being clueless can be the bliss of Eden and infants and children live there, until they encounter the main word of moral awakening, "NO!" When infants experience intervention because adults know that all instant gratification of desire is not good, they get kicked out of the Garden of Innocence forever. As adults, we still use the vision of a perfect innocent state to try to comfort us as we live under the free conditions of the world, which surely include the experiences in various degrees of good and evil. And no matter what one's situation in life is, one has to live under moral conditions of good and evil, however they come to be defined.
Why do people inside of religious communities and outside of religious community often resort to the nostalgia and regression of idyllic states of perfect innocence and perfect harmonies where no creatures harm another? We live under the condition of freedom which permits the experiences of good and evil to occur in unintended random events of systems in conflict and in the intentional acts of free agents. In the battle of good and evil in the conditions of freedom, things can seem to be so bad, that we might imagine dystopia to be the eventual outcome? We need the counter visions of utopia to inform the possibilities of goodness prevailing in our future. St. Paul was worried about strength and power of sin and evil and so he wrote that we have to overcome evil with good. The vision of utopia and innocence informs our hope that goodness can prevail in the perpetual battle with evil, hatred and injustice. But goodness is not automatic; goodness needs the training of free agents to make the goodness of heaven actual in our lives on earth. What do we often need to become successful agents of goodness?
Let us imagine ourselves being typical Americans; we begin to celebrate Christmas very early in Advent with parties and decorations. And so we are at a neighborhood Christmas party with a big Christmas tree, lots of lights, party sweets and spiked egg nog. And suddenly there is a loud knock at the door. And I answer the door and there is a very strange looking man at the door; he looks homeless. So, I greet him and ask him what he wants, noting that he does not look like the UPS and Amazon delivery persons. He growls that he is the Advent Police and he has come to issue our residence a ticket for violating Advent rules. So, I ask him who he is and by what authority he is issuing the ticket. And he replied, "I am John the Baptist, and I am the original Advent Police." And then it all makes sense, the scruffy hair and beard, the camel hair tunic and the big stick. "Ok, John, you caught us in the act, but times have changed. Christmas is so big, it needs more days and it really needs an entire quarter of the year to celebrate." But John said, " You guys have it wrong. Advent is about the coming end of the world. You need to be prepared. Advent is penitential boot camp for the end of the world. You should not have your tree up. It should go up on Christmas Eve, and go down on 12th night. You should not have all of the lights on. You should be giving up the rich foods and the booze. "But John, what should we eat in Advent to satisfy you?" And what does John say, "I'm glad you ask; I have brought a sack of kosher grasshoppers for you to munch on and my own Jordan Valley honey to go with those kosher grasshoppers." "Well, John you are an Advent Scripture tradition and we have to read about you, but we don't really want a speed bump on our festive race toward Christmas. Why don't you go visit the Amish; they'll buy your message all year long."
John the Baptist stands as a figure of interdiction for evil in our world. If Santa Claus says, "Ho, ho, ho," then John the Baptist says "No, no, no."
Why does utopia need John the Baptist? Utopia doesn't need John, but the threat of dystopia needs him badly. "You guys are going wrong. The direction of your lives is leading toward disaster. You guys need major interdiction. You need a road block. You need to turn around because you're headed to dystopia chaos. The Garden of Eden and innocence is the other direction. Now turn around with some serious impulse control which allows you to share and care for each other and your world."
You and I, during Advent, need to access our John the Baptist aspect of personality to interdict wrong directions in our lives and in the lives of our society. Where we are destroying ourselves and our world we need to stop. Stopping the inertia of bad behaviors is the first step. What is the chief feature of 12 step programs? Perpetual fasting. Perpetual sobriety. Stop doing what is bad for you and the world.
Let us channel Advent John the Baptist today as a witness that we need to overcome evil with goodness. We need to interdict and stop all evil tendency and habits. We need to turn our directions, we need to renew our minds, we need to repent. Repentance means turning the direction of our lives towards the utopia of overcoming evil with good in our actual lives today.
Let us heed the advice of John the Advent Police today, even if we don't want to invite him over for supper. John the Baptist as a fixture in the season of Advent is a reminder that we need to be at the continuous work of overcoming evil with good. With the utopia vision of Isaiah we can be inspired in the right direction; and with John the Baptist as our boot camp sergeant, we can receive perhaps the motivation that we need to welcome Jesus at Christmas, and in all of the days of our life. Amen.
Why do people inside of religious communities and outside of religious community often resort to the nostalgia and regression of idyllic states of perfect innocence and perfect harmonies where no creatures harm another? We live under the condition of freedom which permits the experiences of good and evil to occur in unintended random events of systems in conflict and in the intentional acts of free agents. In the battle of good and evil in the conditions of freedom, things can seem to be so bad, that we might imagine dystopia to be the eventual outcome? We need the counter visions of utopia to inform the possibilities of goodness prevailing in our future. St. Paul was worried about strength and power of sin and evil and so he wrote that we have to overcome evil with good. The vision of utopia and innocence informs our hope that goodness can prevail in the perpetual battle with evil, hatred and injustice. But goodness is not automatic; goodness needs the training of free agents to make the goodness of heaven actual in our lives on earth. What do we often need to become successful agents of goodness?
Let us imagine ourselves being typical Americans; we begin to celebrate Christmas very early in Advent with parties and decorations. And so we are at a neighborhood Christmas party with a big Christmas tree, lots of lights, party sweets and spiked egg nog. And suddenly there is a loud knock at the door. And I answer the door and there is a very strange looking man at the door; he looks homeless. So, I greet him and ask him what he wants, noting that he does not look like the UPS and Amazon delivery persons. He growls that he is the Advent Police and he has come to issue our residence a ticket for violating Advent rules. So, I ask him who he is and by what authority he is issuing the ticket. And he replied, "I am John the Baptist, and I am the original Advent Police." And then it all makes sense, the scruffy hair and beard, the camel hair tunic and the big stick. "Ok, John, you caught us in the act, but times have changed. Christmas is so big, it needs more days and it really needs an entire quarter of the year to celebrate." But John said, " You guys have it wrong. Advent is about the coming end of the world. You need to be prepared. Advent is penitential boot camp for the end of the world. You should not have your tree up. It should go up on Christmas Eve, and go down on 12th night. You should not have all of the lights on. You should be giving up the rich foods and the booze. "But John, what should we eat in Advent to satisfy you?" And what does John say, "I'm glad you ask; I have brought a sack of kosher grasshoppers for you to munch on and my own Jordan Valley honey to go with those kosher grasshoppers." "Well, John you are an Advent Scripture tradition and we have to read about you, but we don't really want a speed bump on our festive race toward Christmas. Why don't you go visit the Amish; they'll buy your message all year long."
John the Baptist stands as a figure of interdiction for evil in our world. If Santa Claus says, "Ho, ho, ho," then John the Baptist says "No, no, no."
Why does utopia need John the Baptist? Utopia doesn't need John, but the threat of dystopia needs him badly. "You guys are going wrong. The direction of your lives is leading toward disaster. You guys need major interdiction. You need a road block. You need to turn around because you're headed to dystopia chaos. The Garden of Eden and innocence is the other direction. Now turn around with some serious impulse control which allows you to share and care for each other and your world."
You and I, during Advent, need to access our John the Baptist aspect of personality to interdict wrong directions in our lives and in the lives of our society. Where we are destroying ourselves and our world we need to stop. Stopping the inertia of bad behaviors is the first step. What is the chief feature of 12 step programs? Perpetual fasting. Perpetual sobriety. Stop doing what is bad for you and the world.
Let us channel Advent John the Baptist today as a witness that we need to overcome evil with goodness. We need to interdict and stop all evil tendency and habits. We need to turn our directions, we need to renew our minds, we need to repent. Repentance means turning the direction of our lives towards the utopia of overcoming evil with good in our actual lives today.
Let us heed the advice of John the Advent Police today, even if we don't want to invite him over for supper. John the Baptist as a fixture in the season of Advent is a reminder that we need to be at the continuous work of overcoming evil with good. With the utopia vision of Isaiah we can be inspired in the right direction; and with John the Baptist as our boot camp sergeant, we can receive perhaps the motivation that we need to welcome Jesus at Christmas, and in all of the days of our life. Amen.
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