John the Baptist: Patron Saint for the 12-Step Program

 2 Advent b      December 6, 2020
Is. 40:1-11     Psalm 85:1-2,8-13
2 Peter 3:8-15a,18    Mark 1:1-8

Lectionary Link

Once again John the Baptist comes roaring onto our lectionary scene.  Once again he interrupts our preference to rush to Christmas by pretending that Advent is really just, Christmas Lite when we get a foretaste of the Christmas tree in the Advent wreath.  And if you invited John the Baptist to your pre-Christmas party, he would bring grasshopper kabobs for his hors d'oeurves offering.

John the Baptist was a rugged ascetic; not one to visit people's home.  You had to go out to see him, in the wilderness near the Jordan River.  And why would you want to do that?  Well, he was a novelty.  He had a way of getting attention.  And perhaps you liked being verbally dressed down in public in front of everyone or you liked to hear John stick it to the religious leaders who came out in both in curiosity and jealousy.  They wanted to know why this harsh sounding drill sergeant was drawing such a crowd.  His crowd and community must have been significant because he gets so much coverage in the Gospels.  He may have been a mentor to Jesus and his community may have been the proto-Jesus Movement since many people from John's community converted to the Jesus Movement.

And why did John draw such big crowds?

Who would want to be like him?  How could you integrate his lifestyle with good family values?  Camel hair tunic and a diet of grasshoppers and honey?  This guy was unique to say the least, and what did John offer beyond the satisfaction of one's curiosity?

We came, we saw and sure enough John verbally assaulted us.

His method was to shock.

Why was John the Baptist needed in his time and why do we need him in Advent?

I would call John the Baptist, a patron saint of the 12-Step program.   What is the goal of a 12-Step program?  It is continuous sobriety.  It is continuous fasting from what one is addicted to.  John, as an ascetic, is a model for the life of fasting from any potential idol.

For persons in 12-Step programs, it one thing to know the obvious need for continuous sobriety, it another thing to actually discover an interior power to help one achieve this continuous state.  This is why successful 12-Steppers confess a graceful encounter with a higher power to assist them in the goal of sobriety.

We find in this higher power encounter, something which corresponds to the ministry of Jesus.  John the Baptist said, "I baptize you with water, but Jesus will baptize you with the Holy Spirit."  The Holy Spirit is the higher power to help us continue in lives free from being enslaved to unworthy habits.

We might say, "Well, I'm not a 12-Stepper; so how is this relevant to me?"

The attitude of "repentance" is relevant to everyone.  We are to understand ourselves being on a path of continually getting better.  And if that isn't our attitude, chances are, we are in some ways slaves to things which hinder further excellence.

There are lots of things which don't get 12-Step program attention, for which we need the witness of the repentance of John the Baptist and the empowering baptism of the Holy Spirit.

Are we addicted to greed and money and things to the degree of getting our identity from things that we have and own?  We need repentance and the baptism of the Holy Spirit higher power.

Are we troubled continuously by jealousy, envy, pride, anxieties, fears, anger, disillusionment, depression and many other ways that the energies of our interior life  are dominated by losing scripts that we find ourselves seemingly forced to live out?  Then the repentance program of John the Baptist and the Baptism of the Holy Spirit program of Jesus Christ is very much relevant to us.

In this Advent season, let us recommit ourselves to the repentance program of John the Baptist, as we continually confess that we need to get better and we need to get control of some troubling energies of our life.  And secondly, let us know and experience that we are not alone in our yet undeveloped and unfinished lives; we are promised the grace of the higher power intervention of the baptism of the Holy Spirit by Jesus Christ.

May God keep us on the path of repentance of needing to get better, even as we look for the power of the Holy Spirit to help us accomplish the occasions of further excellence in the program of repentance.  Amen.