MATTHEW 3:1-12
1In those days John the Baptist appeared in
the wilderness of Judea, proclaiming, 2“Repent, for the kingdom
of heaven has come near.” 3This is the one of whom
the prophet Isaiah spoke when he said,
“The voice of one crying out in the wilderness:
‘Prepare the way of the Lord,
make his paths straight.’”
4Now John wore clothing of camel’s hair with a leather belt around his waist, and his food was locusts and wild honey. 5Then the people of Jerusalem and all Judea were going out to him, and all the region along the Jordan, 6and they were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins.
“The voice of one crying out in the wilderness:
‘Prepare the way of the Lord,
make his paths straight.’”
4Now John wore clothing of camel’s hair with a leather belt around his waist, and his food was locusts and wild honey. 5Then the people of Jerusalem and all Judea were going out to him, and all the region along the Jordan, 6and they were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins.
7But when he saw many Pharisees and Sadducees
coming for baptism, he said to them, “You brood of vipers! Who
warned you to flee from the wrath to come? 8Bear fruit worthy of repentance.
9Do not presume to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our
ancestor’; for I tell you, God is
able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham. 10Even now the ax is
lying at the root of the trees; every tree therefore that does not bear good
fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.
11“I baptize you with water
for repentance, but one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I am
not worthy to carry his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and
fire. 12His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing
floor and will gather his wheat into the granary; but the chaff he will burn
with unquenchable fire.”
***
When was the last time you were in
the wilderness? When was the last time you were out in an uninhabited, and
uncultivated place? When is the last time you hiked beyond the paths, and saw
beyond the towns, and felt the world beyond yourself? When is the last time you
felt one with the unfamiliar? When was the time you felt stretched, and knew
there was more to learn, and there was more knowing beyond what you already
knew? When was the last time you found yourself in the wilderness of a new
place, or new a friend, a new job, a new calling, a new child? When was the
last time you came to the wilderness seeking?
It was no different in John’s
day. John, the scripture tells, appeared in the wilderness of Judea, and
I like to imagine it was kind of like that, because sometimes we find ourselves
out in the middle of nowhere, and all of a sudden out in the middle of nowhere
- we find, ourselves, and it happens in that all of a sudden type of way,
appearing. I like to imagine John appearing. I like to imagine John in all his
craziness, and perhaps literal craziness, with his desert diet of locusts and
wild honey, with his clothing of camel’s hair and a leather
belt, and his proclamation of repentance, and baptism, and of the one to come.
I can see how John simply appeared.
I can understand why Matthew
describes John, with the words from the prophet Isaiah, “The
voice of one crying out in the wilderness: ‘Prepare
the way of the Lord.’” John
was the prophet type, one familiar with the wilderness. For, as much as we
would like to believe, it is not those who live the status quo who are the
prophets. It is often those who are off the grid and off their rockers. Think
of the prophets of our time, Nelson Mandela
locked up in jail, Mother Theresa with a vow of poverty walking into the middle
of a battle, Martin Luther King fighting for justice with peace. There is wild
streak in them all, and I am sure that each have been called crazy many a time.
Yet, they mesmerize us, and we draw nearer.
It does not surprise me that the
people of Jerusalem and all of Judea were going out to John the Baptist.
It does not surprise me that something in him, invoked something in them, that
to be near the prophet created a change heart. This yearning to confess their
sins, this yearning to be baptized, this yearning to be made clean, this
yearning to belong, this yearning to find a place out in the wilderness to
prepare for the one who is to come, the one who so powerful he can baptize with
the Holy Spirit and with Fire. It does not surprise me that the people came.
Would you not go out into the wilderness if this was the hope? When is the last
time you were in the wilderness?
I have been in a wilderness of
starting to date again. I tell you, being thirty, and the advent of texting,
and the remembering again what it is to get your heart hurt, and have to hurt
another’s is not for sissys. It is a wilderness. About a month ago, I found
myself driving home from Boise at night later than I had planned. It had been
the worst date yet, and I will spare you the details, but to say that I was
pretty mad, and confused, as I left Boise. Yet, as the fields started to roll
out into hills, I had a feeling of pride, for knowing, now at thirty, how to
get out of an uncomfortable situation. Soon I was in the passes where the moon
lit up the cliffs with the road winding in between, and in that contrast of
greyscale, I found myself alone on the road, but feeling utterly connected: to
the world, to this life, and thankful for it all, and to God, for the chance to
be thirty, and alone on the road, and dating again, and learning anew. The
stars were out, and the rivers gleamed silver like the silage of a snail, and
as I entered Baker County a faint snow began to fall and there was a deep peace
in the silent night.
John says, that the one who is to
come will separate out the chaff from the grain, and I think this is what
happens in those wilderness places. That we are able to see what is good and
worth keeping in our lives, and what needs to be burned. What is giving us
life, and what is depleting us, what we are learning and what still have to
learn, who we are, and who we are created to be, for for whom we were created.
It is a finding ourselves in these wilderness places, and finding the prophet
who helps us prepare for the one who is to come. This is preparing the way of
the Lord, this is Advent. Advent can be the opposite, we call it Christmas
season and it starts right after Halloween, if not sooner, and it is often a
plethora of things to do, to get, and to go. It not a wilderness, a time away,
but a familiar American grind in a country that cannot wait. Yet, when this
season is good, it is waiting, it is Advent, it is a wilderness, and it becomes
a time of where we find ourselves and Christ, in the quiet of old familiar
hymn, hmm Silent Night, in the warmth and glow
of lights, in the loved ones we know, in the quiet peace of being out alone in gentle falling snow. When
is the last time you went out in the wilderness? When is the next time you will
go out into the wilderness? It is Advent, Go, find time, find space, find hope,
find joy, find peace, find love, find the Christ child, out there, laying in a
manger out in the wilderness.
