There is an old saying that communists are people who love the masses, one million at a time. What this saying points to is that communists tend to be interested in big programs for big groups, but not terribly interested in individuals and the unique problems that they have. And as much as I like to make fun of communists, it is not just them that suffer from this temptation. I think that there is a desire in all of us to want to solve the problems of the world with a more magical wand approach – we want to believe the politicians who promise that the fix to every problem is just a government program away. It is so tempting because that way we don’t have to individually deal with those actual people whose problems we want to fix. We identify a problem, tell someone else to fix it, and then we are morally off the hook.
In a similar way we want God to fix big things; like restoring civility or establishing peace on earth, but we forget that such things are made up hundreds of millions of decisions by hundreds of millions of individuals, who all need to be dealt with individually. World peace or the restoration of civility are not a divine nob turn away, but rather require a change in the actions and thought processes of millions of people. Yes God could turn us all into a cyborg army whose will he could control, but he loves us too much for that, and has given us free will. And as a result of giving us free will, God has to deal with us not with a magic wand or the flipping of a switch, but on a personal level. And because of this on Christmas Day we will see God coming in a very personal and individual way. There will be no magic wand, only individual relationships and the changing of hearts and minds.
But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Today we are talking about John the Baptist, who in many ways foreshadows the ministry of Jesus. And interestingly, while the priests and Levites often get some bad press in the New Testament, today, I think that they get things exactly right. They understand the individual nature of the coming Messiah. And why I say that is because of what confuses them about John the Baptist. After they ask and John states that he is neither the Messiah, nor a prophet nor Elijah they ask, “Why then are you baptizing if you are neither the Messiah, nor Elijah, nor the prophet?” It is interesting that the action that makes them suspect that John the Baptist may be the Messiah or at least one of the prophets is the action of baptism. And while there are some historical things that may have made the priests and Levites focus on baptism as being an indicator of Messiah-ship, what I really want to focus on is the individual nature of it. John was not reigning down thunder from the sky or anything terribly grandiose but rather he was baptizing people, one person at a time. Which probably sounds a little obvious, but in such an action he was required to deal with people on an individual basis. He did not line up two thousand people in the Jordan and ask them to baptize themselves, but rather he touched and baptized each person individually.
Much of my thought as of late has been occupied by the division and distrust in our country, how it has happened and by how we can fix it. I recently read a former Facebook executive say that social media has, “created tools that are ripping apart the social fabric of how society works.” Adding that with social media there is, “no civil discourse, no cooperation; [only] misinformation, mistruth.” I think that he is on to something because in many ways social media allows us to deal with individuals in the million person chunks that the Communists so like. And while it would suit me just fine to lay all the blame of our current acrimony on the doorstep of social media, I don’t think it is quite that simple. If we woke up in the morning and found that there was no Twitter, Instagram or Facebook, we would still try and avoid dealing with people in the way that John the Baptist does today, that is one on one. For we tend not to like doing what John is doing today because it is really not safe – people do not always act the way we want them to. When we can deal with people from a distance we are not as vulnerable and open to hurt and disappointment.
I remember years ago when Amy and I were first married the church we were attending did one of those Christmas outreach programs to some underprivileged families. What this meant was that a group of people at the church purchased a number of presents and food items to take to a family just before Christmas. In this outreach Amy and I got the job of delivering the presents. In the car ride over to do this, I was full of Christmas cheer. My head was filled with visions of how things were going to take place. I expected to blush slightly when this grateful family told me that I must be an angel sent from heaven – I mean that’s what they always do on TV and TV can never be wrong. Well, that didn’t happen, it was in fact one of the most disappointing events of my life. The house were they lived was dirty and unkempt and smelled of something I could not quite identify. When we brought the presents they were not carefully placed under a tree instead the children greedily ripped them open and then asked if there were anymore. When this happened I looked pleadingly at the mother hoping she would give me some backup, but she repeated the question. When we told them there was not anything else, they signaled that they were through with us and we were shown the door. Now I am not saying that all people act like this, but some do. Some of humanity will not be appreciative or polite and will only care about us only for as long as we are giving them free stuff. And I have struggled over the years with what this experience was to teach me. And I think the best I can up with relates to what Jesus said in Luke 14 where he stated, “When you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind. And you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you.” We take care of the ungrateful because it is the right thing to do and because it allows us to act like God acts towards us. For in our ungratefulness, God still loves us and waits patiently for us to return to him.
What we see in the life of John the Baptist and in the life of Jesus – they dealt with us. We don’t have a record of how the people that John baptized behaved, but I am guessing that some were real jerks. I mean we know that Jesus got yelled at for healing people, so why would we expect any different. And here is the thing for us, if John the Baptist and Jesus dealt with us and God continues to deal with us on an individual basis, who are we to opt out of that model. Certainly there will be times were interacting with others will be incredibly disappointing. There will be times where we are mistreated but restoration of our relationships with our fellow man will not happen without such interaction.
So here is my rather simple lesson for Advent 3 let’s try and go a week where we follow Jesus’ command to love one another. This means even the people who we don’t like and those people who are annoying. Yes this is not easy and much in us may fight against it, but most things in life that are worthwhile are not easy. If God deals with us and all of our issues, we need to do the same for others, so that we may be his both now and forevermore.