Sermon for the Third Sunday of Advent – 11th December 2022: Isaiah 35, 1-10; James 5, 7-10; Matthew 11, 2-11.

Fr Leonard Doolan – St Paul’s Athens

‘No woman on earth has ever given birth to anyone as great as John the Baptist.’ I am a big fan of John the Baptist. However it is not I who grant to John this great accolade of his birth, but Christ himself.

The holy scriptures reveal to us glimpses into the life of John, known as the Πρόδρομος , the Forerunner. And yet we are left thirsting for more knowledge of this man. In some ways it is a pity that we refer to him as John the Baptist, as John the Baptizer captures more accurately the dynamism of this character.

The gospels build up a picture, though little more than a squint, into John’s personality and life. We know that he has familial connections with Jesus. We use the word cousin. On account of the journey made by Blessed Mary to her ‘kinswoman’ Elizabeth, to tell her that she is to carry the child of the Holy Spirit, we are reliably informed that Elizabeth was already 6 months into her pregnancy. Thus we know that John is half a year older that Jesus.

John’s father and mother are both known to us, and we know that the father, Zechariah, was on duty at the temple when he has his vision that he will have a child with Elizabeth who is to be called, not son of Zechariah, but John. Both John’s parents were very elderly when he was conceived. Given Zechariah’s duty at the temple we know that he was one of the temple officials, so John would have been brought up familiar with the temple – a factor that will be very significant in his future life.

It is normal to associate John with the great traditions of the prophets, great and well -known names such as Isaiah who offers to us such glorious visions of the kingdom when we return to faithfulness, the kingdom that will be brought about by the Messiah, the Christ of God.

‘The wilderness and the dry land shall be glad, the desert shall rejoice and blossom; like the crocus it shall blossom abundantly and rejoice with joy and singing. The glory of Lebanon shall be given to it, the marvel of Carmel and Sharon. They shall see the glory of the Lord, the majesty of our God’.  Isaiah 35, 1-2.

In the distinguished company of Ezekiel, Jeremiah, Amos, Hosea, Micah and many others, the prophets speak directly into our lives, into our lifestyles, into our self-centredness, into the false images that we set up that dominate our societies.

John is unique in this line; for he and he alone is the prophet who lived in the time when the Messiah foretold in prophetic tradition becomes a reality, the one who is to come has come in the living person of Jesus Christ, the child born in Bethlehem and crucified in Jerusalem, within sight of the temple where his ‘Uncle Zechariah’ used to serve.

The description of John is vivid. This is reflected in the icons of the Forerunner. He dresses weirdly, and his diet is basic. I suppose nowadays we would say that he has adopted an ‘alternative lifestyle’.

Alternative to what? I would suggest alternative to the temple life that dominated so much of Jewish life. Or rather the temple as it had become distorted by human precepts of religious life. Whatever John had been doing from the time we are told of his birth, he comes back as an adult with a vengeance. Where did he learn this – we would now say, what was his formation for his particular ministry?

At this time there were communities of holy people, like monastic communities, that formed in the desert areas, whose lives were formed around a simpler life of faith to the one that was required in the rigidity and disciplines of the temple. In places like Qu’um ran there are archaeological remains around the Dead Sea basin, which reveal evidence of what these monastic communities were like. It is here that the Dead Sea scrolls were discovered.

Might it be that John’s faith and practice was formed in such a community, a community whose spirituality was more focused on the conversion of the inner person, than in the rituals temple worship?

 

Whatever – we know that John steps on to the stage as far as we are concerned in order to ‘introduce’ Jesus; to identify his cousin as the one who was foretold in the prophetic tradition; Jesus and the temple become associated straight away by John, when he points and says to his followers ‘Here is the Lamb of God’. Immediately Jesus is associated by John with Passover, and with sacrifice.

Sacrificial life is the central message of John. We refer to it in English as ‘repentance’. It is not a rich translation of the Greek, and does not pick up the nuances of this total self transformation, whose outward sign was washing in the waters of the River Jordan.

I would suggest that the repentance demanded by John is 360degrees, but of course the problem is that if you travel round 360degrees you end up in the same place! However the full diameter and circumference of life is to be changed, according to John, changed into the fullness and likeness of the one whom God has sent into the world.

In the gospel reading today there is some cross referencing going on between Jesus and John. Who did you go to see at the River Jordan, what did you expect of the prophet – wealth, majesty, riches, embroidered clothing, mansions? No they went out to see a man in a camel-skin coat, with an ascetic eating regime and lifestyle, and with a message that challenges the rich and the poor alike.

This is the message of John as the people are being prepared for Jesus. This is the message of John for us as we prepare for Christ to be born again in us as in his first nativity.

John challenges; the people react and respond; the waters symbolically wash away their old lives; they are renewed in their faith in God, the God whose kingdom is to come but yet is already in our midst.

On John’s behalf his disciples ask Jesus, ‘Are you the one who is to come, or are we to await another?’ The Greek word translated for ‘one who is to come’ is ερχόμενος which in ancient Greek means ‘coming’, so ‘are you the one coming’, literally, but as the scholar Dr. John Petropoulos in his bible blog on this passage of Matthew’s gospel rightly points out, in New Testament Greek the present can also refer to the future, so the meaning is ‘he who will come, is to come’, so as John Petropoulos says, “If Christ is ‘he who is to come’,” then Messianic eschatology [end time] is being realised in the here-and-now of John’s life. So our Advent insight from the question put by John’s disciples is simply this, Christ has already come into our Midst, Christ will come into our midst.

This season is Advent. John the Forerunner fits so comfortably, yet so uncomfortably, into this season of preparation. The Advent themes are about being alert, keeping watch, being ready, get prepared for the Christ who has come, is present, and is yet to come.

Christmas Day is not far off now. What difference will celebrating it make to us – rightly we will be full of joy and celebration for the glory and majesty of God has been revealed in the Word made flesh; the angels will sing in heaven, as we sing along with them, ‘Glory to God in the highest, and peace to his people on earth’.

But what about John’s naked and brutal message – repent! Of his cousin Jesus says, ‘I tell you, among those born of women no one has arisen greater than John the Baptist; yet the least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.’   (Matthew 11, 11.)