Readings - http://www.usccb.org/nab/121210.shtml
Today we celebrate the Third Sunday of Advent, a season of Preparation for the coming celebration of Christmas. And the Gospel Reading offers us an aspect of preparation for something – the possibility that what we are preparing or waiting for may not turn out the way we expected it to turn out. John the Baptist, sitting in jail after devoting his life for the preparation of his Lord’s coming, sends his followers to Jesus with the question: “Are you the one who is to come or should we wait for another?”
The pain in that question is obvious and if there was anyone who had earned the right to ask that question it would have been John. He sacrificed everything he had, his comfort, his reputation, and soon his life, in the cause of preparing the way of the Lord, and it wasn’t turning out the way he expected it. Where was the vengeance, the vindication of that chosen suffering?
John had challenged the entire society, the entire establishment, all those in power, to repent, to change, to humble themselves before the coming of the Annointed One. And the apparent Annointed One – Jesus – wasn’t castigating anybody. Where were the fireworks? Where was the blood? What was the earth-shaking Glory that was supposed to come with the coming of the Lord?
Jesus responds to John’s disciples with words that John probably would have understood:
“Go and tell John what you hear and see:
the blind regain their sight,
the lame walk,
lepers are cleansed,
the deaf hear,
the dead are raised,
and the poor have the good news proclaimed to them.
And blessed is the one who takes no offense at me.”
And certainly John would have probably understood, because WE probably understand. Still what a disappointment it must have been to John, sitting in his cell, knowing that his way out of jail will probably only come with his death, that God’s glory would be manifested so simply, so humbly. Was it worth the sacrifice, to see God’s entry into the world IN THIS WAY?
There are more than a few of us, who imagine Jesus’ return in the same dramatic fashion as John and the Prophets did – in drama and terrible and, often enough, righteous, arguably justified violence.
After three years of a brutal insurrection by the American South to defend a practice that is so obviously Evil (human race-based slavery) that it is hard to believe that ANYONE today would seek to explain away that TRUE basis for Southern secession (and yet there are plenty of people who try), the North, which did have Right on its side, finally started marching. And one can practically hear the relentless clapping of the boots against the ground as General Grant’s and Sherman’s troops marched forward singing the Battle Hymn of the Republic:
“Mine eyes have seen the Glory
of the Coming of the Lord
He is trampling out the vintage,
where the Grapes of Wrath are stored
He has loosed the fateful lightning
Of His terrible swift sword:
His truth is marching on.”
As if to say enough is enough, the time for continued nonsense and injustice is over. Run, for the Righteous vengeance of the Lord is coming upon you ...
And yet, a 150 years later, what has really changed? A lot, perhaps, but honestly, how much?
So _I’m_ coming to the point of entertaining the possibility that we, like John the Baptist, have it all wrong about the Second Coming.
Maybe God will come back IN EXACTLY THE SAME WAY AS HE CAME THE FIRST TIME. QUIETLY.
And maybe, he’s in fact ALREADY HERE. How?
One can not help but hear in Jesus’ response to John, a parallel to today’s psychoanalytical method, where the counselor simply hears the patient complain. And may hear the patient complain FOR YEARS. And maybe the complaints ARE ACTUALLY JUST. The counselor jots down notes, perhaps doodles, gives (perhaps somewhat surprisingly) only positive support and waits for the traumatized patient to finally calm down.
It’s not to say that the injustices are not there. They may be and often are. But it’s beside the point. If we do believe then both the oppressor and the oppressed are children of the same God. And there isn’t going to be a happy family meal until both calm down.
The pop psychology phrase of the 1970s “I’m Okay, You’re Okay,” seems ridiculous in the context of the American Civil War, to which I referred to above. And to many sincere Christians it may seem as something heretical. Where’s the Sin? Where’s the admission that NONE OF US is “Okay?” But perhaps in that phrase is described the Original state of affairs when God created everything “and it was GOOD,” and the goal to which we strive when we’re all back to being Good again.
The Scriptures lend all kinds of support to the notion that God’s presence is NOT to be seen in simply “the Great,” but rather in the humble, a few steps down from “the Great,” that is, in “the Good.” (And here, I could truly give all kinds of examples, from Moses encountering God in a single burning bush in a wide open Desert, to countless examples from David's life to Elijah encountering God in a whisper, Jesus entering the world in the context of a nobody family finding refuge in a stable...).
Perhaps then, what we wait for, may NOT turn out the way we expect it to. But if we believe, then we know it will ultimately end up the way it is supposed to... at a family meal where everyone, ALL OF GOD'S CHILDREN (as Martin Luther King, Jr, liked to say ;-), are present, loved, respected and happy.
God bless us all.
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