Advent 2a “John scares me.”

 John the Baptist always seems to show up when we least want him.  We have already had our share of Christmas cookies and they make us feel more sluggish than merry.  At ‘Nativity, finally the bazaar is over, and we would like to curl up in front of the fireplace where chestnuts roast, and dream a dream of candles, jingle bell music, and a new iphone under the tree.   Outside on our steet, people have their inflatable choirboys or reindeer or snowmen, blown up and larger than life.  In the middle of this, John the Baptist shows up like a mad dog whose glance could burst and shred those inflatable Manger scenes or Santa’s.  John’s voice booms and snarls like the armored polar bears of The Golden Compass.  Like a nightmare, he startles us out of our dreams: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near”. John scares me, and  John’s message can be summed up in one word: repentance.  For many of us “repentance” is a squishy, squushy, squashy word, drenched in emotion like a chocolate covered cherry; it is remorse on the scale of St. Augustine, it is a heart felt apology, it is about shame, sorrow, and regret.

 

But for John the Baptist , repentance isn’t about any of those emotional things.  Repentance for John is about loyalty and committing ourselves to the right side.  Repentance is a shift in our identity and a totally new allegiance.  Repentance is about leaving home to become a citizen of a new land.  Repentance is about being a homeless refugee who wants asylum, a refugee who wants shelter from a tornado, protection from a winter storm.

 

You may remember the fall of 1989.  The world was psyched for the first game of the World Series, dubbed the battle of the bay or the Bay bridge series but it came to be called the earthquake series because it was disrupted by a powerful and devastating earthquake.  Suddenly, instead of double plays and sacrifice flies, we got televised scenes of a collapsed freeway,  the mission district of San Francisco burning, and a chunk of the Bay Bridge fallen into the water not far from the old Alcatraz prison.  That night on the 11 o’clock news there was video of a residential block in San Francisco where the earthquake had created a fault line right down the middle of a street.  The earth had split, creating a jagged crack in the asphalt.  Strangely, residents or the neighborhood stood around laughing and joking as they stared into the gap.  Kids did wheelies back and forth over the crack on their dirt bikes.  Then a policeman in a yellow raincoat came into view and said “what is wrong with you people? Don’t you know what happened.  Go home, shut off your gas and get ready.  We won’t have electricity for a few days.  Take care of your families. “ That man of course was John the Baptist.  For John, something morepowerful than an earthquake had come near—the Kingdom of heaven and the Kingdom earthquake had changed the world and left a fault line up the middle of history.   John called on folks to repent because the ages had split in two and it was crucial for people to choose sides. “You brood of Vipers, don’t you what has happened.  This is an emergency, go home and get ready.  Stop fooling around and decide where your allegiance lies.”

 

For most people repentance is being startled out of our dreamy existence.  It is so serious that in the Episcopal Church we have a baptismal vow aimed right at it.  Question: “Will you persevere in resisting evil and whenever you fall into sin, repent and return to the Lord?”  Answer: “I will with God’s help.  This is a baptismal vow and also a John the Baptist vow.  It is not about keeping an eye on our rottenness.  It is about keeping an eye on our loyalties.  Returning to the Lord is about renewing our commitment and loyalty to Jesus.

 

Those of us who have chosen sides and chosen to be loyal to Jesus never give up on themselves, no matter how many times we have to pick ourselves up and repeat the process.    We will keep choosing sides and turning around, every day if need be.  We never say “never”. I’ll never recover, I’ll never overcome this sin or this addiction, or I’ll never learn.  Why because believe in God’s goodness more than in our badness.  We say “I will with God’s help.”

 

This is the disturbing message of John the Baptist.  He offers us a fresh start, a cold shower, a wake up call.  He offers it as a beginning, not an end.  He doesn’t show up when we want him, but he shows up when we need him.  Whenever we are feeling too comfortable, whenever we feel we’ve got it made John’s booming voice wakes us up.  Repent for the Kingdom of God is near.”