Holy Cross Monastery,
West Park, NY
Robert Magliula, p/OHC
BCP – Advent 2 C - Sunday 03 December 2006
Baruch 5:1-9
Philippians 1:1-11
Luke 3:1-6
There is one kind of person society cannot figure out---and certainly cannot control. And that is an ascetic. Think about it. The wheel of culture is turned by business, education, family, government, and organized religion. These hold little or no interest for the ascetic. In all these areas that make up society, the ascetic is like a fish out of water.
He or she is not on a salary, and doesn’t need one. An ascetic is not much interested in marketing things or selling services for a profit or crunching numbers to reach a bottom line. Ascetics don’t care about living in a upscale community, driving a fancy car, or building a 401K account.
An ascetic might be educated, but generally could care less about being validated by an institution of higher learning. An ascetic has little need to be degreed. And when capital campaigns are launched by these educational institutions, ascetics aren’t among the hot prospects. An ascetic is not likely to be a cornerstone member of organized religion either. Not many have been interested throughout history in climbing an ecclesiastical ladder---Or supporting the ladder once they have climbed it.
Things like maintaining buildings and making budgets don’t appeal to them. They have little desire to win friends and influence people, so they are not apt to be in politics. They are not good at raising money. They could care less about taking polls, or making decisions around what they say. They don’t pay taxes because they have no money, and they are not big flag-wavers. Other matters claim their interest.
The gospel of Jesus begins with John the Baptist, and John was an ascetic. He wasn’t on a salary. He didn’t live in a comfortable house. He wasn’t a member of a family of four. He had no 401K plan or educational degrees. He did not belong to the temple religion. In fact he had some harsh things to say about it and its leaders. John was as apolitical as you can get. He drew crowds but had no capacity to tell people what they wanted to hear. Finally, his detachment from political concern led him to confront King Herod about his sex life---a decision which cost John his head.
How strange of God to begin the way of Christianity with this untamed and uncivilized man. How peculiar to begin our preparations for this coming season---this time in which commerce and education and politics and religion all cozy up together---with a focus on an ascetic from the Judean wilderness.
And yet, why not begin the cycle of preparation- incarnation-manifestation with John, whose only concern in life was to give voice to what God told him to say. To announce to the people what God was doing in the world, and to wake up the people and call them to respond to what God was doing.
Because John had cleared a wide pathway for God in his own life, the people could recognize the voice of God behind John’s own voice. He offered them the opportunity to get clean with God through his baptism of repentance. Through it, they would be prepared to receive the one more powerful than John.
Ascetics can’t be bought off, so they constitute living reminders that idolatry is not the way. They remind us that the world of commerce and government and education and family and religion---all the things that have such impact on our lives---are not ends in themselves. They exist to serve us; we are not to serve them. That place belongs only to God. John by his words and life make it clear that no human being or institution can take the place of God.
During Advent we are invited to let go, to open up---not to forsake the things we love and want for our lives, but to forsake them as idols. That means learning to hold them lightly, and to be willing to give them up when it becomes clear that they are taking up too much room. John stands before us, bold and loud, demanding that we check our spiritual compass. His witness and prodding certainly challenge me in this new chapter of my spiritual journey.
As my brothers can attest, in the last six months, I've cleared out a lot of stuff, physically ---by moving from two houses to one small cell and emotionally---by letting go of a life I've loved and all that entails---yet John prompts me to keep asking myself---"What is taking up too much room in me?" "What might new life look like for me, if I allow it to take root and flourish?" What might new life look like for you? What is taking up too much room in you?
If we're heading in the wrong direction, now is the time to turn around and change direction. John assures us that it is not too late to change so that we will not miss the new life that God is promising to birth in us. If we want God to come humanly, simply, into our lives, then we need to get ready. We need to prepare, to repent, to change.
John speaks uncomfortable words to us as we approach a season when we yearn to be comfortable. But only by following his example---by clearing a pathway out of the many things that dominate us—can we begin to prepare our hearts to receive the One who is to come.
+Amen.
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