July 15 2020
PREPARE YE………
Our world is in an overshoot situation. Overshoot? Imagine a car that missed a turn and is now precariously suspended over a cliff where at any moment it can clatter down, as the slightest movement could cause a tipping point, demolishing the automobile and killing the occupants.
So? Worried about the overshoot state of the world? Well, maybe we should just in case, because such a scenario usually is fatal.
At any rate, that’s how I picture our plight now. Why? Because we simply have too many people on earth, using more water, more soil, more earth, more energy than the earth can provide and tolerate. At a certain time, a moment nobody knows, there will be a tipping point when, just like that car, nature collapses: the treasures, the raw materials, the air, the water we extract from ‘nature’ are simply too much, and soon the earth will refuse to accommodate our wants.
All old news of course. It reminds me of Cassandra, daughter of King Priam of Troy. She was given the gift of prophesy by Apollo, but when she spurned his advances, he ordained that her prophesies would not be believed. That VIRUS is a wake-up call. The weather is another, but the Cassandra curse still counts.
That VIRUS? Truly a case in point: One minute everything is normal: the next minute nothing is. That’s what we face as conscious citizens, as people who have no excuse, as earth-dwellers who have unlimited access to news sources and relevant information on any topic, but refuse to listen and absorb. Christians especially cannot plead ignorance, because the BOOK, that age-old document on which Christianity is based, repeatedly, constantly, without letup, repeats the theme of creation, fall, redemption, of birth, of maturity, of death and resurrection, not only of all that lives, including us humans, but also of the entire living world.
We need to change drastically, but we won’t, of course, just like Noah’s contemporaries who saw him for decades building the Ark, and not heed his warnings. Noah was known as a straight shooter, an upright artisan, a master builder, and even when that long file of animals came traveling in pairs and entered the Ark, and all sorts of birds came flying in, curiosity did not change into action, so they all drowned. We have similar warnings in reverse: species are disappearing at an alarming rate; weather is freaking out; pandemics in humans and animals a sure sign, but still we go our merry way.
Enter John, who is not a Baptist, but a Baptizer, famous for telling us to “Prepare ye, the Way of the Lord”; a line used in the Godspell musical, starting this masterpiece by repeating it 8 times. Mark 1:3 says, “A voice of one calling in the wilderness, ‘Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him.'”
I’ve been thinking about this man, his message and the musical all week. It’s easy to sing that catchy tune. It’s easy to repeat it numerous times so that it’s grafted in our memory, but today the reality remains, “A voice crying in the wilderness,” commonly indicating an almost hopeless task, where the only hearers are the trees, the birds and the wild animals.
As you may know, my constant quest is, “How do I prepare a ‘way of the Lord?’ Should I see it as myself becoming ready to face the Lord when he returns? Or does it also have a broader context, a missionary goal? Or both? How did John himself see it?
John the Baptizer preceded Jesus by preaching at the river Jordan where he instituted baptism by immersion, symbolizing the washing away of sins. A radical person he was, a true environmentalist, living off nature’s gifts, wild honey and locusts, himself a pronounced example what it means to ‘prepare the way of the Lord’, totally living in tune with creation, practicing what he preached. His body demeanor spoke as loud as his verbal language.
From his very beginning he realized he was a person of destiny, a man of God, a true outlier, a pronounced prophet, always aware of his mission in life, a man of nature, born of devout parents, a miracle child, an outspoken speaker, condemning Herod, Israel’s ruler for living in sin, which caused his death.
Is that how we too must prepare the ‘way of the Lord’, just as The Baptizer? Must we too be radical in living habits and condemn our way of life which we know kills creation?
Jesus knew him quite well as their mothers, Mary and Elizabeth, were intimate friends. Jesus commented on him, “Truly I tell you, among those born of women there has not risen anyone greater than John the Baptist; yet whoever is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.” (Matthew 11:11). A bit of a hyperbole, this statement about his greatness, I think: how about Moses and Elijah? Perhaps Jesus referred to those born in his time.
And then there is that Kingdom thing!
Does that mean that a person like me, a tiny cog in the Kingdom, is greater than this immense personality who was brutally murdered because he criticized King Herod, the ancient equivalent of President Trump? I think John the Baptizer lacked a Kingdom vision. He was of the old Jewish school: look at the Psalms: many imply that dying is the end. Jesus, by his resurrection, as Paul repeatedly emphasized, conquered death and made the same possible for his followers. John was one of the old school.
Still I see John as a model for me: he, the forager, the un-compromiser, close to nature, having a defined goal in life to prepare Israel for the Lord’s coming, just as I see as my task in life to tell the world that the Parousia is imminent, that Jesus’ second coming can happen any day now.
My question: Was John really a prophet? Luke 9: 19 suggests that the people in Israel saw John as such.
What then makes a person a prophet? Let me throw out some thoughts.
A prophet is not an extraordinary gifted person who knows the unknown, a sort of fortune-teller who magically predicts what is to come.
No, a prophet is first and foremost a believer who openly and unabashedly looks at what is happening in society and sees it as his or her responsibility to point out the immense challenges facing us in a quickly changing world.
A prophet is first and foremost a believer who courageously and critically looks at the church and her doctrines, to test them on their relevance for today and tomorrow.
A prophet is first and foremost a believer who dares to look to the future and tries to keep creation viable for our children and grandchildren and also strives for a church in which these young people feel at home.
A prophet is first and foremost a believer who by seeing Scripture as a lamp for their feet and a light for their path in God’s wonderful creation, knows that Christ, as the Son of Man, the Ben-Adam, the Son of the Soil, will return to make all things new.
That’s why a prophet, in spite of all the sin and evil in this world, looks to the future with full confidence.
A prophet is first and foremost a believer who now already can visualize what this future will be like and thus can critically evaluate the present in the light of the glorious future that is coming.
So, was John a prophet? Am I? Are you?