Voice

2nd Sunday of Advent - Year C (9 December 2018)

Baruch 5:1–9. Philippians 1:4–6, 8–11. Luke 3:1–6.

‘A voice of one crying out in the desert:

“Prepare the way of the Lord,

make straight his paths.

Every valley shall be filled

and every mountain and hill shall be made low.

The winding roads shall be made straight,

and the rough ways made smooth,

and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.”’

The nostalgia and romance of Christmas increase today with the proclamation of John the Baptist, and Isaiah’s prophecy about him. If we want to understand Jesus then we may have to start with the Baptiser. In all the four accounts of the gospels, John the Baptist is given prominence. He is probably far more important than we have realized. John is Jesus’ starting point too; Jesus is baptized by John—symbolic beginning.

If Jesus is a rebel, his cousin is doubly so. John is the symbol of religion’s need for constant reform, and the unhearable nature of the message. His was a voice in the wilderness. Now, who goes out into the wilderness, and yells in the wilderness? It’s like talking to a wall, or shouting into the wind.

John is in no way a gentleman. He refuses to wear the clothes of polite society, but only wears camel hair with a leather belt around his waist. His food was not just frugal, but queer and savage: he had locusts and wild honey for breakfast, lunch and dinner. How gross! Wasn’t he the madman, or one who was possessed? We too might have spoken of him the same if only we had the opportunity of encountering him, mightn’t we? The Baptist was not merely counter-cultural but primarily counter-religious. He had started his own rituals, more than tacitly usurping the religious authority of the times. Many delegations and committees from the-then “church” were sent to him. But John knew he was a voice sent by God. He needed no excommunication, it was self-imposed. But even such madness didn’t keep the crowds away. It was all because of the message, or authenticity of it.

What was the message then? Just this, metanoia: turn over a new leaf, be transformed, be converted.

John is a combination of sweet (honey) and bitter (locusts), of light and dark, of the yin and the yang. In him we see both the sweetness and the tragedy of life. Isn’t this wisdom? When we are able to hold on the contraries of life, then there is wisdom and maturity. When we are able to face both victory and defeat with equanimity (and even magnanimity) then we have achieved not just balance, but wisdom. This is essence of all spirituality. A madman now showing us the way!

We shall conclude this reflection with a metaphorical tale about another madman written by a famous atheist Friedrich Nietzsche (who too eventually became mad—and his message is no madness!). In the tale, Nietzsche describes a man running into the middle of a marketplace at the noon hour holding high a lit lantern crying out to the busy masses, “Where is God? Where is God?” The crowd pauses long enough to take in this strange spectacle and to ridicule him. The man smashes the lantern against the cobble stones and declares, “God is dead!” and he laments that he and the crowd are guilty of the murder, responsible for taking a sponge that has wiped away the horizon.

This story points out that Nietzsche was less the father of modern atheism as one of the first voices to cry out to believers for honesty and authenticity. Here is another John the Baptist, another madman to show us the way. It was Nietzsche’s deepest desire to know God, but he was desperately seeking him among the believing so-called religious people, only to come away emptier than before. What has happened to the honest experience of God that once so framed the whole of society? Where is our emphasis today—external conformism or inner authenticity?

We need more Baptists and Nietzsches and madmen today proclaiming metanoia, which literally means “to change your mind.”