05.12..04 Doorways to turning - Matthew 3: 1-12
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A few weeks ago I got reading glasses. In the following weeks the clarity of the word on the page made me aware of the blur of much else around me - ie any text that appeared on the TV screen. Not a huge problem but I decided to ask the Optician about it - and to cut a medium length story short, I went in this week to get my 'other' glasses. Although prescription isn't very strong, I fully expected these 'distance' glasses to make a noticeable difference. I put on the glasses, went through the door of the shop, and turned down the 'mall' in the direction I was going and was not prepared for what I saw....... in the sense of how much I saw. It really was as though someone had turned the lights on - a clarity and brightness to the scene that I hadn't been aware I was missing.
One of the great human capacities - is to 'normalise' our world. We order it - in order to manage it. We can't possibly cope with all the world in its glory throws at us, so we work with our limitations - we see what we need to see (I thought my vision was 'normal') - we hear what we want to hear (we're all aware of that happening in our relationships with those we know best). Psychotherapy has shown us the extraordinary extent to which we are conscious (memory and feelings) only of those things we feel able to be conscious of, whilst everything else is kept safe at an unconscious level. There was a fascinating documentary series a while back about how we see - about how we manage the vast amount of visual data we are physically capable of accumulating every moment of the day. One manifestation of that is how we limit the inflow of information - we only look at what we need to look at..... so, for example, we don't look down at the kerb every time we step off and onto the pavement, because that's reasonably predictable, and we're otherwise preoccupied looking at other things that are less predictable (like cars, or interesting people or shop windows.....). This was vividly demonstrated by setting up an experiment where a hidden camera observed people coming to a reception desk. They are asked by the receptionist to 'sign in'. As they do so, the receptionist bends down behind the desk to get them a leaflet. Hidden from view for about 2 seconds, the receptionist swaps places with an accomplice who is specially chosen to bear no physical resemblance. The accomplice receptionist stands up and hands the leaflet to the customer. Even though greetings and pleasantries are exchanged between the customer and both receptionists, less than 30% of the customers interviewed afterwards noticed that something odd had happened (and of the ones who did, some of them couldn't say what).
Advent is traditionally a 'penitential' season of the year - when we try and think about how we've 'normalised' our world - when we wonder about if there are ways in which we have got so used to the way things are in our lives, and in our world that we've come to accept them as normal - even things that are unsatisfactory, or unjust, or lazy, or painful, or selfish. John the Baptist emerged in the time of Christ, and it was like a sounding of the voice of God saying 'get ready for the Christ' - 'think again' about your lives and the way you order your world.
At this time the Jewish people were sadly conscious that there were no prophets of God as there had once been. There hadn't been a recognised prophetic voice for about 400 years - the voice of prophecy (how God spoke to his people) had fallen silent. But in John, the prophetic voice spoke again. We've noted already this morning how he demonstrated in his words as well as his lifestyle that his intention was to point beyond himself - he wanted people to 'get ready' for Christ. It was the Jewish belief that the prophet Elijah would return before the Messiah came. One of the last of the Old Testament prophets Malachi says 'Behold I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord' (Malachi 4:5). John wore camels hair and a leather belt - the very garments worn by Elijah (2 Kings 1:8). And here comes John using the words of the prophet Isaiah - 'Prepare the way of the Lord - make his paths straight'.
In May we visited Richard and Andie in Andalucia. They live about an hour's drive north of Malaga. Actually it's about a half hour's drive, and then about another half an hour along a terrible couple of miles - boulders and mud - and even a four wheel drive jeep has to crawl and weave along it. In the ancient near east we can imagine that the roads were worse than we can imagine (roads that we could roll pastry on is something that has become 'normalised' for us. Those of us who have lived in the developing world will know better). So journeys along such roads in Jesus' time were an adventure and indeed an undertaking to be avoided. There were few surfaced and artificially made roads. The ancient historian of the Jews, Josephus tells us that King Solomon laid a causeway of black basalt stone along the roads that lead to Jerusalem to make them easier for pilgrims, and 'to manifest the grandeur of his riches and government'. All such surfaced and artificially made roads were originally built by the king and for the use of the king. They were called 'the king's highway' (cue for a classic chorus?). They were kept in repair only as the king needed them. Before the king was due to arrive in any area, a message was sent out to the people to get the king's road ready. John was preparing the road for the Christ-king to arrive in peoples lives - and the road building equipment that he said they should use was 'repentance'. Note that both John and later Jesus use the word 'repent' without any explanation of its meaning. They use it as a word which they were sure their hearers would know and understand. The Jewish word commonly used is teshuba - which is the noun for the verb shub - which means 'to turn'. Again and again the bible speaks of 'turning away' from unjust/unloving ways and 'turning towards' God - turning to God with a corresponding change in living - not sentimental sorrow, but a change in life.
So our 'Advent doorway' or 'window' today might be the threshold at which we decide to go through or see through to a turning to God. An Advent 'getting ready' for the Christ, when we choose to turn from one of, or some of the rocky places that have become 'normalised' in our lives, and in our community, and in our world, and 'prepare the way of the Lord'.
John's way of encouraging people to demonstarte their 'turning to God' was to offer baptism. For about 4 minutes now I invite you to close your eyes and imagine you are on the banks of the Jordan, listening to John's message - and this will be followed by about 4 minutes of quiet. After that we'll be led in our prayers for the day.
You are approaching the place where John is preaching and baptising
Why have you come?
Who is with you?
Look around and take in the details of the scene.
Notice the colours, the movement, the light.
Listen to the sound of the water - the murmuring of the crowd.
John is calling out that people should repent.
What do you want to repent of?
Go forward and join the queue waiting for baptism
What are you feeling.....thinking..... desiring?
If you could ask God for anything, what would you really want?
Your turn is coming near.
How does John look?
What does he say to you?
Do you offer yourself to be baptised?
Now return to the present and wonder about what thresholds you might want to cross so as to 'turn to God' in this Advent season.