December 1998 Issue

Matthew 3:1-12

Are you tired of bad news? Television, radio and newspapers seem to thrive on countries warring, politicians bashing, death parading, power victimizing and moral sliding. Someone is always winning which means that someone is always losing. Our own personal lives need to be lifted, for we encounter sorrows, illness and failures. Confronted by the recitals of bad news our deep inner spirits yearn for something better.

That something better is not simple rejoicing because we are on the winning side. We know that there is something deeper and we recognize truly good news when we see it. Mother Teresa's acts of lifting people out of despair, praying with them, holding them and giving them new dignity give us glimpses into good news. Good news is always related to goodness--God's goodness which issues forth in loving, unselfish acts. Likewise bad news is produced from badnesswhatever is contrary to God's will to bring everything into a unity and SHALOM.

This is not unique to our own age. At the beginning of the first century John the Baptist saw the harmful things happening to people's lives--how they were hurting themselves and how the society was oppressing persons. He not only decried moral slippage but he also proclaimed the source of good news. "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near." His was a voice calling for higher living. He did not rail against the evils which so often leads only to deeper depression, but he announced the solution--God's kingdom has the magnetic qualities which will pull us to goodness and life.

First, we see that the followers of God are those who are propagators of hope. Just as John the Baptist, we children of God are pathfinders--those who discover a path into God's reign and help others onto that path. We prepare the way of the Lord for people's lives. That path always leads to hope and higher living.

The Israelites had a history filled with valleys of despair and mountains of inspiring living. During one of the valleys they were defeated, their beloved city of Jerusalem was sacked, their temple destroyed and they were taken into exile. Their despair was so great that the psalmist tells how their harps were hung on the willow trees. They no longer had a song to sing! They were taunted by their Babylonian captors. In the midst of this valley of despair Isaiah records (Chapter 49) that hope was on the way.

God announced that they would become a light to all nations, showing them the salvation of God. With this added burden of responsibility on their already hopeless load of despair they felt that God has forsaken them. God then promised them, "I have not forgotten you. See, I have you inscribed on the palms of my hands." The imagery was poignant for them, for they knew of two Babylonian customs. The idol worshippers would cut into their hands the names of the gods they worshipped, indicating loyalty. The male partner of an engaged couple would tatoo his fiancee's name on his hands, showing his faithfulness. So when God said, "I have you inscribed on the palms of my hands," God was guaranteeing divine faithfulness of love for the Israelites.

When John the Baptist called persons to repentance and baptized them, he pointed them to a hope beyond all bad news in their own lives and in the society around them. He announced the coming of the Christ, the Messiah, who would baptize "with the Holy Spirit and fire." Baptism announces the goodness of God, the grace of God, in the midst of any bad news; it proclaims the God who says, "See, I have you inscribed on the palms of my hands." John the Baptist points the way to a life which can be better, if we live as participants in the "kingdom of heaven." God's eternal love overcomes all ephemeral hurts.

So John the Baptist calls all of us from our slumbering moral and religious emotions to turn away from bad news and enlist in the reign of the God whose hands, inscribed with our names, will lead us to higher living. All who are baptized, bear the name of Christ and are citizens of God's reign become "John the Baptists." We point the way to Christ, the Good News, and prepare the way of the Lord for others.

In the Orient, where roads were few and poor, when a monarch traveled, preparation of roads and pathways was a necessity. John the Baptist was calling for crooked roads to be straightened and valleys to be lifted in people's lives to prepare for the coming of Christ. On the one hand, we are called to repent--to get rid of all those obstacles to the reign of God in our lives. John reminds the leaders of the religious community that appeals to a heritage of religious faith is not enough. Now we are to bear fruit as the children of God, and we are shown in Paul's description in Galatians that listing of fruit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. These are the characteristics of those who live in the reign of God and are those attributes which contain good news.

In addition we are called to find those who are living in the valleys of despair and point them to the One, who can exalt every valley of hopelessness and make low enough every mountainous obstacle to dignity, human value and exciting living. We are called to prepare the way of the Lord for all in our world.

We know that, when God comes into our lives, every obstacle disappears and the bad news is eradicated, so we provide contexts for the intersection of God with others. Myron Augsburger, a well-known Mennonite preacher, suggests that in becoming participants in God's reign we will lift the valleys of poverty that embitter, lower the hills of pride and wealth, smooth the rough road of social injustice and show others that the Kingdom is indeed at hand in Jesus Christ. The call to repent is more than an emotion of sorrow or even a change of mind; it is the conviction to live the life that God means for us to live. Such a life modeled after Jesus Christ, who indeed incarnates God, will initiate healing in relationships, give of oneself unselfishly and create new expressions of love in our world.

"The Kingdom of heaven has come near," and will be made known in the Christ who is coming. Such a kingdom will exhibit hospitality, a welcome to repentant sinners, a gentle caring for all who hurt and a love which will expand until all are embraced. Caring will be genuine and gentle because others will take priority over self. Self-aggrandizement will not be the goal. Rather self-transcendence by the power of God will thrust us to lift the fallen, heal the brokenhearted and create the opportunities for people's lives to intersect with God.

Individualism in the United States has become an idol leading to indifference and even violent acts toward others. Both hedonistic individualism--the possessive grasping for pleasure by individuals and families--and corporate individualsm--the competitive building of power by business or social structures which steps on others to get to the top--are tearing down the fabric of community in our society. Families in geographical neighborhoods don't know one another; employers and employees don't talk with one another; identity is formed by some fictitious or distant character on television. Anonymity and parochialism constrict our world view and limit our helpfulness to those in need.

Several years ago in Boston, leaders from industry, government, education and religion concluded that the major problem facing that city was the lack of community. Robert Bellah, an astute social analyst in the United States, says that our culture has been strong because of the practice of "generalized reciprocity." This means that persons will give what is needed to help another, assuming only that they can count on others, if they should have some need. Bellah's fear is that a creeping individualism is breaking down our social caring. This is an attitude in which persons give only when they expect to get and they exact from others what they can.

John the Baptist countered such individualism of the Pharisees and Sadducees in their restrictive appeals to static tradition by pointing to the Christ who ushers in the reign of God by an expansive, giving love. Scorching words of judgment fall upon those who fail to share such a love, but the promise of joyful gathering into the hearth of God goes to those who live the higher life of Christ's love.

This advent prepares the way of the Lord in your own life. Greet the kingdom of heaven as given by Christ. Follow Christ, who enlightens our way into the kingdom and dispels the bad news. The music of Christmas trumpets the good news: "in this world of sin, where meek souls will receive him, still the dear Christ enters in;" "the hopes and fears of all the years are met in" the Christ born in Bethlehem; "News, news! Jesus Christ was born for this! He hath opened heaven's door, and ye are blest forevermore;" "peace on earth, and mercy mild, God and sinners reconciled!" That good news can be yours! The promise of the reign of God finds fulfillment in a manger to a cross on which Christ says to you and me, "I have you inscribed on the palms of my hands." You are welcome in the "kingdom of heaven," where sin and death are defeated, and the valleys of despair are turned into highways of hope. There is joy in the higher living in God's reign of righteousness, peace and love!

Bishop George W. Bashore THE PROTESTANT HOUR