Second Sunday of Advent: The Desert

 Matthew 3: 1-12

In those days John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness of Judea, proclaiming, ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.’ This is the one of whom the prophet Isaiah spoke when he said, ‘The voice of one crying out in the wilderness:

“Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.” ’

Now John wore clothing of camel’s hair with a leather belt around his waist, and his food was locusts and wild honey. Then the people of Jerusalem and all Judea were going out to him, and all the region along the Jordan, and they were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins. But when he saw many Pharisees and Sadducees coming for baptism, he said to them, ‘You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bear fruit worthy of repentance. Do not presume to say to yourselves, “We have Abraham as our ancestor”; for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham. Even now the axe is lying at the root of the trees; every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.

‘I baptize you with water for repentance, but one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to carry his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing-fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing-floor and will gather his wheat into the granary; but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.’

In last week’s reflection, I wrote about paying attention and staying in the present moment and, because this is a topic that I believe is so important for our spiritual growth, I am going to make it our Advent theme.

When you reflect on John the Baptist, do you ever wonder what happened when he was out in the desert? All we read about in scripture is that he ate locusts and wild honey and wore clothing of camel’s hair with a leather belt. But we don’t spend much time thinking about what he did out there that prepared him to become a forerunner of Jesus, a voice crying out in the wilderness, “Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.”

My guess is that he learned to be in the present moment.

How many of you are experiencing a spiritual desert right now? This is a time when your heart is arid and your spirit doesn’t just thirst for God, it aches for him. It’s a time when scripture holds no comfort and just seems to be trite words, a time when spiritual activities that used to feed you and comfort you seem now to be senseless and boring. This is a time when you worry that you’ve lost your way and you wonder if it’s all your fault; you wonder if you’re praying the wrong prayers, thinking the wrong thoughts or reading the wrong books. It’s a terrible time.

Welcome to John’s desert. It would be safe to assume that John felt called to head out into the wilderness and to take very little with him. He probably even went out with a sense of adventure and a lot of expectations of meeting his God. He most likely went out with certain precepts, laws and principles he strongly believed in and within which he expected God to show himself. For the first while he perhaps did not notice so much that he wasn’t sensing God’s presence as he kept himself busy with his prayer disciplines and was occupied with the basic necessities of life in the desert. But eventually the starkness and emptiness of that desert wilderness must have begun to seep into his soul. Prayers that were so comforting in the old community maybe started losing relevancy. Rituals that spoke to his heart back in the synagogue could have seemed empty and lonely as the sun beat down on him and the wind blew sand in his eyes. The sense of adventure and joy diminishes rapidly in the desert.

Did John doubt himself? Did he doubt the call that drew him out there? Did he wonder if he had made a mistake and God was hiding from him until he figured out what he was really supposed to be doing? I think so and I think this not only because John was human but also because in order to come face to face with God and hear his voice with clarity we first of all have to lose much. We have to lose the idea that anything we do can manipulate God into acting in certain ways or make him love us more. We have to lose distorted perceptions of who God really is. We have to lose our idea that the more we know about God, the more we know him. So much to lose. John had to lose his ideas of God before he could find the pure voice of God, a voice so life shifting that, once heard, it recreates you.

John had to lose all he knew and expected and in that unforgiving desert, he found that the past was long gone and the future was a vast expanse of sand. What was left? The present moment. At first, that present moment seemed as empty as his dry aching spirit but as he focused on what he was called to do in the moment, he began to be more and more aware of the simplicity of God. What was he called to do in the moment? Probably find some locusts and gather some honey so he wouldn’t starve. Gather some firewood for the cold nights. Build a shelter against the sudden wind storm. Find water. Basic stuff. Unexciting stuff. Stuff that would seem to have very little to do with great spiritual revelations. And he was called to speak to his God within these seeming trivialities of life.

Normally those kinds of activities don’t carry a lot of spiritual potential until we pay attention, until our minds stop racing to the past or to the future and until we realize that all we do is holy mystery when we seek God within it. When we learn the art of bowing down before the God of the present moment in the present moment something begins to happen. Where we would once only see dreary and dry tasks, we begin to notice beauty within the ordinary. Where we would once have dismissed situations and people as unimportant to our spiritual growth, we begin to realize that in God’s kingdom, nothing is unimportant. He engages with his angels, with us and with grains of sand with equal delight and individual attention. He is powerfully present in the ordinary and the humble – like in a piece of bread and a sup of wine. We need not look anywhere else.

God pays deep attention to us in the present moment and it is within that present moment that he calls each of us by name. When John had lost all that God called him into the desert to lose, John became attentive and quieter and then he heard his Name:

“John, listen. You are not just John. Listen. You are My Voice Crying Out in the Wilderness. Call my people. Listen. The One whom you seek is coming. Call my people. Listen. You are the Preparer of the Way for him. Call my people. Listen. You are my Baptist. Call my people. Listen. You are my Leveler of Mountains. Call my people. Listen. You are my Straight Highway. Call my people. Listen. You are my Filler of All Valleys. Call my people. Listen!”

John heard this. He heard it on the wind of the present moment. He saw it reflected in the well as he drew water. He saw it written in the stars on the cold clear nights. He heard it in the whir of the locusts’ wings and he tasted it in the honey he swallowed. He knew who he was. He knew his God. Everything he had known before that moment of hearing could not in any way have prepared him for this encounter. Everything had changed – except God. He was right where he had always been. John could not contain the presence of his God and had to cry out to the very wilderness itself, “Prepare the way for the Lord!!”

Do not berate yourself for the desert you are in. Embrace it and seek Jesus, the One who Comes, in all of our present and drearily ordinary moments. In this desert world, be here now. It is a way of preparing the way of the Lord and making his path straight.

He is coming and he is calling your Name.