2nd Sunday of Advent. Kingdom Storytellers

Mark 1: 1-8

As it is written in the prophet Isaiah, ‘See, I am sending my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way; the voice of one crying out in the wilderness: “Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight” ’, John the baptizer appeared in the wilderness, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. And people from the whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem were going out to him, and were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins. Now John was clothed with camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey. He proclaimed, ‘The one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to stoop down and untie the thong of his sandals. I have baptized you with water; but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.’

 

“History repeats itself.” Usually when we hear that, someone is expressing something negative about the world and how, as a human race, we never seem to learn. However, we need to ponder on it in a more positive light when it comes to our spiritual life. When we listen to the Gospel at Mass, we are hearing the Church's story – its history. As familiar as it is, it remains somewhat removed from us unless the story we are listening to becomes the personal story of each one of us and becomes a deep part of our own spiritual history. If our own stories don't correlate to the Church's story, we may need to examine our spiritual life to make sure it's a life and not just a dogma.

Have you ever had a John the Baptist in your life? Was there ever a time when you were longing for something more, wanting an upheaval that would break open a stream of life in the dreary dryness of your spiritual landscape? Did God send someone who spoke words that drew you to a river of inner change or who pointed out the One you were waiting for? The person may have been a friend, a teacher, a priest, an author or a speaker. Whoever it was and whatever it was they said, those mountains that were overwhelming you seemed far less threatening. Either that or you just felt stronger and more able to move ahead and climb those mountains with excited determination instead of fear. Perhaps this person opened the Word in a way you had never heard before. Maybe they spoke of the love of God rather than the condemnation of God and inspired you to begentle with yourself and eager to open your heart to the Lord.

If you can think of someone like this then God sent John to you. He sent you a voice that cried out to your wilderness, one that made your paths straighter and prepared your heart to hear the voice of the Lord. This voice humbly turned you toward the Messiah and said, “There. There is the Lamb of God. There is the one you seek. Go, follow him.” The reason you were able to take the first step toward the Lamb was because you heard the love in John's voice and you knew that this Lord who inspired such love was the Lord you wanted to follow too.

God sent you John. God made the history of the Church part of your personal story and now the story of John the Baptist appearing in the wilderness heralding the coming of the Messiah is the story of you.

Perhaps you have been a John the Baptist to someone else. Have you ever gone through your own wilderness and come out stronger and more sure of who you are and who your God is? Have you ever found yourself at the right time in the path of someone who desperately needed the comfort of a smoothed path? In the first reading, God said, “Comfort, oh comfort my people. Speak tenderly to them. Tell them everything is all right.” Have you ever heard those words of Isaiah and felt a stirring within your soul? Then you are John. What you have heard and learned in the wilderness is for the speaking of to the people. The history of the Church is your story.

Maybe you need a John the Baptist in your life right now. Are there crooked paths and rocky mountains blocking you? Have you been living on the edge of a wilderness longing for the Messiah to come to you? You can ask God for a John the Baptist to come to you but remember that in scripture, John cried out to many and not all responded to his words. The ones who came away unchanged and unmoved were those who thought they knew exactly what the Messiah should look like when he came. They had fixed preconceived ideas about God and who he was. They were unwilling or scared to change their ideas and perceptions and when John said, “Behold the Lamb,” they could not see Jesus for who he was. Do you have set parameters in how God can speak to you or touch you? Are you waiting for a God of the Old Testament, a God of condemnation, fire, thunder and upheaval? Are you open to a Messiah who may come quietly through surprisingly ordinary events? Are you willing to experience God's love and comfort? There are many who are not. They don't think it's allowed or they don't think they deserve it. Some don't think they need it and some are afraid of change even though their present spiritual lives are anything but satisfying. That, too, is part of the history of the Church and is being relived in the personal stories of many.

Advent is a good time for seeing our stories in Scripture and realizing that it is not just history we are listening to; it is the present moment Advent of our lives. We have voices in the wilderness among us and Jesus continues to come to us all. The wilderness is within us and the Jordan is available. We have yearned for our Messiah and we have fallen asleep waiting for him. We have pointed him out in love and we have been lukewarm and careless about his presence. We have accepted him and we have made judgments and turned away in self-righteousness. We are living out the story over and over. We write our stories daily and each day we have a choice as to who we want to be. We can be John in the wilderness, a broken one being submerged in the river or Christ holding out a hand to someone in pain. We are free to choose if we are going to be open or closed. We are free to say yes or no to moving forward and to change. We just don't have the freedom to not be part of the story. Even those who think they have absolutely nothing to do with the story are a major part of it.

There is one other thing that is necessary: sharing our stories with one another. If we never communicate with others the flow and rhythm, the valleys and mountains, the rough spots and levelled paths of our own personal stories, the Liturgical community will never become fully what it is meant to be: all of us working together to integrate The Big Story into the world through the medium of our own stories. The Mass cannot remain to us an individual private time of worship because this is not part of the real story and it is not what leads to full Advent. When Jesus comes he comes to create one unified story by inserting himself into each of our histories. If we never share, we never really understand what the coming of Jesus means in totality. If we are all strangers to one another, Mass almost becomes like spiritual technology – we push the right buttons and click on the right links and we follow the instruction manual – but we remain isolated from one another, never quite experiencing the fullness of the story come to life.

The readings during Advent and Christmas are beautiful and true but they aren't just 'once upon a time' stories. They are the narrative of our lives, stories we listen to and should resonate with deeply because:

We are the story. We are words made flesh. We are Advent.