2nd Sunday of Advent A: 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 the reflection for last Sunday 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 my Advent theme.

When you reflect on John the Baptist, do you ever wonder what happened when he was out in the desert? What we read in scripture is that he ate locusts and wild honey and wore clothing of camel’s hair with a leather belt. But something happened out there that formed and shaped him to become the forerunner of Jesus, a voice crying out in the wilderness, “Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.” What was it?

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

Have you ever experienced a spiritual desert? This is a time when your heart is arid and your spirit thirsts for God but it feels more like he’s an isolated idea rather than an active presence in your life. It’s a time when scripture holds no comfort and seems to be trite words, a time when spiritual disciplines that once fed you and comforted you now feel senseless and uninspiring. You worry that you’ve lost your way and you wonder if it’s your fault. You speculate that perhaps you’re praying the wrong prayers, thinking the wrong thoughts or reading the wrong books. It’s a harsh and dry time.

Welcome to John’s desert. It would be safe to assume that John felt deeply called to head out into the wilderness and to take very little with him. He probably even went out with a great sense of adventure and a lot of expectations of meeting his God. He most likely went out filled 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 that he wasn’t sensing God’s presence at all as he kept himself busy with his prayer disciplines and was occupied with acquiring the basic necessities of life in the desert but eventually the starkness and emptiness of that desert wilderness must have begun to seep disturbingly into his soul. Prayers that were so comforting in the old community started losing relevancy. Spiritual disciplines that used to speak to his heart began to feel 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 he did. John was human and in order to come face to face with God and hear his voice with clarity we humans have to lose much. We have to lose the idea that anything we do can guarantee that God will act 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. There is so much we all need to lose. John had to lose all his preconceived ideas of God before he could find the pure voice of God, a voice so life shifting that, once heard, it recreates the one listening to it.

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 persisted in focusing 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. He needed to gather some firewood for the cold nights. He had to build a shelter against the sudden windstorm. He had to find water. Basic stuff. Unexciting stuff. He had to apply himself to tedious tasks that seemed to have very little to do with great spiritual revelations. And he was called to speak to his God within and through these seeming trivialities of life – not outside of them.

These kinds of activities don’t seem to 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 something begins to happen. Where we would once only see dreary tasks, we begin to notice beauty within the ordinary. Where we would once have dismissed certain 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. We need not and should not look anywhere else.

God pays deep attention to us in the present moment and it is there that he calls each of us by name. When John had lost everything that God had called him into the desert to lose, John became attentive and quieter. He became less anxious and less self-conscious. Then he heard his Name:

“John…listen! You are not just John. Listen to me. Listen to me! The One whom you seek is coming. Cry out to my people!

Listen to me! You are ‘My Voice Crying Out in the Wilderness’. Cry out to my people!

Listen to me! You are ‘The Preparer of the Way for my Chosen One’. Cry out to my people!

Listen to me! You are ‘My Baptist’. Cry out to my people!

Listen to me! You are my ‘Leveler of Mountains’. Cry out to my people!

Listen to me! You are my ‘Straight Highway’. Cry out to my people!

Listen to me! You are my ‘Filler of Valleys.’ Cry out to my people!

My son, listen to me!”

In the stillness of his spirit, John heard all 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 who he was called to be. 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. God was right where he had always been. John could not contain the presence of his God or the name God called him by and was compelled to cry out to the very wilderness itself, “Prepare the way for the Lord!!”

Do not rebuke yourself for the desert you are in. Welcome it and seek Christ, the One who Comes in all of our drearily ordinary or stressful moments. In this desert world, in the desert of your heart, be here now and pay attention. Listen for your ancient name, a name that will come to you in the desert emptiness. Listening and watching is a way of preparing the way of the Lord and making his path straight.

He is coming. He is here. He is calling your Name