“John the Baptist at the Mall”

December 4, 2005

Scripture Reading:  Mark 1:1-8 

Rev. Dr. Carol L. Kerr 

Blue Point Congregational Church

 

John the Baptist is like a rock I trip on every year when I am bringing the Christmas tree into the house.  At Christmas time the world is full of expectation.  We think of the manger with the small baby lying there beside his beautiful mother.  We think of families being together.  We think of children excited about their presents.    “Merry Christmas”, “Peace on Earth,” “Comfort and joy,” are the tinseled greetings we give one another.   A bubble bath of festivities are happening.  The air is filled with expectation, anticipation, and inspiration.   Then there is John the Baptist that stubborn, heavy, rock lying right in our way.  Then there is John the Baptist who trips us up every time with his disturbing message, right when we were having so much fun.   “Repent for the forgiveness of sins!”   John the Baptist bursting each one of our bubbles.

Repentance – isn’t that an old fashioned word?  It brings to mind monks lacerating themselves with a leather whip for obscure and shadowy things.  Certainly we are good and hard working people.  We pride ourselves on good citizenship.  We are pretty good to our neighbors.  We just volunteered a lot of time for the Church Christmas fair, and the PTA. 

As a minister I find John the Baptist awkward.  Why does the lectionary insist on bringing him up when people who haven’t been to church all year are starting to come?  Many of us probably heard “Away in the Manger” by Gladys Knight and the Pips piped in at the Gap, and saw the lovely golden lights and ribboned leather boots in the window of Filenes and felt so religious that we unaccountably got out of bed to come to church.  Here we are this morning anticipating a Christian rendition of “Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire” only to be greeted by a painful  John the Baptist instead.   As a minister I want people to have a good experience in church.  I want everyone to like it so much that they keep on coming.    I like Bing Cosby singing Jingle Bells.   Unfortunately, even for those who barely know the Bible, and hardly every come, even buried under layers of other scriptures, and tucked in between hymns and children sermons, it is clear that John the Baptist is a prototype for Mad-eyed Moody.  He jumps out of the scripture with his eye fixed on us and pointing at our hearts.  He is the kind of guy that would fit better at the soup kitchen we serve than in the Bible.  You know the kind of man with greasy hair, who hands us his plate, we dollop on some instant mash potatoes, he mumbles something that sounds like “Spiders and thank you.”  And we wonder if maybe we shouldn’t bring our kids to the soup kitchen after all because they would be scared out of their wits. 

The reason why the church puts John the Baptist into the season of Advent is because like it or not, he is part of the Christmas story.   This is so even though we may never hear about him anywhere but in the church.  The mall and Madison Avenue heralds all the other characters, pregnant Mary, so sweet, winged angels, so lovely, hard working shepherds, so sincere.  You can find images and songs about all of these at the mall.  But no where will you find a trace of John. 

Of course, I can see why Madison Ave and the shopping mall omits him.  Imagine if there was a John the Baptist section of the mall, perhaps a store dedicated just to him.  It would be very strange.  To start with they would have someone in front of the store passing out samples of locusts on toothpicks to people.  “Eat what the Baptist ate!” they would offer.

Inside it would sell John the Baptists unique style of Christmas cards.  For instance, one would have a picture of bells ringing.  However, instead of something like “Peace and Joy” being written as the greeting on the inside, the John the Baptist  card would say the unnerving, “Go, sell all that you have and give to the poor, then follow me.  Merry Christmas!”  Or, there would be a card with a lovely New England Church with windows lit and snow falling gently.  The greeting, however, wouldn’t say “Noel,” rather it would say “Whoever takes up the sword, dies by the sword.  Happy Holidays!”    Another card would have a  picture of sled tracks going all the way to grandmothers house, but then they pass by the house.  There is a gray haired woman with cookies in the window looking confused and the card says, “I have come to set a man against his father and daughter against her mother, and daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; and one’s foes will be members of one’s own household.  The reason for the season!”  Then you could buy a box of card that had individualized John the Baptist greetings on them.  The cover would have a long straight road on it with the words “Prepare the way.”   On the inside the individualized cards would say, “Quit drinking.”  Or “Quit lying.”  Or “Quit yelling.”  Or “We know you are cheating on your wife.”  Or, “Get real.”     You could send them to the friends and relatives accordingly. 

What else would the John the Baptist Christmas shop sell?  I read a sweet children’s story the other day.  It was about two cartoon characters.  One wanted to buy the other a present.  But, the other had everything.  So the one decided to give him nothing for Christmas.  Then the one goes shopping for nothing.  Finally he wraps up an empty box.  In it the box really has something, it has love.  The two characters hug after the present is opened.  This is a sweet story, and no one can fault its message.  But, the John the Baptist store would have a different sort of empty box.  They would have empty boxes that you could give people, not filled with love, but are empty according to the size and shape of the hole inside of you that is missing God.  They have an empty box shaped like a bottle.  They have an empty box the size of a house.  They have an empty box with twenty other empty boxes nested in them for those in denial.  Of course they would have the ever popular empty box in the shape of a heart. 

Other gifts the store might offer for Christmas.  Maybe they would have a lock that is missing its key – the idea being that you always feel left out.  Counterfeit money – the idea being that a life in pursuit of wealth is counterfeit anyhow.  How about invisible ink for those who feel that whatever they say seems to disappear and no one notices.  Then of course there is the effective tomb stone with your name on it.  A picture of two ships passing in the night, one has a picture of your face in the window, or maybe the United States, and the other has a picture of you loved one in the window, or maybe Europe. 

This is what a John the Baptist store would be like at the mall.  No wonder with stampede of commercialism and frenzy of Christmas activity he is never ever mentioned by anyone who is trying to make a profit or keep up good will and cheer throughout the season.  That is why he alone is left out and forgotten by everyone except here at the church by pastors who diligently follow the lectionary whether they like it or not, such as myself.

Have you ever wonder why Christmas ends so abruptly and utterly?  The children will sit amidst the wrapping paper torn and scattered under the tree, look at their gifts and feel is that it?  All that anticipation and hoping done in 10 minutes?   At the stroke of midnight Christmas night the mall is going to pull out its Christmas tape and put back its pop music tape.   The Styrofoam candy canes, the Christmas lights, the tree itself will seem bedraggled and old, and be drained of meaning like old eggnog empty poured into the sink.  By Jan 1 we will be glad to put all that stuff away, throw the tree in the back yard and pretend it never happened.

Why is that?  The world loves the baby Jesus.  We love to live in the expectation of him being born and lying there in the manger still and quiet and pretty “the little Lord Jesus, no crying he makes.”    Madison Avenue loves that baby that is not going to disturb us.  The mall loves that baby.  All the Christmas hype is not harmful in itself.  Only that it doesn’t lead to meaningful action.  That is why it ends so abruptly.   Expectation of the baby Jesus, expectation alone,  makes no claim, no truth, no demands on us.    John the Baptist is so out of sync with the rest of the Christmas season  not just that he bellows repentance like a religious fanatic Mad eyed Moody.  It is not just that he loves reminding us that our lives aren’t as clean as we think they are and that we are not as nice as we would like to believe.  But also it  is because  that although the birth of Jesus is filled with expectation the adult Christ is about assignment.  Only John reminds us of.   John puts the child’s birth into perspective.  The little Lord Jesus grew up to be the big Messiah and so sacrificed himself for us out of a grace so great that only he can reach to the deepest dark buried parts of our lives.   Because of this we can and are changed for ever. 

Thinking about a John the Baptist store at the mall, I began imagining the store owner coming out into the halls throughout the parking lots, along cars waiting in line at the bank and shouting, “Prepare the way fot he Lord, make his paths straight!  Repent for the forgiveness of sins.”  He would do this rain or shine, blizzard or no. 

For a long time security at the mall put up with this.  After all he was paying his rent on a regular basis.  There were other people on the street advertising other stores.  The Halloween store had a ghoul out by Burger King for a couple of weeks in October.   But, finally they decided enough was enough.  One day they confronted him and said, “Hey man are you really crazy or what?  Everyday you come out of your store and yell “Prepare the way for the Lord!  Repent!”  Don’t you know that nobody is listening to you?   The people at the mall do not want to repent, they want to buy and be happy.  You are not going to really change anybody.” 

The hype, the parties, the frenzied activities bring a kind of jocularity but not a real and lasting joy.  John on the other hand does.  John is the real angel of Christmas.  He was announcing a new world order in which he fully expected that we could participate.  The networks broadcast news that says that although the viewer is good and benign the news is bad and there is not much that we can do about it.  John broadcasts news that says although the viewer is not so good and probably far from benign the news is good and a lot we can do about it.  You see John believed in us enough to ask us to repent.  Why go into all that dark if he didn’t think we could do it.  Why bother sending crazy Christmas cards with any challenge on them what so ever unless he thought that it was possible to do.  He thought it wouldn’t be easy but each of us could change for the better in order to prepare for God coming to us and living with us.  The alcoholic could recover.  The person with greed could become generous.  The unloving person could love.  Repentance is an old word layered with spider webs but it stands on a hope in humanity that is far greater than modern people can even imagine. 

At which point John the Baptist replies,  “Repent for the forgiveness of sins.  Merry Christmas and joy to the world.”