It was an ordinary Friday night. American Airlines was connecting weary road warriors from their business week to their homes through the Dallas mixing bowl. The DC-9 aircraft was packed with men and women wearing business suits. No one paid much attention to the dusty, scruffy guy in 11A. When the aircraft lurched to its final stopping place at the gate, people jumped out of their seats and began opening the overhead bins well ahead of the pilot’s announcement. Everyone was eager to head home.
The man sitting in 11A looked as if he lived in a homeless encampment. He smelled like it too. Through most of the flight his head was slumped down as if he were sleeping, but at some point after we landed, and in the midst of the hustle to get our laptops, he stirred and cleared the air with his throat. He seemed to stair through each person on that plane with penetrating eyes.
With a gravelly voice that could be clearly heard from one end of the cabin to the other, he began to address us with, “You’re all a bunch of selfish brats. Who said you were all entitled to this?” At this point everyone stopped. You could hear a pin drop. “You think your money and your nice homes will protect you, but I tell you they don’t mean nothin’. Nothin’s gonna protect you unless you do something to change yourselves. Do something to help someone who doesn’t have all the money you have. Do SOMETHING for somebody else.”
He stood up, grabbed a leather bag out of the overhead bin, and walked right through the crowd. He was the first to get off the plane. The next one out was quite a distance behind.
As the author of the Gospel of John frequently notes, this story is true. I tell you this story is true because I sat next to the guy. I bought him one of those little bottles of red wine, which he gratefully consumed and went to sleep. During the flight I just thought he was odd. Afterwards I thought we had been visited by John the Baptist. He did tell me that he lived alone deep in the desert in Arizona. He liked his solitude with his cactus and the scorpions.
Today is only 20 shopping days left until Christmas. How many days do we have left until judgment? John’s message to us then and now is repent. The Greek word for this has two meanings: one is to completely change your mind; the other is to know God more intimately.
John drew crowds, including kings, rulers, soldiers, rich people, religious leaders, and common everyday folks. John forced people to make decisions about their lives and face the truth. If you were standing there on the banks of the Jordan listening to John you would have had to choose between a shallow observance of religion and dependence upon the might of Roman armies – or you could change your mind, be baptized, and depend upon the mercy of God. Our job as baptized Christian today is to lead others to this kind of a decision. Maybe we do not need to eat locusts and wear camel skin belts, but how do we lead others to a deeper intimacy with God?
In the first century kings and rulers were not supposed to travel up and down hills or around curves because those places could be used for a surprise attack. As much as possible, kings were supposed to travel on level ground in a straight path. That is why you hear John’s proclamation quoting Isaiah, “prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.” This language was politically loaded because it heralded a new king. Referring to the one to come as king is ultimately what led to political executions of both John and Jesus.
John’s cry for us to repent, to change our minds completely, asks that we look inside ourselves and remove those road blocks that prevent the Christ from coming into our lives. Those obstacles could be addictions, pursuit of sex, wealth, or power – but there is more. John is also asking how we AS A PEOPLE, as a church, as a city, as a nation, are removing roadblocks.
When John was in prison and sent his disciples to ask Jesus if he was the One, the Messiah, Jesus replied that “the blind receive sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the POOR HAVE THE GOOD NEWS PREACHED TO THEM.”
John is not talking about removing roadblocks that prevent more Episcopal Churches from being built. He is talking about roadblocks in our society that remove freedom and dignity from other people. Those terms, “ensure the freedom and dignity for every human being”, we promised to do at our baptism.
Let’s look at a couple of roadblocks to freedom and dignity:
Food security – A household is considered food-secure when its occupants do not live in hunger or fear of starvation. In spite of our obesity epidemic in the United States, 15% of households are NOT food secure. When one household in seven does not have enough food to eat or lives in fear of starvation, it is a national disgrace. This roadblock is all around us right here in Oklahoma. Yes, we have some good meals programs and those should grow – but what are we doing to address the roots of this problem?
Another roadblock is education. Our nation may still be an economic powerhouse, but if you put the United States on a baseball team in terms of education, we would be sitting on the bench. The US ranks 18th in the world in terms of secondary education. In addition, educational performance and food security are connected. Grace Church had a very fine GED program for 29 years. We graduated over 600 people from high school. What can we do today to prepare the way for the king?
Martin Luther King, Jr. also quoted Isaiah about removing stumbling blocks for our King when he said, “I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, and every hill and mountain shall be made low. The rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight – and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together.”
The list of ways our society beats down and oppresses people is endless. These are not political problems that our government should solve. These are conditions that affect the freedom and human dignity of our brothers and sisters within a ten block circle of this church.
Last week I started out with a humorous bumper sticker for Advent: “Jesus is coming, look busy.” This week I want to give you a new bumper sticker: “Jesus is coming. Get busy!”