Our scripture this morning is essentially the same passage about John the Baptist as last week just from a different gospel. Last week, the scripture talked about how John came to bear witness about the good news and this week we hear that John is bearing witness about the light both which are Jesus Christ. Prepare the way of the Lord, he says. But, how exactly are we to do this? I can barely prepare for my friends to come over or my family to come into town… How in the world do I prepare for the coming of the Lord?? Does this mean, make up a bed, go to the grocery store so for once there is food in my fridge, clean my house and act like it looks like that all the time, maybe even think of some fun activities for me and the Lord to do together? Maybe sledding…or Ice skating. Yes, I would definitely take Jesus down to PPG place so that we could ice skate together.
I’m going to go out on a limb and say that preparing for the Lord is going to look a little different than preparing for a simple house guest. I think preparing for the Lord means preparing to be able to receive the Lord which for all of us means preparing our hearts and minds to be changed- to be transformed. Today I am going to suggest that an essential part of this preparing is the act of truth-telling.
In Mark it says that John is a prophet in order to make the point that John came to tell the truth- because that’s what prophets do. Truth-telling is what we see John the Baptist do today in our text. It’s what all prophets do- they come and tell the truth no matter how unpopular or hard to hear that truth might be. John the Baptist was both telling the truth and also preparing the way for truth which is Jesus Christ.
Truth telling happens in the most unlikely of places. It’s often not from our political leaders or those in positions of authority but it is from one another. Two Mondays ago I was at an event called The Moth– it is an NPR program in which people from the audience get up and tell real life stories about themselves in front of hundreds of people. It’s the first Monday of every month here in Pittsburgh at the Rex Theatre in the Southside and each month there is a theme. This month the theme was dirt: tell a story of a time you got dirty, or you had dirt on someone or someone had dirt on you. These themes are designed to have a comical air about them. People are welcome to tell serious, intense stories but these nights are normally far more comedic than they are reflective. That particular Monday night though- I was at a very different Moth. Story teller after story teller got on stage and told very deep, personal stories about their lives. Two had to do with the death of a parent. One had to do with struggles of bulimia, abuse and homelessness and another had to do with attempted suicide. They told these vulnerable stories on stage in front of 200 people. The host who is a very funny guy was clearly uncomfortable being in such a vulnerable place. Some of these stories didn’t even have to do with the theme of the night- which for me only confirmed that people needed to do some truth telling that night.
I think for a long time people have been desperate to tell the truth about their life, to express the things weighing on their heart but they haven’t felt they could do so. I look at the world and I see a world that in many ways it’s so broken you can hardly see where the pieces use to fit together. But in other ways I see a world that is finally allowing space for truth-telling. It has taken way too long and we are still a far way off but I think that when the Moth opened in Pittsburgh 6 years ago- these stories would not have been told. Only now after seeing the strength in others talk publicly about racism, sexism, homophobia, mental illness, homelessness and so on and so forth do people feel safe enough to tell their own truth. One Woman said it was this act of truth telling that has allowed her to take her dirt and fertilize it into soil. And so it is with all of us- the beginning of our good news is truth telling.
That is how we get to hope, peace, joy- all the things we have been celebrating this advent season. We can not live into these things though unless we begin by telling the truth, whether that be our truth or the truth that we see around us.
The scripture this morning seems very simple and straightforward but when we look at it closer there is a lot of beauty. John comes from the wilderness- we know this because the only thing that he says to the priests and Levites that is not super vague is “I am the voice of the one crying out in the wilderness”. It is important to know that John came from the wilderness because the wilderness plays a big role in salvation history. Salvation has traditionally come from the wilderness- Moses, Elijah and David all fled to the wilderness and God met them there. And then we see Jesus enter out of the wilderness to begin his ministry of truth telling. Jesus came to tell the truth about sin and to save us from sin but he does so by telling the truth that names our own compliance, our own conformity, our own tolerance of inequality and the kind of sin that believes we have “gotten past” the -isms that exclude and excuse, that insists on rationalizing acts of dehumanization. Jesus came to liberate a captive people- and part of that liberation includes us understanding the role we play in captivating each other and then repenting of these roles.
In today’s scripture, John talks about baptism and in baptism there is a need for repentance. To repent in the Greek is metanoia- which means to change ones mind/ to do a work. A combination of both. Turning from something to something else. We need to repent of the sin that we do to one another but also of what sin tries to tell us is our truth. We need to repent from false idols to God. From false narrative to truth. From people telling us that we are not worthy to be loved, that we are not worthy of grace, that peace is not obtainable, that we do not deserve joy. To a Gospel that tells us that we are loved at our darkest and our imperfections make us beautiful and that grace abounds for us. We need to turn from the lies the world tries to tell us and turn towards the truth in Jesus Christ.
And like we see in John the Baptist or on a random Monday night at The Moth, this truth does not come from where we expect… it comes from the messiness, the confusion, the darkness- the unknown, also known as the wilderness. I hope we see this as a comfort. The wilderness is not absent of God- which is how we feel when we are there right? We feel distant from God. But the wilderness is where God chooses to meet us. The wilderness is where the truth is revealed. Truth comes when we need to be liberated from something. But truth is only the beginning of our good news when it is acknowledged and accepted. In order for that to happen, people have to be able to tell their truths. Truth will not be told when people fear for their safety in doing so. Truth will not be told if there is no one to tell it to. Truth will not be liberating if those who hear it do not accept it.
Time Magazine named their person of the year “the Silence breakers” or those a part of the #metoo sexual harassment campaign. For those who might not be aware of what this is- it was a campaign that was revived on social media a few months ago when Harvey Weinstein was accused of sexually assaulting multiple women. This campaign however, was started in 2006 by a black activist name Tarana Burke in the hopes of bringing awareness to the sexual assault happening in underprivileged communities of colour. It wasn’t until Alyssa Milano started hashtagging metoo, asking women to share similar stories that have happened to them that this movement went viral. And I talk about this today in church because this is what the gospel talks about when it talks about liberation. This right here is the call of the church- to speak out against injustice, to doing whatever it takes to allow people to tell their truth. And on this Sunday of advent where we lit the candle of joy- to look forward to the joy that Christ brings- there is no time more relevant in talking about our duty as Christians to help achieve the joy that Christ has put before us. I think we can learn multiple things from this movement. It should not have taken 10 years for this movement to go viral. We need to do better in figuring out where truth is being told, in listening to the voices in our communities rather than waiting for a famous actress to tweet about it. We also learn that when people speak out, it encourages others to speak out too. Knowing you are not alone and that you have people supporting you and yearning to hear your story makes all the difference. Time’s person of the year is not a person but a group of people- a movement- to me that shows that real change and transformation comes from people working together towards something. If that’s not what the church is intended to be then I don’t know what is. We are a group of people working towards something- we are a group of people who believe in the work of Jesus Christ and are working towards the fulfillment of His liberation of the world.
Advent is about promises. The awaiting and anticipation of promises fulfilled. The promise of salvation. The promise that truth telling will yield liberation. Truth telling is a scary thing though as we have seen. John did it and he was be-headed. Jesus did it and he was crucified. We do it and we are shamed and ignored and told that our truth doesn’t matter. Except that it does. Jesus made sure that it did by exemplifying what it looks like to tell the truth. If the past few weeks and months of people having the courage to tell the truth has taught us anything- it’s that our truth matters. You see, telling the truth though wasn’t what killed Jesus- it was the inability of those around him to accept the truth that killed him. It was the suppression of truth that led to crucifixion. As a church are we going to continue to suppress truth? We say that we spread the truth. But who’s truth? Is it the truth we tell ourselves because it is easy to face or is it Christ’s truth. The OT passage for today is Isaiah 61 which says:
The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me,
because the Lord has anointed me
to bring good news to the poor;[a]
he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,
to proclaim liberty to the captives,
and the opening of the prison to those who are bound;[b]
2 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor,
and the day of vengeance of our God;
to comfort all who mourn;
3 to grant to those who mourn in Zion—
to give them a beautiful headdress instead of ashes,
the oil of gladness instead of mourning,
the garment of praise instead of a faint spirit;
that they may be called oaks of righteousness,
the planting of the Lord, that he may be glorified.[c]
4 They shall build up the ancient ruins;
they shall raise up the former devastations;
they shall repair the ruined cities,
the devastations of many generations.
The truth we see here is that Jesus stands on the side of the oppressed and promises to reveal their truth and reign in justice. As a church, are we following Christ’s example and standing with the oppressed, revealing their truth and helping to bring forth justice? This needs to happen before we can preach of this joy- before we can preach of the day when we will wear beautiful headdresses instead of ashes.
Telling the truth and advocating for the truth is exhausting. This advent season I have been reminding myself to endure these hard tasks that we are called to do as a church. Some of these hard tasks are exhausting not because of the work we are doing for others but because of the work we first have to do in ourselves. People say they don’t want to go to therapy because its stupid or they don’t think it works but I think people don’t want to go because then they will be confronted with the truths of their lives that they have tried so hard to deny. Truth, while liberating can be an incredibly difficult thing to face. And yet even when we are faced with it- it is a whole other thing to accept it.
Maybe what it looks like to prepare the way of the Lord is to create places for people to tell their truths. Part of what that may look like is confronting your own truth so you can accept the truth of others.
I’m all about asking questions right now and figuring out what better questions the church should be asking, So what would it look like for the church to be a safe place for truth telling? What would it look like for us to listen to those truths and accept them? I really want us to imagine this. What would it be like if anyone and everyone felt that the church could help them achieve a sense of freedom for their life? if I’m being honest, It’s hard for me to imagine the people I encounter having a view of church as a freeing community rather than a silencing community.
But I want to Imagine the liberation that could come from this. I want to Imagine how many people the good news could actually become a reality for. The joy people could actually experience if their truth was accepted. So If we actually want to prepare the way of the Lord this advent season, I believe we need to prepare the way for truth to be told. And for each of us this may look different but I encourage you to take some time this next week and think about what that may look like for you.
Amen.
Floundering With A Purpose 