- He caused quite a stir among the shoppers. Many dismissed him as an annoying
nut; some found him an eccentric "hoot." He was dressed in a tattered
flannel shirt and jeans. No one knew where he spent the night, but he was
seen rummaging around the dumpsters for scraps of food from Orange Julius
and MacDonald's. Every day he could be found by the beautifully lighted
fountain near the mall's food court. Despite his ragged appearance and that
slightly "off" look in his eyes, there was a kindness and sincerity about
him that drew people to him.
He would ask them why they would spend so much money for Christmas, why they would allow themselves to become so obsessed and stressed out over this tinseled holiday. "We like our Christmas with a lot of sugar, don't we?" he would tease. But Christmas is about hope and love, he said - and that can be a struggle. Give gifts of kindness and compassion to each other. Seek forgiveness and reconciliation from family and friends who may be lost to you. Let the spirit of the Christ Child embrace every season of the year, not just December.
Those who listened would nod in agreement as he spoke - even as they tightened their grips on their shopping bags. Some were moved to quit shopping and go home to be with their families, others would go off and buy an extra toy or piece of clothing for charity; a few would even be moved to escape to a church or chapel for quiet prayer.
Sometimes he would rail against the insipid music and the gaudy decorations. When the mall Santa would walk by, he would make fun of him, asking the embarrassed Santa pointed questions about the real Christmas story.
Soon, though, the storeowners had had enough of his distractions. The mall managers had security escort him from the premises.
He wasn't really hurting anyone, they realized.
But he had to go, they said.
He was ruining everyone's Christmas.[i]
- Jane and her older sister had been fighting a lot this year. Jane's parents
warned her that Santa Claus was watching, and Santa doesn't like it when
children fight. This had little impact. "I'll just have to tell Santa about
your misbehavior," her mother said as she picked up the phone and dialed.
Jane's eyes grew big as her mother asked "Mrs. Claus" (really Jane's aunt;
Santa's real line was busy) if she could put Santa on the line. Jane's mouth
dropped open as Mom described to Santa (Jane's uncle) how the three-year-old
was acting. Then Mom put Jane on the phone.
Santa, in a deepened voice, explained to Jane how there would be no presents Christmas morning to children that fought with their sisters. He would be watching, and expected things to be better from now on. Jane solemnly nodded to each of Santa's remarks and silently hung the phone up when he was done. After a long moment Mom asked, "What did Santa say to you, dear?" In almost a whisper, Jane sadly but matter-of-factly stated, "Santa said he won't be bringing toys to my sister this year." [ii]
It's the same problem we had with Christ the King. How could our King . and we associate kings with royal purple and ermine, and crowns, and power . end up on a cross with blood matted in his hair and spittle dribble down his nose. Not "lahkely," as the British would say.
And yet that's who our king was, and is. Jesus didn't want us to confuse him with some miracle-worker. Nor, at Christmas, does he want us to confuse him with some sovereign power descending from heaven amid clouds of angels and blaring trumpets. So he appeared in a manger as an infant, in the cold of midnight, warmed by the mist of the animals' breaths. Yes, there were angels, but only the shepherds, those stinking, dirty herdsmen, were privileged to see them, not the rich and powerful. John the Baptist, the herald of our child-king, wasn't long on physical hygiene either. He also probably had hair matted with sweat, What was with John?
Maybe it's his diet - wild locusts and honey; maybe it's the fact that he lives out there in the wilderness. We tend to think of John the Baptist as being a little nuts. Sure, we admire his passion, his commitment, his wholehearted devotion to announcing the coming Messiah. But living in the wilderness, eating locusts and wild honey? Gross! At least, that 's what I always thought. But maybe John wasn't so nutty after all. According to Halley's Bible handbook, locusts were commonly eaten as food in those days. When cooked, locusts are very similar in flavor to shrimp. [iii]
John was a man of justice. Set things straight; make the mountains level and fill in the valleys. Prepare the way of the Lord!
- Perhaps you read about a Civil Rights murder from the 1960s that was finally
cleared up a couple of years ago. On January 10, 1966, civil rights activist
Vernon Dahmer was murdered by the Ku Klux Klan in Laurel, Mississippi.
Dahmer had been encouraging local black residents to register for the vote,
and this made the local KKK chapter furious. Four members of the local Klan
were eventually convicted and went to prison for the crime. But few people
believed that justice had really been done. For over 30 years, the case sat
in the police files. Until finally someone came forward.
In 1994, police officials received a call from Bob Stringer, a middle-aged man who had once worked as an errand boy for the local Klan. Stringer had eyewitness evidence that the Klan's then-leader, Sam Bowers, had ordered the hit on Dahmer, along with a string of other murders and various crimes. For years, Stringer had lived with the guilt of knowing the truth and remaining silent. A gambling addiction had lead Stringer into a twelve-step recovery group. One of those steps is to make amends with those you have hurt. Bob Stringer wanted to make amends to the family of Vernon Dahmer. On August 21, 1998, thanks primarily to Bob Stringer's testimony, Sam Bowers was convicted of Vernon Dahmer's murder. Dahmer's family finally feels that justice was done. [iv]
Jane Adams, founder of a great movement for justice in the early days of this past century, said of the world where she worked in inner city Chicago, "much of the insensibility and hardness of the world is due to the lack of imagination."
Walter Brueggemann says that Scripture "funds the imagination." Think of Sunday that way. Church is where we gather to listen to the Bible, the "book of imagination, so that we might more luxuriously fund the imagination. You will note how rich our own biblical texts are, particularly at this time of the year. It's Advent. The Bible during Advent keeps trying to pry us loose from our tight grip on the present and to push us to stand on tiptoes as we greet God's intruding future.
We shouldn't be surprised at this time of year that children seem more attuned to the claims of Christmas than we adults. It isn't because children are ignorant or haven't yet got clear in their young brains what is "real' and what is not. It's because children are not yet confined within the narrow restraints of officially sanctioned "reality." For them, the world is a backdrop for their imagination, a stage on which they can be queens or kings if they have a towel to drape as a royal robe over their shoulders. They are Mario Andretti if someone will loan them a cardboard box. Thus, they notice possibilities and connections in the world the rest of us miss. At what age does the world cease being thick with potential, become fossilized, and reduced to a level of the thin and the prosaic, the expected and the explained? [vi]
Justice and imagination. They are not contradictory. Imagination, faith lived "as if," gives us the pattern, the "plate" we are to live our lives by
- Some may remember Dag Hammarskjold, the much-respected Secretary General of
the United Nations before his death in a plane crash on September 18, 1962.
At the time of his death he was trying to negotiate a peace between United
Nations forces and forces in Africa.
Pilots can use "approach plates" to help them find airports. Use this "plate" and a pilot can land safely. Hammarskjold's pilot was overworked, investigators concluded, and used the wrong approach plate. Instead of the approach plate for Endola, Zambia (which was the airport where he was trying to land), the pilot was using he approach plate for Endola in the Congo. There was a fatal difference of 3,000 feet, meaning that the plane flew quite literally into the ground short of the runway.
Children know how to live faith in an "as if" mode. What if Santa Claus, Jesus, were to come every day? What if we loved our brothers and sisters as much as we do at Christmas time? What if we really believed it is better to give than to receive? If we lived as if all the above were true (and they are ... at least we know they are at Christmas), then ... well, you tell me.
John the Baptist invites us to repent and remember the promises of God and to renew our lives by allowing the kingdom of God into our lives - to allow Christ to be born anew within. The preaching of John the Baptist is for us. It is in our behalf that he quotes the words of Isaiah: "Make ready the way of the Lord. Make his paths straight. Every valley shall be filled, every mountain and hill shall be brought low; and the crooked shall become straight, and the rough ways smooth. And all flesh shall see the salvation of God." [vii]
Imagine that!
[i] "The prophet at the Galleria, Connections, Second Sunday of Advent,
December 10, 2000.
[ii] LaughALot@ListFarm.com as quoted in "An intruder at our Christmas
party," Dynamic Preaching, 15 (4): 65 (Seven Worlds Corporation, 310 Simmons
Road, Knoxville TN 37922), Dec. 2000.
[iii] Halley's Bible Handbook (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Zondervan Publishing
House, 1959), p. 496, as quoted in Dynamic Preaching, pg. 65.
[iv] "Making Wrong Right" by Patrick Rogers, Bob Stewart, and Jerry
Mitchell. People Sept. 7, 1998, pp. 60-62, as quoted in Dynamic Preaching.
[v] "The Religious Imagination," Liturgy 5, 1985, pp. 54-59, as quoted in
"Proclaiming the texts," Pulpit Resource, 28 (4): 44 (Logos Productions
Inc., 6160 Carmen Ave. East, Inver Grove Heights MN 55076-4422), Dec. 2000.
[vi] "Relating the text," Pulpit Resource, pg. 46.
[vii] From a sermon by Reverend Eric S. Ritz who credits William Ritter,
First UMC, Birmingham, Michigan, as quoted in Dynamic Preaching.
(Comments to Jerry at padre@tri-lakes.net. Jerry's book, Stories For All Seasons, is available at a discount through the Homiletic Resource Center.)