Karen Hollis | December 3, 2023
Advent 2
Ode of Solomon 30
Draw up for yourselves water from the living fountain of the Lord,
Because it has been opened for you.
Come all of you thirsty ones, and take a drink
And be soothed by the spring of the Lord
Because it is beautiful and clean
And restores the self.
Indeed its waters are much sweeter than honey,
And the honeycomb of bees does not compare with it,
Because it emerges from the lips of the Lord
And its name comes from the heart of the Lord.
It came limitless and invisible,
And until it was given in the middle, they did not recognize it.
They are blessed, those who have drunk from it,
And who have been soothed by it.
Halleluiah.
Mark 1:1-8 The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
As it is written in the prophet Isaiah,
‘See, I am sending my messenger ahead of you,
who will prepare your way;
the voice of one crying out in the wilderness:
“Prepare the way of the Lord,
make his paths straight” ’,
John the baptizer appeared in the wilderness, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. And people from the whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem were going out to him, and were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins. Now John was clothed with camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey. He proclaimed, ‘The one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to stoop down and untie the thong of his sandals. I have baptized you with water; but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.’
May the words of my mouth and the meditations of all our hearts be reflections of your word to us today, in Christ’s name we pray. Amen
Did you know that we have a beehive here at Comox United? You can actually see it through the upper window on this side. Klaus Jennerman is our resident beekeeper. I am quite fond of bees, and the honey they make is not only delicious to eat, it also has antibacterial properties. You can actually put honey on a wound to keep it clean and protected, and to promote healing.
John the Baptizer appears in this morning’s passage eating honey. The description of John is full of fascinating symbols, like honey and its healing properties, wilderness and baptism. These symbols paint us a picture of John’s purpose. I didn’t look up what locusts symbolize, but the wilderness is noteworthy, first of all, because it is far away from the Temple, it’s on the margins. The wilderness is where people can be found who are not well served by the centre of power. The wilderness is also a place theologically where people change and are transformed. It is closely connected with the Israelites’ liberation from slavery in Egypt. In the wilderness they spend 40 years coming apart . . . which is not necessarily a bad thing. Their work in the wilderness is to shed their generational identity as enslaved people. Author La Marr Jurelle Bruce reminds us that “sometimes coming undone is precisely how one falls into place. Sometimes a breakdown doubles as a breakthrough.” In the wilderness, the Israelites disassemble the injustice, the inhumanity they experienced, they dismantle the identity and mindset of captivity, and as they heal and become more whole, their new identity falls into place as a people named and claimed by God.
Water and immersion are already a part of the Jewish tradition when John appears in the wilderness eating honey. To become ritually clean, one would wash in a ritual bath located in the lower level of a house or better yet, one would go to a lake or river, where living water flowed – as opposed to stagnant waters of a pond or trough.
John the Baptizer takes this established tradition and puts his own spin on it. He frames this ritual bath as an invitation to turn again toward God . . . and he invites people to this place in the wilderness on the banks of the Jordan River . . . which is probably the most potent symbol of living waters in the Jewish tradition.
You may remember that after 40 years in the wilderness, the Israelites cross the Jordan into the Promised Land . . . the river crossing becomes a ritual cleansing as they enter their new life.
So John is inviting the people to healing . . . washing . . . and transformation . . . in preparation for the one who comes after him.
Most of us here have some perspective on John the Baptiser. We’re not coming to Advent for the first time . . . it’s not our first time asking, “what does it look like for me to turn my life toward God this year?” Is it a physical turning? Or an energetic turning? Is it an internal reckoning, something that has been building for a while and coming to a head in this season? Is it an invitation to come apart so that things can fall into place? Is this year a deepening?
Can you imagine yourself there at the Jordan? Imagine John inviting you into the water?
Rituals, like Christian baptism and the one John offers are an interplay between the physical and spiritual. In the space of a ritual, our spiritual truth and physical action align in mutual affirmation. This encounter is a beginning, a doorway to new depths, new rooms to explore within us and, new roads to travel.
A few summers ago, we went camping at Buttle Lake. I’ve never been one for swimming in general, let alone lake or ocean swimming. But this time I felt called to what we might call the “living waters of Buttle Lake.” I waded in above my knees and fretted for an eternity over jumping all the way in. When I finally immersed myself, yes, it was as cold as I had anticipated, and I felt a warmth within me that met the cold, a warmth I’d never felt before in cold water. I experienced this immersion as an affirmation that I was indeed stepping into a new version of myself.
Here in the season of Advent, for seasoned disciples seasoned and new ones, John is clear about his role: to help us turn, to help us cleanse and heal, help us inhabit ourselves in a new way, help us find the path from wherever we are . . . for the first time or hundredth time.
Reading together these 2 texts - the story of John, who prepares us for Jesus’ coming, and the Odist, who is spirituality united with Christ - was interesting to me. It lifted up for me the both/and of Advent. Christ is both with us and coming in a new way. We are both engaging the spirituality we know and preparing to encounter Christ in the newness and mystery that will soon be revealed.
I invite you to hear these words again from the Odist – I want us to note quickly that the author is not describing membership in an exclusive club of some kind – those for whom the fountain of the Lord has been opened. Instead think of this as a spirituality, a spiritual connection that is available to all of us. Listen to these words again – actually, I invite you to receive them. “Draw up for yourselves water from the living fountain of the Lord, because it has been opened for you . . . [it] restores the self. Indeed [these] waters are much sweeter than honey (as delicious and healing as honey may be) . . . because it emerges from the lips of the Lord.” These words are so beautiful – soothing, like honey. The Odist tells us the fount within is “limitless and invisible” . . . invisible, and still, real. They describe the spiritual connection with Christ that restores the self – I love this language – restores the self, like the waters of baptism that affirm us body and soul. When I read the words of the Odist, I am reminded that Christ will both meet us where we are, and has a limitless capacity to deepen as we are ready. This is the path of discipleship, which is deeply human. We walk on the path and off it, we step back on, we turn away, and so on . . . when Advent arrives, we are invited together to locate ourselves, and hear the invitation of the Baptizer to prepare once again.