Is 40:1-5, 9-11
Ps 85
2Pt 3:8-14
Mk 1:1-8
We are now in the thick of what can be called the High Season of Handel’s Messiah. Over the next weeks it will be performed magnificently by groups such as Boston Baroque, Handel and Hayden Society, Voces 8, and others. It will be brutalized by other organizations. It will be performed by small chamber choirs or a cast of thousands. Though not written as a “Christmas piece” todays first reading is a partial explanation for the popularity of performing this magnificent composition at Christmas.
The first lines of the reading from Isaiah are the very first words sung after the overture:
“Comfort ye my people . . . .”
Much of the first reading makes up the opening arias, recitatives, and the first of the magnificent choruses “And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed . . . “ The final verses of the first reading appears as the gentle and deeply consoling aria or duet, depending on the performance practices, “He Shall Feed His Flock.” When the new year begins
on the First Sunday of Advent the Church enters into a new cycle of Sunday readings.
Last week we began Year B, during which the gospel readings will come mostly from the Gospel of Mark.
No matter the cycle the second and third Sundays of Advent are always about John the Baptist and his message. John proclaimed Jesus’ coming while describing himself as unworthy to untie Jesus’ sandals. He was a kinsman of Jesus. Though the degree of kinship is not clear the magnificent first chapter of Luke’s Gospel describes the first encounter between John and Jesus at Mary’s visitation to Elizabeth when we read.
“. . . and Elizabeth, filled with the Holy Spirit cried out in a loud voice and said ‘Most Blessed are you among women and blessed is the fruit of your womb. And how does this happen to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me? For the moment the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the infant in my womb leapt for joy.” Who was this herald?
In paintings John is depicted as something between a drugged out hippie and a wild-eyed lunatic, dressed in animal skins and consuming a diet that, by American standards, may be considered inedible, except for a few bizarre shows on the Food Channel, Discovery, and their ilk.
There is credible testimony about John from multiple sources including the Antiquities of Josephus. An historian who lived from about A.D. 37 to 100 Josephus was neither Jewish nor Christian. He wrote the following about John: “He was a good man and exhorted the Jews to lead righteous lives, to practice justice toward their fellows and piety toward God, and in so doing to join in baptism.” He continued, “In John’s view this was a necessary preliminary if baptism were to be acceptable to God. They must not employ baptism to gain pardon for their sins, but as a consecration of the body.”
John was not quite the proto-hippie many picture him to be. His wardrobe was no different from that of any other desert dweller. The fur animal skins were necessary during cold desert nights. His diet had nothing to do with radical vegetarianism or veganism. It had to do with the need to maintain ritual dietary purity. His dress and diet are, however, irrelevant.
His message, on the other hand is as relevant to us as it was to the ancient Judeans
who sought him out. As Josephus noted, he “exhorted the Jews to lead righteous lives, to practice justice toward their fellows and piety toward God.” Justice toward their fellows and piety toward God. Obviously, neither the message of faith and justice nor the contrary behavior is new.
We hear in in the Letter of James, a letter which is not proclaimed nearly enough, “Be doers of the word not hearers only; deluding yourselves.” And a bit later, “What good is it if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him?” Just proclaiming “I have faith” or “I believe in Jesus’ is not a get-out-of-jail-free card.
Proclaiming that one has faith in Jesus without acting on and living out that faith, is not a free pass.
Given the uncompromising nature of his message it is no wonder that John is depicted as deranged or wild-eyed. It is easier to bash the messenger for dressing funny or being politically incorrect than it is to take the demands of the message to heart and live it out.
The choices of Advent are not what should I buy Ethel for Christmas, should I send a card to the Johnsons, or where can I find the least expensive 72-inch flat screen television? The choices are how to live out our faith in an attitude of repentance and conversion of heart so that we can say with the psalmist:
“I will hear what God proclaims;
the LORD—for he proclaims peace to his people.
Near indeed is his salvation to those who fear him,
glory dwelling.”
Besides the photos there is a YouTube video of a complete performance of Handel’s Messiah by Voces 8. I’ve heard many performances over the years, mostly live, but this is one of the best I’ve ever heard. Every word is intelligible. The soloists are members of the chorus rather than “hired guns.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J3qb6tP7DLA&t=1866s
The photos are from Ljubljana at Christmas 2016. The first is "the straw Nativity." I was unaware until one of the men asked if I were going to see it. It is very large. The others are the lights of LJ for Christmas. Miss that place terribly.
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