John the Baptizer burst upon the Gospel of Luke. That is because it is Advent time. And whenever it is Advent time, we get John. If is not yet time for Jesus. This is still the time for getting ready. Getting ready time is mainly about busy activity, entertaining, and fatigue. Getting ready time is mainly abrasive… asking, thinking, pondering, and deciding.
“He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire” (v. 16). Now I imagine that sounds as weird to you as it does to me. We who are relatively affluent and relatively sophisticated do not talk that way and do not welcome it. In truth, however, being baptized with God’s holy spirit does not mean charismatic acting out. It means, I take it, we may be visited by a spirit of openness, generosity, energy, that “the force” may come over us, carry is to do obedient things we have not yet done, kingdom things we did not think we had in us, neighbor things from which we cringe. The whole tenor of Advent is that God may act in us, through us, beyond us, more than we imagined, because newness is on its way among us.
John is not the newness. He prepares us for the newness. And his word is that if we want to be immersed in the life-giving power of God, then we must do as John says: share your coats and shoes and goods… manage money in neighborly ways… quit being the heavy in social transactions.
Who would have thought such concrete acts are the tactic whereby God’s newness will yet come! Advent is not the kind of “preparation” that involves shopping and parties and cards. Such illusions of abundance disguise the true cravings of our weary souls. Advent is preparation for the demands of newness that will break the tired patterns of fear in our lives.
It is no wonder that in the very next verse of Luke 3, King Herod arrested John, imprisoned him, and tried to silence him. For what John says was dangerous is business as usual. Herod and his company preferred to imagine that their established credentials were enough, with Abraham as their father. And anyway, they did not want newness, so they tried to stop the dangerous newness before it ever intruded into their lives.
What we know, that Herod didn’t know and never suspected, is that John’s Advent invitation cannot be silenced or arrested. It continues to invite. And sometimes we let it come among us and transform us.
Living God, visit us in the season of your Holy Spirit that we may get carried away to do obedient things we have not yet done, kingdom things we did not think we had in us, neighbor things from which we cringe. May you act in us, through us, beyond us, more than we imagine, because newness is on its way among us. Amen.
Brueggemann, Walter, Celebrating Abundance, Westminster/John Knox Press, 20017, pgs 4-5
