It’s a lot like bringing the boxes of Christmas decorations out of the attic or wherever you have them stored. Like pulling the Christmas sweaters from the wardrobe closet””that to my mind is the way the Church, each Advent, drags him out of the liturgical mothballs. His given name is John bar Zechariah. You know him as John the Baptist. He is completely out of step with what I have dubbed the Shopmas season. That is a word I coined some years ago to describe the season that begins the day after Thanksgiving and lasts until December 31. It is celebrated with lights, glitter, cards, parties, presents, and most of all shopping accompanied by holiday music. It is enchanting how puissant such songs as “Winter Wonderland” or “White Christmas” can be for the shopkeeper’s business. Some preachers complain about this festive celebration. I kind of like it.
My problem is with the lectionary. Just when I’m in the mood for the nostalgia of Shopmas the Church drags John the Baptizer out of the pages of the Bible and plops him smack dab in the middle of my life and I have to deal with him again. And not just for one Sunday but for two! I can see him there in the barren desert that borders the Jordan River near where it flows into the Dead Sea. The lowest place on earth and the last place most of us want to be during Shopmas. He’s out there preaching. He’s dressed austerely in skins and camel’s hair; living on a sparse diet of locust and wild honey. His voice raging like a furnace; his message burning like a wild fire in the chaparral, uncontained and uncontainable””“Repent,” he cries, “repent.”
There are those people, few and far between, who come into our lives with an austerity, even a harshness that the causes us to grow. They are tough on us, and yet for some reason do not offend us. Or if they do, we get over it and go on. Maybe it’s a teacher, a coach, or even a boss who gets the best out of us. They push us to become more than we thought we were able to be. John the Baptist is like that. This is one of the reasons the Church drags him out each Advent.
A great Advent message!
I am still chewing on the entire message; but I would disagree with the following, or at least point out that it is not the entire Truth; “The words of Werefried van Straaten are still true, “Jesus comes back into the world when we offer him a dwelling place in our hearts.†“. Jesus ( GOD) can come into wherever and whenever, he chooses. I don’t see that he came into Saul’s life on the road to Damascus because Saul made room for him. Statements like that seem more Roman Catholic in theology than Protestant.
#2 RC Theology
Please. JHNewman quite rightly pointed out that Rome didn’t believe the “Romish’ doctrine of purgatory attributed to her in the 39 Articles. In the same way just because some people think they can get themselves, or someone else, into heaven by praying to saints, whether BVM or another, doesn’t mean that this is what the Church teaches.
I for one, think the idea that Jesus comes to us when we make room for him is actually more Protestant than catholic. I mean, seriously, the Mass and Sacraments are objective realities and don’t depend on congregational enthusiasm, or really how anybody feels about them at all. Now, that’s Catholic!
It seems that the ‘make room in your heart’ spirituality is more Arminian than Calvinistic. 39 articles Anglicans would probably want to make more of God’s election in decreeing their new birth than their giving their life to Jesus. I think we do better to concentrate on God’s gift of grace to us rather than on our gift of ourselves to him. (I might be influenced by my Calvinist mentor Roger Kvam who summed it up by saying, “Man’s search for God is like the mouse’s search for the cat.”) But the bible has the virtue of teaching that both God’s decree and our response are important. I want to open the door of my heart as wide as I can to Jesus which is what Fr. Thomas Keating (RC Trappist) told me to do this afternoon. But you don’t have to be a papist to believe that kind of door opening is good. You don’t have to swim the Tiber to believe that Jesus is the speaker in Rev. 3:20.
[blockquote] ‘Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and will dine with him, and he with Me. [/blockquote] In this advent season, the Baptist makes a rather loud and insistent knock at the door. Perhaps that is to attune our hearts to the day when we will hear the softer, gentler knock of the Savior.
“But the bible has the virtue of teaching that both God’s decree and our response are important.” Great comment. How often have I heard people argue that it must be one way or the other. I happen to think that scripture is clear that both are involved. Yes, God is supreme and yes salvation is by grace, but a human response is required.
God saved Israel from Egypt, but they had to get up and walk. Yes, Jesus saves us by grace on the cross, but we must accept the gift. Yes, Jesus knocks, but we must open the door.
6. Br. Michael wrote:
“God saved Israel from Egypt, but they HAD to get up and walk. Yes, Jesus saves us by grace on the cross, but we MUST accept the gift. Yes, Jesus knocks, but we MUST open the door.”
I must protest. Yes, I agree that “both God’s decree and our response ARE important.” But the conditions under which these occur are important theologically as well, and these are expressed gramatically.
re: “Jesus coming back into the world WHEN we offer him a dwelling place in our hearts.” This sentence says that when we do something we make Jesus do something. That when we make a place for him, he comes back – as if summoned or ordered up.
“Yes, God is supreme and yes salvation is by grace, but a human response is required.” This sentence implies that grace is a function (or result) of the required response.
The phrases ‘WHEN we offer him’, ‘HAD to get up and walk’, ‘MUST accept the gift’, and ‘human response is REQUIRED’, are not helpful gramatically to describe how grace flows. Grace is the underserved, unbidden (invited maybe – but certainly not commanded) favor of God. The grace of God is ubiquitous – and as Julian saw in her vision – ever flowing like the blood flowed in cascading rivers over His face from the wounds caused by the crown of thorns. The grace of God endlessly flows bringing unconditional forgiveness, love, and healing. The gift arrives sometimes unexpectedly. Often the gift is invited in anguished pleas, welcomed in joy, received in gratitude, but never is the gift an effect or result of our response, or prayer.
These are just my thoughts on the subject, and are not intended to end the conversation. I welcome an opportunity to be corrected.
7, I did not say that the gift is an effect or result of our response to prayer. I said that Scripture reflects that God expects a human response to His grace. God expects human obedience. I do think that a person can reject God’s grace. Do you disagree that we humans have the ability to disobey God? If we have no ability to reject God’s grace then exegete the story of the Rich Ruler and the thief on the cross. And explain how Israel would have left Egypt if the people had just sat there?
Br. M,
“I said that Scripture reflects that God expects a human response to His grace.”
You actually said a response is required. What you say above is different, but I agree with it.
“God expects human obedience.” I agree with this too.
“And explain how Israel would have left Egypt if the people had just sat there?”
Certainly I can reject God, and have done so. And by the grace of God, I am still here in the race. I imagine that if I got what I deserved the doctor wouldn’t have found that benign polyp when I was 42, and I’d be dead of colon cancer by now. Which is good too, because I’m not so sure I am ready for heaven – I think I might not like it – too intimate, no gloom, yuk. I am hoping I’m still here in order to get better prepared. You know, a work in progress.
I have no idea what would have happened to Israel if the people disobeyed yet again, and neither do you. God’s grace is ever flowing, infinitely patient, and does not conform to human decree. Otherwise, you risk setting up a theological landscape in which people are UNIFORMLY not delivered (from Egypt or whatever: they go broke, they get sick, have an accident, their families are destroyed, etc.) all because they rejected God (didn’t pray enough, didn’t have faith, or just “sat there”).
-AC
No. You can give me a gift. You can offer it to me forever, I can either accept it and realize the gift or I can reject it. Scripture is clear that God acts and that a human response is required. You obviously have a problem with the word “required”. Tell me what the middle ground is between accepting or not accepting a gift? Either way we have a human response. Nevertheless to accept God’s gift a positive human response is required.
#10
“Nevertheless to accept God’s gift a positive human response is required.”
I guess I misunderstood you. What you are positing is only a tautology, nothing more. Not worth talking about. It is a redundancy of words to express something that is already self-evident. The thing I was getting at was more along the line of . . .
Yes, to do my job I have to go to work. In one sense, it is “required” that to do my job I have to go to work. But that is only a requirement of the definition of “to do my job.” But, in another sense it is not a requirement that I go to work to have or keep my job. That is entirely dependent on the forbearance of my employer. And in this case it is not at all self-evident how long she will put up with me for not showing up. The ball is in her court.
Personally, this aspect of the patience of God seems to me more interesting than talking about a “positive human response,” which is already contained in the definition of the word “accept.”
That God has put up with me, and continues to put up with me, is quite amazing. I am very grateful He has not required more of me.
I am sorry to read that accepting God’s grace is “only a tautology, nothing more. Not worth talking about. It is a redundancy of words to express something that is already self-evident.”
Pax et bonum.