'In those days John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness of Judea, proclaiming, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.” This is the one of whom the prophet Isaiah spoke when he said,
“The voice of one crying out in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.’”
Now John wore clothing of camel’s hair with a leather belt around his waist, and his food was locusts and wild honey. Then the people of Jerusalem and all Judea were going out to him, and all the region along the Jordan, and they were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins.
But when he saw many Pharisees and Sadducees coming for baptism, he said to them, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bear fruit worthy of repentance. Do not presume to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our ancestor’; for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham. Even now the ax is lying at the root of the trees; every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.
“I baptize you with water for repentance, but one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to carry his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and will gather his wheat into the granary; but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire."'
--Matthew 3: 1-12
'A shoot shall come out from the stump of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots. The spirit of the LORD shall rest on him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the LORD. His delight shall be in the fear of the LORD. He shall not judge by what his eyes see, or decide by what his ears hear; but with righteousness he shall judge the poor, and decide with equity for the meek of the earth; he shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips he shall kill the wicked. Righteousness shall be the belt around his waist, and faithfulness the belt around his loins.
The wolf shall live with the lamb, the leopard shall lie down with the kid, the calf and the lion and the fatling together, and a little child shall lead them. The cow and the bear shall graze, their young shall lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. The nursing child shall play over the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put its hand on the adder's den. They will not hurt or destroy on all my holy mountain; for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the LORD as the waters cover the sea. On that day the root of Jesse shall stand as a signal to the peoples; the nations shall inquire of him, and his dwelling shall be glorious.'
--Isaiah 11: 1-10
Each year I participate in the social media campaign #AddventWord. The word for this past Sunday, the Second Sunday of Advent, was #Delight. When I saw that I was a bit confused. The Gospel reading for the day features about John the Baptist who isn’t exactly delighting in the antics of the Pharisees and Sadducees who have come out to see him – he calls them a brood of vipers, which is a curse that I think we oughta bring back. And they aren’t really filled with delight at the sight of John, either – with his wild looking hair, raggedy clothes, and less than healthy diet of locusts and wild honey – in fact, while they respect him as a prophet, they’re afraid of the guy. John always reminds me of those folks standing on the street corners yelling that the end is near, so yeah, I can understand their fear. John himself may not really be a delight of a person, but make no mistake, what he is proclaiming to the people is most definitely a delight to God and good news for us.
John the Baptist by Lynda Miller Baker
John’s message was one of repentence. The Greek word is metanoia, which literally means to ‘turn oneself around.” To repent is not to drown in self-imposed punishment over the sins that one has committed, but to reorient one’s whole self—heart, mind, and spirit—toward the goodness, the mercy, and the love of God. This is John’s message—a message that Jesus himself will pick up and run with in his own ministry.
It is repentance that is the delight of God and should be ours, too. We’re not just talking about the Sacrament of Confession, but more than that - a daily effort at reorientation. You see, the religious elites of John’s time were good at the formal kinds of repentance on days like Yom Kippur – the Day of Atonement – but the regular, daily acts of repentance were where they fell short. They believed that their positions were enough. And John was there to call them out on it. He got in trouble, and still today preachers who stand in that same position as John – preaching truth to power – usually do get in trouble for it. But his is a message we all need to hear, especially people like the those religious elites in positions of authority and influence. God’s delight is when we turn our entire selves toward God, and there is no better time of year for us to do that than Advent.
This is the time of year when we hear again and again the promise that God is working something new in our lives. The vision from the prophet Isaiah today is one of the most beautiful and powerful in all of Scripture, and it is all about metanoia. A stump shall come up out of the tree of Jesse. A stump, that which symbolizes death where there once was life. But even a stump has roots, and lo and behold a shoot will sprout from those roots. And what’s more, all living creatures will turn themselves around, the prey will lie with the predators, the former having let God quell their fear, and the latter surrendering their predatory instincts. In the midst of it all, a little child will lead them. As Christians we read Jesus into this vision—he, a descendant of Jesse, is that promised shoot, that little child for whose birth we prepare —but those who first heard this vision would’ve known how it bespeaks the birth of a new innocence in which trust, gentleness, and friendship are possible in an often cruel world. The whole creation is moving in this direction, turning itself around, calling humanity to partner with all of creation in that turning, in that metanoia.
Though not technically an Advent hymn – at least not in our Episcopal tradition – I always love listening to Rory Cooper’s Canticle of the Turning this time of year. Set to the old Irish tune Star of the County Down, the song proclaims “My heart shall sing of the day you bring, let the fires of your justice burn; wipe away all tears, for the dawn draws near; and the world is about to turn.” This is the delight of God – to be turned right round, to metanoia, to – to repent and return to the Lord, as our baptismal covenant reminds us. Thanks be to God for John, Isaiah, and all the prophets who call us to repentance, to metanoia, to the delight of God.
