The Courage of John the Baptist

Her name is Sarah. They have their whole lives mapped out, Jacob and Sarah. They are going to attend University together, then open a lizard and reptile store. They are going to have four kids, two boys and two girls. Since they both adore lizards, they should live happily ever after. At least, that is the plan for the moment.

Funny how we map our whole lives out, as if we are in control of it all. It makes us feel less frightened, I think, to know the way that we are to travel through time. But it is nonsense. No one that I know has ever been able to execute every detail of their lives just as they planned. And if there was someone like that, wouldn't they be awfully bored?

John the Baptist kept screaming these words, "Make His Path Straight!" His path, not ours. I think John knew that we were meant to focus on God's way for our lives not our own.

Back in John's day, when a great man was traveling, his followers would go ahead of him. Using branches or sometimes even their hands, they would clear a path for him to travel. There were no roads back then, so they would make a road, carve out a path for the great one to walk.

John the Baptist had a path laid out before him from birth. As the son of the High Priest, Zechariah, he had everything that a young Jewish boy could want. He was destined to follow in his father's footsteps. He would have been highly educated, even pampered as a child. Everyone would have known the path that he was expected to travel, the ladder of success that he was expected to climb. The question was only how high would he rise in the order of the priesthood.

Somewhere along the way, John decided to leave his chosen path and listen to God instead. He left everything: his wealth, his family, his education, his reputation and he walked out into the desert. For God, he became a fool, a homeless man who hollered a lot and ate bugs. People came just to see the spectacle. I'm sure that they talked about John. What great material for gossip! The tabloids would have a field day today! "Son of the High Priest, Now Homeless and Crazy!" I can just hear the gossip now. But John knew that it was not important, trying to please everybody else. What was important was pleasing God. And he did that.

And because he followed God's path and no other, it is John's voice that echoes accross the centuries, while the well-respected priests of his day have all disappeared from the records of history.

God's way is always more true, more fully your own, than anything that you can devise. So why do we try so hard? Why do we plan and chart, calculate and arrange? Why not admit that God has a better way and listen instead?

May you find the time to listen to God's way for your life during this Advent season.

- The Very Rev. Kate Moorehead

Monday, November 30, 2009