Sunday Homily - December 9th, 2018 - God Came Anyway

John the Baptist Icon

I. 

George H.W. Bush.

  He was the 41st President of the United States,

    from 1989-1993.

      His Vice President was Dan Quayle,

        a memorable fellow on his own merit.

And one of those funny things about when someone as important

  as George, the former President, finally dies,

    is that you find out what religion they are at their funeral.

I bet some of y'all didn't know that the Bush family are Episcopalians!

  Heck, I sure didn't!

    But sure enough: George and Barbara, both deceased this year,

      were lifelong and faithful Christians of the Episcopalian mold.

And the funeral service was quite interesting,

  as most Presidential funerals are.

Our current President, Donald Trump,

  along with many former Presidents,

   such as Barack Obama, George W. Bush, Bill Clinton, Jimmy Carter,

      and also other world leaders were in attendance. [https://www.cnn.com/2018/12/04/politics/george-bush-national-cathedral-state-funeral/index.html]

It was a room full of the powers and former holders of power in the world.

  Names that are synonymous with the rule and conduct of the world

  we live in.

    These are the big players in the halls of government,

      skilled politicians,

        tasked with running the world.

And, as anybody who watches daytime news will note,

  there is a LOT of really messed up parts of the world we live in.

There is STILL political unrest and revolution occurring in Yemen,

  such that innocent people are dying from completely preventable 

  diseases

    because they have no access to clean water or basic medical 

    supplies, like vaccines and penicillin.

Egyptian Christians still cannot go to Church without risking their very lives,

   and hundreds more have become martyrs for Christ just in the past 

   few years.

And even within our own state,

  some of the the working-class poor of our own community of Searcy,

    lost their healthcare coverage under the ACA

      because they could not meet the mandated work requirements

        to keep their Medicaid insurance.

[https://www.modernhealthcare.com/article/20181115/NEWS/181119966]

All of this turmoil,

  all of this unrest,

    when those in the halls of power seemingly are falling short of their 

    charge,

      it often seems that God is absent from it all.

Where would God be in the midst of all of this?

  And, maybe, we could sometimes be truthful and say:

    "If I was God, I don't think I would want to be down here either."

II.

If we look at our Gospel this morning,

   the beginning of the call of John the Baptist,

      the great prophet that has come to prepare the way for Jesus,

         we may also question God's particular timing

           given the people who ruled the halls of power at the time of 

           Christ.

We are first told that John the Baptist's ministry occurred during the reign

   of Tiberius Caesar, Emperor of Rome,

      under which Israel was subject.

Tiberius Caesar would have been understood as the ultimate power of the world,

   And one of his conquered territories was the captive, 

   Chosen People of the Lord Almighty: Israel.

      Any rebellion against the supreme power of this time

         could have very well meant the eradication of the Jewish people;

            God's people.

Next in the list, we are also told about a certain governor named 

   Pontius Pilate.

      Yep, that same Pilate that presided over Jesus's trial and sentencing 

      to death

          nailed to a cross, the instrument of Roman public execution.

And if those two weren't enough,

   we are then told of two regional powers,

      puppets of the Roman government,

         exercising a trumped up position of "King."

            Of course, we are speaking of the two brothers 

Herod and Philip.

If you remember a few months ago,

   Herod had taken his brother Philip's wife to be his own,

      prompting John the Baptist to preach against him,

         which eventually led to John's imprisonment and beheading.

And not to mention the time

   when the Wise Men tell Herod that the King of Israel is born,

      and then Herod has all of the babies in his territory killed

        so that he can protect his puppet throne under the Roman Empire.

        [Matthew 2:16]

       

And finally, we are told of the priestly class of Hebrews,

   the High Priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas,

      the ones that were serving the priestly office

         when Jesus was on trial for claiming he was the Son of God.

           And we know how that story turns out:

             Jesus Christ, Son of God, turned over to the Roman legions

               for crucifixion.

We have a laundry list of people

   that, in all other cases, could have been the list of all the bad guys in 

   a movie.

     All of these people played key roles in either the imprisonment,

       or of the actual execution of John the Baptist 

        and our Lord Jesus Christ.

This was the context to which God sends John the Baptist,

   To prepare the way for the Incarnate Word.

   And this is the context in which God Incarnate,

     Emmanuel, "God with us,"

       the Eternal Word

         Chooses to take on our humanity here on earth.

In the midst of the Empire of Rome,

   under the governance of Pontius Pilate, a Roman oppressor of the 

   Jews,

      with the puppet rule of Herod and Philip that fight wars and trade 

      wives,

         under a priestly ruling class that eventually condemns God's own 

         Son to death,

THIS.

  THIS is when God acts, even in the midst of this turbulent,

    fraught, evil time of human history.

And God's word first happens upon John the Baptist,

   the great prophet out in the wilderness,

      that empty wilderness where God led the children of Abraham out 

      of bondage in Egypt,

         and through the deserts and lonely places, 

         into the Promised Land.

John the Baptist begins his ministry before God Almighty,

   in that same wilderness where he will call all the surrounding 

   countryside to repentance,

      baptizing them and urging them to turn back to God,

        as John knows that Jesus, the Word Made Flesh, is about to unveil

           a new revelation of God's own self.

And it all starts under the thumb of the Emperor of the World, 

Tiberius Caesar,

   during the governance of the executioner of Our Lord, 

   Pontius Pilate,

      in the time of the evil rulers of Herod and Philip,

        with the consent of the priestly rulers of Annas and Caiaphas,

          in the backwater town of Nazareth,

            and the highway in which God will travel 

             runs through the wilderness, the empty desert.

III.

Friends, God doesn't wait until the world is ready in order to act.

   God doesn't wait for the opportune time,

      where the world is quiet and peaceful,

         where the politics have simmered down,

            where the wars, the famines, and the droughts have ceased.

God looks down at the world,

   sees all of the tumult, the brokenness, and the confusion,

      and STILL chooses to descend and be born of the Virgin Mary,

         in that same tumultuous time that those earthly rulers 

            sat in the halls of power.

And God does the same today.

  

When we who live in the 21st century look out

   and see rulers unfit for the office they sit in

     regional powers that steal and kill the people who are under their 

     care,

       and the powers of the world 

          involved in direct oppression of the lowly and the humble,

            God STILL chooses to act even in those times!

Jesus Christ still dwells among us, Church,

   no matter what the political situation is,

     no matter what the state of our world is,

       no matter the imperfection of our own lives,

         Jesus STILL chooses to dwell in you!

And often God's Word happens to you in the midst of that wilderness,

   that lonely place, 

     that desert of the soul.

God's Eternal Word still finds you,

   even when you get that unexpected medical diagnosis,

     even when that tragedy befalls you or someone you love,

       even when you believe that you are absolutely worthless.

God works on the divine providence of sacrificial love,

  love that breaks into the world even when the world is at its most 

  divisive.

    Love that seeks the lost and the broken, even when the powers that 

    be seek to destroy Love.

      Love that give you new life, even when you are lifeless.

God never gives up on us,

  but rather desires that we should come to repentance,

    to the transformation of our very being,

      that we should be perfect like God is perfect,

        loving God with all our hearts, 

          and loving our neighbor as ourselves.

As hard as it is,

  as messed up as our world is,

    as unworthy as WE are,

      never lose hope in God's continual presence,

       even when we may think that it is not the best time

         or the best place,

           or even when we think we are a waste of the Good Lord's time.

Because we serve Jesus Christ, 

  who came at a most tumultuous time of human history.

     We also are not to let the tumultuous times that we live in 

        prevent us from doing our Christian work.

Preach the Gospel of Jesus.

  Bring those who don't know God 

  to the knowledge and love of our Lord.

    Feed those who have no food.

      Clothe those who have no clothing.

        Visit those incarcerated in our prisons 

         and who lay sick in our hospitals and nursing homes.

          Bury the dead with dignity and in the hope of the resurrection,

            recognizing they are fellow sinners redeemed by Jesus Christ,

              just like we are.

Instead of looking to the halls of power to find God,

   perhaps it is better to look in the more unlikely places.

Perhaps we should begin to look to the wilderness, 

  the desert, 

    the lonely places of our lives.

Maybe we should look instead

  to the backwater town, our modern towns of Galilee or Nazareth,

    the places where God Almighty chose to come

      instead of the places of power.

And maybe, just maybe,

  we may hear that same voice, crying out in the wilderness,

    “Prepare the way of the Lord,

       Repent and believe the Good News.”

In the name of the +Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.