The Call of the Prophets
Advent challenges us to move beyond complacency and self-interest, and embrace a radical transformation of heart. The prophets Zephaniah and John the Baptist illustrate the call for a deep, authentic faith that manifests in joyful, compassionate living.
The Glimpses of Grace podcast is a ministry of Grace Episcopal Church in Gainesville, Georgia. We are passionate about supporting the spiritual growth of souls, and we hope these sermons and conversations meet you where you are and enrich your soul as we all continue to make meaning in the world today.
Glimpses of Grace on Spotify
Transcript
To begin, here is a poem from my collection Bones of Light:
There are lines everywhere:
hop-scotch chalk on a sidewalk with children
skipping,
steel walls anchored deep in the earth, fear gripping.The impulse to set a boundary is ancient.
Motivation is always the question at hand.Forgive us our trespasses
even as we secretly hope for you
to trespass against our cold clarity
(the deepest prayers are often whispered).My skin is cracked from polishing my definitions.
I hope to preserve or defend
your dignity and power, I tell myself,
but it is most likely the care for my own
that pushes my pencil.You, God, who lives next door, Rilke once wrote.
waiting for a dinner invitation,
a gentle conversation,
or just a glance in the hallway when I recognize
myself in your eyes.
How long have you lived here?While we mend fences,
you leap from immortality’s edge
and plunge into the waters of my soul.Let it be with me.
As your desire touches my willingness,
sparks fly. A line is crossed.
Can you possibly come among us
if some part of you is held back?
If some part of myself?You want to taste my life?
Go ahead. It is your own.The shortest distance between two points
is a straight line,
unless there is only one point.
(From Bones of Light: Poems of Spiritual Imagination)
Now is the time for watching and waiting,
For paying attention–as is all time, really, as is every moment.
Now is the time when we name where we have drawn the lines
In our lives, and where we experience God breaking through
Into those sheltered places in our hearts where we crave
For something more real.
While we mend fences,
You leap from immortality’s edge…
You, God, who lives next door…
Advent is a season that challenges us to stretch our vision,
To open our hearts to the power and presence of God
Who comes yet again into our lives,
Leaping from immortality’s edge and
Plunging into the waters of our souls.
This Third Sunday of Advent is a day of prophets,
A day when our attention is focused on these strange figures
Who dare to speak out of and into the chaos of their lives and
Call the people back to a hope that lets them breathe.
The prophets name the lines that have been drawn,
Calling the people to see the rigid fences of behavior or thought,
The patterns of fear that have constricted,
The failure of imagination.
We are called to share in this prophetic vision in our lives,
As we heard in the collect for today:
Stir up your power, O Lord, and with great might
Come among us.
Now is not the time for complacency.
Now is not the time for settling, as we see in our readings.
Now is the time to dare to dream, to stretch those muscles
Of spiritual imagination and feel ourselves expand
With the Spirit’s rejuvenating presence.
As your desire touches my willingness,
sparks fly. A line is crossed.
Zephaniah lived at the same time as Jeremiah, and he adds his voice
To those calling the people to a conversion of life,
Away from the self-interest and greed that has gripped them–
And that threatens to topple the nation.
His voice speaks just prior to the time of exile,
And he dares to look out past the time of trial
To see God’s healing presence filling the hearts of the people:
Sing aloud, O daughter Zion;
Shout, O Israel!
Rejoice and exult with all your heart,
O daughter Jerusalem!
The Lord has taken away the judgements against you,
God has turned away your enemies…
At that time I will bring you home,
At the time when I gather you…
Zephaniah dares to look through the current strain
To see God at work in their lives, and he dares
To speak this word of hope and healing,
Which echoes through the centuries.
In the Gospel, of course, we see John the Baptizer,
That strange figure straight out of central casting, it seems,
A conspicuous person, this prophet, that stands out
among the people.
This morning, we hear John shouting at the crowd:
“You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from
The wrath that is to come?”
And this was aimed at those who had come to be baptized by him!
But John has seen what is going on, that, on some level
The crowd has come in hopes of some spectacle,
And John has no time for that. No time at all.
They have remained on the surface level.
John, however, pushes them to reflect on their hearts.
Motivation is always the question at hand.
Conversion of heart is the key, a transformation of consciousness
Is necessary in order to experience healing and wholeness–
Which is the true meaning of salvation.
“What then should we do?” they ask, when
John refuses to concede to their desire for spectacle,
For the superficial.
He tells them to live, to embody the conversion of life,
To have their entire lives reoriented, to be grounded
In the presence of God that transforms the way they live.
John disabuses them of any notion of some personal salvation
That is disconnected from the well-being of others–
And this is deemed “good news!”
Now is not the time for a shallow faith.
Of course it is good news; of course it is the most fulfilling life
We can live, a life full of a holy joy that dissolves the illusion
Of separateness that plagues us.
Beyond small-mindedness, beyond fear,
Beyond grasping for power:
This is the good news of the coming of Christ, and
This is the message of Advent.
As your desire touches my willingness,
sparks fly. A line is crossed.
The Advent of Christ is not some superficial idea,
Something sentimental and saccharine sweet.
It is not shallow and it is not private.
It is deep, and it reaches the root of life,
The root of the soul, and its presence transforms
The way we live in the world.
The coming of Christ is a reality of spiritual alchemy
Wherein the brokenness of our shallow selves
Is transmuted into the gold of God’s fiery presence.
The Advent of Christ has no time for shallowness,
For such a Western, Americanized obsession with
Our overly-individualized point of view,
Of the preoccupation with wanting what we want
While failing to see the way our grasping and greed
Are toxic to our souls.
We learn again–and always–that sharing in the life of Christ
Develops a robust and divine joy in our lives,
Strengthening the reality of Christ’s presence
Like a muscle in our soul.
This joy is the sign of our redemption,
A sign of the Spirit’s presence alive and at work in our hearts.
Joy is not the same thing as happiness.
Happiness is a creature that swims in the shallows,
Swimming along the surface of the water,
While joy dives down deep, reaching that place
Within our hearts where we can feel
The deep undercurrent of what St. Paul called
“The peace that passes understanding.”
In that deep place, the presence of God
Fuels our lives and enables us to face all of life
With honesty and courage, knowing
That the fire of God that has been set loose in our souls
Will consume all that distracts and deflects.
As your desire touches my willingness,
sparks fly. A line is crossed.
When we meet a person who has such divine joy,
We know that any smile on their face is rooted
In that deepest place in the soul we all share,
In that sacred cave of the heart that
The divine presence calls home.
Advent is the season of prophets,
Of those brave souls who see their lives
As channels of vision, as oracles who dare to point
To that which is greater than they are,
Toward the fullness of life which they have tasted.
So now, Advent is ours, again,
Our invitation and challenge to make the prophets words
Our own and to dare,
To dare to to prepare for the coming of Christ–
Now and always.