In church this week we were looking more deeply into the “Reason for the Season”. Only two of the gospels (Matthew and Luke – dating from about 80-90AD) give us birth stories; but all four gospels begin their “Ministry of Jesus” sections with an account of John the Baptist.
This rather weird person who lived in the desert, dressed in animal skins and eating wild honey, is seen as defining the ministry of Jesus. Who is John? Well he seems to be a radical prophetic reformer – someone who’s gone into competition with the established set-up in the Temple. John’s saying, come out into the desert and get baptized (in the Jordan) “for the forgiveness of sin”. But don’t we need to go to the Temple for that – and make a sacrifice? John seems to be saying, no you don’t! That’s not what pleases God – he wants people ready to move forward in faith – ready for something new. The desert represents journey and the Jordan represents crossing to the promised land.
Now John attracts a big following – including Jesus. In the end Jesus asks to be baptized by John and (after first hesitating) John baptizes him. Jesus wants to identify himself with those preparing to follow God. Then John points to him as the new leader of the movement: the one who will lead forward in spiritual power and himself give the Spirit to those who follow him.
So – the coming of Jesus is about something radically political. All his ministry he’s involved in a battle with the religious authorities and their interpretation of God. So what’s so wrong with the Temple thing?
The Temple puts God is a box behind a curtain and separates off everyone else by increasing degrees: priests, men, women and (last) “gentiles”. The design of the Temple speaks its message: God is “holy” and shut away from you who are (in varying degrees) “unworthy”. In the Temple you can bridge that gap by making a sacrifice – killing an animal – it’s called “atonement”. So our whole relationship with God is based on the idea that we’re impure and need to be made pure.
John and Jesus are saying no – it’s not like that. In Jesus, God identifies with the impure – eating meals with “sinners”, touching “unclean” lepers; telling stories about (unclean) Samaritans who fulfil the law by compassion of heart. Life’s not about judging other people and segregating them but about forgiving totally them when things go wrong and about supporting and helping one another through life’s journey with all its problems.
We thought a bit more about that as Ally brought us up to date on his reading of the book “Provocative Church”. It’s not the churches primary role to get “bums on seats” by preaching an “evangelistic” message and pushing for a response: that can all be just theory. It’s our primary job to demonstrate the meaning of God’s presence by the way we live as a Christian community. This should “provoke” people to a response. Especially we thought about how we can encourage one another by the words we say or the things we do. We might also think about how we support one another economically during “the crunch”: how we use our land to bless others: what wider-world projects we should be giving some practical input to, etc
The Reason for the Season is not just parties, shopping for unwanted presents and family reunions. (Well we all knew that didn’t we?) But neither is it just about mysterious stories of virgin births and angels choirs in the skies and stars that stop over buildings. Jesus came to point us to a God who is “with us” and whose Kingdom is “among us”. He came to show us a God who is not removed from us but present to us by his Spirit; and to encourage us to think big and draw on spiritual power to demonstrate how great our God is and how great it is to share him together in communities of love and power. The real “sacrifice” is what we give of ourselves to bless other people in God’s name
