The Scripture readings for this Sunday may be found here.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
“Even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees…”
Today’s Gospel lesson from St. Matthew presents us the figure of John the Baptist. St. Matthew tells us that John is the one prophesied by Isaiah, when he spoke of “the voice of one crying in the wilderness: prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.” And Isaiah goes on to say, in the well known idiom of the Authorized Version of the Bible (the King James Version) made famous by the oratorio from Handel’s Messiah: “And the glory of the LORD shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together: for the mouth of the LORD hath spoken it.”
John the Baptist was the last of the Old Testament prophets. He is late on the scene. The narrative of salvation written by God in the vacillations of Israel’s fidelity has come to term. The earth is groaning in travail for the fulfillment of God’s promise of redemption. John the Baptist comes on the scene, calling the people to repentance in the lateness of the cosmic hour: The Glory of the Lord is about to be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together: for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it.
What was true in John the Baptist’s day is likewise true for us: the Lord is coming. The season of Advent is a reminder that just as surely as the Lord HAS come, he is coming again. His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and gather his wheat in the granary, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire. The Lord seeks a heart and a volition, a WILL, that is in accord with his own. “Deep calls to deep in the noise of your cataracts” says the Psalm (42.7). The sanctity of God seeks itself in us. It searches for itself in us.
You and Jesus Christ are rushing toward one another, through the inexorable pathway of time. All flesh shall see him, including yours and mine. Therefore John the Baptist’s message should ring in our ears with some urgency: Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. We are called not to passive waiting for the coming of the Lord, but to active PREPARATION.
But what IS the way of the Lord? And how do you prepare it? The way of the Lord is the pathway of the human heart. And its preparation is training in the sanctity that God seeks in us. “In the way of righteousness is life; and in the pathway thereof there is no death” (Prov. 12.28). To prepare the way of the Lord means to make our hearts ready for him.
If it came to pass that some immanent person, a dignitary or a celebrity, were coming to your house for dinner, would you not clean the house? Would you not take care that all was in order, that the dust was swept out, and the dishes clean? But what does it mean that the King of the Universe is coming into our lives and we do little or nothing to prepare for him? Just as a physical house needs to be cleaned, so too does the pathway of our heart need to be cleansed and made ready. The Lord will not force an entry into your life. He said “Behold I stand at the door and knock; if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.
Behold I stand at the door and knock. The Lord does not beat the door down. He seeks an INVITATION to entry. And many of us withhold that invitation out of shame at the condition of our spiritual houses. Perhaps in those moments of solitude and silence, when we really think about it, when we are honest with ourselves, we find that we really do not want the Lord to meet us as we are. There is too much nastiness inside of us. The pathway of our heart is cluttered, and we are ashamed.
Yet the Lord stands at the door and knocks. And his knocking is the sound of the axe laid to the root of the trees. When I think of this mysterious saying of John the Baptist, I inevitably think of the Lord’s saying, before he suffered: “now is the judgment of this world, now will the ruler of this world be cast out. And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to myself” (Jn. 12.32). The judgment of this world, and the axe laid to the root of the trees, are I think the overwhelming aspect of the self-giving of God. For all things must give way before the radical nature of his love for us, the totality with which he pours himself out to us and for us.
And as we are faced with the advent of Christ in our hearts, there are only two possibilities, either our selfishness and our evil desires will get the better of us, and we will ourselves give way to make room for Christ’s glory – OR we will have prepared to meet him, we will have swept our hearts clean of concupiscence and self-seeking, and honed our desires on the quest for the face of Jesus, the Lover of our souls.
This is why “in those days came John the Baptist, preaching in the wilderness of Judea, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” Because repentance is what it is to prepare the way of the Lord, to make straight his paths. To repent is to clear the heart of its attachments to the world and the flesh. To facilitate the entrance of Jesus, who stands at the door and knocks. It is to make one’s house presentable for so great a Guest.
Christ is coming. His coming is immanent. The glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together: for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it. The question for you and me is whether we will heed John’s call to repentance, so that when the holiness of the Lord seeks itself in our hearts, it will find itself there, and draw us gently into the embrace of the Lord’s peace.
Let us pray. Lord teach us to seek you. Replace our evil desires with your own holiness, with your own self-gift. Lord teach us to recognize the sound of your knocking at the door of our hearts, and give us the courage to open to you. Deliver us from judgment. Teach us to heed the Baptist’s call and to repent. Grant, Lord, that we may use this season of Advent wisely, as a time of preparation to meet you when you shall come in glorious majesty to judge the living and the dead.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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