Advent 2013 – Baruch 5:1-9/Philippians 1:3-11/Luke 3:1-6
Total Makeover
In the reign of Caesar, Richard Daley the First, I grew up
just a few blocks from the Chicago City line. In those days we called it, “The
City That Works.” It was not uncommon, especially come election time, for
Caesar Daley to order the filling of pot-holes, paving or re-paving of streets,
and the demolition and leveling of
derelict buildings just before making a campaign visit to a particular
neighborhood. It’s one of the things Mayor Dixon has been particularly good at
making happen in Baltimore when not distracted by shopping.
As Luke reminds us, this is a time-honored tradition among
those in Power – whole roadways and construction projects would precede the
visitation of a visiting Caesar, King, or Emperor to the various outposts of
his kingdom.
Over five hundred years before the time of John and Jesus,
Isaiah used the image of such Imperial Public Works total makeovers to describe
the Hopeful coming day that God would lead the exiled people of God back to
Jerusalem from Babylon – Babylon itself a metaphor that from the time of the
Babylonian Captivity through the Revelation to John to modern day prophets and
poets demanding deliverance from captivity to such things as colonialism,
consumer-driven capitalism, red-lining debt and mortgage practices and the
like. A quick listen to the likes of Bob Marley, Tupac Shakur and Common, to
name just a few, reveals the continued potency the image of Babylon still
conjures in the popular imagination. There are those prophet/poets among us who
see us still being in captivity.
So the idea in Luke is much the same as Isaiah tells it: a
total makeover, a full scale public works project, is needed if it can be hoped
that God will again deliver us from our captivity to Sin. That is Sin, not
sins. The latter are particular deeds such as appear on Santa’s list of those
who have been naughty. Yet, these are merely symptoms of a deeper, underlying
spiritual disease that is Sin, capital “S” and singular – Sin is the state of
chosen alienation from God, when we turn to ourselves and away from God, insisting
on having our own way with no restraint from outside and beyond ourselves. This
understanding of Sin, capital “S,” might also be spelled, “Ayn Rand,” or,
“Objectivism,” or, any number of other “isms” that we use to disguise this
alienation from ourselves.
We may as well admit it though, some see this as “freedom”
and “the American Way.” But this is to deny the fact that true human freedom
comes from accepting our status as creatures who look to their creator as the
source of the fullness of life – the God in whose image we are created. As the Book
of Common Prayer puts it, “In
whose service is perfect freedom,”
which words are engraved on the outside of The Episcopal Church
Headquarters at 815 Second Avenue, NY, NY!
My favorite Advent prayer says, “Stir up thy Power, O Lord,
and with great might come among us; and because we are sorely hindered by our
sins, let your bountiful grace and mercy speedily help and deliver us.” I
always envision a pot of soup on the stove, all the good stuff falling to the
bottom, and needing to take a long-handled wooden spoon to stir it up and put
it back together again. We pray for God to stir us up – even though we rarely
want to be stirred up at all.
Enter the makeovers. It seems that Cable Television is one
long Advent project what with every kind of “Total Makeover” show imaginable.
One of my favorites is What Not To Wear,
starring Stacy London and Clinton Kelly. They come into your world by surprise,
make you throw out your entire wardrobe, and give you a, get this, $5,000 gift
card to purchase all new clothes!
As relates to repentance and preparing for the coming of
God’s Salvation, Baruch announces: “Take
off the garment of your sorrow and affliction…and put on forever the beauty of
the glory of God. Put on the robe of righteousness…the diadem of the glory of
the everlasting…for God will show your splendor everywhere..[and] give you
evermore the name, ‘Righteous, Peace, Godly Glory!’” Now that is a call for
a true wardrobe makeover!
Regular prayer, Bible Study and Mindfulness Meditation can
play the roles of Stacy and Clint coaching us on a total makeover, which
ultimately is never about clothes at all, but rather helping and empowering
people to become the best version of themselves – the people God wants them to
be!
This leads us to perhaps the contemporary icon of total personal transformation,
Ty Pennington. Yes, he of Extreme
Makeover – Home Edition. Many of us are familiar with what he does for
other people whose lives are in need of extreme assistance. But what we don’t
know much about is his personal transformation. In his own words his childhood
was unruly to say the least: “I would
strip down naked, and hold on the blinds in my classroom as a child and swear
along with that if I didn't get my way. I was just a very bad kid overall, I
don't know how my mother raised me!” His mother, while studying to become a
psychologist, eventually diagnosed him as ADHD, and in a few years found
treatment modalities that has transformed him into what he is now: an American television
host, model, philanthropist,
and, get this, a carpenter. Beyond the TV show, he works with any number of
philanthropic endeavors to make life better for others.
Kind of like the carpenter we await in Advent. Make no
mistake about it, Advent is a time to take inventory as a nation and as
individuals: are we prepared for that day when we are promised Jesus will come
again? Have we prepared a landing strip that is level and straight to bring him
all the way into our hearts and souls?
No one can deny, a Total Makeover is in order!
It is what Paul is praying for when he writes: “And this is my prayer, that your love may
overflow more and more with knowledge and full insight to help you to determine
what is best, so that in the Day of Christ you may be pure and blameless,
having produced the harvest of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ
for the glory and praise of God.”
To produce such a harvest, it is time to begin a total
makeover today!
Amen.
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