Voices of Peace
Second of Advent Year A, December 4, 2022
Today in scripture we meet the peacemakers.
The justice-seekers.
Those who point to the holy, to God, to a better way in life.
John the Baptists urgently calls people to repent, to turn again to God and God’s ways.
Do not waste any more of your life pursuing the wrong things, the crooked paths.
John offers baptism for those who repent.
He clearly communicates that his baptism is not the ultimate baptism.
The Messiah will baptize with the Holy Spirit.
John baptizes with water, a cleansing ritual that one may undertake many times rather like our understanding of confessing our sins and being forgiven them.
John grows up in the Qumran Community, the Essenes, a people who isolate themselves from general society living a life dedicated to prayer. Their beliefs are eschatological which means they expect God will act creating a new time, a new day.
Some scholars have wondered if Jesus also lived in the Qumran community.
Others think Jesus was a follower of John the Baptist before the torch was passed to him.
Qumran is in the desert.
John refuses to enter the villages and cities, but people come to him from Jerusalem, from across Judea, and the entire region along the Jordan River.
John criticizes some of the Sadducees and Pharisees who have come to him for baptism calling them a ‘brood of vipers’ (a commonly used term in those days to describe malice).
He tells them they should bear fruit ~ do good in their ministry ~ rather than seek baptism.
He warns them of God’s wrath – wrath is not anger.
Wrath is the all-holy, all-loving God’s condemnation of any sin which defiles creation or destroys the dignity of human beings as part of creation.
God is on our side, wanting to protect us and creation from those who seek to destroy us.
In this way, John the Baptist is a peacemaker and justice-seeker.
Turn to God and God’s ways and the world will be a better place.
More Advent voices:
Isaiah describes the future peaceful, just kingdom, God’s hope for God’s people.
Imagine such peace that a lamb will lie down with a wolf.
No enemies or violence.
Nothing to fear.
Paul prays that God will grant us the grace to live in harmony with one another as Jesus Christ has taught us.
The Psalmist tells us that moral order, justice for the poor and oppressed, brings about cosmic order, such as fertility and bounty.
The Advent voices we hear today in scripture communicate that peace and justice are the outcome of how we treat one another and God’s creation.
The good news is, God helps us along the way.