Advent 3- He is coming!
The four children are at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Beaver when they hear that someone is coming to help. … Lewis writes,
“’They say Aslan is on the move- perhaps has already landed.’ And now a very curious thing happened. None of the children knew who Aslan was any more than you do; but the moment the Beaver had spoken these words everyone felt quite different. Perhaps it has sometimes happened to you in a dream that someone says something which you don't understand but in the dream it feels as if it has some enormous meaning- either a terrifying one which turns the whole dream into a nightmare or else a lovely meaning too lovely to put into words, which makes the dream so beautiful that you remember it all your life and are always wishing you could get into that dream again. It was like that now. At the name of Aslan each one of the children felt something jump in its inside. Edmund felt a sensation of mysterious horror [He betrays his siblings]. Peter felt suddenly brave and adventurous. Susan felt as if some delicious smell or some delightful strain of music had just floated by her. And Lucy got the feeling you have when you wake up in the morning and realize that it is the beginning of the holidays or the beginning of summer.”
Aslan, the great lion, was coming to end the winter and bring spring to the land. He was coming to unleash the potential locked up by the frost. When he comes, the tress could grow their leaves, and the streams could flow, and the fish could jump, and the grass could grow, and each creature could be free to do the good they were born to do. Aslan was coming to free the land from the enchantment that has enslaved it.
Word spreads through the frozen land, not unlike John the Baptist’s message, ‘Aslan is on the move'- get ready. Your heart has been enchanted. It has been frozen by fear and sadness. This frost has kept you from being who God has created you to be. Now, get ready- Spring is coming. Aslan is on the move.
John the Baptist saw himself as nothing more than a pointing finger. He pointed to Jesus- the lion of Judah. He was quick to say that he was not the light; he was not the Christ; he was not Elijah (He was not the historical Elijah, but he was functioning in the spirit of Elijah); he was not the prophet like Moses they were waiting for. … He wears a prophet’s uniform- camel’s hair and a leather belt- like the great prophet Elijah. The words of the prophets are on his lips. And like the prophets, he speaks God’s message to the people.
John the Baptist is a pointing finger. A voice announcing the arrival of the one who will bring spring and banish winter. … When John is asked to explain himself he uses the words of the prophet Isaiah,
“I am the voice of one crying out in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way of the Lord’”.
John’s voice doesn’t call out from the Temple. It doesn’t even call out from the city of Jerusalem. That’s where we would expect important news from God to come. This voice cries out from the wilderness at the Jordan River. The voice cries out from the place where the Israelites crossed into the Promised Land, leaving their slavery in Egypt behind.
Many of the people who heard John would have felt that their land was under a kind of wicked enchantment. They had left exile in Babylon nearly 600 years earlier. The Temple has been rebuilt. But many had a sense that the presence of God hadn’t returned to the Temple. The Ark of the Covenant had gone missing when Babylon invaded and was never seen again. There was a pervasive sense that the high priests of the Temple were corrupt. And they lived under Roman occupation, a pagan empire, which was surely evidence that God was (in some way) withdrawn.
And this was on top of the usual enchantment that haunts human existence. We can feel like we live in frozen land where justice is not really able to blossom, where love between neighbours is stifled, where fear paralyses, and sadness makes us feel like exiles. …
To imagine a world free from that enchantment is a beautiful thing. Children will no longer be abused in their homes. We will no longer have people we love die because of cancer. We will no longer feel lonely. We will no longer be controlled by fear and anxiety. People will no longer be condemned to a life on the streets because of a mental illness, or addiction. We will finally see justice done. Victims will be healed and restored. Famine and war will be a thing of the past. This is the promised future we wait for- a future where God is fully present with His people.
John the Baptist was announcing the arrival of the one who was going to end the oppressive enchantment. … This 3rd week of Advent is a bit unusual. Many of the Advent readings in other weeks speak about the final judgement. The 3rd week of Advent is Gaudete Sunday. Gaudete means “rejoice”. So, this Sunday stands out from what is traditionally a penitential season. We are reminded that, while we should think about the reality of repentance, and preparing for judgement, we should also keep in mind that the coming of the Messiah is news we should celebrate.
Yes, I am a part of what has to be changed to make this world what God wants it to be. I am a part of the problem God has to deal with. … The voice crying out from the wilderness is saying that we can be changed. We can be made ready for God’s coming. The road to be made straight for the Lord leads right through our hearts. John’s baptism is about that new start. It is about washing away the old sins and taking on a new way of life. It is about washing away the old false self, and putting on our true self. But John’s baptism was of water. If we are to be truly changed it needs to be more than water.
John’s baptism is only a shadow of the baptism that is to come. John points away from himself to one who was greater. John points to the one who will come to baptize the repentant with not only water, but also the Holy Spirit. … The one who will come will fill you with God’s power. He will fill you with God. He will give you the strength to live as people of God’s kingdom. He will bathe the people in God Himself. He will not only forgive and wipe away your sins. He will make it so that God will live in you and change the world through you. … God will deal with me by transforming me- and that is good news because there are parts of me I am tired of dealing with.
John said to make the way straight because someone is coming- get rid of anything that is in his way. Jesus is the future John is talking about. Jesus is the future for the whole of creation. It is Jesus that John the Baptist points to, and it is Jesus who we will all be stand before. We will all stand before “The Word of God”, “God with us”, the fully-human and fully-God Jesus Christ of Nazareth. Jesus doesn’t just come and fix things. Things are transformed because Jesus is present- because in Jesus God and creation are brought into harmony.
This healing has begun, but it hasn’t finished yet. Much of the land is still under the enchantment that traps it in winter. But Spring has begun. We can see ice melting, and flowers pushing up through the snow. The enchantment is losing its hold on the world. Aslan is on the move. Death has been defeated. Sin has been defeated. The news is spreading. Some day the work will be completed, and Christ’s victory will spread to every corner. AMEN
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