Hearing, as a Community, the Scriptures of December 4, 2011

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John the Baptizer is a striking figure, with unusual behavior and message. Yet he drew throngs. What was the situation that allowed him to be attractive this way? John Pilch says that, properly translated, the text says John's baptism led to the remission of debts. Ever increasing debt and poverty, compounded by heavy religious and imperial taxes, were oppressive issues in first-century Palestine, for ever larger numbers of peasants. So I wonder if John thought he could release them from debt? Was he telling creditors to be baptized and to release their debtors from their obligations? Was he calling for an impromptu jubilee, a Jewish tradition that periodically demanded forgiveness of old debt and repatriation of family lands?

Whatever his goals, John did seize the opportunity presented by his times, and amplified it by his outlandish behavior. His dress and behavior have precedent in the revered Elijah, another prophet and reformer (see 1 Kings 17 and following, especially chapter 18). Times were always turbulent where the Roman Empire stood on the necks of subject people, and particularly necks as famously stiff as those of the Jews in Palestine. At its root, "baptism" means saturation. John's message advocated change that penetrates to the core, like water saturating a cloth or sponge. He would have people be saturated with something godly and new, with bigger change to follow.

Pilch also points out that fine points in the gospel vocabulary respect the Middle Eastern sense of honor. Only people of high honor could make, or have made on their behalf, public proclamations, which is what the gospel is. Mark had no credentials that we know of, but he demonstrates his respectability by his learned quotations of Scripture, directly and indirectly. Jesus had no credentials as a man from humble Nazareth, a craftsman turned itinerant preacher. So Mark names him "Son of God" in verse 1, meaning that this Jesus had Godlike qualities, and deserved honor. John behaves honorably when he imitates Elijah, and in spite of all we said above about his unconventional behavior, when he acknowledges the coming of one far more honorable than he. So the writer and his two characters observe the norms of honor and status in their society, even as they challenge it radically.

Perhaps the following is what connects today's first reading and gospel. Dan Nelson points out that after settling Palestine, some devout Israelites returned willingly to desert life, seeking to recreate Exodus purity. Others celebrated feasts (e.g. Passover) that reconnected them to ancestral desert experiences. The desert voyage home from Babylon will be purgative. And John the Baptist's summons to the Jews to meet him in the desert has this character. But Roger Karban asserts that Deutero-Isaiah gives a startlingly tender portrait of a God whom his audience traditionally regarded as vengeful. Secondly, titling the gospel the way he does, Karban says Mark is alerting his readers that God is henceforth present to the world in a new, unprecedented way, as Son of God in the person of Jesus, for whom the title "Christ" is only secondary.

How Communities Might Tackle the Texts Together

Does your tribe need a desert journey for purposes of retreat or of purging? Do not be afraid. Like a shepherd gathers his lambs, and cradles them in his arms, so does God want to gather you.

Does your community seize the day, outspokenly interpreting the signs of the times, like John the Baptist in the wilderness? Or do you feel that God is calling you to balk, to conserve, and to greet proposed changes with skepticism? Either could be a solid, defensible response, if you're doing your homework honestly. Of the conservatives, I always ask "How old is this custom that you want to conserve? Does it go back to Jesus, to Moses?" If you're still only reacting to the French Revolution, get over it and get serious. Progressives should justify their efforts not merely by an appeal to the Zeitgeist, but by showing that the reforms they propose are analogous to the liberating reforms, the self-transcendence, that made us the People of God in the first place.

Lectionary Details

Here are this Sunday's lectionary selections. The lectionary titles are links to web pages with the passages.