John the Baptist and Jesus. These two were as alike and as different as only cousins can be. Perhaps you too have a cousin or other relative who does things differently from you but you know where they’re coming from. Both John and Jesus were sent by God. Both had committed their lives to following the will of God wherever it would lead. Both gathered disciples who would carry out their message. Despite these similarities, they operated in very different ways. John ate meals of grasshoppers and wild honey. Yummy. Jesus saw to it that there were 150 gallons of wine at Cana and catered a meal of loaves and fishes for 5000 at Galilee. John lived out in the desert. Jesus went from town to town. But besides these variations in life style, there was a profound difference in the way John and Jesus operated. John the Baptist saw as his role bringing the people to God. He created a sacred place by the Jordan River. He urged the people to repent. He baptized them. All these activities were geared toward helping people to move out of their normal way of living back into a divine way of living. John grew up, after all, the son of a priest and it was natural that he would want to bring people back to God. Jesus, on the other hand, grew up the son of a working man. Although he certainly wouldn’t disagree with anything John the Baptist did – repentance was an important theme for Jesus, as well – he operated in a different manner. Instead of working to bring people back to God, he brought God to the people. He didn’t find some special spot and wait for people to come to him but instead moved into the homes, their shops, their streets and spoke of God there. He taught them to recognize God not only in the temple where they worshiped but in the seed they planted, in the bread they baked, in the friend they helped. He didn’t tell them to be baptized but told them to forgive, to turn the other cheek, to go the second mile. The approach of Jesus – bringing God to the people – was what attracted so many to follow him.
These two approaches – bringing the people to God and bringing God to the people – are not exclusive, not either/or, not one or the other. Rather, the intertwined lives of John and Jesus demonstrate that both are necessary in a world which has lost its awareness of God. We can call these two approaches ministry and mission. John the Baptist had the ministry of bringing people to God. All of us who share in the ministry of the church are attempting to bring people to God. When we sing in the choir, when we read the word, when we offer hospitality, when we visit the sick, when we teach the children, when we comfort the bereaved, when we mentor our youth, when we work the food pantry we are helping to bring people to God. We involve ourselves in these various ministries so that people will be moved out of their normal way of living and get closer to God. But that is not the whole story. Jesus had more than a ministry, he had a mission. Jesus had the mission of bringing God into the lives of people. Each and every one of us shares the mission of Jesus. We must bring God into our homes. We must bring God into our schools. We must bring God into the work place. We must bring God into the neighborhood. We must bring God into the ball game. We must bring God into the mall. We must bring God into our TV watching. Like Jesus, we are on a mission, a mission which invites everyone to discover that God is not out there in heaven above it all. Rather God-is-with us in the providence of our everyday lives not just in church, not just in prayer. We aren’t only ministers, we are missionaries.
The season of Advent provides the perfect occasion to reflect on the fact that we share in the mission of Jesus. Just as he was born to bring God into the lives of people he touched, we must bring God into the situations and among the people whose lives have been woven into our own. Our scripture readings show us ways to move beyond ministry, as important as that is, into mission, bringing God into the lives of people. For example, we must heed the words of the prophet Isaiah and “say to those whose hearts are frightened: Be strong, fear not! Here is your God, he comes to save you.” Yes, we live in a crazy world where you have to take off your shoes to go on an airplane, where election results cause fear and dread, where sending one’s child out on the streets of Chicago can be an act of courage. We no longer feel secure in our cozy little world. But like Jesus we are on a mission to let people know they can “Be strong and fear not!” God is-with-us. God promises “sorrow and mourning will flee.” In school, at work, at home our God comes to save us.
Jesus in the gospel of Matthew provides his own report on how he was bringing God to the people: “the blind see, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised and the poor have good news preached to them.” Jesus brought God to those who were hurting, those who suffered, those who were in need. Perhaps we aren’t very good at working miracles of healing but we can, nonetheless, fulfill our mission by bringing God to those who are in need around us. When we bring positive values into our choices of what shows to watch or what songs to listen to we demonstrate to those blinded by the media’s immorality see that God is with us. When at school or at work we include the loner, the wall flower, the outcast, we raise people’s deadened spirits. When we can ask for and give forgiveness a broken family can be made whole. Church, we are on a mission with Jesus. We are to bring God into all those places we go and to all those people we meet. During Advent we rejoice that God came to us in the past in the person of Jesus. During Advent we express our faith that God will come to us again. But also during Advent we are reminded that our mission is to bring God into our present tense. Don’t just hear the word in church, share the word at home. Don’t just pray for somebody, pray with somebody. Don’t just receive the body of Christ, become the body of Christ. That’s what Advent is all about. That’s how we fulfill our mission. That’s how to prepare for Christmas.
