Sandpaper

I wish I could show you the John the Baptist tree ornament a member made me a couple of years ago — it is made of sandpaper.  After all, John was a sandpaper person — rough, but in a way that prepares us for the coming of Christ.  Here’s how I worked that idea into a sermon …

Sandpaper

Isaiah 40:1-11; Mark 1:1-8 

Who is this man? And what is he doing barging into our Advent time? We’re supposed to be getting ready for Christmas.

Well, John the Baptist is doing the same thing: he’s getting ready for Christmas – but in a way quite different from the way we are getting ready. John came as a messenger, the one preparing the way. He was the ancient equivalent of today’s political operatives known as “advance men.”

His job was to get people ready for an astonishing event – and the preparations he required were stern ones.

Though it is not especially obvious in the passage we heard this morning from the gospel of Mark, John’s voice was a stern one, and in some versions, even a harsh one. His words may have grated on the ears of those who heard him in person; they surely sometimes grate on our ears all of these centuries later. That’s why I often refer to John as a sandpaper person.

As I told the children a few minutes ago, sandpaper is an interesting and useful product. It is best known, I believe, for the way it helps woodworkers to prepare new wood for staining, painting, or other finishes. But sandpaper has another important use:

to make smooth things rough. If you want to refinish something that is already painted or stained, you need to disrupt the smoothness of the finish, and sandpaper is a good way to do that.

The paradox, then, is that sandpaper can be used both to make rough things smooth and smooth things rough. That paradox reminds me of a phrase my pastor in Seattle often used to describe his work: to comfort the afflicted and to afflict the comfortable. (He was a sandpaper person, too, by the way). And sandpaper people are called to rough up smooth things and smooth out rough things.

If we listen to descriptions of John the Baptist in the other gospel accounts, he seems to specialize in the latter (that is, roughing up smooth things). In Matthew, he calls the Pharisees and Sadducees a “brood of vipers,” [Matthew 3:7] and in Luke, he tells the crowd “every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.” [Luke 3:9] The message he brings as a messenger is that the people need to repent, to turn their lives in a new direction.

If his ancient listeners were anything like us (and I believe that they were a great deal like us), then they heard a ring of truth in that call to repentance. They knew, as we know, that we are not the people that we aspire to be, and that we are certainly not the people that God hopes we will be. Even a superficial personal moral inventory makes that clear: we fall short of our own expectations, we are inconsistent in following our consciences, we make excuses for our shortcomings, and then we blame them on everything else but our own failures. When we offer our prayer of confession each week, we have plenty to confess – things we have done and things that we have left undone that now trouble our hearts.

But I think it is a mistake to see John as only roughing up the faithful – his words and his actions are also smoothers. In an important way, his call to repentance carries the promise that repentance is possible. He was, we are told in today’s text, “…proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.” [Mark 1:4] The call to turn in a new direction comes in the context of God’s forgiveness. We repent, not just to acknowledge where we have gone wrong or astray, but also to set ourselves on a new path, to orient ourselves in a new direction. The good news that is coming in the person of Jesus Christ is the good news that God is always ready to offer us an opportunity to begin again. The good news is that in the game of life, God is always willing to give us a “do over.”

All of this is to say that John the Baptizer was a prophet in the tradition of the Hebrew prophets who had preceded him by many centuries. He spoke the truth, not just as a prediction of events that were to come, but also as a re-affirmation of God’s relationship with the people. It is no coincidence that the words used to introduce John in the gospel of Mark (“Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.” [Mark 1:3]) are taken from the passage we heard this morning form the 40^th chapter of the book of Isaiah (”In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God.” [Isaiah 40:3]) The promise of God to reach out to those who have repented is not new with John, but is etched deeply in the history of the covenantal relationship between God and the people.

“Comfort, O comfort my people, says your God.” [Isaiah 40:1] These words were written to a people who had been defeated and sent into exile, people who have paid a penalty for their unfaithfulness, and who have turned in a new direction. To them Isaiah is directed to offer these words of encouragement and solace. The sandpaper of their lives has smoothed the rough edges of their faith and brought them to a new beginning.

Sandpaper people smooth what is rough and rough up what is smooth – but neither every voice that scolds us nor every voice that encourages us comes from a sandpaper person. Some critical voices are just critical, and some encouraging words are just words. The particular quality of sandpaper people – that is, prophets – is that they offer their criticisms and their encouraging words out of love – love for God and love for one another (to use that ancient rubric). They speak the truth in love.

That is not an easy thing to do, which may be the reason that there are not many people in our lives who are actually able to speak to us truthfully and lovingly. We hope that our partners and spouses will do that, and if we are fortunate, some few close friends. We may be blessed with teachers, mentors, therapists, or even pastors who speak loving truth to us.

That is not an easy thing to do, which may also be the reason that there are not many people in our lives to whom we actually speak truthfully and lovingly. There is always a risk – the risk of offending, of injuring a relationship, of being misunderstood or rejected. To take that risk, we need to have developed a level of mutuality and trust that requires time and effort to establish.

One of the places we hope to find that level of mutuality and trust is in the church. If that hope is to be fulfilled, however, we have to make the effort to build a community in which mutuality and trust can flourish. We need to know each other, and we need to take the time to speak with one another about the things that truly matter to us – about our faith, about the ways and places in which we encounter God, about the dilemmas and decisions that face us.

A faithful church, I believe, is one in which members invest in the community so that we can be sandpaper to one another – smoothing what is rough and roughing what is smooth. Like many investments, this one is made with many small deposits – attending worship regularly, making a point of meeting new members and welcoming guests and visitors, sharing questions and doubts, establishing personal routines of study and prayer, and offering one’s talents and energies to the ministries we share. These are our ways of preparing the way, of making the path level and smooth. These are the ways that we become faithful sandpaper to one another, prepared for the coming of Christ, wherever he may surprise us with his presence – even on Christmas

Amen.

Prayer for December 7, 2008

Almighty and everlasting God, creator of all things seen and unseen, hear now our silent prayers, as we open our hearts to you in the sacred quietness.

God of faith and hope, we bring before you our prayers for those we have named this morning – we especially remember … Bring to each of them the gifts of mercy and grace that are most needed, according to your wisdom and love.

We seek your guidance in all of our days, Holy One, and we especially pray today for wisdom and balance in our celebration of the holidays at hand.

We are truly grateful for the amazing gift of Christmas, and for the times of anticipation and preparation that come before. Keep us afloat on the pleasures of hospitality and tradition, and away from the icebergs of weary crankiness. Help us to choose activities and rituals that deepen our faith as well as those that lighten our hearts.

God of all gifts, we pray for true generosity in what we choose to give others, and true gratitude for what others choose for us. Do not let gift giving devolve into the exchange of equal favors, a quid pro quo of wrapping paper and ribbon. Let each present be an expression of our understanding of another person’s talents and habits, and not just a projection of our own. Hold us back when we are tempted to use a gift as a subtle way of changing someone’s behavior or of gaining that person’s good will.

Even as we cultivate the spiritual practice of being sincere and thoughtful givers, we pray also for the spiritual gift of being humble and appreciative receivers. As each parcel comes to us, help us to see the affection and respect with which it is offered, and to rejoice in them. Open our eyes to the gifts that we might overlook – the small kindnesses, the earnest good wishes, the quiet favors, and the gentle acts of forgiveness.

Open our ears, too, to hear the prophetic words in the familiar stories. As we sing and pray about the Prince of Peace, keep alive in us a sense of urgency for the daily work of justice upon which true peace depends. As we arrange the figures of the Nativity Scene, remind us of your habit of choosing the lowly and the outcast to carry forward the hope of your kingdom of shalom. As we make donations to charities and causes, widen our sight to see the needs of all your people.

Even as we invest in these holiday activities, Lord, keep us attentive to the ongoing needs of those around us, especially of those with unspoken needs – the victims of violence, those living with addictions, those living with chronic ailments and conditions, those struggling with mental illness, and those whose secret suffering is known only to you.

All this we pray in the name of the one whose coming we await with joy and awe, even Jesus the Christ, and we pray together now in the words that he taught us …