John The Baptist
Matthew 3:1-12
“I baptize you with water for repentance, but he who is coming
after me . . . he will baptize you with fire.”
One of the truest rock ‘n roll songs I know is AC/DC’s “Highway to Hell.” It’s an anthem of excess that screams, If “livin’ easy, livin’ free” lands me in hell, so be it. “My friends are gonna be there too.”
That song is a good example of why the threat of hellfire doesn’t work. People who feel threatened for wrongs they’ve done aren’t motivated to choose love instead. Divine condemnation just reinforces their tendency to be their own worst judge. Maybe I don’t fit in heaven…. maybe I’d just be happier in hell.
John the Baptist appears in the desert preaching a message of red-hot judgment. The coming messiah, he says, will baptize with fire. But when Jesus comes, all he does is tell people how much God loves them. No exceptions. He has the perfect opportunity to make good on John’s fiery words when obvious sinners come to him—the ones so bad they were cast out of religious society. But these turn out to be the people Jesus wants to be with, wants to have over for dinner.
John saw all this and wondered if this Jesus was actually the messiah he predicted. How could John have known that the messianic flame would be the fire of love?
Jesus knew that we easily accept condemnation and judgment. What we need help accepting is great love because we don’t feel we deserve it. Often people who don’t receive love as a child believe it is because they are not worthy. The message of Jesus, the one that burns like fire, is: God loves you, and you are worthy of all the love in the world.
Prayer: Too easily, Lord, we believe in our own judgment; help us to accept the eternal gift of your love, to know it is ours…to give away. Amen.
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Wow David! This message is radical. You’re really getting down to the roots here. And thank you for doing so.
As we know, there are only two emotions; Love and fear. Love is pure unity/integrity. Fear is, whether seemingly orderly or disorderly, fragmentation. Both Love and fear exist as independent thought systems. And we, at any given moment, through our thoughts, beliefs, communications, and behavior are demonstrating that we believe one system or the other is true.
Love is incapable of judging nor is it possible for Love to hold a grievance. Fear does nothing but judge, hold grievances, strengthen grievances and establish hierarchies of grievances.
Love and fear are irreconcilable. Therefore, one cannot have one foot in one and one foot in the other simultaneously. You’re either demonstrating one or the other.
Pain, suffering, misery, antagonism, boredom, hate, resentment, hostility, conflict, terror, grief, despair, depression, hopelessness, apathy, punishment, condemnation, shame, blame, possessiveness, feeling of low self worth, sickness etc., are one and all gradations/products (fragmentations) of fear. This is the default thought system of the world. Fear is the lie we use to defend ourselves from God’s Love; from the Love we inherently ARE through and through.
“He [Jesus] has the perfect opportunity to make good on John’s fiery words when obvious sinners come to him—the ones so bad they were cast out of religious society. But these turn out to be the people Jesus wants to be with, wants to have over for dinner.” David, what a beautiful scenario this is to show Jesus demonstrating Love. Jesus is Love embodied and all he ever demonstrates is Love. He recognizes the Love that each of us inherently IS. He never grants fear any beingness at all.
“We are all looking for love, in our confusion, until we find our way back to the realization that love is what we already are.” ~ Byron Katie
Your prayer is beautiful David! I’ll definitely use it.
I think the best use of judgement is to judge how I feel. If I am anything less than happy then I know that I am choosing to believe that the fear thought system is true. For me, this is easily 99,9% of the time. Consequently, I’m asking Jesus this….Jesus, please help me to see this differently. Help me to see how this really is. And, of course, he always does. However, even though I asked, I’m not always really ready to receive the answer. That’s how afraid I am of God’s Love.
“That’s how afraid I am of God’s Love.” That’s what I was trying to say—and you said it in 8 words.
David, this brings back memories of listening to a band perform “Highway to Hell” in a churchyard in Mexico. Until today, though, I had never thought about John the Baptist in connection with Heavy Metal. It’s surprisingly apt.
Ha! Yes, I remember that band!
How ironic that I was listening to an AC/DC Christmas on Sirius‘, XM, Rockin‘ Xmas Channel when I opened your email Advent message du jour. Must be something about the year we were born, we never stop rocking out. I have to admit John the Baptist is a favorite of mine what with my passion for the outdoors. I must say though that I prefer s’mores and cocoa around the campfire of our Lord‘s love to John’s, fire, brimstone, and locusts. They get stuck in my teeth. As always, thank you for your sharings.
That’s synchronicity! I like AC/DC—but I’ve never heard their Christmas album. That has to be rich!
David, I was visiting with a friend the other day and we were exploring why it is that we’re so afraid of God’s Love. In the course of our discussion my friend told me about a couple of “dreams” he once had. I thought I should share them here.
Dream #1 – In this dream my friend was housed in an apartment. The apartment was excessively secure with all manner of locks, double locks, bars, chains, etc., on all the windows and the one entry door. In the dream he’s sitting in his apartment wondering how he could make it even more secure when there’s a knock at the door. He goes to the door, looks through the peep hole and sees Jesus on the other side. With a lot of antagonism he hollers at Jesus, “Yeah, what do you want?” Jesus asks him to open the door. Very reluctantly and feeling a more than a little terrified he slowly unlocks the numerous locks, unhooks the chains, and opens the door just a crack to look out. In the moment he opens the door Jesus inserts one of his sandals into the crack. Jesus then tells my friend that this door will never be able to close again.
Dream #2 – In my friend’s other dream he was in the same, excessively secure apartment only this time the apartment has been fitted with redundant alarm systems with multiple monitors. He’s determined to keep God’s Love out and thinks that he is successfully doing so. However, on one of the alarm system monitors he is informed that Love is already inside the apartment. As this reality sinks in and shear terror takes him over it’s as if he is in the worst horror movie ever made. The very thing he fears the most is inside his apartment with him!
The question: Why are we so afraid of God’s Love?
THE ANCIENT LOVE
Love, You are silent. Not one shining word
Has reached my heart for an eternity
Of waiting and of tears. I have forgot
Your face that once was everything to me,
But now is almost nothing. What You were
I do but half remember. What You are
I do not know at all. What You will be
Is unimagined. Sometimes I believe
I knew You once. And then again I think
You were a dream that once I thought was real.
My eyes are closing, Love. Without Your Word
I will but sleep, and sleeping will forget
Even the dream. Is silence what You gave
In golden promise as the Son of God?
Is this bleak unresponsive shadowland
The overcoming that You offered those
Who understood the Father through the Son?
Is endless distance what must stand between
My Love and me? You promised that You will
Forever answer. Yet, Love, You are still.
~ Helen Schucman
https://archive.org/stream/TheGiftsOfGod/The%20Gifts%20of%20God_%20Poems%20by%20Dr.%20-%20Helen%20Schucman_djvu.txt
Beautiful-/thanks for introducing me to Helen Shueman.