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Gospel: Luke 3: 10-18
The crowds asked John the Baptist,
“What should we do?”
He said to them in reply,
“Whoever has two cloaks
should share with the person who has none.
And whoever has food should do likewise.”
Even tax collectors came to be baptized and they said to him,
“Teacher, what should we do?”
He answered them,
“Stop collecting more than what is prescribed.”
Soldiers also asked him,
“And what is it that we should do?”
He told them,
“Do not practice extortion,
do not falsely accuse anyone,
and be satisfied with your wages.”
Now the people were filled with expectation,
and all were asking in their hearts
whether John might be the Christ.
John answered them all, saying,
“I am baptizing you with water,
but one mightier than I is coming.
I am not worthy to loosen the thongs of his sandals.
He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.
His winnowing fan is in his hand to clear his threshing floor
and to gather the wheat into his barn,
but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.”
Exhorting them in many other ways,
he preached good news to the people.
The Gospel of the Lord.
***
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I became a third-grade teacher in Newark immediately after graduating from college. Every week, I’d give my students a spelling test… and they hated them. Sometimes, I’d throw out a strange word for them to spell like bedlam.
B-E-D-L-A-M.
For extra credit, they would not only have to spell the word correctly, but also define it.
Bedlam, “a noisy scene of uproar and confusion.”
Much like Mr. Kilgore’s third-grade classroom on a hot Friday afternoon.
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The word bedlam is derived from the centuries-old mental institution, Saint Mary’s of Bethlehem in London.
It was once a highly a regarded asylum, a safe haven for the troubled, affectionately known as Bethlehem.
However, after years of neglect, the facility deteriorated into a shell of what it once was. It then became referred to, in the gargled language of its residents, as Bedlam.
For lack of proper care, Bethlehem had become Bedlam.
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In today’s Gospel, people are lining up to be baptized by John the Baptist in the desert.
Imagine each of them standing idly, shuffling their feet, acknowledging by their mere presence that some part of their life had gone from, “Bethlehem to bedlam,” from order to disorder.
That’s what sin does by its very nature. It saps our joy; looks good today, but turns bad tomorrow; it separates; tarnishes; ruins the good within.
Gazing upon the vulnerable, wayward crowd, John first baptizes them in his fire-and-brimstone style preaching: “You brood of vipers,” he says, “who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?”
John’s warning them that his baptism is not magic. If they are dunked in the Jordan River, but return to their old way of life, then they’ll be no different than a venomous group of snakes fleeing a grass fire. The poison of sin would still be brewing within them.
In order to get rid of it, they must also be inwardly changed.
***
This prompts their question to John in today’s Gospel: “What should we do?”
So, he gives them practical advice based upon each person’s profession.
If you’re a tax collector, then stop stealing from the poor, charging more than what’s required. If you’re a soldier, then do not abuse your office, lording your authority over others. If you have two cloaks, then give one away.
Take the grace from this day and go home.
Go home to your family, to your neighbors, to your colleagues at work and amend your life. The crowds were not being asked to move to the desert; this was a moment of grace.
What John – and ultimately God – wanted from them was to return to the ordinariness of their lives changed.
Imagine the lump in the throats of those tax collectors the next time they knocked on their neighbor’s door. How humbly soldiers would’ve put on their uniforms. Or the turn in the stomachs of the wealthy the next time they passed by the poor.
These were the areas in their own lives where Bethlehem had become bedlam.
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What changes might I need to make this Advent? Where has Bethlehem become bedlam in my own life?
***
John concludes his sermon in the desert by telling the crowds that the Messiah will come and baptize them, not with water, but with fire and the Holy Spirit.
That fire would forever burn away all of the “chaff” – the bedlam – in their lives, allowing them to become freer, more joyful people.
On this Gaudete Sunday, we rejoice that our Savior is on his way. He is coming to bring us salvation, turning bedlam into Bethlehem.
Sin into grace.
Despair into hope.
Death into life.
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Image credits: (1) Mother of God Church (2) The New York Times (3) Pinterest