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Last Sunday we imagined what might happen if an intelligent life form found NASA’s Golden Record, the cosmic greeting card attached to Voyagers 1 and 2, and decided to come searching for us.
So let’s pick up the story there. Imagine these visitors gliding toward our solar system, following the map etched onto that gold disc until they find this blue-green orb hanging like a Christmas ornament in the Milky Way.
And I’m pretty sure they made this journey for one reason, and one reason alone: to meet their neighbor. Not to conquer. Not to steal resources. Not to eat us. But to see what else God has done.
Because if these space-faring beings exist, they exist because God so intended them to be, just like you and me (Genesis 1:1 NRSV). This is not an accidental cosmos.
And so, when they land, we would be fools to pull out our guns and weapons of mass destruction and try to blow them away.
Keep in mind, they just traveled 588 trillion miles, that’s 100 light years to you and me. Our guns would not slow them down. Instead, maybe, we should meet them with love, hospitality, and kindness. Not leading with our legal precepts, or cultural values, or even scientific principles, but through the patterns of the kingdom of God (Luke 17:20-21).
Because their God is our God. And our God is the God of love (1 John 4:7-8). Our God is the God of relationship. And that begins with an open hand, with the expectation that we were meant to meet, and that it would be good and through this relationship our joy would increase.
I say joy, I bring joy into the conversation, because joy is a core concept within the kingdom of God, and it is an idea we honor today on this third Sunday in Advent. Today is known within our tradition as Gaudete Sunday. In Latin it means “rejoice.”
It might surprise you to know that John the Baptist is considered by some to be the patron saint of joy. He doesn’t cut the perfect image of who we might think of as joyful person. He always seems a bit grumpy, clothed in camel hair, eating whatever happens to fly by. He seems a little harsh, judgmental, maybe calling people “a brood of vipers” (Matthew 3:7). Not very nice. But, the insight he opens our minds to, if we are paying attention, is joy.
Let’s take a look at the Gospel for today to see what I’m talking about.
John has gotten on the wrong side of Herod for criticizing him for marrying his brother’s wife. The consequence John finds himself in the clink, imprisoned in Herod’s palace. But, it seems, he has a pretty good pipeline beyond the walls of the prison, and so hears about what Jesus is doing.
John sends a message: “Are you the one who is to come, or are we to wait for another?” (Matthew 11:2-6)
Jesus answers, quoting Isaiah: “Go and tell John what you hear and see: ‘the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have good news brought to them.’” (Isa 29:18-19, 35:5-6, 61:1 para)
When John hears these words he sees, in a flash of insight, that what he had prepared for had now collide with what he had anticipated. The vision he pursued, the one put forth by the prophet Isaiah was coming into being. “The wilderness and the dry land shall be glad,” Isaiah wrote. “The desert shall rejoice and blossom like the crocus; it shall blossom abundantly and rejoice with joy and singing.” (Isaiah 35:1-2). Isaiah goes on… “Strengthen the weak hands, make firm the feeble knees. Say to those who are fearful of heart: ‘Be strong, do not fear! Here is your God.’” (Isaiah 35:3-4).
That is what the kingdom of God, this world, the cosmos is like when we let it be as it was designed to be. It is what John anticipated, and so it is what John worked for, as well.
When preparation meets anticipation, when they embrace, when they collide, when they recognize one another, then joy becomes complete.
John baptizes Jesus. Jesus goes one way. John the other; both out to different banks of the river Jordan- baptizing. And some of John’s disciples complained that Jesus was copying them.
To which John replies: “No one can receive anything except what has been given to them from heaven. You yourselves are my witness that I said, ‘I am not the Messiah, but I have been sent ahead of him.’ The friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears, and rejoices greatly at the bridegroom’s voice. For this reason my joy is complete.” (John 3:27-29)
And then John adds: “He must increase. I must decrease.” (John 3:30).
These words may sound like resignation. Or they may sound like humility.
But in the kingdom of God they are words of joy, because when preparation meets anticipation, we exhale. We smile. We sit down. We settle in… to joy and our joy becomes complete.
Last Sunday, I preached about the dance of wisdom and hope, and how, oftentimes, we are the repository of someone else’s hope. Jesus was that repository for John. Jesus was the anticipation, the articulation and activation of Isaiah’s prophecy that John had prepared for, and then asked about, and then saw fulfilled when Jesus responded: “Go tell John that the blind received their sight, ‘the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have good news brought to them’” (Matthew 11:5).
When preparation finally meets anticipation our joy is complete. And we can sit down, and nothing can take that joy from us, not even the jail cell of Herod. It is there, John met joy which is why some call him the patron saint of joy.
This type of joy makes me think of my grammy Clifton and the last time I saw her. It was at the Northfield Villa in Gering, Nebraska. She had suffered a stroke and was confined to a wheelchair. Half her face drooped and it was darn near impossible to understand what she said…
And yet, even then, as a kid, I could see that her joy was complete. Maybe it was in seeing us kids as the repository of her hope. Or maybe it was the joy of embracing a faithful life as she anticipated her jump to paradise. But whatever it was, it was clear she was ready to decrease, she was blessed by her infirmity, her humility, and she radiated joy.
Today on this third Sunday of Advent we are invited to consider how what we anticipate is met by what we do; how our actions are preparation for the vision of the world we want to see come into being.
Kate foreshadowed this preparation anticipation consideration well two Sundays ago when she reminded us that Christian hope is not evacuation; Christian hope is resurrection (1 Corinthians 15:20). Which is why I’m sure if we met intelligent beings who followed the map on the Golden Record they would not have come as part of an evacuation plan, but rather, because they understood resurrection, that they understood that love is the point, and relationship is primary in the Kingdom of God. And so, they would not have come seeking conquest, but with warm cookies, to meet their cosmic neighbors.
And this musing makes me wonder: What do we think about evacuation versus resurrection? There are more than a few people, some powerful, wealthy people who are pouring billions into evacuation strategies. Humanity 2.0.
Colonizing Mars. Escaping because, I suspect, they don’t understand the power of resurrection. Hubris, not humility. And certainly not hope for humanity; just for themselves.
My prayer for these proponents of escape is that someday, someday soon, they go up in to outer space, and from the vantage point of 22,000 miles in the sky, they look down on this spinning globe of glory and see all of Earth’s scattered pieces suddenly appear as one fragile, beautiful, interconnected whole.
And that they would be struck by what astronauts call the overview effect: where the prism of their own small perspective, suddenly collapses into a vision of unity: “Where the wolf shall live with the lamb, the leopard shall lie down with the kid, the calf and the lion, and the fattling together. Where the cow and the bear shall graze, and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. And the nursing child should play over the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put its hands on the adders den.
They will not hurt or destroy on this blue green spinning globe – and the earth will be filled with the knowledge of our God.” (Isa 11:6-9 para)
And when these astronauts return home they do so not as conquerors of space, but rather with a sense of humility and a deep sense of joy… being transformed from individuals seeking evacuation, to people who understand resurrection…
Advent, Gaudete Sunday, reminds us to align preparation with anticipation working toward a vision of peace on earth, if not the cosmos, holding in our hearts joy for all God’s creation, including, if there is such a thing, intelligent beings, neighbors 588 trillion miles away.