11th day of Advent: John and Oscar
Luke 3:1-6
In the fifteenth year of the reign of
Emperor Tiberius, when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, and Herod was
ruler of Galilee, and his brother Philip ruler of the region of Ituraea and
Trachonitis, and Lysanias ruler of Abilene, during the high priesthood of
Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John son of Zechariah in the
wilderness. He went into all the region around the Jordan, proclaiming a
baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins, as it is written in the
book of the words of the prophet Isaiah, “The voice of one crying out in the
wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. Every
valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be made low, and the
crooked shall be made straight, and the rough ways made smooth; and all flesh
shall see the salvation of God.’”
In the third year of the presidency of Jimmy Carter, when
generals were ruling over El Salvador, and rebels (armed by the US) were
planning a coup, and priests who stood with the poor were called terrorists and
communists, the word of God came to Bishop Oscar Romero in the wilderness of a
civil war.
Both Oscar and John the Baptist spoke an unpopular truth
that upset those in power. In the
scripture above, Luke didn’t just throw in all those hard to pronounce names to
try and stump the scripture reader. He was framing the world into which this
prophet John was preparing the way. In the midst of these oppressive leaders,
John was not only speaking words about the change he knew was coming, but he
being those words made flesh. John’s weapon of choice was the waters of
Baptism; Romero used the bread and the cup.
Romero went into the town square, proclaiming that God was
present with the poor, calling on the government and church to repent, and he
served the bread and cup as the ultimate protest against the oppression of the
poor. Romero knew that the body and blood, when embodied by the people,
empowered them to make paths straight, fill valleys, lower mountains and hills,
and smooth over rough places… how? Romero believed that God was present in the
bread and cup, was present in the poor themselves, and that all flesh would see
the salvation of God.
Said another way, Romero framed the plight of a people being
oppressed with the perspective of a Christ who suffered and died and defeated
death. Romero could confidently serve the bread and cup in defiance of those
standing around them with guns pointed because he knew how the story ends: all
flesh shall see the salvation of God.
Do not be confused… this is not a “it doesn’t matter what
happens here on earth because everything will be okay in heaven” theology. This
is the theology or life perspective of “I know how this is all going to
end—love defeats death—so I am going to live then ending now. I am not only
going to speak words about the change I know is coming, but I am going to be
those words made flesh.
In the words of Oscar Romero:
Advent should admonish us to discover in
each brother or sister that we greet, in each friend whose hand we shake, in
each beggar who asks for bread, in each worker who wants to use the right to
join a union, in each peasant who looks for work in the coffee groves, the face
of Christ. Then it would not be possible to rob them, to cheat them, to deny
them their rights. This is what Advent is: Christ living among us.
Again, don’t be confused… this is not a history lesson about
events that happened over 30 years ago. This is as true today as it was then.
Advent is not all love, peace, joy, and candles on Christmas Eve. Advent is a chance again to prepare for the
persecution that is coming when we welcome this revolutionary, table turning,
bread and cup serving Christ child into our lives again.
There is no real peace without justice. Oscar and John stood
up to corrupt governments and churches that preached “peace” that was dependent
on the oppression of the poor and the silence of mass graves. “Peace” was
maintained by the US assisted Salvadorian government through kidnapping,
torturing, and killing of those who preached about what real peace looked like.
In Romero’s words:
It is important to note why [the Church] has
been persecuted. Not any and every priest has been persecuted, not any and
every institution has been attacked. That part of the church has been attacked
and persecuted that put itself on the side of the people and went to the
people's defense. Here again we find the same key to understanding the
persecution of the church: the poor.
Sounds a lot like today. We hear propaganda like “freedom
isn’t free”, while those who speak about what real freedom and peace look like
are condemned as troublemakers and sometimes terrorists. Many of our churches
that are “thriving” are maintaining their growth on the backs of the
poor—proclaiming “peace” where there is no justice, while those who stand with
the poor are sacrificed by those same churches in order to maintain that “peace”.
But the hope we find in this Advent time of waiting and
preparing can be found in the very words made flesh by John and Oscar:
John the Baptist quoting Isaiah:
The voice of one crying out in the
wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. Every
valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be made low, and the
crooked shall be made straight, and the rough ways made smooth; and all flesh shall
see the salvation of God.’
Bishop Oscar Romero blessing the
bread and cup:
We receive here the body of the Lord who
offered himself for the redemption of the world. May his body and blood given
for us nourish us in such a way that we, too, may give our body and blood as
Christ did, so we may bring justice and peace to our people.
Immediately after speaking these words, Romero was shot dead
by the government; John the Baptist was eventually beheaded by the government.
They were both guilty of speaking truth to those in power, telling the
oppressed something the powerful didn’t want them to hear:
Freedom is free.
Real peace is only possible with justice.
Love conquers death.
And this was all made flesh by a little baby whose blood
would be the seed of freedom.
No comments:
Post a Comment