Life, contrary to popular theory, is not sometimes very, very good, nearly perfect, and at other times really, really bad. I hear gospel preachers say we are now experiencing a dawning of hope as the new administration takes office, while others say this political change represents the most perilous time in our history. Is one story completely right and the other completely wrong? Does any man or woman have the capacity to alter the nature of our inner and outer worlds and change who we are? Rather than blaming or crediting another for a world we see as either wonderful or perilous, perhaps we need to learn to accept responsibility for a world that is both of these at once.
Soon after Jesus starts to live into his baptism, discovering and deepening his calling by living his gifts for the sake of others—a hopeful period if ever there were one—he hears that John, his baptizer and front man, has been silenced and removed. Wanting to send a clear threat to Jesus, the authorities arrest John, torture him, and threaten him with death. How much worse could things become? The dream surely will die. All hope is lost. At least that’s the extreme way we tend to tell our stories. But Jesus, you’ll notice, has another way.
Jesus keeps moving forward, step by step, practicing his calling, going where he is sent, doing what he is given to do, honing in on his central purpose which is determined by a force larger than the current conditions.The news about John does not deter him; it motivates him to share it even more boldly, and to find others who do not think life is either all good or all bad but who see its great potential for being both at once. “Repent!” Jesus cries out, as John had done before him. “Repent” of the idea that all is lost and these present days are perilous and you have been abandoned. “Repent” for shutting your eyes to all the potential and promise of heaven that is right here with you, breaking through in beautiful interconnected patterns that only God could create.
No matter what dire situations you see as monopolizing the world, the greater truth is that a light has already dawned in the regions of death. Announce it. Invite others to live in it with you. All is not lost. Now go prove it.
