Raised Eyebrows

Today’s Gospel reading mentions the “crowd” regarding John the Baptist as a prophet.   I’m reminded of the article “The Voices of Advent” written by Jeffrey Essmann in the December 9 issue of the magazine America.   Essmann wrote:

“We live in a world in which prophecy has been swamped by prediction: the weather, elections, the stock market.  But John the Baptist did not conduct polls; Isaiah’s accuracy did not have a margin of plus or minus 3 percentage points.  Prophets simply tell the truth.  And we focus on them during Advent because it is the season leading up to the greatest truth of all: God is with us.  He is here, now.  We are saved.  It is an extraordinary message that all of us utterly ordinary Christians – parents, teachers, parishioners, pals – are supposed to pass along.  At baptism we were anointed to be prophets to one another and to the world, to bear witness to the great light, to burn with the Spirit and fire and to echo the voice of God at the heart of us.  And, yes, we may go unnoticed in our hometowns; but if we are lucky, we might raise an eyebrow in the kingdom of God.”

This Advent let’s raise some eyebrows.  Let’s bear witness, burn, and echo.  If we’re lucky, those in our hometown will notice too.

Deacon David Pierce