Third Sunday of Advent, cycle A

MATTHEW 11:2-11

ONE OF THE GREATEST MEN OF OUR GENERATION PASSED AWAY THIS LAST WEEK. NELSON MANDELA HAD BEEN BORN INTO A TRIBE IN SOUTH AFRICA, ONE OF THE LARGER AND MORE PROSPEROUS TRIBES, PRETTY MUCH LEFT ALONE BY THE SOUTH AFRICAN GOVERNMENT. FOR THE MOST PART, THEY MANAGED THEIR OWN AFFAIRS, AND HAD MANDELA STAYED THERE, HE WAS IN LINE TO BE THE TRIBAL KING. HE CHOSE TO BECOME A LAWYER. AS A LAWYER IN THE BRITISH COMMONWEALTH, HE COULD HAVE PRACTICED LAW ANYWHERE. EVEN BLACK LAWYERS IN SOUTH AFRICA HAD A PRIVILEGED POSITION COMPARED TO ORDINARY BLACK AFRICANS. MANDELA COULD HAVE DONE GOOD AND LIVED WELL AS A LAWYER. BUT INSTEAD, HE BECAME A POLITICAL ACTIVIST, RALLYING HIS PEOPLE AROUND THE IDEA OF FREEDOM AND THE DESTRUCTION OF APARTHEID. HE WAS JAILED MANY TIMES, BEATEN, THREATENED WITH DEATH; AND FINALLY SENTENCED TO LIFE IN PRISON FOR TERRORISM. TWENTY-SEVEN YEARS WENT BY, UNTIL THE SOUTH AFRICAN STATE BEGAN TO TOPPLE UNDER THE WEIGHT OF NEARLY UNIVERSAL SANCTIONS. WHEN MANDELA WAS RELEASED, HE WAS 72 YEARS OLD, HAVING SPENT 27 YEARS IN PRISON.

INITIALLY MANDELA, THE HEAD OF THE FORMERLY OUTLAWED AFRICAN NATIONAL CONGRESS, WAS INVITED TO PARTICIPATE IN A COALITION GOVERNMENT WITH THE TASK OF TRANSITIONING TO A NEW REGIME IN WHICH APARTHEID WOULD NO LONGER BE THE LAW, AND A NEW CONSTITUTION, GRANTING EQUAL RIGHTS TO ALL CITIZENS, WOULD BE DEVELOPED. AS PART OF THIS PROCESS, MANDELA INSISTED THAT RECONCILIATION COUNCILS BE SET UP THROUGHOUT THE COUNTRY. PEOPLE WOULD COME FORWARD AND DESCRIBE THEIR EXPERIENCE WITH APARTHEID. ALL WERE INVITED, AND THE RESULTS WERE PUBLICIZED. NO ONE WAS PROSECUTED; EVERYONE WAS FORGIVEN FOR THEIR PART. BUT THE STORIES THAT CAME OUT AND MADE THE ROUNDS CHANGED THE MINDS OF THE PEOPLE MORE THAN ANYTHING ELSE MIGHT HAVE DONE; BY THE TIME THIS PROCESS WAS OVER, THERE WERE VERY FEW PEOPLE WHO ADVOCATED GOING BACK TO THE OLDEN DAYS.

FINALLY, MANDELA WAS ELECTED PRESIDENT BY AN OVERWHELMING MAJORITY, UNDER THE NEW CONSTITUTION. HE INVITED HIS JAILERS TO THE INAUGURATION. HE WAS ASKED, “DIDN'T YOU HATE THEM?” AND HE REPLIED, “I DID HATE THEM. BUT I STOPPED WHEN I REALIZED THAT AS LONG AS I DID, I WAS STILL IN PRISON.”. MANDELA SPENT HIS PRESIDENCY AND MUCH OF HIS LIFE AFTERWORDS RECONCILING PEOPLE; HE NEGOTIATED THE END TO THE HORRIBLE WAR BETWEEN THE TWO MAJOR TRIBES IN BURUNDI, A WAS DESCRIBED AS A NEAR GENOCIDE. HE BECAME AN ICON, LIKE GEORGE WASHINGTON OR ABRAHAM LINCOLN, TRUSTED AND REVERED BY WHITES AND BLACKS ALIKE.

IT'S INTERESTING THAT MANDELA DIED DURING THE SEASON WHEN WE ARE THINKING ABOUT JOHN THE BAPTIST. TODAY WE FIND HIM IN PRISON, AND WE HEAR THOSE PLAINTIVE WORDS, “ARE YOU THE ONE WHO IS TO COME, OR SHALL WE LOOK FOR ANOTHER?” JOHN MUST HAVE WONDERED WHY HE WAS IN PRISON, IF GOD WAS WITH HIM, IF THE MESSAGE HE BROUGHT WAS TRUE. WE KNOW FROM OTHER GOSPEL ACCOUNTS THAT BEFORE HE WAS ARRESTED HE DESCRIBED JESUS AS “LAMB OF GOD” AND TOLD HIS OWN FOLLOWERS THAT “HE MUST INCREASE, AND I MUST DECREASE”. THE POINT OF COURSE IS THAT JOHN IS SHOWING HIS HUMANITY; EVERY HUMAN BEING HAD DOUBTS; YOU CAN'T HAVE FAITH UNLESS YOU CAN DOUBT. EVEN MARY SAID, “HOW CAN THIS BE?” BEFORE JOYFULLY SAYING “BE IT DONE TO ME ACCORDING TO YOUR WORD.”

LIKE MANDELA, JOHN HAD GIVEN UP EVERYTHING TO PREACH THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. HE HAD BEEN THE SON OF A PRIEST AND COULD CLAIM THE RIGHT TO BE A PRIEST. HE COULD HAVE LIVED A COMFORTABLE LIFE, REVERED BY THE PEOPLE, AND WELL PAYED. HE WAS WELL EDUCATED AS FAR AS WE CAN TELL. JOHN MUST HAVE BEEN FAMILIAR WITH THE JEWISH SCRIPTURES, BECAUSE HE CHOSE TO DRESS LIKE ELIJAH THE PROPHET, AND HIS MESSAGE WAS TRUE TO THE MESSAGE OF THE PROPHETS AS WELL-- A CALL TO REPENTANCE. AND HE INSTITUTED BAPTISM. LAST WEEK WE HEARD ABOUT HOW “EVERYONE” WAS COMING TO BE BAPTIZED, INCLUDING PHARISEES AND SADUCEES. BAPTISM WAS THE GREAT LEVELER.

AND WE CHRISTIANS HAVE INHERITED THAT RITUAL AND JESUS MADE IT A SACRAMENT. WHEN WE GO THROUGH BAPTISM, WE ENTER THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN, AND BECAUSE BAPTISM MAKES US BROTHERS AND SISTERS OF EACH OTHER AND OF JESUS HIMSELF, WE ARE GREATER THAN EVEN JOHN THE BAPTIST; WE HAVE CROSSED OVER, ENTERED A WORLD WHERE THERE IS NO JEW NOR GREEK, NO SLAVE, NO MASTER; NO MALE, NO FEMALE”. THE EARLIEST CHRISTIANS LIVED THIS OUT; THEY HELD THINGS IN COMMON, THEY LOOKED AFTER EACH OTHER'S NEEDS, AND WHENEVER DIVISION ENTERED THEIR COMMUNITY, THEY WORKED TO RESTORE THE ORIGINAL UNITY. THAT WAS THE ORIGIN OF THE DIACONATE; WIDOWS OF JEWISH CHRISTIANS AND WIDOWS OF GENTILE CHRISTIANS WERE NOT BEING TREATED EQUALLY, AN THE APOSTLES APPOINTED DEACONS TO SEE THAT EVERYONE WAS TREATED THE SAME

MANDELA WORKED ALL HIS LIFE, NOT TO OVERTHROW THE WHITE PEOPLE IN SOUTH AFRICA, BUT RATHER, TO CREATE A SOCIETY WHERE IT DIDN'T MATTER WHAT COLOR YOU WERE; WHERE BEING SOUTH AFRICAN WAS MORE IMPORTANT THAN WHAT TRIBE YOU BELONGED TO. HE WORKED TO CREATE A WORLD WHERE PEOPLE WOULD LOOK AFTER EACH OTHER BECAUSE THEY WERE ALL SOUTH AFRICANS. DID HE SUCCEED? NOT YET, BUT IT'S COME A LONG WAY.

AND JOHN THE BAPTIST STARTED THAT SAME PROCESS, A PROCESS TAKEN UP BY JESUS AND THE EARLY CHURCH, OF OVERCOMING ALL THE DIVISIONS WHICH STILL PLAGUE US TODAY, EVEN AMONG CHRISTIANS, EVEN WITHIN OUR CATHOLIC CHURCH. WHENEVER A BAPTIZED PERSON DOES NOT SEE ANOTHER PERSON AS A BROTHER OR SISTER, THE KINGDOM TO COME IS DRIVEN A LITTLE FURTHER AWAY. WHEN WE SEE EACH OTHER AS BROTHERS AND SISTERS, WHEN WE TREAT EACH OTHER THAT WAY, THE KINGDOM IS BROUGHT CLOSER.

MAKE YOUR RESOLUTION TODAY TO GO OUT OF YOUR WAY TO ACKNOWLEDGE YOUR BROTHERS AND SISTERS IN BAPTISM. WHEN WE EXCHANGE THE SIGN OF PEACE, SMILE AND SHAKE HANDS, OR HUG, OR WHATEVER – BUT THIS TIME MEAN IT. MAKE A NEW FRIEND TODAY BEFORE YOU LEAVE CHURCH AND GET IN YOUR CAR. AND BRING THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN A LITTLE CLOSER. YOU CAN BE ANOTHER MANDELA, ANOTHER MARTIN LUTHER KING, ANOTHER JOHN THE BAPTIST – EVEN ANOTHER JESUS CHRIST, IF YOU LIVE YOUR BROTHERHOOD THAT WAS GIVEN TO YOU IN BAPTISM.