Wild
Isaiah 40:1-11; Mark 1:1-8

December 4, 2005

In the very first words of the very first Gospel, John the Baptist appears with no warning. True, many hearing this story already had an idea about who he was, but John doesn’t fit into any comfortable space in the history of salvation. John doesn’t fit in much of anything because he had been living in the wilderness. John was wild.

Mark makes a point of describing just how wild John is. A camel-hair habit tied at the waist with a leather belt was not meant to be high fashion, but to make listeners recall the appearance and demeanour of Elijah, the prophet who Jews still expect to return. John ate locusts and wild honey, a sure sign of civilized tastes.

One admires John for the forthrightness and fearlessness of his message in the face of established religion and a no-nonsense foreign occupier. Otherwise, we shudder - at his choice of food, clothing, life-style. Becoming Christian is an antidote to wildness, we assume. Being wild implies a lack of control and an inability to put two ideas together, an hostility towards authority and polite conventions, a certain ruthlessness to get one’s own way, and consequently, a necessary violence. Remember how Elijah slew the prophets of Ba’al? John being allowed to play such an important role in the formation and history of the Church as a wild man seems way outside the box.

Hold on, though. John emerges out of the wilderness, a legendary locale where human beings generally do not live, the natural resources are not what human beings usually require, and no one lives there except brigands, unfriendly and ferocious animals, devils, and God. Go up to our Canadian bush and it may be more naturally lush, and there may or may not be brigands, but the animals can be unfriendly, especially those wonderful insects, and the demons and devil accompany us no matter where. The bush is God’s country.

John may dress and eat in a way outside our fashion, but his way of life is disciplined to exclude what he doesn’t need and is frivolous, disciplined to include only the demands of God upon his life, and certainly humble to understand that while he has an important message to proclaim, he is only a normal human being. Only a few of his words are recorded, but this man could think with compelling simplicity and directness. In these ways, John may not have been tame, but he was not wild. What was wildest about him is that he demanded without compromise a commitment to God’s new way of life that was beginning now, immediately. To those who like to work for gradual change in ourselves, this is radical to the point of unreasonable insanity - a wild idea that doesn’t fit in with the moderation of civilization.

Now I’m not sure you’re getting the big point here. John the Baptist emerged onto the Jewish religious scene from living in the wilderness. Parts of John were intelligent, inspired, and controlled, but parts were wild, in particular, his insistence that you have to repent now, for the Kingdom of God is here. From where did John get this wildness? Not from the water or from the unpolluted air or the heat, or even from eating locusts. John was wild with God and wild like God. Do you get this now? Our God is wild.

God has no controls except the ones God self imposes. We try, but human beings never can control God and God does not respond to our principles of moderation. God curses the religious professionals and blesses the infidels. God is never confined to our definitions of who is worthy of salvation and blessing and who is not. God has this wild, uncivilized habit of blessing the people we wouldn’t. Younger sons are favoured over older sons. Foreigners and outcastes are the good guys instead of the good church folk. Cheats and adulterers, prostitutes and extortionist tax collectors are invited to sit next to Jesus at dinner and share his food and conversation. This God is wild, unpredictable, uncontrollable, and at times unfair.

One proof among many is this marvelous oracle of Isaiah 40 that is the source of the John the Baptist prophecy. “In the wilderness, prepare the way of the Lord.” The road is being prepared for the Israelites returning from captivity in Babylon to their home in Jerusalem. They are able to return home free because the wicked Babylonians have been conquered by Cyrus the Great of Persia (now Iran). Cyrus is declared to be the saviour of Israel in some of the same language that will be reserved for Jesus the Messiah. Yet Cyrus was not a Jew, but a tolerant agnostic, for did he not believe in the One God of the Universe. Only a wild God who does not respect the boundaries of the religious faiths supposedly initiated by God in the first place. At least, that’s the way we think it works.

But if we’ve got such a wild uncontrollable God who can and will do virtually anything without our permission or approval, then do you think we are waiting for a tame Christ this Advent season? Since you and I are part of this incarnation, then you must be wild too, with an imagination that thinks out of the civilized and proper box that imagines a world that thinks and acts differently, a love that respects no humanly established boundaries, a wild impulse to serve the need of those who are suffering no matter what political or racial or ethnic flag they bear. If you act this way, others will oppose you and try to stop you. They have before, because this is so wild it cannot be allowed. Be wild anyway.

Preached by Robert Kitchen
Knox-Metropolitan United Church
Regina, Saskatchewan