More Wonder
December 9, 2010
Excerpt from John 1:15-25
He said, "I am the voice of one crying out in the wilderness, 'Make straight the way of the Lord.'"
Reflection by Anthony B. Robinson
At the conclusion of the movie, "Reality Bites," the female lead is, surprisingly, the class graduation speaker. With a lovely smile, she says, "The answer is...I don't know the answer."
When the religious authorities got concerned about John the Baptist, the message he was proclaiming and the crowds he was drawing, they sent a team of experts out to the desert to get the answers, to find out who he was, to pin John down. He proved as hard to catch as a Monarch butterfly.
"Who are you?" they demanded. John, maybe more of a trickster than we have thought, told them who he was not. "I am not the Messiah." "What then," they asked, "Are you Elijah?" "I am not." "Are you the prophet?" "No."
Then, really exasperated (I love this), they said to John, "Who are you? Let us have an answer for those who sent us." As if to say, "Help us out here John, we're just doing our job, if we can't fill out this report we're going to be in trouble with the higher-ups. Who the heck are you? Give us an answer."
So John, Advent's herald, helps them out. "I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, Make straight the way of the Lord." And then he adds, "Among you stands one whom you do not know." Even John didn't know him. But he's here, among you, in our midst, said John.
When what we want and think we need is answers, maybe it's not? Maybe we don't need more answers but more wonder. "Concepts create idols," claimed the 4th century desert monk, Gregory of Nyssa, "only wonder comprehends anything."
"Among you stands one whom you do not know." Makes you wonder, doesn't it?
Prayer
When we want only answers, dear God, create in us the space for wonder. Amen.
