Bearing Witness (Advent 3 – 2020)
A man goes into a pet shop to buy a parrot. He asks the owner how much they are. The shop owner points to three very similar parrots on a perch and says, “The parrot on the left costs $500 dollars.”
“Why does the parrot cost so much?” asks the man. The owner says, “Well the parrot knows how to use a computer.”
“What about that one – pointing to the middle parrot?” “That one’s $1000…” “A thousand dollars?” “I know it’s a lot but that one can do everything the first parrot can do plus it knows how to do accounting.”
“Well what about the last one?” “That one is $1500…”
“You gotta be kidding me? What can it do?”
And the owner pauses and says, “Well, you know, we’re not really sure what it can do but we just know that the other two call him the boss!”
As is common every Advent, our gospel focuses on the figure of John the Baptist – one of the great personalities of the Christian scriptures. We hear about his amazing and challenging ministry as he tries to make straight the paths and prepare for God’s coming into the world.
And today we get to witness a little bit about how he interacts with Jesus. And not unlike the last parrot in the story, we don’t know yet what Jesus can or will do. He’s just appearing on the scene. All we know is that John calls him the boss!
Now John’s wilderness ministry had created quite a stir and generated a lot of questions. In the reading, we hear John getting interrogated. They can’t quite figure him out. Who are you? What are you? What answer can you give for yourself?
The beauty of John is that he knows who he is and who he is not. He knows his role and supports others in theirs. He has done his inner work and doesn’t get all flustered and so he tells them straight out, “Look, I’m just here to be a witness…”
The dictionary says that a witness is one who can attest to something or give evidence. And it also says that it is someone who has personal knowledge of something or can say that something has taken place.
And that’s what I’d like us to think about together today. The value of bearing witness.
You may be aware that we live in a culture that values the hero, the person who comes in first or starts something. We don’t focus very often on all those who are behind the scenes, playing supporting roles, amplifying others or just outside of the limelight.
Derek Sivers – an entrepreneur and business consultant – has a great TED talk on leadership called “How to Start a Movement.” Contrary to other “leadership” talks, however, Sivers doesn’t focus on the first person to do something. Instead he focuses on the “first follower” who he says is the one responsible for helping to start the movement. The first follower – by supporting the other person – tells the rest of the world that something is happening here that is valuable and worthwhile.
I think John is a lot like that. He uses his life to point to something else and towards someone else. John invites us today to think about what it might take to be a good witness.
The famous Quaker educator Parker Palmer is known for his brilliant writing and insights into human relationships. He’s also public about his difficult bouts with depression. He says that very few people were helpful to him during those challenging times. One friend named Bill, however, would come by Palmer’s house every afternoon (with permission) and would massage his feet. Bill would hardly say a word and wasn’t trying to make Parker “feel” better. He’d just do a simple foot massage and leave. Parker Palmer said that Bill’s silent witness to the pain literally helped to save his life and goes on to say, “Here’s the deal. The human soul doesn’t want to be advised or fixed or saved. It simply wants to be witnessed — to be seen, heard and companioned exactly as it is.”
Witnessing is a great gift that we can give to each other, and it is the simple yet profound act of recognizing another life and saying that this life matters and is worth paying attention to.
My friend Ray Mayoliz runs a daily radio program on one of our local Spanish-speaking radio stations “La Mega” 97.5. During his show which he broadcasts live on FB, Ray calls out the people who tune in with his famous catch phrase, “Yo te veo…” which means, “I see you.” That’s what a witness does. They tell you that you have been seen and acknowledged. That your life matters.
Just think for a moment about someone who has done that for you. It affects us to be noticed. Acknowledged. Named. Thought about.
In today’s gospel, John bears witness for his cousin, Jesus, and reminds us that the people in our own families need us to bear witness to them or bear witness to their pain. Some of us know firsthand how painful it can be when our family doesn’t even acknowledge who we are or what we are going through.
And so many people in the world need us to bear witness to them. Our first reading from Isaiah gives us a bit of a blueprint of the people who need us: the poor, the brokenhearted, the captives, the prisoners, in part because all of the systems of the world tell these groups of people (and so many others) that they don’t matter – their struggles don’t matter, their pain doesn’t matter, their joys don’t matter and their contributions don’t matter.
I mean that’s why we had to have a campaign in this country to specifically say “Black Lives Matter” because so many messages and actions say otherwise.
And so our readings today invite us to tell our families and to tell so many in this world, “You matter. Yo te veo.”
Now just like we live in a culture that values being number one, we live in a culture that values the big splash and heroic actions. Thankfully bearing witness doesn’t require that of us. A foot rub meant the world to Parker Palmer.
Recently my daughter Kateri posted on FB a small portion of a letter from a man she corresponds with in San Quentin prison to amplify his voice and make others aware of what he’s going through at the holidays.
I found this to be deeply impactful because her readers are now not only more aware about people in prison but there’s a group of us that are going to send him some letters of support and encouragement so he knows that people care.
Did she solve mass incarceration through her post? Did she undo the prison-industrial complex? Not quite, but this moves us in that direction.
Or I think about Marilu Aguilar from our church who – every year on the day that priests are ordained in the Diocese – stands outside of the cathedral with a sign reminding everyone that women are still excluded. Or the group of elders in Rochester who continue to publicly sit in silent meditation each week to honor the life and death of Daniel Prude. Or the annual vigils – for trans lives or for the homeless – where the names of all those who have died this past year are read. Or the medical professionals who tell the stories of dying COVID patients because no one else is allowed to be there.
Has the church changed its stand because of Marilu? Has police brutality ended? Are people now being offered housing as a human right? Was COVID stopped?
No. But these acts are done to bear witness, to point to a bigger story, to remember a life and to tell the world, “Hey, there’s something important happening here…”
The great civil rights organizer Ella Baker once said, “This may only be a dream of mine, but I think it can be made real.” I suspect that all of the bible characters we read about during Advent – Mary, Joseph, Elizabeth, John the Baptist – knew this in their bones somehow – that the dream of God could become real. No doubt they got discouraged, but they kept moving forward in faith.
We know that the big patterns and systems that we live in every day are made up of smaller patterns that merge together. The small actions we take and critical connections we make are the places where we start to change the patterns and are the places where the dream gets made more real.
As many of you know, Advent is the season of light. We’re not the only ones celebrating a season of light. Our Jewish brothers and sisters are celebrating Hanukkah right now as well. But today we lit our third candle that signifies Joy.
Now Joy may be quite far from our minds and hearts these days. I know that for many of us this Christmas season is going to be a hard one for a lot of reasons. We will need to keep pulling together, holding each other up and bearing witness.
One of my favorite poets and spiritual writers is Jan Richardson. She says that when we bear witness to one another, it helps to bring Joy because it’s like holding a light for them and illuminating their lives. She has a beautiful poem called “Blessed Are You Who Bear the Light.” In it she says
Blessed are you who bear the light in unbearable times,
who bear witness…in love that illumines every broken thing it finds?
So many people are working to bear the light in these unbearable times. I think of the tired heath care workers in hospitals and nursing homes. Exhausted teachers. Frazzled parents. I think about all of those who do drive by visits, cook meals and try to stay connected to loved ones who are isolated and alone. I want to honor and thank all those who are trying to illumine all of the broken things you find. And there are so many broken things…
If you are doing relatively well these days – emotionally, physically, financially or spiritually – then maybe you are being called to bear a little more light for others. If you’re not doing so well, bear what light you can and make sure your light stays as strong as it can.
Like many of you, I do a lot of Zoom calls. Recently, right before a call, I realized that I hadn’t shaved in a few days and decided to do a quick shave right before the meeting. I have an electric razor in a desk drawer at work and took like 2 minutes to clean myself up a bit. When I got on the call, I could now clearly see on the screen multiple spots that I had missed which possibly made me look even more disheveled than if I had not shaved.
Lesson learned. Use a mirror.
John the Baptist is our mirror today. He holds up a reflecting surface for us about bearing witness and being light. About amplifying and acknowledging others. About knowing our role and supporting others in theirs. About letting God illuminate our lives so that we can then pay it forward.
The great spiritual teacher Joan Chittister says that, “It is while waiting for the coming of the reign of God, Advent after Advent, that we come to realize that its coming depends on us.”
This week, someone is going to need you to hold the light for them, to bear witness and do the work of Advent. Blessed are you when you hold the light for others in unbearable times.
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