Jailbird

There is the blue jay with it’s noisy boldness.

How about the cardinal regaled in red.

Chickadees are always cute.

But none of those are God’s favorite.

Nope, not at all.

God’s favorite bird…is the jail bird.

That’s right.

The jail bird, the ex-con, the freed one.

And I hope you are feeling like taking wing because

friends, we are asked to be jail birds.

Look.

John the Baptist is beginning his ministry.

He has just started.

Did you notice where he is.

He is out in the wilderness.

Not in the capital, not in front of news stations.

But John is in the wilderness.

And that place just screams: freedom!

For after all it was the into the wilderness that God

led the Jewish people after God freed them from

slavery under pharaoh.

Their chains were broken, they were no longer

slaves.

It was there in the wilderness that they lived for 40

years as free people.

Because God’s favorite bird is a jail bird.

But notice too, it’s not just anywhere in the

expansive wilderness, which was thousands of

square miles.

John is at a specific place: the Jordan River.

Can you hear tweet freedom ringing?

No heron aid needed here….this gospel shouts

freedom.

The Jordan is what the Hebrew people crossed to get

in to the promised land.

A land of their own, where they were free…a place

to be jail birds.

Just like when we spy the golden arches and know

that McDonald’s is just ahead, the listeners to

this gospel heard wilderness and then

heardJordan and knew John was talking about

freedom.

But freedom from who, freedom from what?

Again its really clear:

Freedom from the occupying roman empire.

Freedom from the emperor, the governor, the mayor,

and even his brother, etc.

Rome had been occupying their land, instilling their

military rule for over one hundred years.

And they were brutal to the Jews.

John is speaking about a freedom from their

oppressive rule.

But John is also preaching a freedom from the

corrupt religious institution.

The dynasty of Caiphas and Annas, the High Priests,

were literally living off the people, demanding

the best food be given to them and coming up

with so many rules and regulations, a Jew had to

go to the temple all the time to be forgiven…and

Guess what?…that always cost a coin or two.

John speaks of freedom from the two largest

machines of the time: government and religion.

But John did not stop there.

John kicks up his cry for independence and takes it

up a notch.

John is speaking about freedom from a tyranny that

we cannot escape.

It is the most oppressive force in life and we live

under it everywhere we go.

In fact, right now it is oppressing us.

And that oppressive force is our very own past.

John, speaking for God, proclaims a new way of

living, a way of freedom.

A way that will fill in the valleys of depression.

A way that will flatten the mountain of sin.

A way that will straighten out the mistakes of our

past and iron out the bumps in life.

And that way is, that way is: the baptism of

repentance.

But the word John uses is richer than repentance.

The word John uses is more encompassing, it’s

bolder, it’s more meaningful.

John, this spokesperson for God, comes preaching a

baptism of release…that’s the word here

release.

Freedom from the past.

A new start no matter our history.

John says: come to the desert…the place of

freedom.

Come set foot in the Jordan, the waters of freedom.

Come to my baptism and be forgiven, released,

freed.

Let go of the chains of your past.

God has set you free.

Step out of the cage.

Prepare the way of the Lord.

And become God’s favorite bird: a jail bird.

Listen!

If only it was that easy.

If only we could wash our hands of the past.

But it is not so simple to let go.

Is it?

We toss and turn at night, regretting that we lost it

with the customer service agent.

We did use some salty language that would make

our grandmother’s hair curl.

The past is insidious, rancid like old garbage on hot

summer day.

If we were told when we were growing up that we

were not good enough or smart enough…we

carry those wounds to this very day.

How can we let go of the past when those wounds

literally eat us up alive and are the cause of

eating disorders.

It isn’t easy to let go.

Guilt follows us more closely than our shadow.

Even at night guilt surrounds us, lurking in the

darkness like some ghoul.

We question ourselves for the lie that we told to our

spouse, or the lie that led to the downfall of

another or the time we stole a few

dollars.

We lock guilt inside…and it comes out as

headaches, backaches, and worse.

We do not let go of our past, we hang on to it.

We are like the men in this old legend.

Listen.

There were three men and each man had two sacks.

One sack was tied in front of his neck and the other

tied on his back.

When the first man was asked what was in his sacks,

he said, "In the sack on my back are all the good

things friends and family have done.

That way they're hidden from view and safe.

In the front sack are all the bad things that have

happened to me.

Every now and then I stop, open the front sack, take

the things out, examine them, and think about

them."

Because he stopped so much to concentrate on all

the bad stuff, he really didn't make much

progress in life.

The second man was asked about his sacks.

He replied, "In the front sack are all the good things

I've done.

I like to see them, so quite often I take them out to

show them off to people.

The sack in the back?

I keep all my mistakes in there and carry them all the

time.

Sure they're heavy.

They slow me down, but you know, for some reason

I can't put them down."

When the third man was asked about his sacks, he

answered, "The sack in front is great.

There I keep all the positive thoughts I have about

people, all the blessings I've experienced, all the

great things other people have done for me.

The weight isn't a problem.

The sack is like sails of a ship.

It keeps me going forward.

"The sack on my back is empty.

There's nothing in it.

I cut a big hole in its bottom.

In there I put all the bad things that I can think about

myself, the bad things I’ve done.

They go in one end and out the other, so I'm not

carrying around any extra weight at all.”

PROPEL

And that’s what this morning is all about.

That what’s this Sunday of Advent invites us to do.

We are asked to look into the sack and to see what is

it that we are lugging around.

Friends…whatever it is…it is taking up space.

Space that God wants in to.

God is yearning to fill us…to fill us with love.

Today we are asked to cut a whole in the sack of bad

thoughts, of self degradation, anger, guilt, regret.

Let whatever we have been lugging around, let it go.

We do not need to be defined by it, or we do not

need to be imprisoned by it anymore.

Let it go, say to ourselves, “God take this from me, I

want to make room instead for the one who is

coming.

I want to make room for the blessed child Jesus.

I want to make space for Christ.

John is calling to us today:

Come to the Wilderness.

Come to the Jordan.

Come to freedom.

The door to whatever is caging us in, is opened by

the love of God.

Let us fly away.

For after all, we are God’s favorite bird…we are

Jail birds.