Stand and Look

Patiently looking, watching and waiting for the Lord

12/17/2017

John 1:6-8, 19-28 A man named John was sent from God. He came for testimony, to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him. He was not the light, but came to testify to the light. And this is the testimony of John. When the Jews from Jerusalem sent priests and Levites to him to ask him, "Who are you?" He admitted and did not deny it, but admitted, "I am not the Christ." So they asked him, "What are you then? Are you Elijah?" And he said, "I am not." "Are you the Prophet?" He answered, "No." So they said to him, "Who are you, so we can give an answer to those who sent us? What do you have to say for yourself?" He said: "I am the voice of one crying out in the desert, 'make straight the way of the Lord,'" as Isaiah the prophet said."

         Recently, I’ve gotten to know a retired cardiologist here in Fort Smith named Dr. Taylor Prewitt. Have you heard of him? A few months ago, he asked me to help him in a major campaign for Methodist Village, and so naturally, a little later I asked him to help me in a major campaign for Trinity Junior High School. He gave me a nice donation, and I said a nice prayer for him on my rosary. I’ll let you figure out who got the better end of that deal. Dr. Prewitt did, of course!

             Last week he graciously gave me a copy of a book he’d written, called A Towering Stack, which is his review and reflections of seventy-eight books he has read over four years. Apparently, retired cardiologists have a lot of time on their hands! The first book he reviewed was on appreciating art, entitled Always Looking, by John Updike. Dr. Prewitt observed that Updike has a talent for looking at art with profound patience, even lingering to look at pieces that may appear ugly to others, and he is richly rewarded for his patience. Prewitt writes: “The casual visitor [to a museum]…merely glances (as I sometimes do) at works that are not immediately appealing. Here we are reminded by a professional in another field the rewards are there for the taking for those who are willing to stand in place and just look. You don’t always have to wrestle with the angel” (A Towering Stack, 4-5). Remember how Jacob had to wrestle with an angel in Genesis 32 before he earned the blessing? In other words, patiently looking enables you to penetrate below the surface appearances of things and glimpse the greatness hidden underneath.

             In the gospel today, we see another instance where patient looking would have paid huge dividends. The opening pages of John’s gospel begins with a question about the identity of St. John the Baptist. John the Evangelist’s literary artistry paints the John the Baptist as a mysterious figure: living alone in the desert, feasting on locusts and honey, dressed in camel’s hair and a leatherbelt. John didn’t exactly cut the figure of a priceless work of art in the eyes of the Jewish leaders. They were tempted like Dr. Prewitt said, to “merely glance at works that are not immediately appealing.” And so it’s no surprise that the same Jewish leaders impatiently interrogate John, asking, “Who are you, so we can give an answer to those who sent us? What do you have to say for yourself?” You can almost hear their impertinence tience and aggravation. John only gives them an indirect answer: “I am the voice of one crying out in the desert, ‘make straight the way of the Lord’.” In other words, learn a little patience, look, listen, repent of your sins, and wait on the Messiah. If they had looked patiently, they too would have reaped “the rewards [that] are there for the taking for those who are willing to stand in pace and just look.” But they were impatience and impetuous and the missed both the Messiah and his forerunner. You do not always have to wrestle with the angel to receive the reward.

         My friends, if there’s one virtue that should characterize a Christian’s attitude and activity during Advent, it is patiently looking, waiting and watching, almost as if you’re walking slowly through the halls of a museum, where marvels and mysteries meet us around every corner. But unfortunately, we usually experience the exact opposite this time of year: rushing from one party to the next, trying to beat the traffic like a NASCAR driver, running to red-tag sales like sharks seeing blood at a feeding frenzy. Because impatience dominates our lives leading up to Christmas, we too might miss the Messiah like the Pharisees did because we could not “simply stand in place and just look.”

              You might wonder: what exactly should we patiently look at? Well, may I suggest the lesson that Dr. Prewitt learned himself, namely, as he said, how “the casual visitor…merely glances (as I sometimes do) at works that are not immediately appealing.” That is, don’t be so easily dazzled by the blinding lights, and the towering Christmas trees, and the beautifully bound gifts, that you fail to stop and also look at what might not seem as a priceless work of art: at the poor and at the homeless, at the paralyzed and at the uneducated, at the mentally ill and the elderly. Indeed, if the innkeeper in Bethlehem had not been so busy, he might not have turned away the poverty-stricken Holy Family who knocked on his door at midnight. And didn’t the Magi from the East have to teach the professional priests in Jerusalem how to find Jesus that first Christmas, like a Methodist cardiologist taught a Catholic priest in Fort Smith how to find Jesus today? Practicing a little extra patience this Advent leading up to Christmas will reward you richly because you will be able to find the Christ Child in unexpected places and in unlikely people, those are his favorite disguises. Don’t just give God a sideways glance.

             Dr. Prewitt concludes his first review on appreciating art by advising: “Sometimes you can just stay in place and keep your eyes open until you receive your blessing. It’s right there in front of you” (A Towering Stack, 5). Not bad theology, for a Methodist.

Praised be Jesus Christ!