Stepping into the Details
Saturday, December 5, 2020
Mark 1:6-8
“John wore clothing made of camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey. And this was his message: ‘After me comes the one more powerful than I, the straps of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie. I baptize you in water, but he will baptize you in the Holy Spirit.'”
Dear Friends,
I’ve never been much of a detailed person around the holidays. Some of you are so good at decorating and paying attention to the details because you know they point to a greater reality. The way you arrange the mantle, the Christmas mugs and towels, the garlands and lights hung around your home. These details point to anticipating Christmas Day—celebrating the God who came near. They stir excitement, joy, wonder, and warmth into places that feel a little worn out. But when the details become more important and valuable than what they point to, we begin getting it backwards. When the tree points to the gifts and the perfectly placed decorations points to a social media post, we can easily lose sight of the God who came near.
When God, through Moses, first instructed the Israelites with specific laws and behaviors, God wanted the people to pay attention to the details. For God, the details mattered, but only insomuch as the details pointed back to God. The details were to rend Egypt and slavery from them. Within the priestly line of Aaron, God intricately specified each article of clothing worn, every movement and behavior within sacrifice, and chronicled every particular part included in Tabernacle-worship.
The details mattered because God was reshaping God’s people to be receivers of God’s love through disruption, and details can disrupt. But over time, the details began to matter more than the heart. Making sure the sacrifices and the robes and the rituals and traditions were upheld perfectly became more important than the people around them. Pleasing God through correct religious behavior became more important than pleasing God through loving the outsiders God loves.
John the Baptist was from the priestly line of Aaron. He was expected to fulfill that honor through living in the temple, eating the choice meats, wearing the ornate robes, and continuing to honor God in the details. But he knew the details were becoming a golden calf leading the people into a type of bondage to religion instead of service to God. He knew God was doing a new thing and God desired to form a people no longer defined by bondage to right behavior but defined by freedom to grace-filled belonging—simply being receivers and bestowers of God’s love. This disruption of expectations, this obscene and impoverished way of living caused people to pay attention because God was coming near in unexpected ways.
The details matter, but only insomuch as they point you and those around you to the beautiful character of the God who has come near. In this passage from Mark, the details about John’s clothing style and actions were merely to point to Jesus Christ who is greater than any religious belief or behavior.
What needs to be disrupted and rend out of you? Where have you been paying attention more to the details than to who the details point to? What rituals have long lost their meaning for you? How can you help disrupt those rituals and details to re-see what they’re meant to point to again?
God has come near in unexpected ways through unexpected people. May we pay attention to this great disruption.
With (love),
Bethany