Today’s gospel has three main messages: surprise, hope, and a call to live every ordinary day for the love of Christ. 

It is easy to find Christ in the extraordinary.  For example, finding Christ this Christmas was easy when everyone sang, “Joy to the World.”  Christ clearly revealed himself in the “little town of Bethlehem.”  It was easy to find Christ in foot popping kisses at the stroke of midnight, and it was easy for John to recognize Christ when he “saw the Spirit come down like a dove from the sky and remain upon him.”  Sometimes, God blatantly reveals himself to his people. 

You’re probably thinking to yourself, well yes.  Sometimes He does, but look, Christmas Day has passed; New Year’s Eve has ended; we have most likely jumped off of the “fiscal cliff.”  For some of us, school will begin again soon.  Nearly four months lie between us and the Easter holiday.  The ball has dropped; the glitter has been scattered; and the Christmas trees have started to die.  When is God going to reveal himself to me?  Where am I going to find hope in my daily life? 

1: Surprise!  This is our challenge: to let go and let God. 
2: Hope.  We must choose to be hopeful in anticipation of the surprise.  God loves surprises.  In some ways, I think He is like the lover who waits until the most unexpected moment to bend down on one knee and propose to his beloved.  For example, John spent his whole life waiting for Christ in the desert.  He ate locusts and honey.  He baptized people everyday.  Imagine John’s impatience waiting for Christ!  His life lacked certitude because he had absolutely no idea when Christ would visit him in the Jordan.  When we read the gospel, we miss the blood, sweat, and tears that likely accompanied John’s time in ministry before Christ came.  It could have been so easy for him to give up hope of God coming, just like it would be easy for an anxious girlfriend to dump her boyfriend because he never seems willing to propose.  Christ, sneaky lover that He is, eventually came when John least expected it.   

When Christ did come, He came to John in his everyday life.
3: A call to live every ordinary day for Christ.  He didn’t come when John was doing something extraordinary or different than he usually did.  He came in the blood, sweat, and tears.  He came to the crazy man in the desert, not when he was alone or fasting unusually, but in his everyday life.  He came when he was serving others.  I think this where we find God’s message in this gospel.  Does Christ want us to go to the desert and do something drastic to find him?  The answer is no.  Christ will find us when we serve others.  He will find us in the blood, sweat, and tears of our normal days, on the edge of the fiscal cliff, after the ball has dropped, in the dining halls, at the dinner tables, and in our friendships. 

John was not doing anything truly spectacular with his life.  Literally, he was only splashing water on people.  He even told people that the things he was doing were not important in and of themselves.  He said, “A man is coming after me who ranks ahead of me because he existed before me.  I did not know him, but the reason why I came baptizing with water was that he might be made known to Israel.”  We don’t have to do anything spectacular.  Mother Teresa said, “We cannot all do great things, but we can do small things with great love.”  God needs you to be the most authentic version of yourself possible, and being the most authentic, real version of yourself isn’t easy.  In, The Velveteen Rabbit, the Skin Horse describes the process poignantly. 

 “It doesn’t happen all at once,” said the Skin Horse.  “You become.  It takes a long time.  That’s why it doesn’t happen often to people who break easily, or have sharp edges, or who have to be carefully kept.  Generally, by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off, your eyes drop out and you get loose in the joints and very shabby.  But these things don’t matter at all, because once you are Real you can’t be ugly, except to people who don’t understand.” 

Let God surprise you.  While you wait for him to surprise you, be hopeful.  He will come to you when you live your ordinary life authentically for Christ by allowing yourself to be tattered in the love of others.