Prepare the Way
La Nascita di San Giovannia Batista by Giuliano Bugiardini, 16th Cent.
“A voice cries out: ‘In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord,
make straight in the desert a highway for our God.’”
ק֣וֹל קוֹרֵ֔א בַּמִּדְבָּ֕ר פַּנּ֖וּ דֶּ֣רֶךְ יְהוָ֑ה יַשְּׁרוּ֙ בָּעֲרָבָ֔ה מְסִלָּ֖ה לֵאלֹהֵֽינוּ׃
Words from the prophet Isaiah that helped the early christians to see the mission given to John the Baptist within God’s working on earth. ‘Prepare the way.’
The church calendar shared by many christians commemorates John the Baptist on June 24th. A community of workers, thinkers and prayers gradually devised the calendar, and they were given a beautiful sense of proportion and rhythm. They handed on a cycle of days that wove the strands of high christian holidays and the natural movements of earths seasons. The feast of the Annunciation on March 24 and the nativity of J Bap June 24th, both shortly after the spring equinox and summer solstice, celebrate the divine and human events leading up to the birth of Jesus Christ and his cousin John the Baptist. There was preparatory work to be done.
(If you consider that the feast of of archangel michael and all angels falls on september 29, this layer of the calender becomes even more full. John the evangelist depicts michael leading the angels in struggle with the dragon who had pursued the woman giving birth, who sought safety in the wilderness. Again, one might reflect upon the great many people and living creatures involved in those, and any, preparatory efforts and gestation of new, healing things.)
John the Baptist is something of a saint for people who do the preparatory work. He went ahead of his cousin Jesus, went ahead preparing the way for the lord, crying out in the wilderness with a voice and message that people weren’t quite ready to hear. This icon depicts John going ahead of Jesus even to hell, where souls wait for their freedom and healing, to do some preparatory work. Sometimes preparatory work involves a call to turn around, to return to some prepartory work we left undone, but now see the value of and understand how to do.
Some folks are preparers by trade. Like tax-preparers. Or like the skilled labor organizers, who lay the groundwork so that people can succeed in a political goal of bettering working conditions and life prospects. Without preparers, initiatives and efforts can dither, fail to act, or act impulsively apart from a broader and longer strategic vision. Or like teachers, whose work isn’t so much to transmit information (as in the model of what Paulo Freire called ‘banking education’), but rather to carefully prepare an environment and set of experiences through which students might learn according to their various needs, ability, and desires to learn.
I know that when I have prepared lessons for students and activities for volunteers at school, church or farm, it takes a lot of preparation. Especially in the production setting of a small farm, I put more time into preparing a work-party activity for volunteers of all ages to do, than I would have if I just completed it myself. This is a serious investment, and proper preparation involves watchfulness, thinking from the perspectives and needs of others, and generosity. But this work is necessary and well worth it, since it is the foundation of community, of inter-generational learning, and much more. It also puts the lie to the old saw about ‘those who can do, those who can’t, teach.’ Quite the opposite! I’ve met plenty of competent people who did a lot on their own, but failed in the patience and trust to actually show others how to do as they did, or better. Somewhere Martin Buber (I think) said that the teacher develops joy in seeing the disciple go far beyond him.
Jesus himself sent his disciples and friends ahead of him to the towns where he would visit, and he was no doubt keenly aware how he depended on them. He knew what it was like to get frustrated with ourselves and others, and to start again. Jesus, whose whole life is a saving gift, depended upon others to prepare the way for him, even and especially his cousin. John said “he must increase, but I must decrease” in acknowledgement of Jesus being the greater. But John was the voice crying out in the wilderness, preparing a way for that one coming after him.
Looking to John, we can have the courage to return to the preparatory work.
Oak seedling, new leaves and branches where last’s year’s growth prepared the way.