Do you know what a space cadet is? A space cadet is someone in training to be an astronaut. Space cadet is also a euphemism for a person who doesn’t quite seem to have a grip on reality; someone who, when presented with the facts of the situation, reassembles those facts in such a way that the conclusion is startling and unreal. There are several clichés that we use to describe a space cadet: the lights are on but nobody’s at home; the elevator doesn’t go to the top floor; the only thing he uses his head for is a hat rack; he’s one beer short of a six pack, and so on.
Such a way of describing certain persons has been going on a long time. In the 1600’s, in the court of King James I, there was a rather remarkable envoy from France. After giving audience to this lanky, overgrown nobleman, the king asked Francis Bacon, who had been present during the audience, his opinion of the marquis. “Your majesty,” replied Bacon, “people of such dimensions are like four or five story houses—the upper rooms are the most poorly furnished.”
We all know what a space cadet is, and space cadets have been around for a long time, for as long as there’s been human community. In a given situation, you may even have been accused of being one! I’m sure I have!
While the Bible of course never speaks of space cadets, there are several figures in the Old Testament who were looked upon with the same disdain with which we look upon the space cadets in our day. They were called the prophets. Society was going in one direction, and the prophets were always going in the opposite direction. They were always “out of step,” dressing differently, eating differently, negative when everyone else was positive, positive when everyone else was negative. They claimed to be in contact with God, and often God told them that he was displeased with his chosen people, from the greatest to the smallest. People often thought the prophets were crazy, and at the very least the prophets made them mad, and kings often treated them as traitors and punished them.
That was certainly the case with the last great Old Testament prophet, John the Baptist. John lived all by himself in the wilderness, was uncomfortably clothed with camel’s hair and a leather girdle around his waist, and his austere diet consisted of locusts and wild honey. People came to hear him preach, and he insulted them, calling them a brood of vipers and hypocrites. Those who came to hear him knew he was “out of step” with the rest of society. But they expected that, for the prophets were always that way. That didn’t make John’s lot in life any better, however, for he ended up in prison, and eventually and literally lost his head!
What was this strange man’s message? If I may paraphrase liberally it was this: “You think I’m out of step with society and so I am. But it is really you who are out of step, you who do not have an adequate grasp of reality, you who are the space cadets, for you’re out of step with God. You’re so immersed in fulfilling your own dreams, following your own wills, with building your own security. You live as if you’re the masters of your own lives. And that’s not reality! You were put on this earth for the purpose of glorifying God! You are here to do his will, to have him as master. What’s needed is a complete change, when you really didn’t think a change was needed. Your mind needs changing, so that your life may be turned around from being self-centered to being God centered.
This really is the meaning of the word repent when John uses it. Repentance of sins when John used it, and later on when Jesus used it, meant so much more than being sorry for doing things we know were wrong. It meant changing the direction of one’s life, from a direction that is ultimately destructive to one that is ultimately fulfilling.
Long ago the Church developed the doctrine of original sin, and this doctrine was based on the same assumptions about the human condition that John had when he preached repentance. Original Sin represents the pressure, the negative momentum of all the acts of selfishness and alienation throughout human history bearing down upon each and every one of us, and shaping us to the extent that without God‘s intervention we could not possibly know or be inclined to accept the way that leads us to a full and meaningful life.
God‘s intervention sometimes takes the form of one like John calling us to repentance; sometimes it takes place during a crisis—the loss of a loved one, the loss of a job, or the onset of illness; and sometimes it is that still, small voice inside that says that, contrary to all outward appearances, everything isn’t all right, something essential is missing, the direction my life is taking is wrong.
At those times, we always have a choice. We can ignore God’s gentle pushing, passing it off as an overactive imagination or indigestion; and go on living the life of a space cadet, out of touch with reality. Or we can hear the message of the prophets, repent, and allow our lives to be turned around to lives of compassion, sensitivity to the needs of others, and love for God. May this Advent be just such a time for all of us.
Sermon preached by The Rev. Fredrick A. Robinson
Church of the Redeemer
Sarasota, Florida
The Second Sunday of Advent
10 December 2017