{"id":4458,"date":"2017-12-05T15:05:25","date_gmt":"2017-12-05T15:05:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/buildingontheword.org\/?p=4458"},"modified":"2017-12-05T15:05:25","modified_gmt":"2017-12-05T15:05:25","slug":"a-banquet-of-locusts-and-honey","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buildingontheword.org\/a-banquet-of-locusts-and-honey\/","title":{"rendered":"A Banquet of Locusts and Honey"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"LocustsAndWildHoney\"<\/a><\/h5>\n
December 4, 2005<\/h5>\n

Mark 1:1 \u2013 8<\/h3>\n

The host for the celebration of Advent is John the Baptist, and what he is serving us is locusts and honey.\u00a0 These are the two foods that the Gospel associates with John. But before we turn up our nose at his menu, we should realize that these foods are more spiritual than gastronomic.\u00a0 These foods are intimately connected with John\u2019s message. Unless we interpret correctly what he ate, we will not be able to understand what he preached.<\/p>\n

Why locusts and honey?\u00a0 Let\u2019s start with the locusts.\u00a0 For the young people here who might not know what a locust is, it is an insect similar to a grasshopper.\u00a0 In the ancient world locusts were a sign of utter destruction, of plague, of complete loss. Locusts would travel in swarms of millions and when they would come to an area or a field they would consume every plant.\u00a0 No green thing was left; no seed was uneaten.\u00a0 Locusts mean destruction. Honey, of course, is the sign of plenty, of abundance, as in the \u201cland of milk and honey.\u201d\u00a0 Honey was a strong symbol in the ancient world of the bountiful nature of God\u2019s blessings.<\/p>\n

These two foods, then, represent the two sides of life: the good times and the bad times, the gains and the losses, the joys and the sorrows.\u00a0 What John is telling us by his diet is that the diet of every person consists in these two foods.\u00a0 In each of our lives we have a certain amount of honey, and no one can get through life without having to swallow a few locusts.\u00a0 The food of John the Baptist describes the lives that we live.<\/p>\n

This is how John\u2019s food is connected to his message.\u00a0 John the Baptist has one of the clearest messages in the Scriptures.\u00a0 We heard it today in the Gospel, \u201cPrepare the way of the Lord.\u201d\u00a0 John\u2019s message is that God is coming. God is coming, and that is good news.\u00a0 When is God coming?\u00a0 Here\u2019s where the food comes in.\u00a0 God is coming in both the locusts and the honey.\u00a0 This connection makes John\u2019s message a real challenge, for it takes faith to believe that God is coming to us in both the good times and the bad.<\/p>\n

It is easy to believe that God is coming to us in the honey. When we watch our children play and they are healthy and happy, when we look into the eyes of our spouse and realize that we are loved, when we finish a job and know that it is well done and it has made a difference, when we find common ground and reconciliation with an enemy, in those moments it is easy to believe that God is coming. It is easy to see God present in our blessings.<\/p>\n

But dare we believe that God also comes to us in our pain? Can God be with us when we worry about a family member who is struggling with depression or Alzheimer\u2019s, when we have to face divorce, when we lose our job, when the doctor tells us we have six months to live?\u00a0\u00a0 Dare we believe then that God is still coming to us in our lives?\u00a0 Our faith tells us that we must.\u00a0 Our faith does not ask us to pretend that the bad times are somehow good times.\u00a0 It does not ask us to imagine that our curses are actually blessings in disguise.\u00a0 But, it does say that in each and every circumstance we must believe that God is coming and we must prepare God\u2019s way.<\/p>\n

The great Christian mystic Meister Eckhart is known for one peculiar teaching. It is this.\u00a0 Eckhart says, \u201cWhatever happens to you today is the best possible thing.\u201d\u00a0 I repeat, \u201cWhatever happens to you today is the best possible thing.\u201d\u00a0 Now when you first hear this sentence, it sounds like nonsense. Indeed it is nonsense unless you understand it correctly.\u00a0 It is not telling you that being diagnosed with cancer or losing a child in an automobile accident is the best possible thing for you.\u00a0 That would be scandalous and wrong.\u00a0 But what Meister Eckhart is saying is that whatever happens to you today,\u00a0whatever<\/i>happens to you today, God is still coming.\u00a0 No trouble can keep God away.\u00a0 No blessing is too small, no tragedy is too deep, to stop God\u2019s arrival.\u00a0 And, if God is coming, that is the best possible thing for you.<\/p>\n

This then is the strange and challenging menu for Advent. Such food may be offsetting, but I suggest that we pull up our chairs to the table.\u00a0 If there is honey on your tongue, savor it.\u00a0 Appreciate the sweetness of your relationships, of your successes, of your gifts.\u00a0 Delight in God\u2019s blessings.\u00a0 But if you look down and there are locusts on your plate, do not despair.\u00a0 Even when you wake up to another morning with a heart broken because of the loss of someone that you love, even when your family is in shambles, even when you are weakened by sickness, do not despair.\u00a0 God is still coming. No trouble can keep God away.<\/p>\n

The voice of John the Baptist continues to call out, \u201cPrepare the way of the Lord.\u201d\u00a0 How God is coming to you in your pain I cannot say.\u00a0 But that God is coming is the Gospel.\u00a0 In that we must believe.\u00a0 Whether with honey or with locusts, God is coming\u2014and that is the best possible thing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The food of John the Baptist describes the lives that we live, both locusts and honey.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5879,"featured_media":4459,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/buildingontheword.org\/files\/2017\/12\/LocustsAndWildHoney.jpg","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buildingontheword.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4458"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buildingontheword.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buildingontheword.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buildingontheword.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5879"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buildingontheword.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4458"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buildingontheword.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4458\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buildingontheword.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4459"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buildingontheword.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4458"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buildingontheword.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4458"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buildingontheword.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4458"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}