The Virtue of Deference
December 7, 2008
Mark 1:1-8
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In the mid-twentieth century, the Bell Laboratory was famous for the number of inventions that it produced for the modern world. One of the executives at the laboratory was well known for an invention that he kept on his desk. It was a small wooden container, about the size of a cigar box, and on the side of it there was a switch. When you flipped the switch on, a buzzer sounded and a red light began to flash. Then the lid of the container would open, and a mechanical hand would come out and make its way down the side of the box and flip the switch. Thereupon the buzzing would stop and the flashing of the red light would cease. The hand then retreated back into the container and the lid would close. This was the entire operation. This was a machine that was designed to do one thing: to turn itself off.
John the Baptist is one of the central characters of Advent. It is by looking at John that we discover the message of Advent. The role of John the Baptist is to turn himself off. Now John does not do this because he wants to negate himself, implying that he is useless or unimportant. John turns himself off because he sees someone greater. He says in today’s gospel, “One who is mightier than I is coming after me.” So John turns himself off by deferring to another, by pointing out what God is doing in the world.
The example of John, then, provides us with the virtue of Advent. It is the virtue of deference—deferring away from self toward something greater. We follow this virtue of deference every time we move the focus from ourselves, from our own wants and needs, our own opinions and our own future, to something larger. We defer from self when we point to what God is doing in the world.
Now this virtue of deference is not easy, because all of us are naturally inclined to focus on ourselves. We live our lives always concerned about my homework, my basketball game, my job, my money, my retirement. All of these things are important, and we have responsibilities towards them. But what Advent asks us to do is to defer to something larger, to move beyond our simple personal concerns. Advent asks us, “How does the emphasis on my homework or my basketball game upset the running of our family, disturb the peace at home? How does my preoccupation with my job blind me to the work and the needs of others who work with me? How does the focus on my money distract me from the needs of those around me, especially the poor and the vulnerable? How does my preoccupation with my retirement deaden me to the joy and the goodness of my life today?”
We can even extend this virtue of deference to our celebration of Christmas. It asks me, “Am I too preoccupied with my Christmas, with what I want out of these upcoming holidays?” We all want time with our families, but our family life is complex. There are schedules that have to be negotiated between parents and children and grandparents and grandchildren. If my focus is simply having my time with my family, am I in fact increasing the pressure on others? Is my desire to spend time with those I love in fact pushing some of those I love to the breaking point? The virtue of deference asks us to defer some of my desires for the sake of the peace, to make the holidays for others easier.
Now let’s be clear that this virtue of deference is not simply a matter of being nice. It is not simply thinking of others before ourselves. There is something bigger that is going on here, for we believe that God is active in our world, working through Jesus Christ to bring about God’s kingdom. We believe that God is always active, fostering peace and justice and love and reconciliation. Our acts of deference open us to serve God’s action. When we defer our own self-interest, it gives God the opportunity to use us for a greater purpose. We can then become agents of what God is doing in the world.
We, like John the Baptist, are asked to prepare the way of the Lord by turning ourselves off and turning on to God’s action. As long as we remain focused only on our own needs, we cannot see the larger thing that God is doing in the world. We stand in the road, blocking God’s arrival. But when we are willing to defer to the larger action of God among us, then we hasten Christ’s coming. We make straight his path. So let us this Advent season practice the virtue of deference. Let us give way to someone who is greater. Let us get out of the road, out of the way, and let Christ come.
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