3. Sunday in Advent, 12/11/2011

Sermon on John 1:6-8, 19-28, by Carl A. Voges

The Passage

"There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. He came as a witness about the light, that all might believe through him. He was not the light, but came to bear witness about the light...

"And this is the testimony of John, when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, ‘Who are you?' He confessed, and did not deny, but confessed, ‘I am not the Christ.' And they asked him, ‘What then? Are you Elijah?' He said, ‘I am not. Are you the Prophet?' And he answered, ‘No.' So they said to him, ‘Who are you? We need to give answer to those who sent us. What do you say about yourself?' He said, ‘I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way of the Lord, as the prophet Isaiah said.'

"(Now they had been sent from the Pharisees.) They asked him, ‘Then why are you baptizing, if you are neither the Christ, nor Elijah, nor the Prophet?' John answered them, ‘I baptize with water, but among you stands one you do not know, even he who comes after me, the strap of whose sandal I am not worthy to untie.' These things took place in Bethany across the Jordan, where John was baptizing."

[English Standard Version]

"Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept sound and blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ." [1 Thessalonians 5.23]

In the Name of Christ + Jesus our Lord

As the Lord's baptized people step off into Advent's third week, the expectations of these weeks, inside and outside his Church, are rising and sharpening. On the world's level, our children are looking for a break from the routines of school while anticipating the gifts that may come their way in fourteen days. We adults are looking for a break from our routines as well and are trusting that the headaches generated by all this activity will begin to subside. Further out, there's the hope that we won't get bogged down by the viruses and colds surfacing in this time of the year, that the political and economic confusion running through the nation will sort itself out in honest ways and that the world's people will begin to notice the empty attractiveness of the gods they create and maintain.

On the level of our Baptisms, we're looking at our lives and conclude we're not overly pleased with them. We know we should be giving more attention to our Lord's Life in the Scriptures and the Sacraments of Baptism, Forgiveness and Eucharist. We know that the work in our company or store has gotten bumpier and bumpier. We wonder where we stand in some of our relationships with the people around us. We're pushed down by a deep sense of inadequacy and we wonder if the things troubling us will ever retreat or go away. That's why the expectations inside and outside the Lord's Church are rising and sharpening.

This is good because it helps us enter today's Gospel. Last Sunday we were exposed to John the Baptizer. Today that exposure continues and we get another perspective on his life and his work. John, the Evangelist, tells us that there is another John, a man sent from Lord God. This John comes as a witness to the Light so that all people encountering the Light might believe through him. The Evangelist reminds us that John is not Light, he testified to Light.

This introduction to the Baptizer, described in verses 6-8, comes in between two sets of verses. The first set dealt with creation of the world by the Word and the Word's gift of Life and Light to the world. The second set deals with the Word's coming into the world to defeat its natural darkness.

In between these sets, there is the introduction dealing with John the Baptist and his role of preparing people for the coming of the Word and the true Light. In the baptizing, John is performing an action that concerns ultimate or last things. His message is pointing to the Lord's intervention into the world's life. The crowds are beginning to swarm to him

John is proclaiming in an area not far from the Essene center on the Dead Sea (the Jerusalem authorities were suspicious of the Essenes, a monastic brotherhood of Jews in Palestine from the second century B.C. to the second century A. D.). The authorities may well have wondered who John thought he was, that's why they sent priests and Levites to ask him. As he honestly replies to them John states that he is not Messiah, Elijah or the prophet-like-Moses.

This is where our expectations in these weeks relate to the expectations in this Gospel.

Remember that the Jewish people, while living in their own country, were under the domination of the Roman Empire. They had the freedom to be Jewish, but it was limited and shaped by the Roman authorities, including the Roman troops. When the questioners float up these three significant names from the Old Testament, they are expecting someone from the Lord God who would free them from this Roman domination.

The problem with their expectations is that they were tending to work from the world's level rather than from the level of the Lord God. Thus, the Messiah, the Anointed One, was going to be strong as the world understands strength, freeing the Lord's people from the world's domination. Elijah, who had gone to heaven alive in a chariot and who dressed like John, was going to come back before the Messiah appears. The prophet-like-Moses was a mysterious figure who was going to re-establish with full force the life between the Lord and his people (the people living at the Essene center near the Dead Sea were anticipating such a figure).

After stating that he is not these three Old Testament people, John (quoting from Isaiah) states that he is the voice of one crying out in the wilderness, a voice that calls for the way of the Lord to be made straight. We're told that these questioners have been sent from the Pharisees and they want to know why he is baptizing if he is not the Messiah or Elijah or the prophet-like-Moses. John replies that while he baptizes with water there is One in their midst whom they don't know, the One who is coming after him, the One whose sandal thong John is not worthy to untie. This One is hidden from John's questioners, but we know he is pointing to our Lord.

Originally this passage from Isaiah referred to the angels who were preparing a way through the desert by which Israel might return from Babylonian captivity to the land of Palestine (thus, the hills would be leveled and the valleys filled in, a way resembling today's interstate highways). But there is a shift here - John the Baptist is preparing a road, not for the Lord's people to return to the promised land, but for the Lord God to come to his people. Thus, his baptizing and preaching in the desert is opening up the hearts of the world's people, leveling their pride, filling their emptiness, and preparing them for Lord God to step into world's life.

Now this passage makes its way into our lives today. So many of our expectations, whether they are tied to the world or to Baptism, reflect both pride and emptiness. These realities, given to us by the world because of our births into it, have to be worked over. Otherwise they will block us from seeing the Lord God step into this life through his Son's Incarnation on 25 December.

As the Lord's baptized people we have to be very clear with one another concerning the expectations of these Advent weeks. While we participate in the world's expectations concerning school breaks, presents under a tree, colds and viruses, economies and politicians, we recognize that the expectations tumbling out of Baptism are of much more significance and weight, even though they don't look like it. The world spends a lot of time in these weeks speaking of the Christmas spirit (such talk is meant to to spur us to charitable acts and to make us feel well during this season).

The baptized, however, recognize that ChristMass is about a reality that reaches far beyond and under the world's idea of the Christmas spirit. ChristMass is the Lord God pushing his Life into this one through the Incarnation of his Son. This push is first seen in the hay of a manger, but it now continues whenever Baptism, the Scriptures, the Supper and Forgiveness surface in lives of the Lord's parish communities.

Even though an honest look reveals that our lives are not particularly pleasing, that we take the Lord's Scriptures and Sacraments for granted, that our work is not going smoothly, that our relationships may be shaky, that we are highly inadequate and troubles press in on us, the Lord God is pushing his Life into ours - rescuing us, marking us as his own and holding us together no matter what the circumstances of our lives are!

That's why we let him work our lives over! We know our pride is overblown and needs to be punctured. We know the emptiness in our lives cannot be filled just by what we do.

John the Baptizer is preparing us so the Lord God can come to his people. While we take

part in the world's expectations, we now recognize that it is the expectations centered on the Lord's Incarnation that will pull us into the only real and enduring salvation for the world's people. May the Father, Son and Holy Spirit fully work our lives over in these Advent weeks of expectations!

Now may the peace of the Lord God, which is beyond all understanding, keep our hearts

and minds through Christ + Jesus our Lord.

Pr. Carl A. Voges
Columbia, SC
E-Mail: cavoges@bellsouth.net

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