John 1:6-8, 19-28

Third Sunday in Advent | December 17, 2023 | John 1:6-8, 19-28 | Dave Brooks |

I recently had a conversation with another father who is struggling to help one of his children. His youngest—always bubbly, always full of joy—did not do well during the Covid lockdown. Being online for school was a disaster. Away from his friends, deprived of the activities and routines that gave a young man structure and purpose meant that this smiling son fell into depression, and when school did return to something more regular, the son’s rampant anxiety led him to drug use.

This father and his wife did all that they could to help. They enlisted teachers, they secured counseling, they set up monitoring systems, they stayed up night after night—all this and more to fight off what the father calls “the dragon” so that it would not consume his son.

They sent their son to a residential rehab facility in another state just before Thanksgiving.

As we talked, this father stared at his hands as he said: “the low point was the night after Halloween. He hadn’t come home for two days. I lay on the floor, staring at the ceiling, so afraid that he was dead or hurt or had hurt someone else, and it hit me so hard: I was making it worse. I wanted, I needed to fix this, I had to help him—but I couldn’t. I had to tell myself ‘no,’ and admit this was beyond me, that I had to let go, that he had to want it…I am glad that he went willingly. The doctors say that’s a good sign.”

Religious officials come from Jerusalem and put John under the microscope: there are intriguing, even exciting things happening out here. Many are coming to you! What’s your secret? How are you doing this? But rather than claim credit for what was mushrooming around him, John said “no” over and over again: no, I am not God’s Anointed; no, I am not Elijah returning to the world of men; no, I am not the latest in the line of prophets that Moses promised. John will not even take credit for what he is doing, declaring that baptizing is of little consequence. All John will say is “I am the voice, I am the shout, I am the alarm meant to wake up those who have fallen into slumber so that they can be ready for the One who is coming.”

In his “no,” John is a mystery to us. We live in a world that desires the spotlight, that wants attention, that needs affirmation and applause. I did this! I made it happen! I am important! I am somebody! I have power! We have been running a decades-long mass-scale experiment to build self-esteem, and yet all we have built is a society that is angry and anguished, full of pride and misery—a world full of people who cannot say “no” and will not hear “no.”

And we look on this scene, on this odd figure who went out into the wilderness, a place where he would be entirely dependent on God every single day. John says no to it all, even acclaim: “I am here only to tell of one more worthy of me…”

The Pharisees miss the Worthy One entirely. John’s Gospel is in part a story about how those who have plenty miss out on the one thing worth having. They cannot see the Light that is coming into the world; they cannot comprehend it. They will insult those who wonder about it (John 3). They will rage at those who discover it (John 9). They will condemn the one John identifies as the Lamb, unable, unwilling to see what is needed and let go.

But we are in Advent—waiting, watching—waiting, watching for the Worthy One. He is coming to you, to me, to bring us what we do not have, to do what we cannot do. He will make us his own—because he wants to do so, full willingly.

That’s a good sign.

Amen.

—

Pastor Dave Brooks

Raleigh, NC USA

Pr.Dave.Brooks@zoho.com