What a strange figure, John out there in the desert,
All Camel Hair and a proto-paleo diet…
he is almost embarrassing to the early church
—a fellow Jesus clearly looks up to,
reveres, then mourns when John has died
—what does it mean that we’re disciples of one who looks an awful lot like a disciple of John?
This year we get two starkly different version of John.
-Last week, the opening verse of Mark’s gospel contained a John
who calls for Confession, Repentance, and Baptism,
-and now this week
—plucked from the middle of the Gospel of John’s famed opening poem that starts,
“In the beginning was the Word” a John
who witnesses, testifies, confesses, points to Jesus.
The tension between John the Baptist and John the Witness…
Baptizer and Pointer.
Let us pray
John the Baptist
—The Baptizer,
a Prophet who has, some 4 centuries later,
internalized the ending of the Book of Isaiah
—all is not well!
The Return to the land is only provisional
—the people may not be able to bear the weight of a hoped-for Utopia
—as such, the people, to be a people, to end the Exile,
end the exile not only physically, but also in their hearts
—must cross the Jordon into the promised land…
must confess the weight of sin,
repent,
be forgiven (JTF)
—and be something different on the other side of Baptism.
Confession and forgiveness
—preparing the people for something new…
forming a people who await a new action by God.
Waiting for those promises to Isaiah to echo-forth for them!
Not a promise to ancestors, but a present reality.
Repentance
—the spark that set off the Lutheran Reformation,
Christ intends the whole life of believers to be repentance!
as Luther wrote as the first of his 95 theses.
An ongoing acknowledgement that all is not well…
and a continual return
—return to the font!
Return to the promises of baptism
—for we humans cannot bear the promises of God alone.
Return to the Word of God,
for we people are like grass, we perish,
like leaves, we blow away in the winds of this world.
See yourself as you are,
so that you might see God as God is
—our center, our core, our very breath and goodness.
Seeing God... that’s the second persona and role of John:
John the Witness,
the Pointer!
Today’s Gospel reading is heavy with court language
—the Priests and Levites from Jerusalem are asking for sworn testimony
—they require the Truth!
And poor John…
he’s seen the truth!
Whenever I read the first chapter of John’s gospel
I feel a little like I’m watching Disney’s Fantasia
or perhaps the more physical comedy of the cartoon The Roadrunner.
You see, I imagine this lofty philosophical poetry literally falling from the sky
like anvils from Acme,
at the start of this gospel
—hefty words like
“En Ache”
“Logos”
“Theon”
“Zoe”
and “Phos”
heavy words that leave a mark on the landscape
come tumbling down around John,
and in the wreckage that remains,
John is declared “Witness”
to this Grand Heavenly Heady, thing that has happened
—the moment of creation itself,
a front row seat to the Cosmos coming into being
—A Beginning,
God’s Word incarnate,
to shed light upon us all,
to give to us life…
in the beginning.
The blazing light of John’s Heavenly Lord falls brightly upon him
—and John casts a shadow so long
that the Priest and Levites wonder,
“Is he The One?”
“Has he been anointed to save the people
—to bring them into the promises of God?”
John is, after all, a sort of shadow of the One
—the Word that sheds light and gives life to all the world,
we see that reflected in his actions out there at the Jordon.
And John responds to all of this by affirming,
“I’m just a shadow! Look to the Light!”
“I am not Messiah.
I am not Elijah.
I am not the Prophet—a New Moses.”
I am the voice,
testifying, witnessing,
to the one in whom there is light and life!
I am a servant to the one who is present in this moment
—you do not seem to know him
—but here he is, among us!
Friends, Look!
The One in whom we live and move and have our being!
The One who is born into our broken world.
The One who dwells among us!
The One who took on mortal flesh,
and followed it to the inevitable conclusion.
The One who lives that we might have life.
He is among us,
-even as we long for light and life
in a world heavy with night and bereavement.
-even as we repent and return again and again
to our unity with him.
-even as we prepare to celebrate his birth among us.
As the tides of Christmas come in,
let us prepare,
let us anticipate
the Presence of God With Us,
with great hope.
Let us prepare for the Christ Child.
Let every heart prepare a throne and every voice a song!
Amen.
