Today’s Gospel tells of the ministry of John the Baptist. John is mentioned in all four gospels. He has quite a bit to teach us this morning.
Today’s lesson from the Fourth Gospel tells of the vocation of John. “Who are you,” the priests and Levites from Jerusalem ask him? What do you say about yourself? “Who are you?” is a haunting question. In Isaiah we hear comforting words of peace and blessing. The prophet writes,
The spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me; he has sent me to bring good news to the oppressed, to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and release to the prisoners; to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn ….”
Is there good news and comfort for those who need it when we look at who we are? Is there peace and blessing about you? John the Baptist’s vocation is clear and straightforward. John is a witness. He was sent from God to bear witness to Jesus, the light. John is one of the lucky ones – he knows who he is. “Who are you?” “Who are you?”
Most of us are many persons. We are parents and spouses, homemakers, teachers, and attorneys; we are medical personnel, students, IT specialists, accountants, and bankers. Some of us are retired; we are lonely, we are liars, we are lovers, and we are losers; we are happy and we are sad, confident and afraid, sensitive and crass; most of us are a complex blend of attributes, interests, and obligations. We work and we play, we eat and we drink, we sleep and we wake; we laugh and we cry and we pray; we wonder and worry what the future holds. Who are you? Who am I? I am many persons and so are you. We’re all of us, as someone said, mixed bags.
But what vocation do you have? Pick one word to be chiseled on your tombstone. What word will it be? What one word do you choose? Who are you? What do you say about yourself?
John the Baptist’s word was WITNESS. John the Baptist’s single, primary focus was to lead others to follow Jesus, the messiah. The gospel says “he came for testimony, to bear witness to the light, so that all might believe through him. He was not the light, but he came to bear witness to the light.”
Think for a moment that your primary focus, too, is to lead others to follow Jesus. Imagine, just for now, that you are a witness, too. “Not me,” you say, “I’m not good at speaking in public; I don’t express myself well and I’m awfully busy; I don’t know, that sounds like a job for the professionals; I’m not really that religious.
But, here’s the thing about witnesses. They are frequently reluctant. The witnesses we read about in the scriptures are not usually ready and willing and eager. Moses protested that he was not eloquent, that he was slow of speech; Jonah flat out refused to preach to the Ninevites until after God had caused him to be thrown off a ship and swallowed by a great fish; Peter ran away and denied his Lord; the Bible is full of reluctant witnesses. But, remember, it was the vocation of John the Baptist to be a witness; John the Baptist was sent – sent by God – and so are you and I. Reluctant or willing, God sends the witnesses he needs.
“There was a man sent by God (John 1:6).” A second characteristic of messengers, of witnesses, is that they are unlikely choices. The Israelites, you remember, were expecting their messiah to be a majestic king, a mighty warrior, a conquering hero.
Who would listen to a strangely dressed, rude, unknown, itinerant preacher, with no credentials announcing the ministry of a Galilean carpenter? Well, we’re still listening to John the Baptist today. The messengers God sends surprise us. The messengers God sends are not those we expect. The messengers God sends include our partners and our spouses, our children and our parents, our co-workers and our bosses, strangers, enemies, relatives, friends, even the person sitting next to you in the pew this morning. God sends unexpected messengers to point us to Christ; God even sends you and me.
Who are you? If you and I are witnesses as John the Baptist was a witness we must first answer in the negative as John did. Like him we must begin by saying who we are not.
“This is the testimony given by John when the Jews sent priests and Levites to Jerusalem to ask him, “Who are you?” He confessed and did not deny it, but confessed, ‘I am not the Messiah.’”
Like John the Baptist we must begin our testimony by declaring who we are not. First, we are not strangers to this ministry, reluctant as we might claim to be. We are baptized by water and the Holy Spirit and we promised to “proclaim by word and example the good news of Jesus Christ.” We did; that’s one of our baptismal promises. We said – in public – that we would do this, this witnessing.
What else are we not? We are not afraid. We have God’s promise that his presence will be with us until the end of the earth. We can be confident that our strength is in the power of Jesus Christ to cast out demons and triumph over every evil. There are dangerous and ugly places in this world, true. But we live and move and have our being protected by our savior, so we need not be afraid.
Who are we? We are also not perfect. Not by a long shot! Not only are we not perfect, we are sinners. We are human and to be human is to fail from time to time, to fall short of our potential. We are sinners and God has called us anyway because we are saved and restored in God’s overarching, never-ending love for us.
Who are we? Who are you? We are witnesses to Jesus Christ. You and I have been chosen to lead others to Jesus Christ, the redeemer. We’re not particularly willing, and we’re not particularly qualified; we’re redeemed sinners, inheritors of the promise, unafraid, and we’re all God’s got!
There was a man sent by God, whose name was …. fill in your name. There was a woman sent by God; that woman is you. The man sent by God is you. You do have cause, as our lesson from 1 Thessalonians tells us, to rejoice always. This Advent season your vocation is to witness to the light that is Jesus Christ, that all might believe through you. Amen.
