Sermon on John 1.6-8, 19-28

The Rev. Joseph Peters-Mathews

St. Joseph-St. John Episcopal Church, Lakewood

December 20, 2017

Advent 3, B

John 1.6-8,19-28

Y’all.

The church knows what it’s doing.

At least in the northern hemisphere.

The sun is setting earlier and earlier

            and rising later and later

                        and we have a man in the wilderness

                        testifying about the light.

If this text sounds

            ridiculously familiar, that’s okay.

We heard Mark’s version last week.

The introduction of John the Baptizer,

            coming to testify about the light.

While Mark’s text is likely a transcription

            of a one-person performance,

                        writing down the script

                        storytellers would recite

            John’s text has no accidents.

Every word in John,

            every theme,

every story arc

            was carefully chosen to tell the story

            John the Evangelist wanted to communicate.

In today’s passage

            the themes of light and dark —

                        the themes of John —

                        make their first appearance.

Jesus is the light

            that the darkness does not defeat.

John is preparing the occupied Israelites

            for the arrival of Jesus in his public ministry.

The church is preparing us

            for both Jesus’ birth

            and the end of the world,

                        when all things are made right.

John comes to testify to the Light,

            and Jewish leaders come from Jerusalem

to ask him who he is.

First he’s full of negatives:

“I’m not the Messiah.

I’m not Elijah.

I’m not the prophet.”

The frustration of those sent to question John

            is no accident in this passage either.

“Let us have an answer for those who sent us.

What do you say about yourself?”

John is in the first chapter

            setting up a tension, a friction,

                        between Jewish leaders

                                    and those following Jesus as the Christ.

“I am the voice of one crying out in the wilderness,

‘Make straight the way of the Lord.’”

“Make straight the way of the Lord.”

Last week I preached about

            how no matter how much we do

            no matter how hard we try

to make straight the way of the Lord

                                    we can’t do enough.

Rather than that being frustrating,

            it should be a relief.

It doesn’t mean we shirk our responsibilities,

            it means we embrace the gift of grace that God has given us.

No matter how hard we try

            we can’t make God love us.

Because God loves us anyway.

There is nothing we can do,

            to make God like us more

                        or to set ourselves up to be better in God’s eyes

            because God loves us.

Full stop.

It’s not to attempt to earn that love

            but rather in response to that love

                        that we should heed John the Baptizer’s cry

            Prepare the way of the Lord!

Get ready for Jesus —

            for his birth and his reign.

The passage we have from John today

            about John the Baptizer

                        says nothing of repentance.

This text is about John

            calling for preparation

                        and John himself

testifying about the light.

Shortly after I was called to be your vicar,

            but before I had started,

                        I received a very, very long text —

                        longer than most of my sermons.

This acquaintance of mine wrote,

“I don’t mind that you see things differently than me,

but I just don’t understand why

 you have to bring all that to the pulpit.

That’s the part that confuses, discourages,

and ultimately hurts me so much.

I will never understand why you or [my local priest]

or any countless numbers of SBC preachers

waste such an awesome opportunity

on trying to advance a political and social agenda.”

Over the course of years,

            this friend has failed to understand

                        that when I preach on contemporary social issues

                        as they relate to the Gospel

                                    I’m doing my best to testify to the Light.

When I spoke about the tax bill last week

            (which is out of reconciliation

and will still be devastating for the poor)

            it was because my faith in Jesus

                        moves me to speak.

What my friend saw as using the pulpit

            to push a political agenda

                        I see as using our political system

                        to push a Gospel agenda.

Today in the beginning of John’s gospel

            we have a witness and model for how to live

                        as we prepare the way of the Lord.

John the Baptizer comes to testify to the light

            to tell people that Jesus is coming

                        and then that Jesus has begun his ministry.

In our baptisms we promise

            to do the same thing.

We promise to proclaim by word and example

            the Good News of God in Christ.

John was not the Messiah,

            and neither are we.

We can never make the paths straight enough

            for God to love us

                        but we have to make them

as straight as we can

            because of how much God does love us.

How are you,

            how are we

                        preparing the way of the Lord

                                    so that all people know the salvation of our God?