Sermon 12/11/05
The Gospel, Starring You - John 1:6-8, 19-28
(view lectionary notes for this text)
In this season of Advent, when we are anticipating the birth of Jesus Christ, getting ready to tell again the nativity story, to see the shepherds and angels and Mary and Joseph and the baby, it’s surprising to realize, to remind ourselves, that only two of the four gospels even bother to give a description of Jesus’ birth. Matthew and Luke are the gospels that tell, each in part, the story that we think of as one whole, the story of Jesus’ birth. But Mark and John don’t give us any such colorful descriptions of how the one we call Messiah came into the world. Last week, we talked about the beginning of the gospel of Mark. Mark jumps right into things, saying, “The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.” And from there he goes on to talk about John the Baptist preparing a way for Jesus in the hearts of the people. Mark’s approach is straight-forward. His descriptions are short and to the point – just the facts for Mark.
Today we read the beginning of the gospel of John. John, like Mark, gives us no pictures of mangers, no over-flowing inns, no Magi coming in from the East. And John, like Mark, takes us fairly quickly to John the Baptist, showcasing him as the forerunner to the Messiah. But that’s pretty much where the similarities between the two gospels end. If Mark would rather keep it short and simple and say something in five words, John seems to prefer putting as many words as possible into his gospel, even if he has to use the same words over and over to get his point across. Listen to the opening sentences, which we’ll hear again on Christmas day: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.” John’s images of Jesus’ beginnings are beautiful and poetic, but they’re also a bit confusing and hard to understand theologically. In John’s description, Jesus is “the Word”, and John envisions Jesus being Word, Life, and Light, bound up with God from the beginning of the beginning.
After this introduction from John, we move into today’s passage, where the gospel writer describes John the Baptist as one who is not the light, but who comes to testify to the light. And then, we hear hopefully familiar words, where John the Baptist is described as the voice of one crying out in the wilderness to prepare the way of the Lord. The second part of this passage is remarkably similar to last week’s passage from Mark, where we heard these same descriptions of John the Baptist. But there’s something different. The first time I caught it, I had to flip back and forth between Mark and John just to be sure, and even checked Matthew and Luke’s descriptions of the Baptist, to be sure that John was the only gospel who put it just so.
In John’s gospel, the scene is set when people apparently send a contingent of Pharisees and religious folk to ask John the Baptist who he thinks he is. You get the feeling that they weren’t just harmlessly curious, but that they weren’t exactly pleased with what they’d heard that led them out to the wilderness to meet the baptizer. The Baptist was upfront, and said right away that he wasn’t the Messiah. But such a disclaimer didn’t seem to settle down his questioners. “Well, if you aren’t the Messiah, then who are you, and what are you up to? Are you Elijah come again? Who are you? What do you say about yourself?”
And then, here it is, John’s response: "I am the voice of one crying out in the wilderness, 'Make straight the way of the Lord.'" And that’s the difference between the other gospels and John. In all the other gospels, when we hear these same words about John the Baptist being this voice in the wilderness, we hear them as a description by the gospel writer who describes John the Baptist in this way. But in John’s gospel, John the Baptist describes himself this way – he claims this description with his own lips. He sees himself as carrying out Isaiah’s prophetic words about preparing a way for God. “I am the voice,” he says. Of course, this isn’t helpful in the minds of those who came to ask him questions – they want to know why he feels qualified to baptize if he’s not the Messiah, or Elijah, or the prophet. But John responds with confidence that he’s making a way for the one who is coming from among them – one we know as Jesus.
Maybe this difference between the way John’s gospel puts things and the way the other gospels put things doesn’t make much of a difference. Maybe it doesn’t matter that in today’s reading, John the Baptist says the words himself – “I am the voice” instead of just having them said about him. But maybe, maybe it makes a big difference. Maybe being able to say who we are makes a huge different. Maybe, when we’re asked, “What do you say about yourself?” we’d better be ready with a good answer, boldly ready, as John the Baptist was, to claim our role in this story.
Next week, when we gather in the evening to see the Sunday School classes share in the Nativity story with us, we’ll watch as they step into the roles recorded in the gospels. Over the years, you or your children or grandchildren may have taken a turn in these same roles – playing Mary, playing Joseph, playing a shepherd, or an angel, or maybe even one of the animals, or maybe even the baby Jesus – a chance to step right into the Bible story, and be one of the people we read about.
Fortunately, our chance to step into the scriptures isn’t limited to being cast in the Christmas pageant. In fact, God wants us, desires for us to step into the gospel, to live into the message of good news everyday. It’s just a matter of claiming our role, knowing who we are. We spend a lot of our lives these days trying to “find ourselves,” whatever that means. We spend so much time trying to figure out who we are and who we are supposed to be. But God already has a role for us – a starring role, front and center, as messengers of the gospel, carriers of the good news. The gospel writer today tells us that John was one called to testify to the light of the world – the light that is Christ Jesus. John knew who he was, and he wasn’t afraid to say so, even when others were questioning his credibility, wondering who he thought he was. John knew who he was. Do you know who you are? What do you say about yourself? If you’re not sure, I think I might have the answer for you. I’m willing to be that you, like John the Baptist, are called to testify to the light of God’s love in the world. Because you, like the Baptist, are a precious child of God, a reflection of the light of Christ, shining for all the world to see. The gospel, starring you. Amen.