Sermon 12/14/08 - Third Sunday in Advent
Sing We Now of Christmas: I Want to Walk as a Child of the Light - Isaiah 61:1-4, 8-11, John 1:6-8, 19-28
(view lectionary notes for this text)
“I Want to Walk as a Child of the Light” was written in the sweltering hot summer of 1966 by Kathleen Thomerson, an Episcopalian organist, according to her own recounting of scripting this relatively new hymn. Kathleen had moved to St. Louis, Missouri in the fall of 1995. The following summer, her mother came from Houston, Texas, to visit. Because an airline strike cancelled her mother’s travel plans and a heat wave was making St. Louis unbearable. Thomerson decided to drive her mother back to Houston. This hymn came to her as she anticipated visiting her “brothers and sisters in Christ at the Episcopal Church of the Redeemer in Houston.” It was written as a scriptural meditation and prayer. It was inspired by many Bible verses, including passages from Genesis, Isaiah, the Psalms, Ephesians, Galatians, Ephesians, Hebrews, 1 Thessalonians, 2 Peter, 1 John, and Revelation. (1)
I want to walk as a child of the Light
I want to follow Jesus
God set the stars
To give light to the world
The Star of my life is Jesus.
In Him there is no darkness at all
The night and the day are both alike
The lamb is the Light of the city of God
Shine in my heart Lord Jesus.
I want to see the Brightness of God
I want to look at Jesus
Clear Son of righteousness shine on my path
And show me the way to the Father.
I’m looking for the coming of Christ
I want to be with Jesus
When we have run, with patience, the race
We shall know the joy of Jesus.
Children of the light. Following Jesus, the star of our life. Today, a day when we reflect on the symbol of the star of Bethlehem, a symbol of the light of the world, this hymn focuses us in on our gospel lesson from John, which also centers on Jesus as the light. “There was a man sent from God, whose name was John” says John the gospel-writer of John the Baptist. “He came as a witness to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him. He himself was not the light, but he came to testify to the light.” Jesus is the light of the world, the star of our life that shines in darkness.
Our reading from John today skips ahead a bit, and continues to focus in on the role of John the Baptist, and clarifying for the crowds that John is not the Messiah. We start by hearing that he is not the light, but testifies to the light, who is Jesus. Then in this section, we hear that priests and religious leaders are coming to John to ask him who he is. “Who are you?” He says straight out: “I am not the messiah.” They want more clarification – are you Elijah? No, he says. A prophet? Again, no he says, even though today we might consider John a prophet. “Who are you?” they repeat. And then John answers in the words from the prophet Isaiah that we heard last Sunday, that he is one who is preparing the way for the one coming after him, one who is so high above him in his mind that he is not even worthy to untie his sandal. So in this text, we have John being very careful to clarify what his role is – who he is, and who he isn’t. Both questions are important for him to answer – he needs to know what his purpose isn’t and what it is, what it entails, and what it excludes.
We need to know that too – what our role is and isn’t when it comes to our faith journeys, our paths of discipleship. John, the gospel writer, puts it always in poetic terms. We are not the light. Perhaps, like John the Baptist, we come to testify to the light, so that everyone might believe. But we are not the light. The light is Christ. And yet, tugging at the back of my mind is my memory of what it says in other verses in the Bible, in other gospels, even out of the mouth of Jesus himself: In Matthew, Jesus says to the crowds, “You are the light of the world.” John here says that we are not, clearly not the light. John the Baptist makes very certain to spell out who he is not. And we know that we are not the Messiah. If anything, we know that much! But if Christ is the light, as the hymn says, the star of our life, and we’re just meant to witness to the light, what does it mean if Jesus says to us that we are the light of the world?
And then, we haven’t even started with our text from Isaiah yet, which brings us something yet completely different. Instead of a text from Isaiah as usual that sounds Advent-y and talks about a little child, or a prince of peace, or a root of Jesse, we have something with a much different tone. This is one of my favorite texts from Isaiah: “The spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anoint 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 . . . to comfort all who mourn . . . to give them a garland instead of ashes . . . For I the Lord love justice . . . For as the earth brings forth its shoots, and as a garden causes what is sown in it to spring up, so the Lord God will cause righteousness to spring up before all the nations.” If these words sound familiar to you at all, you are probably thinking of them not as an Advent text, but as the words the Jesus will later read as an adult from the scroll when he visits a synagogue in his hometown right as he begins his ministry. He reads these words and says to the congregation, “Today, this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing,” and they aren’t too happy with Jesus for claiming to be the fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophetic words.
So instead of a picture of a Christ-child, Prince of Peace, we have Christ, the bringer of Justice, the one who comes to set right things that have gotten horribly off track, the one who comes to bring good news, healing, freedom, God’s favor. That indeed is a Christ whose coming I long for – I long for this scripture to be completely realized and it is the way I see Jesus. But, is it the Advent promise? The Christmas promise? And does it help us to answer the questions we raised in our passage from John? Jesus is the light of the world – but are we? Does it help us know what our role is and what our role isn’t? God is a lover of justice, but I’m sure that we’re not meant to take on a role of judging! When we do that, try to judge others ourselves, things always seem to go terribly wrong. So, how do we bring John and Isaiah together, and find direction for ourselves in these texts, rather than simply descriptions of who the Messiah is and who we are not?
Finally, I come back to John’s first words about John the Baptist to clarify who we are. “He came as a witness to testify to the light.” That sentence, those words, we might not think much of in the context of our reading. But those words – witness and testify – they were legal terms the way John used them just how we would use them today. You are a witness in a court of law, testifying to what you have seen, what you know, what you’ve experienced. They’re words that have to do with the carrying out of justice, the process of making sure things are set right, rectifying a situation where an injustice has occurred. John knew that he was not the one to set things right and bring justice. He didn’t have the power himself to free the captives and be the good news for the oppressed and bind up the brokenhearted and proclaim the year of God’s favor. But he did have the power to be a witness to these thing, to testify to them, to announce them, to be an agent of their happening, an advocate for the cause and purpose of the Messiah. He knew his role, and he took it, claimed it, carried it out to the fullest.
So even though we are not the light, not the judge, not the deliverers of justice, our role, as John’s role was, is to testify, to witness to the light of the world. And in that way, as Jesus says, we become like light to the world ourselves, because we become transparent enough that we let Christ shine out through us. God loves justice – loves setting things right where people have been oppressed, where broken hearts are, where people have been captive to all sorts of powers. We can be lovers of justice too – not as the ones who judge – but as advocates and witnesses, helping others to see the kingdom of God in our midst, helping to prepare for the arrival of the vision Isaiah prophesied. We can help share the light in dark world.
In our hymn today, part of the hymn focuses on remembering who Jesus is and who we are not – Jesus is the star of our life, Jesus is the light of the city of God. But the other part of the hymn reminds us of how we respond, how we testify, how we witness to what we know about who Jesus is: “I want to walk as a child of the light. I want to follow Jesus. I want to be with Jesus.” We are called to be disciples of the light of the world, and testify to what we have known of this Messiah, prince of peace, lover of justice.
“They said to him, ‘Who are you?’ Let us have an answer . . . What do you say about yourself?”
Amen.
(1) http://southwood.typepad.com/southwoodlutheran/2008/11/i-want-to-walk-as-a-child-of-the-light.html