Monday Morning Sermon: December 12th, 2011
Today's Gospel came from the first chapter of the Gospel of John:
6 There was a man sent from God whose name was John. 7 He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all might believe. 8 He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the light.
19 Now this was John’s testimony when the Jewish leaders in Jerusalem sent priests and Levites to ask him who he was. 20 He did not fail to confess, but confessed freely, “I am not the Messiah.”
21 They asked him, “Then who are you? Are you Elijah?”
He said, “I am not.”
“Are you the Prophet?”
He answered, “No.”
22 Finally they said, “Who are you? Give us an answer to take back to those who sent us. What do you say about yourself?”
23 John replied in the words of Isaiah the prophet, “I am the voice of one calling in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way for the Lord.’”
24 Now the Pharisees who had been sent 25 questioned him, “Why then do you baptize if you are not the Messiah, nor Elijah, nor the Prophet?”
26 “I baptize with[e] water,” John replied, “but among you stands one you do not know. 27 He is the one who comes after me, the straps of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie.”
28 This all happened at Bethany on the other side of the Jordan, where John was baptizing.
Click through to read about this interesting message for the season!
In today's Gospel John the Baptist gave a two-fold response to a single question. The leaders from Jerusalem send out their followers to ascertain who this young upstart in the wilderness was. People flocked to hear him. He was all the rage. What was going on here? Who did he think he was?
John's first response was to clarify who he wasn't. "I am not the Messiah," he said. "Thanks for asking!" While this must seem self-evident to us--after all if somebody asked your name and you said, "Well it's NOT Jesus!" they'd look at you kind of funny--it was actually an important revelation from John. At this point the Messiah had not come. They were still looking for him. John's first declaration was, "I'm not the one who can save you." The theological implications are as important as the historical. From the beginning of time the root of our sin has been replacing God with ourselves. "Look, shiny fruit!" (Munch.) "I am King David, I can have whatever I want!" (Hubba Hubba.) "Let's put this beautiful new idol right next to the fire. Don't you think it'll look good there?" John puts an end to that right away. "I am not God!" he says. "Don't mistake the messenger for the message!"
How many of us are afraid to do this in our daily lives? We're mostly content to let the world go by until we find something critically important to us. It could be important to our survival, our happiness, the path we want our life to follow. As soon as we find that thing we're all over it, TOTALLY in control. Everybody else OUT! We're got this one! We're in charge! Included in that "everybody" we kick out is God. We're respectful of him, of course. But when we find that one super-important thing/person/event/cause we don't want help even from him. He might mess up our perfect plan! So instead of reverencing him like God our Father we treat him like one of our kids that we're a little too busy for. "Yes, yes...I'll come and pay attention to you in a minute. I have some time on Sunday morning. Don't worry, we'll have a play date! But right now I need you to go and find something else to do because I have to do this Important Thing."
Oops! Who's God in this equation? Hint: Not the real one. It's us! And then inevitably we begin to worry and obsess. If somebody tries to talk us out of it we get even more defensive and controlling, claim more authority. "I cannot come and sit with the family! I have to baste the Christmas turkey at exactly fifty-three-point-five minutes after the hour or it will not be perfectly moist and expectations won't be met and everyone's Christmas will be ruined...RUINED I SAY!!!" Who's in control of that Christmas? There's no room for God, nor even for the family really...though the claim is that the turkey-tender is "serving" all the rest of them. Nope...the person with the spoon and the shrill voice rules the day. They are the Christmas Messiah with everything just so. Can you feel the angst and stress not only of carrying that position but of being around that kind of situation?
And before you get all smug, consider:
- Have you ever rushed to Wal-Mart thinking you had to get the "perfect gift" for someone?
- When you met your hot hubba-hubba flame did you consult God first or tell him, "Butt out...this is the person for me whether anybody likes it or not!"?
- When you make a mistake, how easily do you let it go?
- Do you still hear the voices of [insert childhood authority figure here] whispering in your head that no matter what you do you're not good enough, smart enough, beautiful enough, or satisfactory enough?
What an amazing release!
This is followed, of course, by the question the Jerusalem leaders asked: "Well if you're not the Messiah, who exactly are you? And by what authority do you claim whatever power you're wielding there?"
We find echoes of this question in our own lives too. Stopped short of our hidden goal to control everything and make life perfect, we stand at a loss. "I've failed. I can't fix it. This is beyond me. The turkey turned out dry. My spouse is angry. Emily Post said I used the wrong fork and I used it to eat a Twinkie which is going to make my doctor mad! What do I do?!?"
Our fallen, human response usually takes less-than-optimal paths. Sometimes we just quit. "I'm not making the turkey anymore!" Sometimes we lash out. "Who does that Emily Post think she is anyway, the MESSIAH? Let us throw all of her books down the garbage disposal!" Sometimes we just settle for the less-than-optimal and revel in it. "Well...I ate one Twinkie. Might as well eat six now!"
None of these are John the Baptist's response. Instead, when grilled about whether he was the Messiah or some great prophet, he said, "Nope...I'm just an ordinary crazy dude out in the wilderness here. But God empowers ordinary crazy dudes to do great goodness!" John prepared God's way, became his messenger, and in doing so transformed the lives of thousands. He was not the Messiah, but emptying himself of that illusion gave God even more space to fill with grace and importance.
Isn't that the weirdest thing? Reaching for power and claiming to be God we become unimportant, empty and powerless husks of screeching and inanity. Emptying ourselves and coming before God with our shortcomings and failings forward we become fuller and more powerful than we ever imagined.
We, too, assume John's power when we have faith that God comes through ordinary moments and ordinary people. We judge life less by things and more by opportunities this way. Yes, the turkey is dry, but this isn't about turkey! It's about love and togetherness and a perfection that no mere turkey can overcome. It's less important which fork you're eating with and more important that you're here with us. The Twinkie may be delicious but God put me on earth to do good things and eating six of them might seriously impair my ability to do them! Every moment becomes an opportunity to share the message of hope and redemption. We start looking for ways to to that, people to do that with, and valuing those relationships instead of fixating on trivialities and trying to control them. In this way quite ordinary people rise above and become extraordinary.
This makes those Wal-Mart Christmas trips more joyful than stressful. It allows us to explore and marvel at our loving relationships instead of worrying about them self-consciously. It grants us permission to laugh at our mistakes and let them go instead of lifting them to unassailable heights and then cowering under them. It also lets us tell those critical voices in our head, "Hush! I am not the Messiah but you aren't either! I wasn't meant for this kind of self-doubt and sadness. I was created to bring love and joy into the world and I'm going to do that no matter how imperfect the world--and I--might be!"
We are not the Messiah but we know him. And we know he does beautiful things to, and through, us...things that make all of us more than we were before he came...things that will sustain us long after the world has forgotten us and our dry turkeys. We don't have to make life perfect by our definition or anyone else's. Perfection touches and sustains us every day. Let your eyes, voices, and actions bear witness to him, the true Messiah, as you are graced to do.
--Pastor Dave (pastordave@geneseelutheranparish.org)
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