[This sermon was preached on Dec 13.]

Based on John 1:6-8, 19-28. (please read first)

INI

In order to better understand our Gospel reading today - I think it would be useful to know a little more about John the Baptist. To do that - I would like to read you a little excerpt from a book called "Peculiar Treasures" by Frederick Beuchner.

John The Baptist

John the Baptist didn’t fool around. He lived in the wilderness around the dead Sea. he subsisted on a starvation diet, and so did his disciples. He wore clothes that even the rummage sale people wouldn’t have handled. When he preached, it was fire and brimstone every time.

The kingdom was coming all right, he said, but if you thought it was going to be a pink tea, you’d better think again. If you didn’t shape up, God would give you the axe like an elm with the blight or toss you into the incinerator like what’s left over when you’ve lambasted the good out of the wheat. He said being a jew wouldn’t get you any more points than being a Hottentot, and of of his favorite ways of addressing his congregation was as a snake pit. Your only hope, he said, was to clean up your life as if your life depended on it, which it did, and get baptized in a hurry as a sign you had. Some people thought he was Elijah come back from the grave, and some others thought he was the Messiah, but John would have none of either. “I am the one yelling himself blue in the face in the wilderness,” he said Quoting Isaiah. “I’m the one trying to knock some sense into your heads.”(Matt 3:3)

One day who would show up but Jesus. John know who he was in a second. “You’re the one who should be baptizing me,” he said (Matt 3:14), but  Jesus insisted, and so they waded out into the Jordan together, it was John who did the honors.

John apparently had second thoughts about him later however, and it’s no great wonder. Where John preached grim justice and pictured God as a steely-eyed thresher of grain, Jesus preached forgiving love and pictured God as the host at a marvelous party or a father who can’t bring himself to throw his children out even when they spit in his eye. Where John said people had better save their skins before it was too late, Jesus said it was God who saved their skins, and even if you blew your bankroll on liquor and sex like the Prodigal Son, it still wasn’t too late. Where John ate locusts and wild honey in the wilderness with the church crowd, Jesus ate what he felt like in Jerusalem with as sleazy a bunch as you could expect to find. Where John crossed to the other side of the street if he saw any sinners heading his way, JEsus seems to have preferred their company to the WCTU, the Stewardship committee, and the World Council of Churches rolled into one. Where John baptized, Jesus healed.

Finally John decided to settle the thing once and for all and send a couple of his disciples to put Jesus straight. “John wants to know if you’re the One who we’ve been waiting for or weather we should cool our heels for a while longer,” they said (Luke 7:20), and Jesus said, “You go tell John what you’ve seen around here. Tell him there are people who have sold their seeing-eye dogs and taken up bird-watching. Tell him there are people who’ve traded in aluminum walkers for hiking boots. Tell him the down-and-out have turned into the up-and-coming and a lot of deadbeats are living it up for the first time in their lives. When they asked Jesus what he thought about John, he said. “They don’t come any better, but when the Big Party Up There really gets off the ground even John will look like about two cents in comparison”

Nobody knows how John reacted when his disciples came back with Jesus’ message, but maybe he remembered how he felt that day when he’d first seen him heading toward him through the tall grass along the river-bank and how his heart had skipped a beat when he heard himself say, “Behold the Lamb of God who taketh away the sins of the world” (John 1:29), and maybe after he remembered all that and put it together with what they’d told him about the deadbeats and the aluminum walkers, he decided he must have been right the first time.

(Luke 3:1-22, 7:18-35, Matthew 3:1-17, 9:14-17, John 1:1-34)

John isn’t all that unlike us. Like him - we have a clear mission that we’re born to do - but when that initial excitement wears off - we’re left cooling our heels - waiting for...something. 

This is part of the reason we have advent. I remember when I was little going to church during advent - singing the candle-lighting hymn - “Light the advent candle one - now the waiting has begun.” and counting down the dark wicks until at last - after what seemed like forever - the whole wreath was lit-up on Christmas eve. The waiting was almost over. It wasn’t until much later (I’m to embarrassed to say just how much later) that I realized that Advent isn’t about waiting as much as it is about preparing. John the Baptist’s sole role was to “Make straight the way of the Lord” Isaiah the prophet knew it, John the Baptist knew it, and everyone within an earshot of John the Baptist knew it.

Maybe the phrase that leaped out of this week’s Gospel for me was the same phrase that caught John’s attention: “Make straight the way of the Lord.” Upon a closer examination - the word used for ‘straight’ is the same root used by Mark throughout his Gospel - meaning Immediately. (We could understand this is as ‘straight-away’ ) and the word that is used for ‘way’ has the definition we’d expect with a twist - meaning ‘road’ or ‘means’ or ‘avenue.’ - hinting at something more than the thing a person travels on. It turns out that the voice in the wilderness is not calling us to heat-up the tar and get out orange reflective barrels - he’s calling us to make way for Jesus - and quick. He’s coming soon and there’s no room for nonsense. No selfishness, no old habits, no petty arguments or hang-ups and no dragging our feet.

As a congregation - we were guilty of lots of things - a whole whiteboard full - and those things have been erased. Today you are made new - and the shortcomings of yesterday are no longer on your shoulders. Cross of Christ isn’t the congregation it was a few moments ago - it’s a new one. We’re a missional congregation. We aren’t selfish - we aren’t concerned about old habits. We don’t argue about petty things and we certainly won’t drag our feet. This advent season we are choosing to focus on Christ - and what he did for all creation. There are more people now than ever who need the healing power of Christ - and we - a little church by the S-curves on Hixson pike - will bring it to them (and we’ll have fun doing it.)

With that - I will leave you with the words from our epistle today: 

16  Rejoice always,  17  pray without ceasing,  18  give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.  19  Do not quench the Spirit.  20 Do not despise  prophecies,  21 but  test everything; hold fast what is good.  22 Abstain from every form of evil. 

23   Now may  the God of peace himself  sanctify you completely, and may your  whole  spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at  the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.  24  He who calls you is faithful;  he will surely do it. 

Amen.

SDG