The Pastor's Sermon for December 11, 2011 - the Third Sunday in Advent

(I intend to 'publish' my sermons on this site. Some folks can't always make it to the worship services but can access this site, so here goes.)

The readings: Isaiah 61:1-4, 8-11

                        1 Thessalonians 5:16-24

                        John 2:6-8, 19-28

"I baptize with water. Among you stands one whom you do not know, the one who is coming after me; I am not worthy to untie the thong of his sandal."

• In the Gospel of John, the story of John the Baptizer is interwoven with the hymn (there's no better word for it) about Jesus' pre-existence. For the Gospel writer, the beginning of the ministry of Jesus is yoked to his eternal place in and with God.
• The Baptizer is quite adamant about about who he is and who he is not. He is also quite clear about his mission, that is to be the voice in the wilderness and to baptize.
• To the authorities sent to question him, his baptism is a mystery. If he is neither Elijah nor the prophet nor the Messiah, why is he baptizing? Baptism for the Jewish people of Jesus time had a specific meaning. Those who were becoming Jewish were baptized. However, John was baptizing Jewish people and calling them to repent of their past and make a new future. His baptism in the Jordan was to make a new start, symbolically cleansed those baptized from their sins.
• John is also very clear that his baptism is not the ultimate. In the other three Gospels and a few verses further in John's Gospel, the Baptizer says that the one who will come after him will baptize with the Holy Spirit and not simple water.
• John refers to the one who will follow him as “One whom you do not know...” This appears to be a consistent theme for John's Gospel. People don't always recognize who Jesus is. One of the best examples is the so-called man born blind whom Jesus heals with a paste of mud on the man's eyes. Pilate in his questioning of Jesus is another example. There is a constant theme of discovering just who Jesus is by all around him, including his disciples. For John, the mystery of Jesus often leads to deliberate non-recognition and even rejection. For the other Gospels, it more of what is called the Messianic Secret. It is as if Jesus tells his followers “This is who I am; don't tell anyone.”
• Now, doesn't it make you wonder? Would we know Jesus if we saw him? Were he to walk through the church door right this minute, how would we recognize him and how would we respond? There doesn't seem to have been any specific marker for him during his lifetime. He dressed and spoke as a man of his own time and place. There were disputed signs, true. But only those who believed and those who had been touched by him in some way would recognize him.
• So, how would we know it was him?
• Among you stands one whom you do not know, the one who is coming after me; I am not worthy to untie the thong of his sandal. Well, maybe we wouldn't know him. Maybe he wouldn't look any different than that person next to you.
• And there is exactly the point. In this season of preparation, when we are told by the church's readings to watch and to wait, just as the prophets counseled the Israelites, we look for both the celebration of the entry of Jesus Christ into our world and for his return, to fully reconcile all things in himself.
• We hold fast to the belief that Jesus has come and is still to come. In the meantime, we search for his presence here and now. He has promised to be with us ...always, to the end of the age.’ (Matthew 28:20) and there is no reason to doubt his word.
• Where can Jesus' presence be found in this time between? His presence can be found in his Word and in the Sacraments; the church has long proclaimed that. His presence can also be found in the community of the church, in our fellow disciples. That way is sometimes forgotten. Even more often forgotten is finding Christ in the needy around us. This is not always pleasant or even satisfying, but it is real.
• Once again, the music of the season reminds us of this. This song, although not a carol, hymn, or spiritual song per se does have a lot to tell us about living out the season and its meaning. It's called The Mystery of Christmas, composed in 1959 by Sammy Cahn and Jimmy Van Heusen for a singer named Harry Crosby, better know as “Bing” Crosby. Again, I won't sing it, but the words go like this:

It's not the glow you feel, when snow appears
It's not the Christmas card,

you've sent for years
Not the joyful sound, when sleigh bells ring
Or the merry songs children sing
...the little gift you send, on Christmas day
Will not bring back the friend you turned away
So may I suggest, the secret of Christmas
It's not the things you do, at Christmas time
But the Christmas things you do

all year through.

• For a note written somewhat earlier in time, we turn to Luther's 1520 work, The Freedom of a Christian, where he wrote, “[A]s our heavenly Father has in Christ freely come to our aid, we also ought freely to help our neighbor through our body and its works, and each one should become as it were a Christ to the other that we may be Christs to one another and Christ may be the same in all, that is, that we may be truly Christians...”
• Our eyes may not see Christ in “the least” of Christ's sisters and brothers, but here the eye of faith see more truly than the eye of mind or body. Although not always known, Christ is with us... always, always, always.