John the Baptist - Advent 3

 

Sunday 13^th December – Advent three.

The third candle is lit honouring the role of John the Baptist in the Christian revelation.

Isaiah 61: 1-4, 8-11. This piece of Isaiah is quoted by Jesus in the synagogue (Luke 4:18-19) ensuring that it is one of the best-known pieces of old testament prophesy, which he uses to refer to himself. In its original context it is addressed to Jewish returnees from exile in Jerusalem between about 540 and 520 BC. and is the prophet convincing his listeners of his credentials as a true prophet of God. The people were free but impoverished but the soaring rhetoric powerfully expresses hope for the future.

1 Thessalonians 5: 16-24. A piece demanding that our whole lives be oriented towards God – a life nor compartmentalised into religious and secular bits but where every decision and every moment have a relationship to the reality of God. But the “good” and the “evil” are not quantified, leaving the discernment of God’s will to be tried and tested (not automatically accepted) within the community. The church is called to be a community of moral discernment to test the various voices that claim to speak God’s will, to see if there is divine guidance for the confusing decisions of life.

John 1: 6-8, 19-28. The one “who you do not know” is coming after me, challenges the church to acknowledge its presumptuous assumption that we do know who Jesus is. Portrayed as an innocuous infant, dispenser of salvation, revolutionary leader, spiritual guru or a dozen other ways, all of them grasps just one facet of Jesus’ identity. They are all subsumed within the understanding of Jesus as the incarnation of the eternal word – the Christ.

According to the Bible, John the Baptist always acknowledged that he was secondary to Jesus and was merely pointing the way to the true Messiah.

That may be true for the man himelf but not for many of his followers and many people followed this charismatic preacher in opposition to Jesus.

Even today in the Middle East, the descendants of a people that reveres John the Baptist as the final prophet – a people called the Mandeans – number some tens of thousands – though now dispersed as a result of the Iraq war.

The fact that the New Testament acknowledges the fact that Jesus let himself be baptised by John was a huge problem for the early church because it suggests subordination to John and the fact that when John ended up in prison his previous certainty failed him and he managed to get a message to Jesus asking him directly whether he really was the true messiah or should they wait for someone else?

In the words of Jesus himself, He identifies John as the prophet Elijah (Matthew 11:14) who the Jews were expecting to precede the coming of the Messiah and He also says that he needed to be baptised by John to fulfil all righteousness (Matt. 3:13) which is indicative of his complete humility. As Paul writes in Philippians “He didn’t cling to equality with God. He emptied himself, taking the form of a slave.”

When Jesus replied to John’s question about his authenticity he responds by simply asking to be judged on what anyone can see for themselves, and therefore challenging John to make a decision.

“The blind see, the lame walk, lepers are healed, the dead are raised and good news is preached to the poor”. What do you say?

Word and deed completely in accord. Here is someone who demonstrates the difference that would be made if the presence and purposes of God were fully manifested in a human being. A healing, life-filled and life-giving existence.

When faced with such a person as Jesus “the Christ” it is not surprising that we shrink because we know how imperfect and compromised we all are, and the standards of Jesus seem so far beyond our grasp  which is why the lives of the saints became so important to the church.

Because they weren’t perfect beings at all. Think about St. Peter after whom this church is named. Flawed, imperfect, misunderstanding and who actually denied even knowing Jesus in his hour of need.

We can readily identify with a man like that who despite all of those human faults and failings – his underlying faith and insight led to him being described as the Rock by Jesus.

Perhaps I should also say that this is probably why Mary, the mother of Jesus is so popular. When faced with an Angel of God telling her something extraordinary she just accepted it in complete obedience and humility. “Let it be to me according to your word.

That is an example of a response that is a model for all human responses to the prompting of the Spirit of God.

A response that Paul writes about today as well. A whole community that collectively says “Let it be to me according to your word” is the church.

And we follow Paul’s injunction to Rejoice always, to pray without ceasing, to give thanks in all circumstances, not to quench the Spirit but discern what the Spirit might be saying to us.

We are of course an imperfect and flawed community. We are bound to be because we are made up of human beings, but I have faith that just like Peter, or Mary or any of the saints or apostles, if we just keep finding it within ourselves to say Yes to the Spirit of God, to say “let it be to me according to your word” we will be led inexorably to a far better place.

Amen