John 1:19-34
19 This is the testimony given by John when the Jews sent
priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, "Who are you?" 20He
confessed and did not deny it, but confessed, "I am not the Messiah."
21 And they asked him, "What then? Are you Elijah?" He said, "I
am not." "Are you the prophet?" He answered, "No." 22
Then they said to him, "Who are you? Let us have an answer for those who
sent us. What do you say about yourself?" 23 He said, "I am the voice
of one crying out in the wilderness, "Make straight the way of the Lord,'
" as the prophet Isaiah said. 24 Now they had been sent from the
Pharisees. 25They asked him, "Why then are you baptizing if you are
neither the Messiah, nor Elijah, nor the prophet?" 26 John answered them,
"I baptize with water. Among you stands one whom you do not know, 27 the
one who is coming after me; I am not worthy to untie the thong of his
sandal." 28 This took place in Bethany across the Jordan where John was
baptizing. 29 The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him and declared, "Here
is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world! 30 This is he of whom I
said, "After me comes a man who ranks ahead of me because he was before
me.' 31 I myself did not know him; but I came baptizing with water for this
reason, that he might be revealed to Israel." 32 And John testified,
"I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and it remained on
him. 33 I myself did not know him, but the one who sent me to baptize with
water said to me, "He on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain is the
one who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.' 34 And I myself have seen and have
testified that this is the Son of God."
The message
It was a long process for me to become a pastor in the
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America,
It was 5 or 6 years from the moment I walked into my pastor’s office in
Brooklyn and said “I think I have a call to ministry” to the time I graduated
from seminary and started the interview process here with the call committee (a
group of church members selected to review pastoral candidates) . Many of the
people who went through the process would refer to it, not kindly, as jumping
through hoops. There were interviews,
evaluations, a 3 year masters program, an internship, academic reviews, essays,
a wide range of classes, lots of obligations and finally you needed a
congregation that would meet you, interview you, listen to you preach and vote
to call you as a pastor. After all that
was done, redone and followed up with, you would be ordained. There were a lot of people who did not make
it, who were rejected at a certain point in the process or sent back for more
training or work. There were even more
people who were anxious every step of the way, not sure if they would be
removed from the process over saying the wrong thing, writing a bad essay, a
poor review, difficult moment or failed course.
Looking back on it, I still wonder if it was all necessary, if it was a
good gauge of calling to ministry and predictor of pastoral ability. They are
responsible for you, what you do, how you act, on the hook for abuse and personally
impacted by how you represent the church..
I am part of the religious establishment, the bishops office and ELCA
have some major things they can hold over me, moving churches or getting a new
call, retirement, health insurance. I
do something really unapproved, I could end up sitting in a storefront called
awesome Joe’s awesome church wondering if any awesome people would show up.
The Priests, Levites and Phariseess, some of the dominant
Jewish religious leaders who engage with and confront John the Baptist in
today’s reading, all had their own system for admission and membership. A lot
of it was based on family lineage, connections as well as extensive study,
training, education and review. You were
expected to teach the party line. (we will see more about this when the
Pharisee Nicodemus comes to see Jesus at night, in the cover of darkness, when
no one will know about it). I’m not sure
John the Baptist would get approved for a call in our church. John the Baptist did not give a poop about any
of this, He was not part of the established religious system, he did not get
trained by them, approved by them, paid by them, housed by them, and he was not
indebted to them in any way. They had virtually no influence over him, there
was nothing they could take away from him since they had never given him
anything. The priests, levities and
Pharisees could not ignore him. John had
crowds, people going on to see him, people in the temples talking “did you hear
what John said, did you see what John did, John condemned this practice, John
demanded that we be baptized instead). Friends would tell friends, hey you want
a real religious experience, you want to hear a great sermon, skip that trip to
the temple, come with me to see John instead,
John’s following and independence made the religious
authorities very uncomfortable. What if John tells the crowds to attack the
temple and seat him as high priest, what could we do, what if he tells them
“the Lord said to rebel against Rome, that could get us all killed.
They go to
John to learn more but ultimately stop him. Maybe John needs something, maybe John can be
brought into compliance with the authorities.
The questions asked of John show us that he and the authorities live in
completely different spaces. They have no idea who he is or how is able to do
the things he is doing. They ask are you
the prophet, are you Elijah, are you the messiah, the only people they think
could possibly operate outside of their system,
As John says no, they ask if you
are not the prophet, not Elijah, not the Messiah (and not authorized by us),
how can you Baptize. John’s answers
make things worse. John shares some hard truth, there is church, there is
temple and then there is God. Even the
authorities know that is true, your system is okay, for some things, but we are
God’s people and God’s church, God is ultimately in control, God aint bound by
your rules, you don’t have a monopoly on faith.
Not only that, but John was saying that the Messiah, the son of God, the
Word made flesh, was here in the world and also not part of the system, This Jesus, John kept pointing to, kept
demanding people follow, was also an outsider.
Like many of the other familiar things around the story of
Christmas John’s Gospel does not make any mention of the magi or kings going to
see Jesus. (the story is only found in Matthew’s Gospel). The visitors from a foregin land whose gifts
made the epiphany, the moment when the world starts to realize who was born on
Christmas. In their story, a star points
them to Jesus. Their gold tell us this child is king, their frankinsence tells
that this child is God with us, is to be worshipped, their myrrh, a perfume
used in burial, tells us this child will die for our salvation. In John, this message of who was born on
Christmas is told in the preaching of John the Baptist. He is the first to
realize who Jesus is. His declarations are
the epiphany or 3 kings in John’s Gospel. Jesus can do what John cannot, that Jesus can
baptize with the Holy Spirit, that Jesus can take away the sin of the world,
that Jesus ranks ahead of John because he was before John, his pushing away of
followers, of reducing himself as Jesus increases, all show us who Jesus
is. John puts his credibility, his name,
all of the work he has done and struggles he endured on the line for Jesus. He
tells the crowds, I myself have seen and testified,
As we complete our 150th anniversary year, we can
look back on what we have accomplished, give thanks and celebrate. We made
money, we maintained relationships, took care of the property (my 2 long term
goals that seemed daunting and overwhelming, replacing the gym lights and
painting the gym, were both done this year, pretty easily at that) we didn’t
grow much numerically, The churches that
share the space with us are doing well. the launch of an English fellowship,
great growth in Lightcast, Our
relationship with Rainbow is getting better and better. We are a community together and they are big
part of it.
The real question we have to ask, we have to look at and judge and shape our work is, how have we pointed to Christ.
No comments:
Post a Comment