by Rev. Carole Horton-Howe

Please note that the following sermon text was provided prior to the audio recording. The two versions may differ substantially.

There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. He came as a witness to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him. He himself was not the light, but he came to testify to the light.

This is the testimony given by John when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, “Who are you?” He confessed and did not deny it, but confessed, “I am not the Messiah.” And they asked him, “What then? Are you Elijah?” He said, “I am not.” “Are you the prophet?” He answered, “No.” Then they said to him, “Who are you? Let us have an answer for those who sent us. What do you say about yourself?” 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. Now they had been sent from the Pharisees. They asked him, “Why then are you baptizing if you are neither the Messiah, nor Elijah, nor the prophet?” John answered them, “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.” This took place in Bethany across the Jordan where John was baptizing.

—John 1:6-8, 19-28 (NRSV)

Saint John the Baptist and the Pharisees - James Tissot (Public Domain)

Let’s face it. John is an unconventional guy to say the least. As we heard in the lesson about John last week, he looks funny. He dresses weird. He has questionable eating habits. He’s always ranting at people mostly about the very uncomfortable topic of their much needed repentance. If any of us had brought home the likes of John to meet our parents they would have been horrified and we’d have been grounded for a month. John makes us uncomfortable until we understand why he’s here – and until we see ourselves on the same mission as John.

John says in the lesson today that he is not a prophet. I think his denial is based on him not seeing himself as a prophet. He didn’t see himself as a revered figure in the same vain as Isaiah, Ezekiel, Jeremiah, Hosea or Moses those childhood heroes of his. But we tend see him as a saint and a prophet because of his distinct voice - not for himself but for God’s working in the world.

I love what Frederick Beuchner, one of my favorite authors, says about prophets. Prophets are spokesmen not future tellers. They have the audacity to speak for the Lord and Creator of the universe. The ancient prophets, he says, were drunk on God. With a total lack of tact they roared out against phoniness and corruption where ever they found it. They were the terror of kings and priests. Remember the prophet Jeremiah smashed a clay pot in a crowd of Judeans to illustrate what God had in mind for them. Nathan tells King David to his face that he is a crook and an adulterer. The prophet Isaiah, pondering the question of what the chosen people were chosen for, told them that they were chosen not to overwhelm the world in a showy military triumph but to suffer and die for love of the world.

And here’s something else important about prophets: No prophet is on record as having raised their hand to ask for the job. They universally asked out of it – Moses pointing out that public speaking was not his strength, Jeremiah saying I’m just a kid. But yet they can’t turn away. They say yes to God’s call.

Prophets feel fiercely and labor with the burden of prophesy that God thrusts into their very soul. Words of prophets, like we hear in John’s voice today, are stern and stinging. But behind them is God’s love and compassion for everyone.

So I think John fits nicely in their company. He feels fiercely and understands his role as God’s voice. And that everything he does has one goal and one goal only – to point everyone he meets towards God in the person of God’s son Jesus. He won’t be put into a box. He is not the Messiah or Elijah. He is the voice trying desperately to get their attention and direct it towards God’s light, God’s son Jesus. “Who are you?” he was asked. Each time his answer was no. All he could tell them about himself was that he was the voice sent to clear the way.

So the man we meet in the gospel today is not John the Baptist as in the gospel of Matthew, John the Baptizer as he’s called in Mark’s gospel or John the son of Zechariah as he’s called in Luke’s gospel. He’s simply John the Voice of God. The prophetic voice who puts his message into action exhorting everyone to make a path in their life and in their heart so that light can enter their darkness.

So I wonder - who are the prophets for us now? Who are the people who point us towards God? Whose voice is speaks to you now not out of his or her own authority or bravado or self-interest but out of God’s love for this crazy world and everyone and everything in it. Where do you hear that voice in your life?

We need to find our own prophetic voice. We need to be people who are vested in being lovers of others. That is witnessing to the light - in the way we live our lives every day and the way we treat each other. That is what Advent calls us to do. That is what John calls us to do. That is what Jesus Christ calls us to do as we wait for his coming again and again.

We are all John. We all have a voice to proclaim the presence of God standing in our midst and point God out to others. We are Andrea and JD and Glenn the Voice, who each point the way to God by the caring way they teach; we are Janice and Joan and Dottie and Sam and Ian the Voice who point the way to God by offering hospitality in the Soup Hour. Whatever we do, we each have a call to be a voice for the light of love that is on the way.

Just as John waited we also wait. John understood that everything that he was waiting for boiled down to waiting for God. Like John, we may be short on details about when Christ is coming. But we are not short on hope or wonder at this mystery in whose good hands we are in. Whatever happens to us while we are waiting, however dark it gets before it gets light, this is what we believe - that we are now and always resting in the light of God’s good hands. Amen.