Rev. Steve Ellis
Stir up your power, O Lord, and with great might come among us; and, because we are sorely hindered by our sins, let your bountiful grace and mercy speedily help and deliver us; through Jesus Christ our Lord, to whom, with you and the Holy Spirit, be honor and glory, now and for ever. Amen.
Isaiah 61:1-4, 8-11 - The spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me,
because the LORD has anointed me;
he has sent me to bring good news to the oppressed,
to bind up the brokenhearted,
to proclaim liberty to the captives,
and release to the prisoners;
to proclaim the year of the LORD’s favor,
and the day of vengeance of our God;
to comfort all who mourn;
to provide for those who mourn in Zion—
to give them a garland instead of ashes,
the oil of gladness instead of mourning,
the mantle of praise instead of a faint spirit.
They will be called oaks of righteousness,
the planting of the LORD, to display his glory.
They shall build up the ancient ruins,
they shall raise up the former devastations;
they shall repair the ruined cities,
the devastations of many generations.
For I the LORD love justice,
I hate robbery and wrongdoing;
I will faithfully give them their recompense,
and I will make an everlasting covenant with them.
Their descendants shall be known among the nations,
and their offspring among the peoples;
all who see them shall acknowledge
that they are a people whom the LORD has blessed.
I will greatly rejoice in the LORD,
my whole being shall exult in my God;
for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation,
he has covered me with the robe of righteousness,
as a bridegroom decks himself with a garland,
and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.
For as the earth brings forth its shoots,
and as a garden causes what is sown in it to spring up,
so the Lord GOD will cause righteousness and praise
to spring up before all the nations.
The Song of Mary Magnificat – Luke 1:46-55
My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord,
my spirit rejoices in God my Savior; *
for he has looked with favor on his lowly servant.
From this day all generations will call me blessed: *
the Almighty has done great things for me, and holy is his Name.
He has mercy on those who fear him *
in every generation.
He has shown the strength of his arm, *
he has scattered the proud in their conceit.
He has cast down the mighty from their thrones, *
and has lifted up the lowly.
He has filled the hungry with good things, *
and the rich he has sent away empty.
He has come to the help of his servant Israel, *
for he has remembered his promise of mercy,
The promise he made to our fathers, *
to Abraham and his children for ever.
Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit: *
as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be for ever. Amen.
1 Thessalonians 5:16-24 – Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. Do not quench the Spirit. Do not despise the words of prophets, but test everything; hold fast to what is good; abstain from every form of evil.
May the God of peace himself sanctify you entirely; and may your spirit and soul and body be kept sound and blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. The one who calls you is faithful, and he will do this.
John 1:6-8,19-28 – 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.
Sermon: TO CREDENTIAL A PROPHET
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.
What is the purpose of Advent? To prepare for the advent of Christ to be born in our hearts – the inward Advent that begins our transition from the Old Covenant, the one in which John the Baptist lived, to the New Covenant, in which the followers of Jesus live. And to prepare ourselves for Jesus next Advent – the ones that come day by day, and the ultimate Advent, when we encounter him at the end of time or at the end of our lives as the One who is not only our Source, but also our Destiny. The hymn says, He is α and ω, / He the source, the ending he.
Is it a big deal, this transition of covenants? Some of you have had experiences of conversion, from rejection of God or indifference to a new life in faith, through an encounter with Jesus’ presence in his Body, the Church, or in prayer, vision, or intellectual shift (God will begin anywhere). But whether it is a big deal or not is signified by Jesus who said in Matthew’s gospel:
Truly I tell you, among those born of women no one has arisen greater than John the Baptist; yet the least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he. Now if Jesus, my Lord and Master thought that John was the greatest man who ever lived, and yet he thought that anyone who lived in the New Covenant was greater, and since there is no great change in genetics at that moment in recorded history, it must be the change in Covenant: the new way of life, in which we trust a God who comes to us in our humanity, embraces our humanity, shares our weakness, overcomes it in love and solidarity creating a new kind of community that does not respect human power and glory and respects every human being, at every station in life, as worthy of dignity, not only from God but from fellow human beings, and gives us a new start, as humans, from that beginning, forgiven and begun on a new foundation of forgiveness and love.
So Advent is to get ready for that new beginning. Good, because we have never learned that new beginning entirely, and there’s inner recognition of our resistance to surrender to God, just as there is a need to own that we answer in the end to God for how we have used the gift of life and the gift of new life. That is Advent.
I want you to think with me of the people who went out to see the Baptizer in the wilderness. Since God has made us free beings, we are responsible to use our heart and soul and mind and strength to make good decisions and carry them out. We are not entitled to run from one enthusiasm to another, always looking for an easier gospel, a more congenial Savior, a way of discipleship that is more convenient or trendy. They were responsible to make good decisions about John. And lots of people were following him, going out to hear his preaching and be baptized, walking from nearby towns.
Today’s gospel is some of the religious authorities doing their job. Their motives might have been resistance, or jealousy, and we hear hints of that in the Scriptures, but this is a job for which they have special responsibility. They should test new movements to see if they come from God or not, and that the kind of question they ask of John. After all, this guy preaches to thousands at the side of the sacred river wearing a camel-fur loincloth, and lives off the bugs he finds in the desert. His credibility is in question for most people. How do you credential a Messiah or a prophet?
It was widely believed that a sign of the coming of the Messiah would be the appearance of the first prophet, Elijah, and the last prophet, Malachi. The period of the prophets would be acknowledged but ended by the emergence of God’s Anointed, in Hebrew, Messiah, in Greek, Christ. So they ask John who he is and he answers them, “I am not the Messiah.” Huge answer. Maybe big relief for them, he doesn’t claim to be the Christ, maybe what he’s talking about isn’t as unsettling to them as religious leaders and to the people as it sounded at first. He doesn’t claim that he himself is a big deal. Surprising.
So they ask, but then, who are you? Are you Elijah come back because the Messiah is coming? And he says, “No.” Are you the prophet (that is, the last prophet, Malachi). “No.” Now they are getting out of familiar territory. They want a Scriptural answer, something that accords with their understanding of how God has worked with his people in the past, so they can trust it.
And John does answer with his self-understanding. He brings up Isaiah, who spoke of a prophet being told by God to announce that God was about to act, a prophet who was to get the people ready, expectant, watchful, wondering how and when God would move, with open hearts and minds.
The Pharisees can imagine that, and they can hardly say that isn’t possible, but still they have a report to make when they get back to Jerusalem. However humble the find John, personally, and even if he impresses them with his sincerity, even if he has a disturbing authority about him or stirs a sense of promise and hope, even if he makes sense when he puts himself in the tradition of Isaiah, one of the greatest of the prophets, what is his credential.
And here, John is bold enough to take their breath away. He doesn’t stand on his own authority, he doesn’t get offended, he doesn’t wheedle or threaten or cajole. He is perfectly clear that his mission isn’t about himself and he says it once again. The one they need to credential isn’t John himself, it is the one who is already among them, perhaps there that very day, unannounced. God has put in their midst one who will reveal himself soon, and if John has baptized them to be open and wondering and surrendered and ready, he says that he himself is not able to tie the Messiah’s shoes. In other words, don’t worry so much about getting comfortable about me, it isn’t about me. My credential is the one to whom I point. Even this discussion turns out to be one more occasion to get the people ready for the One who brings the New Covenant.
We know that One, Jesus. We are baptized in Jesus’ Name. And yet each year we take a season to consider if we are ready inwardly, surrendered to his leadership, and ready outwardly, in our actions, to serve his New Covenant as the opportunities present themselves day by day.
