A sermon from Advent 3 on John the Baptist. 13th December
(the section in brackets didn’t get preached)
This is a sermon about John the Baptist – on the one hand he is pretty unique. On the other hand we’re all called to do what he did. And what he did was point people to Jesus.
Point One: ‘There was a man sent from God whose name was John’. If you asked John – are you sent from God – he would have said Yes. If I were to ask any of us we would be a bit more reticent – it would sound horrendously pompous for us to say – Yes I am sent from God!
But it would be true.
I’ve been praying my way through the members phone list, partly trying to get the hang of some of your names, partly because if I can’t meet you I can at least pray for you. And I’ve been praying God’s peace and blessing upon you and praying that God would help me to see you as being Sent from God to us.
It is a truth – that you are God’s gift to His Church here. I’m constantly astonished by how kind and welcoming and generous you are, at how very many ways you interact with different people in the town. I think we’ve more work to be done but its good.
So God has sent you here. That’s an odd thing to get your head around. You of course are of the opinion that you have freely chosen to move to Seaford, freely chosen this church. But a number of you have said – you came in here and it just felt like home. That’s good, you heard God’s call.
You are God’s gift to this Church. No that does not mean that you are Right about everything – but it does mean that God has sent you here at this time, for a purpose. And we need to pray about that purpose.
You are God’s gift to the Church here. And God help you, I am God’s gift to you.
1. You are sent from God. I’m hoping that that sounds good and positive. That’s not easy to get your head around. But it might be worth turning that into a prayer – why Lord, what can I do? We’ll come back to that another time.
2. John was sent from God as a Witness to the Light. So your job is not to be the light but merely to point people to the light.
So here’s the tricky bit. You are already pointing people to the light. You already are doing that. Well done.
There’s a sliding scale- the megaphone approach – ‘Hello! I am a Christian, there’s Jesus!’ – and for some people, I suppose, that works.
Then at the other end of the scale there’s – ‘What did you do over the weekend?’ And you say ‘Oh nothing, I wrote some Christmas cards’. And they then turn to their colleague and say – I bet they went to Church.
And we are all somewhere on that sliding scale. You’ll have an instant sense of what you think works for you. And that’s really important because if you’re to point people to Jesus you must do it with some level of integrity.
Please do not do it by pretending to be some caricature Christian. You’ve got to find your way of doing it.
But what you should know is that you are already doing it.
So you want to be praying – Oh dear God help me! If I am already pointing people to Jesus, and I didn’t know it then help me point nicely, kindly, graciously, clearly. Give me Lord some integrity, some authenticity.
So many of us think that to be a good witness to the Light you must have a clear answer to academic questions like the problem of pain. Actually no you don’t. And you don’t need to be an extrovert.
What you need is to be walking closely with Jesus. To let His light into you and to let your little light shine (this little light of mine, I’m going to let shine!)
And that means Prayer and Worship and Bible reading – and it also means keeping your eyes and ears open, it means looking back over the day to see if you noticed God doing something.
I came out of the vicarage last week and met someone was just getting in to their car- I hadn’t seen in over a decade and it turns out that he lives a few doors down from me. I didn’t recognise him. But that’s a little divine serendipity.
So I’m praying that we might be a blessing to each other.
I saw something last week and it pained me, and I’m asking God- Why, why did you show that to me.
We go through this life and we don’t notice lots of people’s burdens and struggles, but sometimes we do, and I think that very often when God shows us other people’s struggles, he’s calling to us – so I’m praying ‘Show me Lord, what do you want me to do about that? How can I help?’
So when someone says This Christianity Lark – what does it do for you – then I might say –
well it opens my eyes to serendipity, it opens my heart to other people’s pain.
I find that in being in Church, in worship, that my hopes and fears get a better perspective, and I remember that I’m not alone – that God is with me – His Holy Spirit at work in my life – that I have a big extended family and they drive me up the wall but life is so much more fun when work together.
You are sent from God! You are God’s gift to this Church for this time. Oh dear Lord help me Jesus!
And you are a witness to the Light – so again Oh dear God help me!
Thirdly.
((I had a most peculiar phone call a week ago when someone could not quite believe that I was not Paul Owen. I had the correct phone number, email, home address. But I was not Paul. That made no sense to her at all. In the end, Lucy told me to calm down as I was starting to get a little insistent that I wasn’t Paul, so I said Lets talk in February.
John the baptiser starts off by Confessing that he is not the messiah. Watch me resist an opportunity for a Monty Python quote.
On the whole I don’t have to go about telling people that I am not the Messiah, or not the Prime Minister and so on.
SO if people are asking John the Baptiser – then maybe its because he’s sending off confusing signals. And that is correct. He is.
Its tricky because if you are the Messiah and someone asks you – “Are you the Messiah” – then everyone knew that the correct answer was No! If someone said Yes, then you knew that they were just crazy. It was expected that the Messiah would say No to the question ‘Are you the Messiah’. (So when John says No, everyone else is still thinking – so that’s a Maybe?)
But then John goes on to say that he’s not Elijah and not The Prophet – note the word The. I think most people would have seen John as A prophet (Matt 21.26) but is he The prophet. Malachi 4vs5 We read that God “will send the prophet Elijah to you before that great and dreadful day of the Lord comes”
So there was an expectation that before the Messiah came that Elijah would come first, to prepare the way.
And just to make things a teensy bit more complicated for you Jesus calls John ‘the Elijah who was to come” (Matt 11.14).
So Jesus knows that John is The Elijah. But either John doesn’t think he is, doesn’t know he is OR John is lying. Maybe any of those – but it’s a dangerous world to loosely use labels that are packed with political explosives. So maybe John is being wise and avoiding labels.
((So instead
JOHN defines himself saying “I am the voice of one calling in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way for the Lord.’”
In Isaiah, I touched a little on this last week, that was about the promise of calling people home from a spiritual exile – the prophet Isaiah spoke of valleys being raised up, of high places being lowered, of rough ground being level, of rugged places being a plain – you get the idea – this is God calling His people home and making the way simple, smooth, not full of stumbling blocks, hurdles, red tape, ifs and buts.
John says That’s what I am doing. I am making a straight way for the Lord.
When people come into Church, HOW do we welcome them, how do we talk to them. Those of you who are New – I’m sorry, I’m new too, so I don’t know if you’re new, come and say Hi.
We need to make it simple and straightforward for people to be part of this family, to be welcomed into this family. And that can be hard because sometimes a new person’s stumbling block is and old favoured tradition of ours and we no longer see that what was once a help has now become a hindrance.
I too new here to know – but I need you to be thinking – in what ways can I make joining our Church family here a good experience, so that you can bring your gifts – God has sent you to us, for a purpose, for this time, – how can we welcome you in?
?What do we do that makes following Jesus here seem weird or complicated or Not for your sort of people.
You must have heard the story of a big tall leather clad biker striding into Church and the Welcomers saying – I don’t think that this service is for you. At which the biker took off his helmet revealing himself to be Bishop Richard. Please tell that it wasn’t this church!
How do we make the Church more accessible – in days of old it used to be ramps for wheelchairs, nice coffee, good toilets. And that’s because those are Things. What’s harder is to be a genuinely welcoming family, not fussed about being wrapped up in my clique, my comfort zone, but keen to bless others and to help them find their home here.
Today’s sermon is for us to be more like John the Baptist. That means pointing people to Jesus.
And that means coming to terms with the idea that You have been sent here by God. At this time. For some purpose. So pray Oh dear God help me!
It means that you already are a witness to the Light – so sing “this little light of mine I’m going to let it shine” and pray Oh dear God help me!
And we are to make straight the way for the Lord – remove the stumbling blocks that make it tricky for people to meet with Jesus here, to join our family. Amen.