3rd Sunday in Advent, December 14, 2008 “Series B”
Grace be unto you and peace, from God our Father and from our Lord, Jesus Christ. Amen.
Let us pray: Dear Heavenly Father, we gather together today to worship you and lift our hearts in thanksgiving for your gift of grace, poured out for us through your Son Jesus the Christ. During this Advent season, as the days grow shorter and dimmer, open our hearts and minds through the power of your Holy Spirit, that we might come to more fully realize Jesus as the true light, who brings hope into our darkened world, and the dark corners of our lives. This we ask in his holy name. Amen.
Last Sunday our lesson from Mark’s Gospel introduced us to John the Baptizer, whom he presented as this figure who seemed to step out of the pages of Israel’s past, dawning the clothing and diet of Elijah, to prepare us to receive the Messiah. And according to Mark, John’s message was simple. He is described as calling people to “Repent, for the kingdom of God was coming among us.
This morning, our lectionary again introduces us to the Baptizer, this time according to John’s Gospel, where a different aspect of his message is stressed. This morning’s text makes no mention of the Baptizer’s strange attire, or his prophetic call to confession and repentance. Instead, the author of the fourth Gospel stresses the role of the Baptizer as that of pointing us to the Messiah, who was coming to bring the light of God’s redemption to a darkened world.
And if we look at this message in context, it was a darkened world, and I’m not talking about the shortened, darker days of winter. Israel at that time was living under political oppression at the hands of the Romans, who had captured and occupied their country. Imagine the stress and anxiety that would result from living in such a situation. The times were difficult, uncertainty about the future prevailed.
Think of the situation in Iraq, where so many lives have been lost, far more Iraqi lives than allied forces. Think of the people of that nation, who struggle against the vying forces to secure their cities in order to return to some stability in order to reopen markets and establish some normalcy of life. But unlike the situation in Iraq, the Romans had no desire to leave, and return control of their nation back to the Iraqi people, as do the allied forces.
It was, and still is, a darkened world in which we live. I’ve talked to so many people over the past several months who are feeling a lot of anxiety about the future. So many people have been effected by the down turn in the economy, and feel powerless to do anything about it.
Many are concerned about their pensions, whether they will have enough to live on when they are no longer able to work. Millions of persons over such a short period in our country have been laid off, and there is so little work positions available. Those who do continue to work have found that their jobs have become increasingly stressful, yet if they want to make ends meet, they have to endure the situation. And the threat of terrorism continues to present a continuing threat. Is it any wander that so many persons are feeling depressed. It is a darkened world in which we live.
And it is into our darkened world, with all of its problems that diminish and detract from the joy of life, that John the Baptizer confronts us with his message. But to help clarify his message, let me cite the first five verses of John’s Gospel, omitted by our text.
John writes, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.”
In other words, the light to which John the Baptizer came to witness to, and point us to believe in, was the incarnate Word of God, who took place in the creation of the universe, and established life on this planet we call earth. And because of his coming among us, he brings light into our darkened world, giving us hope for a future that the darkness of this world can never snuff out.
But the light of hope to which the Baptizer points us to behold, is not a hope that our belief and faith in Jesus the Christ will make our lives a bed of roses, and enable us to avoid the darkness of our world, or the pains and anxieties that we experience in life. Rather, it is a message that proclaims that in spite of the darkness of our world, and the distress to our lives, the light of hope that Christ provides will ultimately prevail.
As Craig T. Kocher in his commentary on our text states, “…Christian hope is fundamentally different from optimism. Christian hope locks its steely eyes on the devastation of the world around it, and readily acknowledges that things may not get better. Christian hope does not bury its heat in Yule-tide cheer and artificial lights, but like an Advent wreath glowing stronger and brighter each week, this hope pushes its way into the brokenness of the world clearing a path in the wilderness so the true light might burst into the darkness.”
Kocher then goes on to cite a story told by Tom Long, about a rabbi Hugo Grynn, who was sent to Auschwitz as a little boy. In the midst of the concentration camp, in the midst of the death and horror all around them, many Jews held onto whatever shreds of their religious observances they could, without drawing the ire of the guards. One cold winter’s evening, Hugo’s father gathered the family in the barracks. It was the first night of Hanukkah, the Jewish Feast of Lights.
The young child watched in horror as his father took the family’s last pad of butter and made a makeshift candle, using a string from his ragged clothes. He then took a match and lit the candle. “Father, no!” Hugo cried. “That butter is our last bit of food! How will we survive?”
“We can live for many days without food,” his father said. “We can not live a single minute without faith and hope. This is the fire of hope. Never let it go out. Not here! Not anywhere!” End quote. [Pulpit Resource, Logos Productions, Inc, 2005]
This is the light of hope to which John the Baptizer calls for us to embrace on this third Sunday in Advent. It is a call to believe, and through the power of God’s Holy Spirit, come to trust that in Jesus the Christ, the light of God’s creating and redeeming grace has come into the midst of our broken and dark world, for our eternal redemption.
Although our faith in Christ may not enable us to escape the downturn in the economy, save our job, provide a nest egg to enable us to enjoy a comfortable retirement, prevent another terrorist attack on our country, or even enable us to live a few extra years when our health turns bad, Christ is still the light that shines into our darkened world.
For the future that Christ offers us, transcends our earthly existence. May God’s Spirit enable us to truly embrace the Baptizer’s message, that even though we gather this Advent season, in the increasing darkness of longer nights and fading days, the light of God’s incarnate Word can not be extinguished. Even as we gather in the midst of economic turmoil and an uncertain future, the light of Christ’s love for us, his creation, cannot be extinguished. For that light burns so bright through his death and his resurrection for our redemption, that it is a beacon of hope for all who turn to him in faith. That is the message of John the Baptizer, according to John’s Gospel. And may God’s Spirit give us the courage and faith to not only embrace his message, but to continue to embrace his ministry of witnessing to the Light of the world.
Amen.
