Sermon -- 3rd Sunday in Advent (December 13, 2020)

JOHN 1:6-8,18-29

A VOICE SPEAKS SO THAT YOU MIGHT KNOW THE CHRIST.

In the name + of Jesus.

       There is a great blessing in being familiar with the accounts about the coming of Jesus at Christmas and of John, the forerunner.  Even though you will come to church for Christmas knowing that you will hear the same story, you will still come because you love it.  You come because you know you need it.  Some may reduce the story of Jesus' birth to a young mother who snuggles with her newborn baby, but faith knows what is really going on.  It is this: God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. (John 3:16)  If you long to know that God loves you and if you want to see God’s mercy and salvation, then you will always delight in the account of Christmas.  And you will follow the Christ each Sunday from Bethlehem, to Galilee, to Jerusalem, to Calvary, to the vacated tomb, and to Bethany where he ascends into heaven to prepare a place for you.

     But if there is a drawback to knowing this story, it is that your familiarity with it might mean you gloss over it and don’t ponder it like you should.  St. John wrote about John the Baptist: “There was a man sent from God, whose name was John.  He came as a witness, to bear witness about the light, that all might believe through him.  He was not the light, but came to bear witness about the light.” (John 1:6-8)  John was a voice so that you might come to know the Christ.

     Now, for you, this message is not new.  But it was startling to those who were on the scene in Judea at the time.  For four hundred years, the Lord had not sent a prophet to his people.  They had the words of the prophets to hear, to study, and to ponder, but since Malachi no one had arisen to declare anew, “Thus saith the Lord.”  And then came John. 

     John preached repentance and baptized the penitent.  He not only caught the ears of the citizens of Judea and Jerusalem, he also got the attention of the religious establishment.  Who is this who preaches so boldly?  Could he be a prophet?  Could he be Elijah who prepares the way for the Christ?  Could he be the Christ?! 

     The priests and Levites came out to ask.  John confessed, “I am not the Christ, nor Elijah, nor the Prophet.”  When someone wants to know about you, it is not very helpful to tell them who you are not.  Imagine a police officer asking for your ID, only to have you tell him, “Well, I can tell you that I am not Matthew Stafford, Miguel Cabrera, or Steve Yzerman.”  That would not end well.  But eventually, the priests and Levites asked a better question.  “They said to him, 'Who are you?  We need to give an answer to those who sent us.  What do you say about yourself?'” (John 1:22)  John answered: I am a voice speaking that you might know the Christ.

     You might wonder if that answer was any better.  John did not tell them his name, or his hometown, or who his parents were.  John said, “I am a voice.”  That's it.  But if John is a voice, that means you have to listen to what he has to say.  Voices declare words, and words reveal things.  John was like an announcer who gets a crowd ready for actors or musicians to take the stage.  The voice prepares the crowd.  It is time to stop looking at your cell phone.  It is time to end your conversations.  Turn your focus to the stage.  This is what matters.  This is what it is all about.  And this is who John is.  He is a voice speaking that you might know the Christ.

     John told the priests and the Levites, “Among you stands one you do not know, even he who comes after me.” (John 1:26-27)  Chances are the priests and Levites had seen Jesus of Nazareth before.  He had been to the festivals in Jerusalem for years.  But they did not know his true identity.  It was not the priests and Levites who pointed to Jesus and declared, “There is the Christ, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.”  It was John the Baptist who was doing that.  John was a voice speaking that they might know the Christ.  Though John's voice cried out, it sadly did not penetrate the hard hearts of these religious leaders.  Those leaders sure became familiar with Jesus, but they did not confess him as the Christ because they did not know him.

     There is only one way to know the Christ; it is through the word of God.  Familiarity always comes through words.  When a young couple wants to get to know each other, they don’t just stare at each other.  Even making out does not do much to get to know one’s date.  They have to talk to each other.  They learn about each other by communicating.  As they grow in their relationship, they keep on talking.  Even after years of marriage, they keep on talking—even retelling the same stories they have told each other for years.  The heartbreaking part of Alzheimer’s disease is not that the person looks different or is immobile, it is that the communication has pretty much stopped.  Our relationships are established and maintained through words.  So, to connect you to the Christ, John speaks words.  John is a voice speaking that you might know the Christ.  If you want to know the Christ, then you must listen attentively to his word. 

     Many like to boast that they are spiritual.  That sounds noble, but people who are spiritual cannot know the Christ.  Their communication with God is one-sided.  For spiritual people, God is limited to their own ruminations and imaginations.  God ends up being whoever they want him to be.  This is a made-up god.  It would be like me saying I am a good friend of Paul McCartney because I have made-up conversations with him in my head.  But unless he is actually having a conversation with me and telling me about himself, I can never really say I know him.  If my god is limited to what I think about him, what can such a god actually do—for or against anyone?  And how could that god actually help me in dark, dismal, or lonely days?

     John is a voice speaking that you might know the Christ.  Without the words of God, no one can know who God actually is.  Unless God gives you words to listen to, you can never know what God demands, what God promises, if God loves you, or if he even cares about you.  That is why God sent the prophets, and it is especially why he sent John.  John is not a miracle worker or a showman.  John is a voice.  He is the voice speaking so that you might know the Christ.  For, if you know the Christ, then you know God, his promises, his mercy, and his salvation.

     First, John preaches repentance so that you can know why you need the Christ.  Most people are pretty content about how they think and act.  If they really felt that they were wrong, they would change.  One of the main reasons people do not change their attitudes or their actions is that they don’t think they need to.  They like what they do.  They are convinced their motives are fair.  They are sure their opinions are right.  When God’s word reveals what actually is good, we discover just how self-centered our thoughts are.  When God tells us to always love our fellow man with patience, forgiveness, and generosity, then we recognize that our attitudes are not as loving and our actions are not as praiseworthy as we like to think.  And when God tells us that he holds us accountable for all that we think, say, and do, and that hell is a real place for the wicked, then we know that having thoughts about God or having an awareness of him is not enough to escape this judgment.  For all of their religious fervor, even the priests and Levites were called to repent.  For, there is no one who is righteous—whether religious, spiritual, agnostic, or atheist.  John proclaims all this so that you might know how much the Christ is needed.

     John is a voice, but John is not the focal point.  He pointed to the Christ.  John spoke about the forgiveness of sins and tells you about the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world, but it is the Christ who actually takes your sins from you.  The Christ is the Lamb who was slaughtered, was roasted in God’s wrath on the cross for you, and whose blood was shed to cleanse you of all guilt.  John spoke about the mercy of God, but Jesus actually has provided that divine mercy.  The Christ is the propitiation, that is, he is the one who diverts God’s wrath from you so that you instead receive his blessing.  John speaks to “turn the hearts of the fathers to their children and the hearts of the children to their fathers” (Malachi 4:6).  To do this, he shows you the Christ, and the Christ shows you the loving and merciful heart of your heavenly Father and produces in you a love for him and his words.

     John is a voice speaking that you might know the Christ.  And you have the full word of God recorded in the Scriptures so that you can know your God intimately.  God is not some impersonal force that balances the universe.  You have a personal God who knows you intimately and wants to be known intimately by you.  Therefore, he reveals his word to you.  That word even came in the flesh to have mercy upon you and to save you.  He is the Christ, and he continues to speak to you.  He admonishes you so that you do not slip into lazy habits and return to your sins.  He absolves you of your sins so that you are not overwhelmed by guilt.  He encourages you so that you continue to love your neighbor even when it is hard.  He strengthens you to stand firm in the faith even if you should suffer for his sake.  He summons you to the altar where he gives you the body and blood which have overcome death.  And even if he retells the stories you have heard so many times before, he tells you again to remind you how dearly he loves you.

     To make sure that you know the Christ, God sent John.  He is a voice.  He speaks so that you will know the Christ.  If you know the Christ, then you know the true God.  The God who created you and redeemed you knows you personally, and wants to be known by you personally.  This bond grows deeper through words—yours to him in your prayers, and his to you in the Scriptures.  Therefore, dear Christians, pay attention to that voice.  Hear the word of the Lord.  All that he says there is for your good—both for this life and for the life everlasting.

In the name of the Father and of the Son + and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.