Today is Rose Sunday in Advent…a time when we light the pink candle, wear rose vestments, and our lessons are optimistic and full of hope. The Gospel of John looks at the “why” of John the Baptist rather than the linear “what” of the other three Gospels. For once, our three lessons hold together this Sunday. The prophet Isaiah is speaking to the returning exiles from Babylon and proclaiming a Jubilee year, a time of hope and new life in which God’s promise is fulfilled as the people return from captivity.
The Gospel wastes no time in proclaiming that John was a “man sent from God.” However, it is explicit in saying that John came as a “witness to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him.” He is not the light itself; he is not the Messiah. In the context of this passage the Jewish authorities have sent priests and Levites to discover just who this man is who is attracting so very much attention. When asked who he was, John was most explicit in saying who he was not! This was not a denial, but a confession made in total humility. In doing so, John could be John, with no pretentions to being anything else. When pressed further John quoted from Isaiah saying: “I am a voice crying out in the wilderness. Make straight the way of the Lord.”
John proclaimed to people who were in the dark that the light was coming, that their pain and anxiety would be transformed into new, genuine hope. John’s voice calls out to us as well as to those first century Jews with a call of hope and challenge. We who know how the story ends and begins are called likewise to proclaim the coming of the light, the year of the Lord, the breaking in of the Kingdom of God. John was clear that the one who is coming is unknown to both the people and to John. We, too, believe that Christ will come again, but, like John, we have no idea what form that our Savior will take.
Too often the Christian message is that we are to be like Jesus. If that were even possible we would have no need of God. Instead we are to live our lives consistent with our call knowing that, in our own imperfection, we cannot possibly be infallible. God, in creation, made the relationship between God and the people very clear – God is God and we are human kind. Any pretense otherwise is simply that…a pretense. In many ways this is incredibly liberating. Just as John could be John, so can we be who we really are. The question then is for each of us and for the church: Who are we? This Rose Sunday we don’t have to BE light, but simply witness to that light. The word “witness” is used sixteen times more often in John than in the other three Gospels combined. It has been said that, in the beginning of the Gospel of John, God has put the world on trial with all of its sinful darkness, just as Jesus’ life was ended as a result of a trial. (Copied)
We are called to face who we are and who we are not. If we own that we cannot save ourselves, we must admit that we are vulnerable and mortal. With that honest knowledge, we are to repent of our separation from God, ourselves and our neighbor, and prepare to give honest testimony to what we know to be true. We are to do so in our words, in our lives, and in our very being. This means throwing off many of those things of the world that we use to protect and shelter ourselves, hence this is not a soft, sweet experience but one that has overtones of fear and the unknown. Even as we wait in the dark for the transcendent God to enter the world as the immanent God, we do so with the hope that the testimony of John promises and that our hearts know to be true.
The letter of Paul to the community at Thessalonica gives us some clues as to how we are to testify. We are to rejoice, to pray and to give thanks in all things. We are to open our hearts to the prophets and the Holy Spirit, while testing the prophetic voices for their truthfulness. We are to hold fast to what is good and abstain from any evil. All of this is important so that, when Christ comes again, we shall be seen as faithful in so far as we can be in all of our humanity.
Too often we interpret this to be just “doing” for others who are in need. That is critically important, but is too narrow a view. If we are to, with John, make straight a pathway for God, we must manifest that testimony in every single aspect of our lives. The heart of the teaching of John is one of incredible hopefulness, for the promise is that there will come a time when there is no darkness, just the light of God’s presence.
We know it is coming as we experience the love we receive from one another, the love and support we give to those in need, and the promise of the Resurrection…that God’s love is infinite and goes beyond death. As our seminarian, Sandy, pointed out to me this week, there is a person sent by God whose name is yours. The voice is yours and mine. AMEN