ADVENT 3, YEAR B

December 16-17, 2023

Saint Mark’s Episcopal Church, Warwick, R. I.

 

John 1:6-8, 19-28

 

One winter morning some years ago, we woke up in darkness—I mean, literally. In a storm during the night, our house had lost power. So my wife, my sons, and I had to fumble around in the dark as we went about our morning routines of getting washed, dressed, and out the door for school and work.

 

We weren’t totally in the dark, however, because in those days we kept lanterns with battery-powered fluorescent lights on hand for precisely this eventuality. So, we did have sources of light available to guide our steps up and down the stairs and in and out of the bathroom and the various other rooms of our house.

 

The Bible often describes God as light; and Saint John’s Gospel in particular depicts Jesus as the light of the world. This biblical image conveys two principal ideas. 

First, God’s light illumines our path and guides our steps. Without this light, we’re in darkness, blindly stumbling around, liable to trip, fall, and injure ourselves. But just as those hand-held lanterns helped us to find our ways through a darkened house, so the light of Christ enables us to find our way through the life of this world.

 

But second, the Bible also often depicts our sins as darkness: those thoughts, words, and deeds that we’d rather keep hidden. The light makes them visible and reveals them for what they are. In the biblical worldview, then, a world apart from God is a world in darkness. But the light of God’s Word gives us the opportunity to repent and mend our ways so that we may live in its light.

 

Today’s Gospel identifies John the Baptist as a witness to the light: “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.”

 

Whereas the other three Gospels—Matthew, Mark, and Luke—identify John primarily as a preacher of repentance and forerunner of the Messiah, the Fourth Gospel presents John first and foremost as a witness to the light.

 

When emissaries of the Jewish religious authorities in Jerusalem come to question John about who he is, he refuses to speak about himself, and instead says who he’s not. He repudiates all the titles by which they seek to pigeonhole him. He’s neither the Messiah, nor Elijah, nor the Prophet. When they press him to say then who he is, he answers somewhat mysteriously: “I am the voice of one crying out in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way of the Lord’, as the Prophet Isaiah said.” 

 

But rather than attempting to engage with that answer on its own terms, they fall back on their own preconceived categories and ask instead why he’s baptizing, if he’s neither the Messiah, nor Elijah, nor the Prophet. Here again, he doesn’t answer the question directly, but instead speaks even more mysteriously of one standing among them whom they do not know, the thong of whose sandal he’s not worthy to untie.

 

The point of this seeming evasiveness is that the role of a witness is not to talk about himself. John avoids putting himself on center stage, and instead directs attention to the one coming after him. 

 

For this reason, John the Baptist is sometimes compared to the moon at night. He seems to be a source of light, but it’s really the reflected light of the sun below the horizon. And when the sun rises at the dawning of the day, the moon becomes less and less visible. Just so, John reflects the light of the one coming after him, whose coming into the world is the dawn of a new day.

 

And here John stands as a model and example for us in the Church today. After his Resurrection from the dead, Our Lord says to his disciples: “you shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth.” 

 

In the Prayer Book’s baptismal service, one of the promises we make is to “proclaim by word and example the Good News of God in Christ.” And then, one of the prayers we offer for those about to be baptized is, “Send them into the world in witness to your love.”

 

The only reason that the Church has survived and flourished down through the centuries has been the Gospel finding a home in the hearts of countless believers who’ve been unafraid to bear witness to Christ and the light that he brings into their lives.

 

But testifying to the light can also be a risky business. For while the light represents salvation to some, it’s threatening to others. Ultimately John the Baptist is imprisoned and beheaded on account of his witness. We must always remember that the Greek word for witness is martyr.

 

Nevertheless, as baptized members of the Church, our calling is always to bear witness to the light. Here the words of today’s Gospel are particularly instructive. We are not the light, but we’ve been sent to bear witness to the light. 

 

The great temptation, however, is to fall into the trap of thinking, speaking, and acting as if we were the light. Come to Saint Mark’s: We’ve got a wonderful parish full of friendly and caring people, lots of fun activities, and great community outreach. While that’s all certainly true, the problem with that type of appeal is that it’s all about us. It’s all about who we are and what we do.

 

But on the contrary, if we do anything here that’s at all worthwhile, it’s on account of its capacity to point beyond ourselves. Wonderful as they are, the worship, the social activities, and the outreach are not intended primarily for our own edification, inspiration, fulfillment, or entertainment. For they’re not all about us, but about him to whom we bear witness. Just as the moon reflects the light of the sun, so our calling is to reflect the light of the Son of God.

 

During this season of Advent, the figure of John the Baptist reminds us of our calling to point to Jesus as the one who stands among us, often unnamed, unrecognized, and unknown. We do so not only by individual words and deeds, but most of all by the quality of a common life shaped by his Gospel. And when we fulfill that calling, then it can truly be said of us, along with John the Baptist, that we ourselves are not the light, but have come to testify to the light.