Seattle Mennonite Church

12/11/05 Seattle Mennonite Church and 12/18/05 Evergreen Mennonite Church

Calling out in the Wilderness: Who will be John?
Amy Marie Epp

This is the second week in which we have heard a text about John the baptist, proclaimer of and cousin to Jesus. Prophet in the wilderness, wearer of camel hair and eventually martyr to the powers that be. “He came,” so the text says, “as a witness to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him.”

John came in the advent of Jesus ministry, and he came in the advent of Jesus' birth. He was the baby who leapt for joy in Elizabeth's womb when Mary, pregnant with Jesus. Elizabeth greeted her kinswoman, Mary and inside her, baby maybe sensing her own recognition that something special was happening, moved within her.

John's movement in the womb proclaimed Jesus before his birth. His work in the wilderness and his proclamation from the prophet Isaiah proclaimed Jesus coming before his ministry. In these days of advent, who will be John? Who will be the ones to proclaim Jesus the Christ now. It is the advent of his coming to fulfill what was begun at his birth, taught in his ministry and will be made complete with his return?

We heard a text from Isaiah today; not the one which John quotes, although he does quote from another part of that book. What we heard is in fact a passage that Jesus will later read in the synagogue at the beginning of his ministry. It is a text in which the author proclaims good news to the oppressed, healing to the broken hearted, liberty to the captives, release to the prisoners, comfort to the ones who mourn. This text is from the last of three sections of Isaiah, each of which are written in a different era of Israel's history. In the first, the prophet speaks to a corrupt nation with warnings of their destruction if they continue in their evil ways. And indeed, the nation of Israel, or at least many people from it, are led into exile in Babylon – displaced and humiliated.

The second part of Isaiah is the record of the prophetic voice while in exile. It is a cry of hope in a time of despair, that speaks, comfort, oh comfort my people. The prophet proclaims the presence of God, the safety of God's people and a way to be made in the wilderness for return and restoration. And indeed Cyrus the emperor makes it possible for a return of the Israelites to Jerusalem. And yet all is not made right. There is conflict and rebuilding is difficult.

Were the prophecies spoken in exile untrue? Did God fail the people who were faithful? Were the prophets lying or being deceptive? I think not. They were speaking words of hope in a seemingly hopeless situation. They were calling a people to do what was required of them. They were real individuals commissioned with the task of finding the lost and rebuilding the fallen. They stood in the wilderness and said, God is at work here. God is at work and will continue to work. In that new wilderness that the Jewish people had expected to feel like home prophets were called on to speak. And in this wilderness there is a need for the prophet to cry out with good news, healing, freedom, comfort and the favour of the Lord. There is need to proclaim that restoration is possible and to call people to do the work of God to make it so.

I am certain that we are living in a wilderness. A wilderness that is full of brokenness violence, prejudice, sin and separation. I am equally as certain that there have been prophets who say, the Lord God is at work here – yes, even here in the wilderness of racism and sexism, violence and war. I think we can name them. Even now in the wilderness of Iraq, where the city of Babylon once stood, four men are held captive and are crying out that God is at work in the world and that what requires is not God does not want more destruction and violence but justice and mercy. Indeed God's desire for humanity is the restoration and recognition of the humanity of each person, made in God's image.

I recently reread C S Lewis' children's classic The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe . It is a favourite book of mine and I returned to it recently in anticipation of seeing the film which is just opened. You remember if you've read the book that in the land of Narnia there is a witch who has held the land captive in a spell that makes it always winter and never Christmas. A kind of perpetual Advent?

Except it has been advent so long that few remember what they are waiting for, or have hope that there has been anything different, that there is a chance for joy and for spring or for the coming of the great Lion, Aslan. In this great allegory, the role of John, in my opinion, is played by Father Christmas. Always winter but never Christmas, and suddenly Father Christmas arrives and announces that even now the spell is being broken, even now, Aslan is on the move.

And I think of these words from the prophet Isaiah: “For as the earth brings from its shoots, and as a garden causes what is sown in it to spring up, so the Lord God will cause the righteousness and praise to spring up before all the nations.” Now the spring will come, and freedom from the dessert of winter.

Here is Father Christmas – Santa Claus – being not the point of Christmas, but the one pointing the way to the incarnation, to the springtime of God. John the Baptist cried out to his questioners: “I am the voice of one crying out in the wilderness, Make straight the way of the Lord.” He came as a witness to testify to the light. He himself was not the light but he came to testify to the light. Like the prophet he quoted, John was speaking to a specific situation, to real questioners, about a real person, Jesus. And like the ancient prophets, his words and his testimony speak into the wilderness of today, proclaiming the Light of God.

Quakers believe that God is light. They believe too that there is a spark of that divine Light in each person. The light that is in each of us, that was in John, was the dim reflection of what Jesus was to show clearly – God's true light. I asked before, “Who will be John in this present Advent?” calling out for a way to be made clear in the wilderness. The church is the prophet in the advent of Jesus' coming. And each of us who carry the spark of God are to testify.

The account of John's testimony sounds almost like a testimony from a witness box. He is questioned closely by the prosecution about his motives. And he answers in a way that seems to lead the questioners to the main point – three times they ask him who he is, and he replies each time in the negative – I am not the Messiah, Are you Elijah, I am not, are you the prophet, no. And finally when they seem somewhat frustrated with this – “Well, then, who are you? Give us an answer. What do you call yourself. They are ready to listen, and John answers from the prophet Isaiah. “I am the voice that cries out in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way of the Lord.'”

Tom Fox, is one of the four men from Christian Peacemaker Teams being held captive in Iraq. Before he went to Iraq he spoke with his friends and family confirming that if he was ever captured, they should not pay ransom, should not should attempt violence in order to rescue him, should not vilify his captors, in whom there is something of God's light. But should seek a non-violent solution. He and other CPTers endanger themselves for the sake of peace, for the sake of proclaiming that there is a way out of the wilderness of the terrible cycle of violence being perpetuated in war and terror.

One does not need to be a martyr, or even, necessarily, to be put in danger, to give testimony to the coming of Christ. There are many desolate places for which there is need for a voice to cry out as the prophet did, God's love of justice and hatred for robbery and wrongdoing. At SMC some examples that spring to mind are the struggle with how to minister to our homeless neighbours, our support of Weldon in his pastoral journey to reconcile the church with Christians who are gay and lesbian.

I wonder if John knew Jesus already. Certainly the men's mothers knew and supported each other when their sons were still unborn. I wonder if John had some sense of the Jesus' greatness when he said, “I baptize with water. Among you stands one whom you do not know, the one who is coming after me. I am not worthy to untie the thong of his sandal.”

On January 3 rd , Joe and I will be tested and questioned – literally – as another step in the process of my becoming a permanent resident in the United States and getting a green card. We will be asked “Who are you? What are you doing here?” Asked to give evidence – to testify. And I will affirm that I am here in the US because of a relationship to which I am committed. I intent to live in a way that will continue to show commitment to that relationship.

This is the season of Advent. The season of waiting and expectation, we are called to proclaim our commitment to the one who is coming, the one who we already know with whom we have a relationship. We are called to affirm our place in the Reign of God and say ‘We are the ones crying in the wilderness.”

Every action and interaction in our lives asks, “Who are you?” “To what do you testify?” Like John we know Jesus, have experienced him in our lives and in the writing of the Gospels. We too can proclaim when questioned, “make straight the way of the Lord.”

Jesus, you were proclaimed to us in the wilderness and we eagerly await you this Advent season. Help us to know you and to proclaim you in what sometimes seems like a wilderness here and now.

Help us to proclaim that there is Good News in the midst of oppression, there is healing for the broken hearted, release for the ones help captive.

So that we might know that this is the year of the Lord's favour.

In the name of you, who has been with us always, Amen.