WEBVTT 1 00:00:13.580 --> 00:00:15.712 I can't stand it when people 2 00:00:15.712 --> 00:00:16.545 (clears throat) 3 00:00:16.545 --> 00:00:17.378 ask that 4 00:00:17.378 --> 00:00:18.211 (clears throat) excuse me, 5 00:00:18.211 --> 00:00:21.340 favorite pre-Christmas question, 6 00:00:21.340 --> 00:00:24.517 usually addressed to some child, 7 00:00:24.517 --> 00:00:27.200 "Well, what are you getting for Christmas?" 8 00:00:27.200 --> 00:00:28.227 Or, if they're more polite, 9 00:00:28.227 --> 00:00:31.640 "What are you hoping to get for Christmas?" 10 00:00:31.640 --> 00:00:33.870 Not long ago I overheard that question 11 00:00:33.870 --> 00:00:38.870 addressed to a child and the child responded, 12 00:00:38.927 --> 00:00:42.323 "Well how do I know? Depends on what they give me." 13 00:00:42.323 --> 00:00:43.156 (congregation laughing) 14 00:00:43.156 --> 00:00:47.090 Which showed a great deal of wisdom. 15 00:00:47.090 --> 00:00:50.485 As Christians we know that Christmas is not about 16 00:00:50.485 --> 00:00:55.201 gifts or greed, it's about the birth of Christ. 17 00:00:55.201 --> 00:00:59.135 The one whom, as we sing on Christmas, 18 00:00:59.135 --> 00:01:04.097 the hopes and fears of all the years are met. 19 00:01:06.470 --> 00:01:08.340 And yet, one can learn something 20 00:01:08.340 --> 00:01:11.879 from the pre-Christmas question, 21 00:01:11.879 --> 00:01:16.879 "What are you hoping to get for Christmas?" 22 00:01:17.330 --> 00:01:22.330 Because if you know our hope, you fairly well know us. 23 00:01:22.780 --> 00:01:26.360 For what are you hoping? 24 00:01:26.360 --> 00:01:28.990 I expect that's what most people think 25 00:01:28.990 --> 00:01:33.990 religion is all about: the fulfillment of our hopes. 26 00:01:34.570 --> 00:01:38.960 We hope to find peace amid anxious lives, 27 00:01:38.960 --> 00:01:43.040 and so we come to church, and we hope that the music 28 00:01:43.040 --> 00:01:45.053 or the words or something will give us 29 00:01:45.053 --> 00:01:50.053 some sense of reassurance and well-being. 30 00:01:50.400 --> 00:01:53.430 We hope for thoughtful, reflective lives, 31 00:01:53.430 --> 00:01:56.670 and so we come and we hope that the sermon 32 00:01:56.670 --> 00:02:00.400 or some of the ideas expressed in the scripture 33 00:02:00.400 --> 00:02:03.510 will help us to think about things in a new way 34 00:02:03.510 --> 00:02:07.160 and use our brains, and... 35 00:02:07.160 --> 00:02:09.377 Or we hope for beauty. 36 00:02:09.377 --> 00:02:11.020 There's a lot of ugliness in this world, 37 00:02:11.020 --> 00:02:14.880 and maybe that's one reason we draw apart, 38 00:02:14.880 --> 00:02:19.556 particularly at a season of the year like this. 39 00:02:19.556 --> 00:02:23.630 As days grow shorter, and the darkness comes earlier, 40 00:02:23.630 --> 00:02:28.630 and we gather amidst the beauty of a place like this 41 00:02:29.780 --> 00:02:34.780 and music like we have heard, for what are you hoping? 42 00:02:36.210 --> 00:02:40.495 Church is where we get our hopes met, 43 00:02:40.495 --> 00:02:43.793 where our yearning is fulfilled. 44 00:02:43.793 --> 00:02:47.228 Maybe that's why people keep coming to church. 45 00:02:47.228 --> 00:02:52.201 Though their hopes are often disappointed here on Sunday, 46 00:02:53.200 --> 00:02:55.040 maybe there are enough Sundays where 47 00:02:55.040 --> 00:02:58.568 at least you are able to say, 48 00:02:58.568 --> 00:03:01.160 why that service really did something for me today, 49 00:03:01.160 --> 00:03:03.450 and what you mean by that is 50 00:03:03.450 --> 00:03:07.800 that service really did fulfill my hope. 51 00:03:07.800 --> 00:03:12.800 My hope about what good worship is, our hopes were met. 52 00:03:15.399 --> 00:03:16.930 Maybe I ought to prepare my sermon 53 00:03:16.930 --> 00:03:19.940 by therefore meeting you at the front door 54 00:03:19.940 --> 00:03:22.560 and handing you a questionnaire, or take a poll. 55 00:03:22.560 --> 00:03:24.590 What is your expectation for this service, 56 00:03:24.590 --> 00:03:27.710 what is your hope? 57 00:03:27.710 --> 00:03:30.778 It seems to be a major point of religion, 58 00:03:30.778 --> 00:03:34.050 the fulfillment of hope. 59 00:03:34.050 --> 00:03:36.170 Of course, trouble is if you know much about the Bible, 60 00:03:36.170 --> 00:03:39.773 you know that the Bible is, 61 00:03:39.773 --> 00:03:44.110 conducts an ongoing critique of our hope 62 00:03:44.110 --> 00:03:46.708 and our expectation. 63 00:03:46.708 --> 00:03:49.720 Jesus was light into our darkness, 64 00:03:49.720 --> 00:03:52.540 but problem with Jesus was 65 00:03:52.540 --> 00:03:57.540 He wasn't the sort of light everybody was expecting. 66 00:03:58.070 --> 00:04:00.645 That's where the trouble started, 67 00:04:00.645 --> 00:04:03.620 He was the hope of the world, but when the world's hopes 68 00:04:03.620 --> 00:04:08.500 collided with who he was, the world found out 69 00:04:08.500 --> 00:04:13.500 that he was not the hope for which they were hoping. 70 00:04:13.710 --> 00:04:17.560 Maybe that's why the church in its wisdom 71 00:04:17.560 --> 00:04:20.630 on the third Sunday of Advent confronts us 72 00:04:20.630 --> 00:04:25.630 with John the Baptist on this Sunday of Advent. 73 00:04:26.342 --> 00:04:29.122 Because here we are just a couple of weeks before Christmas, 74 00:04:29.122 --> 00:04:32.520 hoping for Christmas. 75 00:04:32.520 --> 00:04:35.392 But the first person we meet on the way 76 00:04:35.392 --> 00:04:39.930 to the Jesus child is John the Baptist, 77 00:04:39.930 --> 00:04:44.285 strange figure, odd preacher, who doesn't really 78 00:04:44.285 --> 00:04:47.931 match up to anybody's hope. 79 00:04:47.931 --> 00:04:50.800 It is interesting that the story of Jesus begins 80 00:04:50.800 --> 00:04:54.726 with the dissonance of John. 81 00:04:54.726 --> 00:04:56.760 And what does that tell us? 82 00:04:56.760 --> 00:05:01.431 Hear today's Gospel. 83 00:05:01.431 --> 00:05:04.663 This is the testimony of John, 84 00:05:04.663 --> 00:05:07.180 when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem 85 00:05:07.180 --> 00:05:09.950 to ask, "Who are you?" 86 00:05:09.950 --> 00:05:14.950 John confessed, he did not deny, but he confessed, 87 00:05:15.027 --> 00:05:18.060 "I am not the Christ." 88 00:05:18.060 --> 00:05:22.501 They asked him, "Well, what then? Are you Eli'jah?" 89 00:05:22.501 --> 00:05:26.504 John answered, "I am not." 90 00:05:26.504 --> 00:05:29.235 "Well, are you the prophet?" 91 00:05:29.235 --> 00:05:33.125 John answered, "No." 92 00:05:33.125 --> 00:05:37.830 They said to him, "Well, who are you? Let's have an answer 93 00:05:37.830 --> 00:05:42.830 for those who sent us; what do you say about yourself?" 94 00:05:43.040 --> 00:05:48.040 John said, "I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, 95 00:05:48.590 --> 00:05:50.580 'Make straight the way of the Lord,' 96 00:05:50.580 --> 00:05:55.580 as the prophet Isaiah said." 97 00:05:55.703 --> 00:05:59.488 Now they had been sent from the Pharisees. 98 00:05:59.488 --> 00:06:03.883 So, they asked him again, "Well then why are you baptizing, 99 00:06:03.883 --> 00:06:06.440 if you are neither the Christ, nor Elijah, 100 00:06:06.440 --> 00:06:08.137 nor the prophet?" 101 00:06:08.137 --> 00:06:11.720 John answered, "I baptize with water; 102 00:06:11.720 --> 00:06:16.456 but among you stands one whom you do not know, 103 00:06:16.456 --> 00:06:20.250 even he who comes after me, the thong of whose sandal 104 00:06:20.250 --> 00:06:25.224 I am not worthy to untie." 105 00:06:29.500 --> 00:06:34.500 Here is the story of John, a man sent from God. 106 00:06:36.580 --> 00:06:41.580 John says he came as a testimony to bear witness 107 00:06:41.830 --> 00:06:46.708 to the light, that all might believe through Him. 108 00:06:46.708 --> 00:06:49.590 He was not the light, but he came 109 00:06:49.590 --> 00:06:54.002 to bear witness to the light. 110 00:06:54.002 --> 00:06:56.420 This is the Word of the Lord. 111 00:06:56.420 --> 00:06:57.793 Thanks be to God. 112 00:07:00.710 --> 00:07:02.920 Well, we're not just meeting on this third Sunday 113 00:07:02.920 --> 00:07:05.423 of Advent John the Baptist. 114 00:07:05.423 --> 00:07:06.840 We're meeting John the Baptist 115 00:07:06.840 --> 00:07:11.833 as he is presented in the Gospel of John. 116 00:07:13.790 --> 00:07:16.050 John's Gospel paints a peculiar picture 117 00:07:16.050 --> 00:07:19.221 of peculiar John the Baptist. 118 00:07:19.221 --> 00:07:21.930 Unlike the other Gospels, and John the Baptist appears 119 00:07:21.930 --> 00:07:26.100 in all the Gospels, the fourth Gospel, for instance, 120 00:07:26.100 --> 00:07:29.090 reports nothing on the way John was dressed 121 00:07:29.090 --> 00:07:31.558 like the other Gospels. 122 00:07:31.558 --> 00:07:36.210 Luke says John had an odd diet and lived 123 00:07:36.210 --> 00:07:40.930 out in the wilderness, but John tells us nothing of this. 124 00:07:40.930 --> 00:07:44.300 Luke also says that John called people to repent 125 00:07:44.300 --> 00:07:47.545 of their sins, to set their lives right. 126 00:07:47.545 --> 00:07:51.492 When people asked John what they ought to do to get saved, 127 00:07:51.492 --> 00:07:54.355 Luke says John told them, "If you've got two coats, 128 00:07:54.355 --> 00:07:56.560 give one away to the poor. 129 00:07:56.560 --> 00:08:01.560 Here's what you've got to do to get right with God." 130 00:08:02.080 --> 00:08:05.550 But not in the Gospel of John. 131 00:08:05.550 --> 00:08:07.640 In John's Gospel, John the Baptist 132 00:08:07.640 --> 00:08:09.240 isn't even called John the Baptist. 133 00:08:09.240 --> 00:08:14.240 He's called a witness, he's called a witness 134 00:08:14.890 --> 00:08:18.553 to the light. 135 00:08:18.553 --> 00:08:22.180 The light; this time of year, in our pre-Christmas 136 00:08:22.180 --> 00:08:26.690 celebrations, we string up lights everywhere. 137 00:08:26.690 --> 00:08:29.890 We string lights up lamp poles and framing windows 138 00:08:29.890 --> 00:08:33.400 and over our streets and twirling around trees, 139 00:08:33.400 --> 00:08:38.400 but you hear John telling us that when he speaks 140 00:08:38.760 --> 00:08:43.746 of the light, the light coming into the world, 141 00:08:43.746 --> 00:08:47.410 the light lighting our darkness, 142 00:08:47.410 --> 00:08:51.732 it's a very different light than the light 143 00:08:51.732 --> 00:08:56.732 that we have in our conventional Christmas celebrations. 144 00:08:57.300 --> 00:08:59.150 When John began preaching, he didn't stand 145 00:08:59.150 --> 00:09:04.150 on a city street corner and preach to the multitudes. 146 00:09:04.210 --> 00:09:07.923 He didn't stand in a carved limestone pulpit. 147 00:09:07.923 --> 00:09:11.218 John went out to the wilderness, 148 00:09:11.218 --> 00:09:15.553 he called people out into the desolate desert 149 00:09:15.553 --> 00:09:20.553 to make straight the path of the Lord into their lives. 150 00:09:21.220 --> 00:09:23.347 And it was out there in the desert that, 151 00:09:23.347 --> 00:09:26.910 according to today's Gospel, representatives 152 00:09:26.910 --> 00:09:30.812 from the department of the religion came out 153 00:09:30.812 --> 00:09:35.805 to do what they do so well: give examinations. 154 00:09:36.760 --> 00:09:39.810 They didn't know what to make of John. 155 00:09:39.810 --> 00:09:43.005 These religious experts say, "Shine the bright 156 00:09:43.005 --> 00:09:46.964 flashlight into John's face," and they demanded, 157 00:09:46.964 --> 00:09:50.233 "Well, who are you?" 158 00:09:50.233 --> 00:09:53.400 He certainly didn't act, he didn't dress 159 00:09:53.400 --> 00:09:58.373 like anyone religious whom they had encountered before. 160 00:09:59.606 --> 00:10:02.727 "Who are you?" they demand. 161 00:10:02.727 --> 00:10:04.323 "What is your denomination? 162 00:10:04.323 --> 00:10:06.900 Are you Calvinist, pre-millennium, Armenian, 163 00:10:06.900 --> 00:10:09.570 high church, low?" 164 00:10:09.570 --> 00:10:14.310 Interestingly, John answers them by, 165 00:10:14.310 --> 00:10:19.310 not by saying who he is but by saying who he is not. 166 00:10:19.792 --> 00:10:24.792 "I am not the Messiah," which is an interesting answer 167 00:10:25.260 --> 00:10:30.041 because that isn't what his questioners ask. 168 00:10:30.041 --> 00:10:34.197 His interrogators regroup, "Well, what then? 169 00:10:34.197 --> 00:10:38.504 Are you maybe the prophet Elijah?" 170 00:10:38.504 --> 00:10:41.717 "No, I'm not." 171 00:10:41.717 --> 00:10:45.651 "Well then, maybe then you're some new prophet." 172 00:10:45.651 --> 00:10:49.229 "No, I am not." 173 00:10:49.229 --> 00:10:51.207 See what they're doing? 174 00:10:51.207 --> 00:10:53.790 They want to put him in some pigeon hole, 175 00:10:53.790 --> 00:10:57.170 they're determined to place John in their preconception 176 00:10:57.170 --> 00:10:59.250 of what religion ought to be, 177 00:10:59.250 --> 00:11:03.040 what religious person ought to be. 178 00:11:03.040 --> 00:11:05.909 They want to place John within their conventional 179 00:11:05.909 --> 00:11:10.909 expectations, they want to see John fit into their hopes 180 00:11:13.415 --> 00:11:16.510 for the future of Israel. 181 00:11:16.510 --> 00:11:18.020 But no matter what they suggest, 182 00:11:18.020 --> 00:11:20.642 John just says, "No, no, no I'm not that, 183 00:11:20.642 --> 00:11:23.324 No, no." 184 00:11:23.324 --> 00:11:25.640 Some of them hoped maybe he might be 185 00:11:25.640 --> 00:11:27.970 the great prophet Elijah come back from the dead 186 00:11:27.970 --> 00:11:30.276 to deliver Israel. 187 00:11:30.276 --> 00:11:33.330 When Elijah was on earth, Elijah the prophet showed 188 00:11:33.330 --> 00:11:37.558 great power of God in the deeds that he did. 189 00:11:37.558 --> 00:11:39.590 Well, now if he's maybe not Elijah, 190 00:11:39.590 --> 00:11:42.250 maybe he's one of the minor prophets like Obadiah, 191 00:11:42.250 --> 00:11:46.880 who didn't do such great works but he spoke great words. 192 00:11:46.880 --> 00:11:50.560 And who needed great words from God and great works of God 193 00:11:50.560 --> 00:11:54.890 any more than Israel, with the heel of Rome on their neck. 194 00:11:54.890 --> 00:11:57.490 They were an occupied people. 195 00:11:57.490 --> 00:12:00.180 What hope had they for deliverance 196 00:12:00.180 --> 00:12:03.341 if it didn't come from God? 197 00:12:03.341 --> 00:12:07.328 "Who are you?" they attempt again. 198 00:12:07.328 --> 00:12:09.100 "Let's have an answer for those 199 00:12:09.100 --> 00:12:12.190 who've sent us out here to inquire. 200 00:12:12.190 --> 00:12:16.574 What do you say about yourself?" 201 00:12:16.574 --> 00:12:19.236 John refused to say anything. 202 00:12:19.236 --> 00:12:21.275 He is Dr. No. 203 00:12:21.275 --> 00:12:24.070 We are given no details, nothing about his dress, 204 00:12:24.070 --> 00:12:28.440 nothing about his message other than negation. 205 00:12:28.440 --> 00:12:33.382 John is the one who comes and says, "No." 206 00:12:34.770 --> 00:12:38.783 The only positive thing John says here 207 00:12:38.783 --> 00:12:42.227 about himself is that he is a voice. 208 00:12:42.227 --> 00:12:47.227 "I am the voice crying in the wilderness, 209 00:12:47.270 --> 00:12:51.580 'Make straight the path of God.' 210 00:12:51.580 --> 00:12:56.580 I am God's megaphone, I am the smell of the coffee 211 00:12:56.790 --> 00:12:59.920 that wakes you up in the morning, I am that 212 00:12:59.920 --> 00:13:02.660 alarm clock that shatters your sleep. 213 00:13:02.660 --> 00:13:05.080 I am that annoying voice you can't get away from 214 00:13:05.080 --> 00:13:08.070 in the restaurant, no matter how far you move your table. 215 00:13:08.070 --> 00:13:10.840 I am the voice. 216 00:13:10.840 --> 00:13:14.837 Furthermore, I am the voice 217 00:13:14.837 --> 00:13:17.970 that's got only one thing to tell you: 218 00:13:17.970 --> 00:13:21.914 The light is coming." 219 00:13:21.914 --> 00:13:25.040 John doesn't say of Jesus, "There is one coming 220 00:13:25.040 --> 00:13:27.060 who is coming who is going to call you to repent, 221 00:13:27.060 --> 00:13:29.150 to take away your sins. 222 00:13:29.150 --> 00:13:30.700 There is one coming who's going to tell you 223 00:13:30.700 --> 00:13:32.440 just what you ought to do to get right with God." 224 00:13:32.440 --> 00:13:35.789 He just says, 225 00:13:35.789 --> 00:13:39.181 "Mr. Light is coming. 226 00:13:39.181 --> 00:13:44.077 I'm a voice that's before the light." 227 00:13:45.810 --> 00:13:47.620 If you don't know what to make of somebody 228 00:13:47.620 --> 00:13:49.370 who says he's nothing but a voice, 229 00:13:49.370 --> 00:13:53.928 what do you make of somebody who's nothing but light? 230 00:13:53.928 --> 00:13:57.995 Light, light has got to be one of the most 231 00:13:57.995 --> 00:14:02.987 difficult to define, to limit, of human experiences. 232 00:14:05.230 --> 00:14:07.440 In the mornings about this time of year 233 00:14:07.440 --> 00:14:10.500 when the leaves are off the trees 234 00:14:10.500 --> 00:14:12.980 and dawn seems to come earlier, 235 00:14:12.980 --> 00:14:15.347 light streams into the bedroom, 236 00:14:15.347 --> 00:14:18.510 and no matter how tight you try to shut the curtains, 237 00:14:18.510 --> 00:14:23.510 light coming in at such an inopportune time. 238 00:14:24.040 --> 00:14:27.900 John says, "I am not the light. 239 00:14:27.900 --> 00:14:31.930 I'm a witness to the light; I'm a voice. 240 00:14:31.930 --> 00:14:34.495 I'm somebody who points to the light, 241 00:14:34.495 --> 00:14:37.320 I am somebody who tells you that the light is coming 242 00:14:37.320 --> 00:14:39.700 but I am not the light." 243 00:14:39.700 --> 00:14:44.170 To those religious experts, who do what religious experts 244 00:14:44.170 --> 00:14:47.710 tend to do, to define, to classify, to characterize, 245 00:14:47.710 --> 00:14:52.200 to pigeon hole, to know by God, know, 246 00:14:52.200 --> 00:14:54.833 John says, 247 00:14:54.833 --> 00:14:58.920 "I'm among you as one you don't know, 248 00:14:58.920 --> 00:15:02.865 and furthermore there is one who stands among you 249 00:15:02.865 --> 00:15:06.747 whom you do not know." 250 00:15:06.747 --> 00:15:10.370 Out in the wilderness, at some place distant 251 00:15:10.370 --> 00:15:15.313 from Western civilization, far from the places of power, 252 00:15:16.778 --> 00:15:20.490 far outside the city walls and the boundaries 253 00:15:20.490 --> 00:15:25.482 and the limits, beyond the doctors of religion 254 00:15:25.482 --> 00:15:30.435 and their definitions, John tells them, tells us 255 00:15:33.687 --> 00:15:37.912 "You do not know, you cannot define, 256 00:15:37.912 --> 00:15:42.010 you do not know the light that is coming into the world, 257 00:15:42.010 --> 00:15:45.187 into the darkness. 258 00:15:45.187 --> 00:15:49.017 All he says is to negate our definitions 259 00:15:49.017 --> 00:15:52.307 and our expectations. 260 00:15:52.307 --> 00:15:54.670 At this point, we're given no substance, 261 00:15:54.670 --> 00:15:57.490 no defining content. 262 00:15:57.490 --> 00:15:59.343 Rather, at this point in the story, 263 00:15:59.343 --> 00:16:01.672 up here at the beginning in Advent, 264 00:16:01.672 --> 00:16:06.672 we are told that our hopes are going to be fulfilled, 265 00:16:06.790 --> 00:16:10.830 but not necessarily fulfilled as we expected, 266 00:16:10.830 --> 00:16:15.648 by the light that dawns to our darkness. 267 00:16:15.648 --> 00:16:19.841 Our expectations are going to be met, 268 00:16:19.841 --> 00:16:24.841 but not met or managed by light 269 00:16:25.499 --> 00:16:28.824 that dawns among us. 270 00:16:28.824 --> 00:16:31.010 John does not tell his questioners 271 00:16:31.010 --> 00:16:33.920 that he doesn't know the light, 272 00:16:33.920 --> 00:16:38.920 rather John says, "You don't know the light." 273 00:16:39.010 --> 00:16:44.010 He tells simply, "You don't know." 274 00:16:44.790 --> 00:16:48.815 That's kind of a radical thing to say around here, 275 00:16:48.815 --> 00:16:51.501 because we know a lot. 276 00:16:51.501 --> 00:16:53.840 One Sunday, I was reprimanded for a student, 277 00:16:53.840 --> 00:16:58.003 I read this passage of scripture and I was, 278 00:16:58.003 --> 00:17:00.712 and I talked about it a bit, and I said, 279 00:17:00.712 --> 00:17:02.670 "Does it mean this, does it mean that?" 280 00:17:02.670 --> 00:17:05.519 And I just said, "I don't know." 281 00:17:05.519 --> 00:17:07.740 And he said, "But, you're a preacher! 282 00:17:07.740 --> 00:17:12.682 We pay you to know, you're expected to know!" 283 00:17:15.525 --> 00:17:18.042 Maybe here with John, right now, 284 00:17:18.042 --> 00:17:20.040 we're not supposed to define 285 00:17:20.040 --> 00:17:24.933 or characterize or categorize. 286 00:17:24.933 --> 00:17:26.294 Maybe we're just simply to do 287 00:17:26.294 --> 00:17:28.782 what human beings naturally do 288 00:17:28.782 --> 00:17:33.074 when light streams into darkness. 289 00:17:33.074 --> 00:17:38.074 We're just to open our squinting eyes to the light. 290 00:17:38.360 --> 00:17:41.250 Maybe we're just to sit here in this darkened room 291 00:17:41.250 --> 00:17:46.250 and allow our eyes to get adjusted to the light that dawns. 292 00:17:49.649 --> 00:17:54.282 It's enough to make you ask, "For what am I hoping 293 00:17:54.282 --> 00:17:56.405 for Christmas?" 294 00:17:56.405 --> 00:17:58.422 It's an important question because, 295 00:17:58.422 --> 00:18:00.970 like some of those people who questioned John, 296 00:18:00.970 --> 00:18:03.570 we may miss something so fragile 297 00:18:03.570 --> 00:18:07.930 and mysterious as Mr. Light 298 00:18:07.930 --> 00:18:10.712 if we're too full of our explanations, 299 00:18:10.712 --> 00:18:15.700 too full of our definitions and expectations. 300 00:18:15.700 --> 00:18:19.425 For what are you hoping? 301 00:18:19.425 --> 00:18:21.159 Well, if you're like many people around here, 302 00:18:21.159 --> 00:18:25.153 maybe you're not sure. 303 00:18:25.153 --> 00:18:29.680 What brought you to church on this third Sunday of Advent? 304 00:18:29.680 --> 00:18:30.730 Maybe you didn't even know it was 305 00:18:30.730 --> 00:18:34.511 the third Sunday of Advent. 306 00:18:34.511 --> 00:18:38.605 Maybe you were called here by some strange, 307 00:18:38.605 --> 00:18:42.769 indefinable tug at the heart 308 00:18:42.769 --> 00:18:47.769 that you find difficult to define or describe. 309 00:18:47.963 --> 00:18:52.420 And maybe John is saying, "That's okay." 310 00:18:52.420 --> 00:18:55.780 An open heart may be a lot better than one 311 00:18:55.780 --> 00:18:58.750 that is just so chock full of definitions 312 00:18:58.750 --> 00:19:03.223 and preconceptions and preconditions, 313 00:19:03.223 --> 00:19:08.150 that there's no room left for any light. 314 00:19:09.320 --> 00:19:13.887 Later in John's Gospel, Jesus would make a lot of 315 00:19:13.887 --> 00:19:16.020 "I Am" statements. 316 00:19:16.020 --> 00:19:19.030 He would say, "I am the light, 317 00:19:19.030 --> 00:19:21.340 I am the vine, you're the branches. 318 00:19:21.340 --> 00:19:26.170 I am the way, I am the truth, I am the... 319 00:19:26.170 --> 00:19:28.929 I am the bread." 320 00:19:28.929 --> 00:19:30.650 But right now, here at the beginning, 321 00:19:30.650 --> 00:19:35.070 before we meet Jesus, John simply introduces Him 322 00:19:35.070 --> 00:19:39.600 as light whom you do not know. 323 00:19:39.600 --> 00:19:42.410 John says, "I am not the light, I'm just a witness 324 00:19:42.410 --> 00:19:45.793 to the light, I am the voice of the light 325 00:19:45.793 --> 00:19:50.790 coming into the world whom you do not know." 326 00:19:52.090 --> 00:19:54.200 At times, you've heard me say that I'm bothered 327 00:19:54.200 --> 00:19:58.310 by some of this spiritual outburst 328 00:19:58.310 --> 00:20:02.690 that's going on among us in our culture. 329 00:20:02.690 --> 00:20:04.810 There seems to be a great resurgence of 330 00:20:04.810 --> 00:20:09.810 something vaguely called spirituality. 331 00:20:09.840 --> 00:20:11.920 And most of the time, a lot of this strikes me 332 00:20:11.920 --> 00:20:15.190 as rather thin stuff, a kind of free-floating 333 00:20:15.190 --> 00:20:20.190 vague openness to something, something called spiritual. 334 00:20:20.420 --> 00:20:23.090 Spirituality becomes this great basket 335 00:20:23.090 --> 00:20:25.500 that we just dump everything into 336 00:20:25.500 --> 00:20:30.417 and we call that "spiritual," just vague yearning. 337 00:20:31.725 --> 00:20:33.360 I was at a dinner a while back 338 00:20:33.360 --> 00:20:35.900 and our host, in lieu of a blessing, 339 00:20:35.900 --> 00:20:38.210 urged us all to have a moment of silence, 340 00:20:38.210 --> 00:20:40.310 and we all bowed our heads. 341 00:20:40.310 --> 00:20:41.640 And I'm sitting there at the table, 342 00:20:41.640 --> 00:20:45.004 and I'm thinking, because I know some of these people, 343 00:20:45.004 --> 00:20:47.540 "I wonder what Godless secular people do 344 00:20:47.540 --> 00:20:49.690 when they bow their heads for a moment of silence 345 00:20:49.690 --> 00:20:51.290 before a meal? 346 00:20:51.290 --> 00:20:52.123 What are they thinking? 347 00:20:52.123 --> 00:20:53.650 They don't believe in God, so there's nobody 348 00:20:53.650 --> 00:20:58.475 to be grateful to for the meal." 349 00:20:58.475 --> 00:21:01.430 "Oh Lord, if there is one, save my soul 350 00:21:01.430 --> 00:21:03.018 if I happen to have one." 351 00:21:03.018 --> 00:21:06.351 (Congregation laughing) 352 00:21:08.910 --> 00:21:11.248 But you know, this Sunday, this Sunday 353 00:21:11.248 --> 00:21:14.693 with John the Baptist, I'm thinking, 354 00:21:14.693 --> 00:21:17.210 amidst all of his denials and negations, 355 00:21:17.210 --> 00:21:21.930 I'm wondering if maybe that, 356 00:21:21.930 --> 00:21:26.930 a kind of silent waiting is not a bad place to begin. 357 00:21:27.490 --> 00:21:31.893 A kind of inarticulate yearning. 358 00:21:31.893 --> 00:21:34.830 Later, during the course of the church's year, 359 00:21:34.830 --> 00:21:38.350 we're going to have lots of occasions 360 00:21:38.350 --> 00:21:41.400 to find out a lot more about Jesus. 361 00:21:41.400 --> 00:21:43.010 There's going to be a lot of opportunity 362 00:21:43.010 --> 00:21:47.220 to give more substance to this shining light. 363 00:21:47.220 --> 00:21:50.780 I will stand up here and I'll tell you how to vote 364 00:21:50.780 --> 00:21:54.889 and how to spend your money and how to live your life, 365 00:21:54.889 --> 00:21:59.889 but this Sunday, with John, 366 00:22:00.120 --> 00:22:04.510 let's just simply lay aside our hopes and expectations, 367 00:22:04.510 --> 00:22:09.060 and let's just let the light dawn among us. 368 00:22:09.060 --> 00:22:14.035 Let's allow light to enter our inarticulate darkness. 369 00:22:15.247 --> 00:22:20.247 Let's simply admit we're in the dark. 370 00:22:20.360 --> 00:22:25.360 There is much that we just don't know. 371 00:22:26.070 --> 00:22:29.536 Meister Eckhart says, 372 00:22:29.536 --> 00:22:34.411 "God is the one who has no name. 373 00:22:34.411 --> 00:22:39.390 God is the Word that speaks itself before you speak." 374 00:22:41.520 --> 00:22:44.495 You know that one of Jesus' great problems 375 00:22:44.495 --> 00:22:46.980 by the time that his ministry got going, 376 00:22:46.980 --> 00:22:50.730 after this encounter between the authorities and John, 377 00:22:50.730 --> 00:22:53.400 one of Jesus' big problems was people who thought 378 00:22:53.400 --> 00:22:57.240 they knew exactly how Messiah was supposed to act, 379 00:22:57.240 --> 00:23:01.268 and exactly what a Messiah was supposed to say. 380 00:23:01.268 --> 00:23:03.450 People decided that what they needed was 381 00:23:03.450 --> 00:23:05.520 a good general to come in here and raise an army 382 00:23:05.520 --> 00:23:09.078 and run these Romans out. 383 00:23:09.078 --> 00:23:14.078 When Jesus didn't do that, He was rejected. 384 00:23:14.420 --> 00:23:16.280 They decided maybe that they needed somebody 385 00:23:16.280 --> 00:23:19.610 to come in and speak some cool, reassuring, soothing 386 00:23:19.610 --> 00:23:23.120 spiritual words, and when Jesus didn't do that 387 00:23:23.120 --> 00:23:27.950 they turned against Him with murderous intensity. 388 00:23:30.861 --> 00:23:33.602 A scientist was telling me that 389 00:23:33.602 --> 00:23:38.602 the most difficult thing, when you're a research scientist, 390 00:23:39.270 --> 00:23:44.270 is to go engage in an experiment and look for something, 391 00:23:45.050 --> 00:23:50.050 but at the same time to expect to be surprised 392 00:23:50.820 --> 00:23:54.441 by the data that you receive. 393 00:23:54.441 --> 00:23:58.243 Most bad research, he said, begins in thinking 394 00:23:58.243 --> 00:24:03.233 that you know what you know. 395 00:24:04.100 --> 00:24:08.303 Thus John says Jesus will be known 396 00:24:08.303 --> 00:24:13.155 by knowing what He is not before you know who He is. 397 00:24:14.889 --> 00:24:17.490 A faculty member just last week was explaining to me 398 00:24:17.490 --> 00:24:20.010 why, though he's a great, high-powered academic, 399 00:24:20.010 --> 00:24:24.238 he always loves to teach a freshman seminar, 400 00:24:24.238 --> 00:24:28.210 because he says, "Freshman know enough to know 401 00:24:28.210 --> 00:24:30.261 that they don't know. 402 00:24:30.261 --> 00:24:33.400 You take juniors, for instance, who know just enough 403 00:24:33.400 --> 00:24:37.598 to render them impervious to any new knowledge." 404 00:24:37.598 --> 00:24:40.706 (congregation laughing) 405 00:24:42.600 --> 00:24:46.173 It's okay if you've come here empty. 406 00:24:46.173 --> 00:24:50.361 It's okay if you're not too sure. 407 00:24:50.361 --> 00:24:53.290 We ought to be cultivating a receptivity 408 00:24:53.290 --> 00:24:58.290 for surprise, wonder, shock of God who is not the God 409 00:24:59.830 --> 00:25:02.840 we thought we knew, and not even the God 410 00:25:02.840 --> 00:25:05.148 we thought we wanted. 411 00:25:05.148 --> 00:25:09.220 Light comes into our darkness. 412 00:25:09.220 --> 00:25:13.300 Today I stand among you as witness to the light, 413 00:25:13.300 --> 00:25:15.550 the light coming into the world, 414 00:25:15.550 --> 00:25:19.430 the light that the darkness of the world has not, 415 00:25:19.430 --> 00:25:23.320 despite over 2,000 years, overcome, 416 00:25:23.320 --> 00:25:25.550 of the Father's love begotten 417 00:25:25.550 --> 00:25:29.966 ere before the world began, He was light. 418 00:25:29.966 --> 00:25:34.798 And the light is the light of all. 419 00:25:36.420 --> 00:25:37.253 Amen.