12122020 – John 1. 6-8, 19-28 Advent 3B
WOW! If ever there were a text for the year 2020 this would be it!
You know you flip on the news…and it really truly is the same old, same old.
Nothing good to speak of…although sometimes they DO find something positive to report…no matter how flimsy, it might be…
My son went to the dentist today and had no cavities…and everyone gets really excited.
The pack won last week…yay!
Snow MIGHT be coming and it gets a mixed reaction…people are divided about how to react to that one!
But usually, it is murders here, shootings there…protests continue…a nation divided…Covid…Covid…Covid and mounting death…tolls…
Now, I definitely DO NOT mean to take any of that news for granted or NOT take it SERIOUSLY…because it is the state of our world today…It IS, what IT IS.
But really? Come on, guys…
Over and over and over again with the daily bad news. Like an instant replay.
It is like the movie “Groundhog’s Day” every single day.
Little changes.
Everything is negative.
Your cup is half empty…if you still even own a cup…
Same stuff…different day…
So, here we are in the latter half of Advent and we are met with STILL MORE negativity…will it ever stop? Will it ever end?
Apparently, John, the Baptizer riled a few feathers…OK, maybe MORE than a few…
They did not send out the BIG GUNS…
But they sent out fact-checkers, just the same…
WHO ARE YOU?
WHAT THEN?
WHO ARE YOU? (A second time)
Are you ELIJAH?
Are you a prophet?
Give us an answer for those who sent us.
What do you say about yourself?
Why then are you baptizing if you are neither the Messiah, nor Elijah, nor a prophet?
Just what are you doing?
Who sent you?
How dare you?
WHO do you think you are?
If, you’ll remember they did the SAME EXACT THING to Jesus throughout ALL three years of his ministry.
But “that” was the Pharisees themselves, and the Chief Priests and Scribes and the Sadducees…laying in wait behind every bush or field of wheat…
Tell us plainly, they would say.
Don’t beat around the bush, spit it out.
A guy is just out there, doing his own thing…for the good of his people…and for his God… and he is questioned repeatedly…and RAKED OVER THE COALS…to be sure.
These are “the messengers” from the Pharisees…priests and Levites…fact-finding…fact-checking…asking questions, nosing around…
Wanting answers and wanting them now…WHO ARE YOU?
John was not shaken by them, and neither would Jesus be…
Obviously, they came to discredit him, to discredit his work…to publicly shame and to condemn. Nice! Negative…negative…negative…
And it was probably out of jealousy, not liking or appreciating the attention he was getting…and the crowds that he was drawing…
Same stuff…different day.
Same questions, we’ve heard them all before…
You gotta love John, he does get his two cents in…when he says…
“AMONG YOU STANDS ONE WHOM YOU DO NOT EVEN KNOW” nah, nah, nah, nah, nah…
But I will tell you this: I am not even worthy to untie the thong of his sandals, so there…
He’s coming.
He’s here already.
He is mighty.
He is powerful.
AND YOU … KNOW NOTHING ABOUT HIM! Surprise! Surprise!
You are nothing more than – a bunch of negative nellies…bad-mouthing, everything and everybody!!!
Thank God we are people of hope.
Thank God we are people of faith.
Thank God we are in, but not of, the world.
Thank God that we are otherworldly…
Thank God that we have a church home.
Thank God that we have a heavenly home.
Thank God that we know WHO we are and WHERE we are going…
Thank God for our private and personal belief system…and values…
Thank God for our shared Christian heritage.
Thank God that we are in a relationship with our God and he will never say to us, “WHO ARE YOU?”
My glass is half full most days…how about yours?