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. This is the testimony given by John when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, “Who are you?” He confessed and did not deny it, but confessed, “I am not the Messiah.” And they asked him, “What then? Are you Elijah?” He said, “I am not.” “Are you the prophet?” He answered, “No.” Then they said to him, “Who are you? Let us have an answer for those who sent us. What do you say about yourself?” He said, “I am the voice of one crying out in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way of the Lord,’” as the prophet Isaiah said. Now they had been sent from the Pharisees. They asked him, “Why then are you baptizing if you are neither the Messiah, nor Elijah, nor the prophet?” John answered them, “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.” This took place in Bethany across the Jordan where John was baptizing.
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I am really wondering what the priests and the Levites thought when John the Baptist said “I am not the Messiah. I am the one who is saying “prepare the way of the Lord.” We don’t really get what their answer was. We do get to hear part of their answer, which was “who are you?” And he answers “I am the one preparing for the messiah.” My guess is they probably said a couple of more things that didn’t make it into this Gospel. The conversation didn’t end there. It probably went like this… “Well, if you aren’t the messiah, who is going to be? When is this messiah getting here? Who is this person you are telling us about, that you are preparing the way for? We want to know these things.
Or when John the Baptist told the people who had been sent by the Pharisees, “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.” And the Gospel doesn’t go any further on than that. Now, something is missing there. Surely. If I was one of the people sent by the Pharisees, a priest, or a Levite, I am wondering… who is this person who is so great, that John isn’t prepared to tie his shoes? There is so much more to this story, that it is missing.
If I were living during this time, and was a priest, or a Levite, or a Pharisee, I would be so mad at John. I would be furious. I wouldn’t drop the topic. Who is this guy? I want to know. There is a lot more to the story. When is this Lord coming here? We sure could use him here.
Now, we are not an Advent people. We are not. Liturgically, we don’t really celebrate Advent. We change the colors of the paraments, we only sing songs about the Lord coming, and unless there is communion, the Lord hasn’t come yet. But that is all.
We don’t celebrate Advent, because we are not an Advent people. See, Advent, literally meaning “arrival” in Latin, contains very strong notions of uncertainty. All waiting, no matter how rigorous, now matter how long or short… contains uncertainty. Things are not certain. They are not set in stone. Who is this person John, that you are preparing the way for? Who is the messiah, if you are not it? That’s uncertainty.
And no wonder we don’t celebrate Advent… who wants to celebrate uncertainty? We are a people, humans, we strive for certainty. We want the sure thing. We take safe bets. We don’t like risks. We are people who crave certainty.
In most of my life, I have rarely met anyone who loves uncertainty. I have learned in my marriage, one of the worst things I can do to Emily is say “I got a gift for you… but you can’t open it until tomorrow.” That doesn’t go well. I throw uncertainty all over the place if I did that… which I stopped doing about 7 years ago. Who is this messiah John, if you are not?
I have heard from many preachers that we can compare Advent to pregnancy. When a family or friend is pregnant, everyone is excited about the upcoming arrival of the new baby. But underneath all of the excitement, there is some fear. Especially on the part of the parents. Is the baby going to be okay? Medically, will they be safe? Will the mother be safe? That is why we have ultrasounds and doctor’s visits when a woman is pregnant. Expecting parents are especially worried about whether they will make good parents. Will they do everything right? Excitement and fear go hand in hand with each other. Expectant parents are a good example of the desire for certainty. They usually name their unborn fetus. We named ours Thor. There was a woman pregnant at the non-profit I worked at in Chicago, and I named her unborn baby Gossamer. Silliness aside, every so often I would ask, “how’s Gossamer doing?” And she would respond “Gossamer is doing well. I just went to the doctor and he is alright.” She would answer from the part of her, that human part that we all have, that craves certainty. We want things to be okay, and work out well. We aren’t an Advent people. John, if you aren’t the Messiah, who is?
We don’t like uncertainty. “John, if you aren’t the Messiah, who is? That is our sin, and assuredly, it is my sin too. In an uncertain world, we practice uncertainty, we don’t celebrate it. In a world where there is very little faith, we try to cling to our old faithless selves.
This past week, I was putting up the projector screen in preparation for the Sunday School Christmas program. The person I was doing with is a manager who deals a lot with safety and OSHA guidelines. And we put up the projector screen with a ladder on top of a table. We had a good conversation about it. We discovered that his mission which is safety is absolutely opposite of my mission, which happens to faith. Faith and safety, or certainty, are opposed to each other.
We want to celebrate the certainty that exists. We are a Christmas people, and an Easter people.
Now, if I were to be true to the season of Advent, If I was going to be theologically correct, I would stop the sermon right here. I wouldn’t go on any further. But there are two sides to every sermon. There is the law (the uncertainty side), and there is the Gospel – this is the certainty side of things.
Amidst all of this uncertainty of Advent, there is a lot of certainty. In the time of John the Baptist, there was certainty in his announcement. There was the certainty of the prophecy that he was quoting. Someone truly greater than he was coming. There was the certainty of the coming messiah, even though Jesus was not the kind of messiah they would have expected.
I on occasion like to share a story about certainty. When we become so certain, we become set in our ways and non-negotiable. Christopher Columbus went around to various monarchs attempting to get funding for his voyage to Asia. He was very firm that his ships could make the voyage, and he estimated that it was about 3000 miles to Asia – just the distance his ships could travel. The various monarchs that he sought funding from, their learned folks said, “ummm, no. It is a lot longer than that. It’s more like 10,000 miles. Your ships cannot make it.” Both were very certain, and would not budge. But both their certainty meant they couldn’t see the forest through the trees. Neither party could even imagine a possible 3rd option. That is, a large mass of land in between Europe and Asia.
In the examples I gave of uncertainty, of saying to my wife “I have a surprise for you…” though the waiting wasn’t fun for Emily when I used to say “I have a surprise for you…” the certainty was, I had a gift for her.’Make straight the way of the Lord
Or in comparing Advent to pregnancy, the certainty is still that there is a child. And in the unfortunate event something happens, and there isn’t, there is still a loving family that surrounds us. Amidst uncertainty, there is certainty. “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.”
Most of all, there is the certainty of the Lord. In the time of John the Baptist, there was certainty in his announcement. There was the certainty of the prophecy that he was quoting. There was the certainty of the coming messiah, even though Jesus was not the kind of messiah they would have expected. Someone truly greater than he was coming. John the Baptist was making straight the way of the Lord. The way of the Lord. This is the certainty that cancels out all of the uncertainty, all of the advent that is in our lives, not just in this part of the church year, not just in this season, not just in this part of the church year, but it wipes out all of the uncertainty in our waiting in all parts of the church year, and in all times and seasons.
In the name of the Father, and of the +Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen.
