11 December 2011 Waiting for the Light John 1:6-8, 19-28

11 December 2011 Waiting for the Light John 1:6-8, 19-28

Along with age, we would hope, should come wisdom. While wisdom is often elusive, I have come to the understanding, sometimes the hard way, learning patience in the meantime can be helpful.
When younger, I liked cars. I had a 1955 Chevrolet that I wanted to ‘fix up.’ I was not patient about it. I wanted it fixed up immediately. It was a costly lesson.

My next ‘schooling’ was when we had children. Being patient with children is like trying to mix oil with water. When babies, they need immediate attention to keep them dry and fed and not crying. They will not wait. When two, they want what they want when they want it, which is, as you know, immediately. Being patient is a foreign notion in the world of young children.

Despite the immediate nature of life and family and work and play we can learn about patience. We can learn it may help keep us out of trouble. That too we may have to learn the hard way. We may also learn being patient is instructive. How often have we hurriedly packed for a trip then patiently waited for others to finish their packing, only to remember something we had forgotten. Having a time of patient waiting is a good thing.

Today is the third Sunday of the advent season. We have learned these past two Sundays about being prepared, holding vigil, waiting and watching for the coming of our Lord Jesus. He is to come at first for his birth and then again for his second coming. We may be surprised how taking a moment, waiting, and being patient may help in our preparation.
The thought of Jesus’ coming at Christmas brings joy and excitement with thoughts of family and celebration . And we cannot wait! The though of Jesus’ coming to judge us, on the other hand, can bring a fair amount of anxiety. For that we could wait many life times.

Preparation for Christmas offers honest delight. Memories from before. Hope for the time to come. Preparation for the second coming offers a wholly different preparation. It is about living our lives as faithful covenant people, following God’s commandments, loving one another, praying and being penitent. Sometimes patience and waiting seem to have no place in either.

When in High School, our son Kevin, was in the play “West Side Story”. It is a musical about a New York street gang, the Jets, and the return of one of their former members, Tony. At first Tony doesn’t want to return to that old life, but then his enthusiasm builds. In his excitement about being back with his old friends and the new adventures they will have, he sings a song called “Something’s Coming.”

This could easily be our theme song for advent. Something’s coming, a messiah, Jesus, who will be our savior and our judge. But, we have to wait. We have to wait until the 25th for Christmas and we have to wait for a second coming we have no date for. With built in excitement for one and anxiety for the other, I wonder how patient we will be.
Tony sings on, “There is something due any day, it may come cannon balling down through the sky, gleam in its eye, bright as a rose! Who knows?”

In the gospel reading this morning we learn who knows. 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. Bright as a rose! Who knows?
Like Tony, our excitement for this season is building, but unlike Tony, we are not being asked to return to an old life, we are being called to an alternative life, a new one, to a new place, a place of hope and expectation. “Something’s coming,”

Last Sunday, John was identified for us in Mark’s gospel as a baptizer. This Sunday, in John’s gospel, his role has changed. Here John is to be a witness to Jesus. Through John’s witness, the world will come to know the presence of God in Jesus. Through John’s witness, the world will come to know the presence of the light to the world. The light in the ancient world was a symbol for recognizing God and life everlasting. In the New Testament, the light is Christ, the light of the world who calls us out of darkness into his marvelous light.

The good news this Christmas season is this marvelous light has already entered into many of us. Here, in our heart and soul, we have received the light of Christ. Our entry point to this truth is our baptism.

Baptizing babies, all dressed in white, doesn’t appear to be so life changing on the surface. Without it, however, we are lost to a world of darkness. John warns us, “I am the voice of one crying out in the wilderness, make straight the way of the Lord.” Here is a clear and powerful critic of our lost world of darkness and sin. John’s voice is crying out to tell where he is and where we are also. It is from our wilderness of sin that we are to make straight the way of the Lord. Our baptism becomes our entry way to making our life straight, making an alternative lifestyle.

Our conversion to this new life will only be successful through the steady, patient, there is that word again, intentional, prayerful, and worship filled new life that we Christians testify will draw us closer to Jesus and indeed make us safe and joyous. That alternative life is one grounded by scripture and enacted through the tradition of the church. We have both at hand here with us this morning.

The preparation we face today is one of living and practicing this new life by remembering the baptismal light that is alive in our very soul, then living as if this truth makes a difference. Every step we take in our preparation for the coming of the babe is a step toward a life dedicated to our new life as an apostle, as a disciple, as one who loves Jesus more than life itself. Every step we take in our preparation, in our ministry, as beloved followers of Jesus Christ, is a step to improve our baptism by living with increasing singularity of purpose and commitment to honor our calling as children of God.

God’s Spirit will work where it will and accomplish its purposes. But often what stands in our way is our own impatience and our belief that the Spirit in us cannot be stirred and that we cannot be opened to new possibilities. When we cover over and deny our impatience, our faith grows hard and we find ourselves committed to the wilderness without the grace to rethink our position.

The Old Testament theologian, Walter Brueggemann, says, “The darkness in our life hides the source of the grace we need to live in the light.” Our darkness hides God’s grace, Jesus’ love and the power of the presence of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit that indwelled us at our baptism is not a wall, it is like the wind. It is not coercion, it is possibility. It is not a threat, it is our opportunity, our guiding light, to this new life of hope and expectation.

It is vital and necessary that we have this advent season. It is our time to prepare ourselves for a life with Christ because, when we are honest with ourselves, we are simply not prepared. Who among us can truthfully say, take me today Lord, I am ready. This is truth telling about the shape we are in. And that truth telling makes us free. Free to live a life of new possibility.

“Who knows?” Tony sings in the musical, “I got a feeling there’s a miracle due.” The Christian writer, Vicki Lumpkin, agrees, “The Light of the world stands in our midst. In taking a human body, Jesus has blessed our humanity and given tangible form to God’s reconciling love.” Isaiah 61:9 also agrees, “We are truly the people whom the Lord has blessed. We are blessed by God’s presence, by God’s intervention in our lives, by God’s grace and love given to a people who often fail to recognize it.”
John tells us that the One for whom we wait often stands unrecognized. He often appears in unexpected places and acts in surprising, unexpected ways. What then are the things that prevent us from recognizing this miracle? Living in our public life perhaps. Needing to slow down. Being patient enough to open our eyes to see the miracle before us.

The Epistle reading for today calls us to live in a state of intimacy and communion with God, to do that which is good and avoid what is evil. We may have more straightening out to do than we realize. But there is hope filled good news!

The wilderness in our lives is also a place of holy encounter – holy ground. The ‘wild place’ we inhabit on a daily basis is also the dwelling place of one who is extraordinary. We have not been abandoned. We don’t have to wait until some future date to experience the miracle of God’s grace.

Tony sings, “And something great is coming!” Indeed, something great is coming, something beyond our wildest expectation is coming. It is right around the corner. God has spoken a Word of love, made it real, and set it in our lives. It is an incarnate, an en-fleshed Word of justice, mercy, and restoration. His name is Jesus.

“Who knows!” Tony sings, “Maybe tonight . . . ” The message of John is “maybe today!” And this is a message worth waiting patiently for; this is a message worth our preparation. Someone great is coming, his name is Jesus.

In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit one God now and forever. Amen.

Additional resources:
“The Christian Century,” November 29, 2005, pg. 22.
“Preaching and Worshiping in Advent, Christmas, and Epiphany,” pg. 108.

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