3rd Sunday of
Advent, Cycle B,
John
1:6–8, 19–28
Rev. Gayle M. Pope
“Who ARE you?”
Who
ARE you?
That’s the question the Pharisees
had sent the priests and Levites to ask John the Baptist in today’s
gospel. “Who ARE you – really?”
John had a clear answer to their
question, but before we look at John’s answer, let’s think
a little more about the question: Who ARE
you?
How would YOU answer that question?
Where do you hang your hat? This is a
question of identity, and how you answer it can make a world of difference in
the way you live your life.
This question really hits home to me
right now. A little over two weeks ago, if someone had asked
me, “Who are you?” I would have said, “
But now I’m Gayle Pope. I have a new
driver’s license. I made new business
cards. I changed the answering machine and a lot of other stuff, and there’s a
lot more I still have to change.
Now this is all a wonderful thing –
this change of identity. All during our
honeymoon and at the Farm Bureau convention afterwards, I had a lot of fun with
it – this being “Mrs. Pope.” It was
different, but I was in a new place with new people and it all fit together.
But then we came “home” and I found
myself getting a bit disoriented. Here
was the old Pastor
It’s a little like being in a no man’s
land hovering somewhere between here and there – like maybe over downtown Powellton – and saying to myself, “Who AM I now?”
This experience I’ve shared with you
is significant to me, but it’s nothing unusual.
We ALL go through identity changes, and they can be hard! We have names for some of them – like
“empty-nest syndrome” or “mid-life crisis” or “retirement” or “adolescence.” You’ve heard of parents who encounter a
stranger in the house and say, “Who ARE you and what have you done with my
son?”
These are times when one of the pegs
we used to hang our hats on is ripped off the wall and the hat falls to the
floor. Like when a job is lost or, worse
yet, when a loved one is lost. That kind
of change is especially difficult at this time of year when old, time-honored
rituals are never the same.
So what does all this talk of
identity have to do with Advent and John the Baptist and Jesus?
Let’s turn back to the gospel now
and the question asked of John: “Who ARE you?”
First John answered by saying who he WASN’T – not the Messiah, not Elijah, not the
prophet. But then he told who he WAS, “I am the voice of one crying out in the
wilderness, ‘Make straight the way of the Lord,’ as the prophet Isaiah said.”
John’s identity was based on his
RELATIONSHIP with God and the mission to which God had
called him.
“Here’s who I am – I am THIS ONE who
the prophet talked about hundreds of years ago – this one named in the
Scriptures – this is me! But who I am is
not about ME, it’s all about this one who is coming AFTER me.” The Gospel tells us that John came as a
WITNESS to testify to the light so that all might believe in the light because
of what he said.
In other words, John
might have said, “I am John, a child of God, called and chosen for a mission to
turn people toward the light that is Jesus Christ, the Messiah, the one
promised by God to save us – the one who will baptize with the Holy Spirit.”
So, who are YOU? And who am I?
Can we find the answer to OUR identities in the Scriptures?
Did you notice that today’s gospel
reading skipped over some verses? That’s
because it was focused on John and his
witness. But the verses that were left out today hold the answer to the
question of OUR true identities. Listen
to verses 9-13 of the first chapter of John, right after it says that John the
Baptist himself was not the light, but he came to testify to the light.
“The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into
the world. He was in the world, and the world came into being through him; yet
the world did not know him. He came to what was his own, and his own people did
not accept him. But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave
power to become children of God, who were born, not of blood or of the will of
the flesh or of the will of man, but of God.”
There it is! There’s my true identity. I am one of those
who has believed in his name, and so I’m a child of
God, born of God and, like John, I’m called and chosen for a mission to turn
people to the light which I have received.
That’s it! It doesn’t MATTER what my
name is or where I live or who my earthly parents are. I am a child of God now
and forever and for always.
And so are you who have received him
and believe in his name.
And THAT is the source of our true identities
and our callings. And it is eternal and
unshakable and undiminished by ANY earthly circumstances in which we may find
ourselves from day to day.
This is why we can rejoice always
and give thanks in all circumstances, as Paul wrote to the Thessalonians in our
second reading today.
Sometimes we lose sight of our true
identities. Our attention is drawn away from the light of Christ, and we become
focused on earthly things. We hang our hats on who we
are in relation to family and friends and jobs and routines, and when those things
change, we feel disoriented or even lost.
This is when we need to hear, again,
the voice of one crying out in our own wilderness, “Turn around. Repent.
Remember the true identity you received in Jesus through the Baptism HE gives
in the Holy Spirit.”
Look to the light
of Christ for your identity – the light that illumines the darkness of this
world. And let HIS light shine IN you and THROUGH you so that others may also
believe. THAT is your calling.
And the God of peace who gives you
power to become children of God through faith in Christ, will make you whole
and holy in every way – mind, body
and spirit – until that day when our Lord Jesus Christ comes again. God, who
calls you, is faithful; he will do this.
Amen.