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| Who Are You? (John 1:22) |
| Written by Pastor Fausel | |
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In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Grace, mercy and peace …. When I was a child, my parents took me to what they thought was going to be great animated movie for me to see … the Disney version of “Alice in Wonderland.” It was a great children’s book … but the film …well … it was a bit scary for me as a small child. Perhaps you can remember your own experience of seeing that film for the first time. I can vividly remember the Cheshire Cat’s appearing and disappearing grin. But even more disturbing to me was the Hookah smoking Caterpillar … who sent out nasty smoke rings while insistently asking Alice the question: “Whooo ARE Yooooou.” Unfortunately, none of the ways Alice tried to answer that Question, were satisfactory. Not by explaining her heritage, not by trying to explain that she was there because she’d chased a white rabbit down a hole, and not even that she was a girl … none of those were satisfactory answers to the caterpillar. We could almost see Alice beginning to doubt who and what she was, as she kept trying in vain to explain her existence in this odd reality of wonderland. Perhaps sharing in her frustration was as scary as the spooky animation … that fear of losing touch with who you are. And that’s we want to touch on today in this “wonderland” we find ourselves in this time of year … this winter-wonderland often synonymously called the “Christmas Season.” Do we lose track of who we are in the midst of all the preparations? The mom. The Dad, The shopper, the Christmas Tree buyer, the keeper of the family traditions, the disciplinarian, the costume maker, the cookie chef, the meal maker, the chauffer, Santa’s helper?... Just a child in the sight of your own aged parents? Someone expected to be at this event at 5. At another sometime after 7, and a third before 9:30? And, oh yeah, there’s a basketball game somewhere in between two of those …some where …? And in the midst of all that, dealing with all those, “I want,” “I need,” “I’ve got to have’s …”? Being the peace-maker, the money-machine …the dutiful employee… and the one the telemarketer won’t leave alone until they talk to you! Perhaps in all that … we may feel a bit like Alice in Wonderland in the midst of this season of preparation … and maybe even at a loss for words to answer to that question, “Whoooo Are Youuuuu?” In our Gospel reading for today, we find John the Baptist beset with the same question, as a delegation from the Religious elite, the Pharisees, the priests and the scribes, come out to where John is baptizing and ask him that exact question: “Whoooo Are Youuu?” “I am not the Christ,” John freely confesses. So these emissaries of the Temple elite go about trying to eliminate who he’s not … If he’s not the Christ, the Messiah, then is he the prophet Elijah, in the flesh? …No. Is he a prophet that they were expecting as foretold by Moses? No … “Who are you then?” They insist. “Tell us, so that we can give an answer our superiors.” John answers using the words of Prophecy that spoke of him: “I am the voice of one crying out in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way of the Lord.’” John answers the question of who He is by pointing to his job. Now a minute ago, we made a list of a lot of jobs that might describe a 21st century member of our congregation stuck in Christmas Mode … everything from chauffer to cookie chef. But would those “jobs” give a satisfactory definition of who you are to someone who didn’t know you? We might want to reconsider what we’d say about ourselves. Now, it is quite common even today to define our “existence” by what we do… Often, if you attend one of those holiday functions this time of year where you find yourself sort of an outsider, your occupation is probably what’ll come up with first when you meet others and tell them about who you are … Who are you? Well, I work for GE, or Ford, or UPS. I work for Yum, for Papa John’s, the hospital. I’m a CFO. I’m retired military, I’m a homemaker; I go to school full time. Our “Occupation”, does speak a lot about us. But does it really define, who we are? Well, a bit, but not very well. And so, in those situations there’s another way people often speak about who they are … they talk about what they own. Who am I? Well, I’m the one driving that silver car over there. We live in Douglas Hills. Or we’re members at Plainview swim club. What we own or belong to does say some things about us, but do they really answer the question, “Who Are You?” Again, a bit, but not very well. So finally, as the discussion of who we are gets more intimate, it comes down to something really very basic: Whose are we? John the Baptizer intimated that relationship in His answer to the delegation sent to Him. In his reply, he quoted the words of Isaiah the prophet which told them that He was not only God’s man, He was indeed sent by God. “I am … the voice of one crying out in the wilderness …” John gave them his occupation and to whom he belonged. Both answers pointed clearly to God. And so, the question for us today is: Is your answer to the question “Who are You” …that clear of a witness of whose you are? An Advent devotional a few years ago asked us to look at what our Christmas decorations say about us. Do we major in Santa’s and minor in Jesus’, or vice versa? What witness do we send along with our Christmas Cards? Happy Holidays? OR do we point to the true Reason for the Season? The truth is, our lives do not always perfectly reflect, or point to, the fact that Jesus has come into them, and changed them in a permanent and profound way. Permanent and profound … that’s the quality of the change that God makes in us as He enters into our hearts by faith and declares us HIS. Now, today is not the time to add a measure of guilt to our hearts as we are trying our best to keep ahead of all those important occupations that seem to fall into our laps this time of year … In fact, just the opposite. When the world so often these days is almost hostile to those who profess Jesus, this season is the time when the world is also most open to our witness of who and Whose we are. In one small town the “Law of the Land” no longer permitted a manger scene outside their courthouse. So one enterprising Christian mounted a manger scene in the back of his pick-up truck, and for several weeks, he dutifully parked his truck right in front of the courthouse. So there! You see, this is the Joy Sunday of the 4 Sundays in the season of Advent. And witnessing to Whose we are … does give us joy. Joy! You see, it’s not the presents, not the music, not the decorations in themselves that are Joyful … It’s the joy in the hearts of those who give the presents, play the music, and put up the decorations … All that … is what makes Christmas time, even this time of preparation, unique and special and Joyful. Because in these joyful hearts, all their preparations point to Christ. Christ, the one who took away all of our sins … and set us free to be Who we Are. Who are we? HIS! What a message we have to proclaim! How do we do that? Well, the truth is, it’s God Himself who gives us both the will and ability to live lives which are clear witnesses to Him. We heard in our reading, “John came as a witness, to bear witness about the light, that all might believe through Him. He was not the light, he came to bear witness to the light…” We have been given that same privilege as John, and the same calling as Christians … to bear witness to the Light. The Light, the Christ, the babe of Bethlehem … the one who truly makes us … who we are. So, this is the time, now, especially, to live out our joy … as God has given us not only the joy of His Spirit, but also all the wonderful opportunities to share the Light, that Light of the World, as we go about our many different jobs, many different callings, during this season of preparation. And so, as you do in His Spirit … that Love and Joy of Our Lord be Yours Today and always … as Your life bears witness to that One who called us out of darkness into His marvelous light. So may it be for us all. In Him. Amen. |