ROME IMPROVEMENT 12/13/2020

MORE POWER! MORE GLORY!! MORE SPIRIT!!!

SURVEYING THE SITE—John 1:6-8, 19-28

This week we visit with John the Baptist again, this week reading from the Gospel of John. Last week in the Gospel of Mark, we saw the people coming from the whole Judean countryside and Jerusalem. Now we see a delegation sent to see what the big deal is. They listen to John’s witness, and then they try to get his bona fides. In more modern terms, the priests and the Levites demand, “Just who do you think you are, Buster?”

What John clearly responds is, “I am not the Messiah.”

The priests and the Levites push, “So then are you Elijah?”

John replies, “I am not.”

The interrogators push again, “Are you the prophet?”

John says “No!”

“Then who are you?”

John replies with the words of Isaiah, “I am The Voice crying in the wilderness. ‘Prepare the way of the Lord. Make his paths straight.’”

Like a dog that is not finished worrying a bone, the people sent to ascertain who John is push further, “If you are not the Messiah, Elijah, or the prophet, then why are you baptizing?” 

John responds, “I baptize with water, but among you stands one whom you do not know. This is the one who is coming after me. I am not worthy to remove his sandal.”

We are told that the baptisms took place in Bethany on the far side of the Jordan River.

READING THE BLUEPRINT

Apparently, John is too popular. His popularity has gotten so great that people from the temple are concerned about whether John might actually be the Messiah. Is John the one who has been sent to save Judah from the Roman occupation? It is necessary to send out a temple delegation to discover whether or not he is the Messiah.

These questions in the Gospel of John will be echoed in the Gospel of Mark when we will hear Jesus ask his disciples, “Who do the people say that I am?” and “Who do you say that I am?”

This confusion surrounding John needs to be set straight, so John speaks with certainty that he is not the Messiah, Elijah, or Moses. John is The Voice proclaiming that Jesus is not only near, but, unbeknownst to us, he is among us. When John claims his part in the gospel story, he says at the outset he is not even worthy to be the one who offers the act of hospitality, that is, remove Jesus’ sandal in order to wash his feet. Later in John’s Gospel we will see Jesus being host to his disciples when he washes their feet, but here we hear that John cannot be the host for Jesus.

ROUGHING IN THE HOUSE

In the world of faith, it is important to be able to know who we are and whose we are. Knowing they are distinct, who and whose we are, makes a great difference in how we live our lives and how we relate to the people around us.

We need to remember that we can point to Christ, but we cannot be Christ. That job has already been fulfilled, and Jesus did it once for all. Like John, we are able to point to the one who is Christ, and we can be the confident voice proclaiming what Christ has done and is doing in our midst today.

PUTTING UP THE WALLS

Baptized into the relationship of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, that relationship which frees us to interact with and care for our neighbor, also frees us to point, not to ourselves, but to Christ, who models faithful living for us. This faithful living empowers us to reach out to the hurting and ignored, in the authority of Christ, to lift them up, to raise them, to open the door to resurrection life. This fundamental understanding of who we are within our salvation story continues to bring humility and perspective to the work we do

HANGING TRIM

During my catechism days, I learned something about my identity and the identity of others that has stayed with me through the years—"I am a unique person, born and living, created in the image of God.” When times get desperate, I fall back on these words to remind me of my place in the world. I am not God, but I am created in God’s image. If that is true for me, then it is also true for all I meet. It is not the recognition of who they are as-much-as the whose they are that makes the difference.

When we understand that our lives and identity come from and belong to God, we are freed to relate to one another without deference. We can then freely point to and speak of the one whose work saves us, the one whose coming is certain and whose day draws near.