Sung Eucharist, Christchurch Priory, 13 December 2020. Live streamed.
Isaiah 61.1-4,8-11
1 Thessalonians 5.16-24
John 1.6-8,19-28
‘There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. He came as a witness to bear witness to the light, so that all might believe through him.’
In our reading this morning John the Baptiser is depicted first and foremost as a witness. His job is simple: to bear witness to ‘the light which enlightens everyone, the true light that was coming into the world.’ In other words, God calls John to bear witness to Jesus.
And that, my brothers and sisters, is our calling, too.
Just as John bore witness to Jesus, we are called to bear witness to Jesus. Not only that he came, not only that he comes today—into our hearts, transforming our lives and thereby the lives of those around us and the world beyond—but also that He will come again. That he will return. And when he does, what has happened to Jesus in his resurrection will happen to all at the end of the age. In this period of time that lies between the two advents of Jesus, you and I are the people God has called to be the witnesses to Jesus today.
How do you feel about that? Are you comfortable with the notion of being a witness to Jesus? Especially after the last nine months of the pandemic that have been so gruelling. For my part, I know that I’m meant to say, yes, let’s go for it! But in truth, I’m a little bit hesitant about it. My reaction is more like, well, that’s a jolly interesting idea, let me think about it and I’ll drop you an email some time…
If that sounds in any way familiar, here are two things that are useful to remember. Firstly, that like it or not, we’re always going be witnesses. We’re always going to be bearing witness to something or someone. How we live our lives will always be revealing to those around us what we really hold to be true and important. How we spend our money. What we do with our time. What we post online. So it’s not a choice of whether or not we’re prepared to be a witness, we already are.
Most of the time, of course, we’re not asked to put it into words why we live the way we do. But when it does come for us to actually say something specific about why we live the way we do, how credible our witness will be will depend on how we’ve been living. The degree to which our friends and family, our neighbours and our work colleagues, know us to be trustworthy in general is the degree to which they’ll give us a fair hearing when we come to speak about Jesus.
The second thing that that’s helpful to remember when it comes to bearing witness is that it’s not about us. We’re not the centre of the story we’ve been given to tell. No, instead it’s all about Jesus. He’s stands at the centre of it all. John the Baptiser knew he wasn’t the light. We’re not the light either. Not individually. Not corporately as the church. No, only Jesus is the light. And this is in fact the most terrific news because it means it doesn’t all hinge on you and me. It hinges on Jesus. All we have to do, however imperfectly, is to bear witness to the light, and point people in the direction of Jesus, the true light, who enlightens everyone.
The more this sinks in, the more we can relax when it comes to this bearing witness business. We can trust that God has called us right where we are, each of us occupying a unique space in this world, amidst the complex, interweaving networks that we inhabit— friends, family, neighbours, work colleagues and so on. God has called us just where we are to bear witness to Jesus just where we are. And knowing that it doesn’t depend on us, we can relax and when the occasion arises and someone asks us a question as to why we forgave a family member for what they’d done in the past, or why we stood up for someone at school who was being bullied, we can explain, in however stumbling or embarrassed a manner, Well, there’s this fella, Jesus, and then take it from there. And if, when we do, our message about Jesus and all that he has done, is doing and will do, is to any degree consistent with how we’ve been living all these years with our friends and family, our neighbours and work colleagues, then our witness will be deemed to be trustworthy and worth a respectful listen. And then once you’re done that, it’s over to God the Holy Spirit as to what happens next. You’ve done your bit.
But if hearing that, still, like me, you know that deep down, it’s not embarrassed awkwardness or English reserve that’s holding us back but in fact, at root there’s something in us that kicks against being a witness to Jesus, well, then that’s worth pondering. Because there is something in us that resists Jesus. And it’s in all of us. Ask anyone who you think of as being particularly holy and she or he will, I guarantee you, laugh and tell you that you simply have no idea what goes on in their head. You see, there’s always part of us that simply doesn’t want God to be God. Instead that part of us that rejects Jesus wants to be God itself. This is because we’ve fallen for the big lie that if we turn away from God, then we’ll be free. That if we ignore God we’ll be able get on and do what we like and live our lives to the max. Whereas the truth is the total opposite. If we turn to God, we find that in his love is perfect freedom to become the human being that God lovingly calls us to be. The wonderful thing is that the more we bear witness to Jesus with our lives—and on occasion directly by what we say about him—the more we become like Jesus and thereby the more we become fully ourselves.
But for that to happen, we need to trust God. It all comes back to trust in the end. This is one of the reasons why John the Baptiser called everybody out to the Jordan. It’s the river that the people of God had to cross when they first entered the promised land after God had freed them from slavery in Egypt, and then again when God had freed them from captivity in Babylon. John was reminding everybody that in these events of the past God has shown himself to be trustworthy and so we can trust God now.
As witnesses this side of Jesus’ resurrection waiting for his return, we get to bear witness to Jesus, saying that he’s going to return and when he does, what will happen then will also be in character with everything that has gone before, the exodus, the return from exile, Jesus’ coming to dwell amongst us, his victory over death, his resurrection from the dead, the sending of the Spirit—all of it shows that God is trustworthy and that nothing, not even death, will separate us from his love.
We’re always going to be witnesses to something or someone, whether we like it or not. But there’s a freedom in being a witness to Jesus because he’s the Light and we’re not. It doesn’t hinge on us. It hinges on Jesus. And if, like me, there are still parts of you that resist this, then come and stand in the crowd down by the river Jordan with John the Baptiser. Think of those parts of our lives where we don’t want to acknowledge that Jesus, the true Light, is standing amongst us. Then, with those parts of our lives in mind, hear the message of John, who bears witness to this Light, and turn away from the darkness and its false comforts and turn to Jesus, the true Light of the world.
Who’s on His way.