First Reading Isaiah 61:1-4, 8-11
1“The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the poor; he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound; 2to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn; 3to grant to those who mourn in Zion — to give them a beautiful headdress instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, the garment of praise instead of a faint spirit; that they may be called oaks of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he may be glorified. 4They shall build up the ancient ruins; they shall raise up the former devastations; they shall repair the ruined cities, the devastations of many generations.
8“For I the Lord love justice; I hate robbery and wrong; I will faithfully give them their recompense, and I will make an everlasting covenant with them. 9Their offspring shall be known among the nations, and their descendants in the midst of the peoples; all who see them shall acknowledge them, that they are an offspring the Lord has blessed. 10I will greatly rejoice in the Lord; my soul shall exult in my God, for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation; he has covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decks himself like a priest with a beautiful headdress, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels. 11For as the earth brings forth its sprouts, and as a garden causes what is sown in it to sprout up, so the Lord God will cause righteousness and praise to sprout up before all the nations.”
Psalm Psalm 126
1When the Lord restored the fortunes of Zion, then were we like those who dream. 2Then was our mouth filled with laughter, and our tongue with shouts of joy. 3Then they said among the nations, “The Lord has done great things for them.” 4The Lord has done great things for us, and we are glad indeed. 5Restore our fortunes, O Lord, like the watercourses of the Negev. 6Those who sowed with tears will reap with songs of joy. 7Those who go out weeping, carrying the seed, will come again with joy, shouldering their sheaves.
Second Reading 1 Thessalonians 5:16-24
16Rejoice always, 17pray without ceasing, 18give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. 19Do not quench the Spirit. 20Do not despise prophecies, 21but test everything; hold fast what is good. 22Abstain from every form of evil. 23Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. 24He who calls you is faithful; he will surely do it.
Gospel John 1:6-8, 19-28
6There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. 7He came as a witness, to bear witness about the light, that all might believe through him. 8He was not the light, but came to bear witness about the light.
19And this is the testimony of John, when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, “Who are you?” 20He confessed, and did not deny, but confessed, “I am not the Christ.” 21And they asked him, “What then? Are you Elijah?” He said, “I am not.” “Are you the Prophet?” And he answered, “No.” 22So they said to him, “Who are you? We need to give an answer to those who sent us. What do you say about yourself?” 23He said, “I am the voice of one crying out in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way of the Lord,’ as the prophet Isaiah said.” 24(Now they had been sent from the Pharisees.) 25They asked him, “Then why are you baptizing, if you are neither the Christ, nor Elijah, nor the Prophet?” 26John answered them, “I baptize with water, but among you stands one you do not know, 27even he who comes after me, the strap of whose sandal I am not worthy to untie.” 28These things took place in Bethany across the Jordan, where John was baptizing.
Jesus’ Advance Man
If you were to ask the average person about what’s required to deploy people and equipment to a forward operating location, most would simply say, you fly the jets and people to the new site and start working from that location. The vast of people majority are completely unaware of the amount of work that goes into preparing the way for a large-scale operation to take place successfully. The same is true whether you’re planning a large gathering like a national conference, preparing for a visit by the President of the United States or forward deploying a combat unit. This is a lesson I learned about mid-way through my military career.
As I progressed in rank in the Air Force, one of the tasks that I was asked to perform was to be part of the Advanced deployment team or the ADVON team. The duties of this team was to go in ahead of the main organization and make sure that there was adequate facilities and prepare the site for the arrival of the main deployment package. Oftentimes, this meant I had to fly out two to three weeks ahead of time.
Once in place, I would survey buildings, look for the required electrical capabilities, environmental systems, safety equipment, health and hygiene concerns and housing to determine what was needed to prepare for the aircraft and personnel to arrive. Part of this team’s responsibility was to also ensure that certain equipment was in place and operational, and ready for immediate use as soon as the first airplane landed. It was a lot of work with a lot of moving parts and in many cases, having to make hard decisions based on severity of need and criticality of the particular function.
At times this also meant that I would need to work with the local people, both military and civilian, to establish contracts and purchase needed supplies to make sure that when the aircraft and people arrived, there would be a seamless transition from home base to the deployed location. In most cases, we were required to be fully operational and ready to fly combat or support missions within 24 hours. Needless to say, an advance team, or in the case of our gospel lesson this morning, an advance man is critically important to preparing the way.
Jesus had an advance man—someone who was in charge of preparing the way for His coming. That advance man was, of course, John the Baptist. God, through His prophet Isaiah, foretold of this advance person centuries before. As we read last week, the prophet Isaiah foretold, “A voice of one calling, in the wilderness prepare the way for the Lord; make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be raised up, every mountain and hill made low; the rough ground shall become level, the rugged places a plain. And the glory of the Lord will be revealed, and all people will see it together. For the mouth of the Lord has spoken.”
The appearance of John the Baptist in the wilderness was one of the most important events in the life of Israel for many centuries. It had been that long since a prophet of God had lifted his voice to proclaim the word of the Lord. As Americans, you or I probably wouldn’t have been drawn to the preaching of John the Baptist. Today, we’d probably refer to him as a kook, a hippy, a fanatic or one of number of names we assign to people who don’t fit into our perceived set of ideals.
John the Baptist, as the Holy Scriptures tell us, appeared in the wilderness clothed in camel’s hair and subsisted on a diet of locusts and wild honey and lived out in the wilderness. To say the least, even in those times, his appearance was eccentric. Furthermore, his preaching was morbid; fire and brimstone we’d call it. It was all about sin and repentance—calling people snakes and warning them of the wrath that was to come. For the modern, cultured, politically correct ear, we like our sins treated more gently. Truth be told, we would rather that our sinful ways not be mentioned at all. Obviously, John didn’t care; he had a job to do and he didn’t hesitate in doing it.
By reading the message of the angel Gabriel, we learned that from his birth, John would be filled with the Holy Spirit and was to be set aside as a Nazirite (Luke 1:15). A Nazirite was a person who was devoted to God and therefore lived away from society. A Nazirite didn’t trim their beard or cut their hair and lived in an unusual way. The easiest way for us to relate to this, is to think of a monastic lifestyle, possibly even a hermit. However, there are two things may surprise us about John the Baptist. One is how popular John was. The other is his role in the drama of the first Christmas.
As to his popularity, Mark tells us that “the whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem went out to him. Confessing their sins, they were baptized by him in the Jordan River,” (Mark 1:5). That is an amazing response to this wilderness preacher. Can you imagine every single person in a large metropolitan area and in all the surrounding countryside repenting of their sins and being baptized in a river? Over the years there have been many outstanding preachers, but none have been as effective as John the Baptist.
In Belfast, Ireland in the 1920s, there was a very well-known, but somewhat strange preacher named William Nicholson whose ministry bore a resemblance to John’s ministry. Nicholson did things most preachers would never do. For example, he would call out people from the pulpit on their peculiarities and manner of dress. In other words, “he told it like it was.” The good news is, the people seemed to love hearing him preach. They seemed to love being roasted from the pulpit. Nicknamed “the Tornado of the Pulpit,” Nicholson aimed his ministry at men, particularly men who worked in the shipyards. It’s said that his straightforward language communicated to the common man.
Nicholson would go to the massive shipyard in Belfast at lunchtime. He would conduct Bible studies and preach to the men during their lunch breaks. Thousands of people claim to have been converted under his ministry. And such was the sense of repentance that came upon those shipyard workers from his preaching, that things that they had “borrowed” from the company and taken home–equipment, inventory, etc. were returned. In the Belfast shipyard a shed, named “the Nicholson shed” was erected to house stolen tools that newly converted workers were returning as a result of his preaching. In fact, they had to rent a building in the town in order to store all this stuff. People were under conviction of sin. That’s the kind of preacher that John the Baptist was. But there was one fact that set John the Baptist apart from all other preachers.
Among those who came to John to be baptized was a young carpenter, in fact a cousin of John the Baptist, named Jesus of Nazareth. But we’re getting ahead of our story. Today, we want to highlight John’s role in the first Christmas. St. Luke begins his version of the Christmas story not with Mary and Joseph but with a couple named Zacharias and Elizabeth. Zacharias was a priest. He and Elizabeth were deeply devoted Jews who did their best to keep all of God’s commandments. Late in life they were childless, much to their sorrow.
One day, while Zacharias was going about his priestly duties in the temple, he was startled by the appearance of an angel. It was our old friend Gabriel. “Do not be afraid, Zacharias,” said Gabriel. “Your prayers have been heard. Elizabeth your wife will bear you a son, and you are to call him John . . .” To say that Zacharias was surprised and speechless would be an understatement. “How can I know that this is true?” he asked. “I am an old man myself and my wife is getting on in years . . .” “I am Gabriel,” the angel answered. “I stand in the presence of God, and I have been sent to you and to tell you this good news.” As a sign to Zacharias that this message was true, he was literally “struck speechless,” which is how you or I would probably have felt under similar those circumstances.
When the promised infant was born there was much joy in the home of Zacharias and Elizabeth. On the eighth day they presented him for circumcision. It was the custom to give the child its name at this rite of circumcision. Family and friends gathered that day thought that the infant boy would be named Zacharias after his father. But Elizabeth spoke up and said, “Oh, no! His name is John.” An argument ensued, and they made signs to the poor mute Zacharias to see what name he wanted the child to have.
Zacharias asked for a writing tablet and wrote the words: “His name is John.” At that moment Zacharias’ speech was restored and his first words were to thank God. The neighbors were awe-struck, and news of these events spread throughout Judea. People asked, “What is this child’s future going to be?” For, as Luke says, “The Lord’s blessing was plainly upon him.”
It was six months after Gabriel had given the joyous news to Zacharias that Gabriel also appeared to a young woman in Nazareth named Mary. Gabriel’s message to Mary was that she too would bear a son, but not just any son. He would be the Son of the most high God and His name would be Jesus. And as we learn from scripture, Mary was a cousin of Elizabeth. They must have been very close; Mary spent three months of her pregnancy living with Zacharias and Elizabeth. Indeed, Elizabeth was the first person in the Scriptures to declare that Jesus is Lord.
From a Biblical perspective, we know very little about Jesus’ childhood. However, we can speculate that young John and his six-month younger cousin Jesus spent a great deal of time together. Perhaps they played together and fished together and did all the things young men like to do. This could help to explain the kind of man John the Baptist became. Cousins can certainly have that kind of influence on each other. Additionally, this could also explain John the Baptist’s reaction when he saw Jesus come out with the others to be baptized.
Matthew tells us that John was reluctant to baptize his younger cousin. “I need you to baptize me,” John protested. This says something special to me about Jesus’ character as a youth and young adult. The Jewish historian Flavius Josephus affirms that John the Baptist’s ministry was a stunning success. Untold numbers of people from all over the area came to be baptized by him in the river Jordan. Many of those who were baptized became his disciples. They studied with John and sought to follow him as others later were to follow Jesus.
Indeed, two of Jesus’ most prominent disciples, Andrew and John, were originally followers of John the Baptist. Recall if you will that one of the most gifted and influential preachers mentioned in the book of Acts was a man named Apollos, who, according to Acts 18:25 was originally baptized as a disciple of John. But even with all John the Baptist’s popularity and success as a wilderness preacher, John could still be seen as a very humble man. “I baptize with water,” John replied, “but among you stands one you do not know. He is the one who comes after me, the straps of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie.” This says a lot about Jesus, if John believed he was unfit to untie His sandals. But it also says much about John. He was a man of great humility.
New Testament scholar Don Juel once pointed out that, in this chapter, John the Baptist becomes the man who is not. When the priests and Levites ask him who he is, he replies that “he is not the Light. He is not the Christ. He is not Elijah. He is not the final Prophet.” Then he adds, “He is not worthy to untie the true One’s sandals. He is not the one to baptize with the Holy Spirit. “John the Baptist had a kind of reverse résumé,” says Juel.
“Typically, on a résumé, you list all the things that you are, all the things you’ve done and accomplished. But John had a résumé that was like a photographic negative: before he could say who he was and what he had come to do, he had to go on and on to say who he was not, and what his work would not be about!” In spite of his all his popularity and success, John sought to deflect attention from himself and on to Jesus. That kind of humility is a rare commodity, even today. It was not his intent to draw attention to himself. His greatest desire was to glorify Jesus.
The great composer and conductor Leonard Bernstein once said that the hardest instrument to play is second fiddle. John willingly took on the part of second fiddle. John was a humble man. He was also a man of enormous courage. The ending to John’s life was tragic, as you know. He offended the royal family of his day by confronting them with their sins and, for his efforts, he was beheaded. John the Baptist was a preacher of righteousness and he would not betray his convictions. The world has always been made better by men and women of such character.
Some of you will remember a young Wall Street Journal reporter named Daniel Pearl. A man of Jewish faith, Pearl was working at the time as the South Asia Bureau Chief of the Wall Street Journal. He was based in Mumbai, India. He and his wife, Mariane, had not been married long. She was expecting their first baby. Then, in 2002, a great tragedy occurred in their lives.
Pearl was kidnapped when he went to Pakistan as part of an investigation into the alleged links between British citizen Richard Reid (known as the “shoe bomber”) and Al-Qaeda. You may remember what happened to him. He was decapitated, like John the Baptist. His captors filmed the execution, and they released it on video, circulating it online for all the world to see. Daniel Pearl paid the ultimate price for his commitment to his country. John the Baptist paid the ultimate price for his commitment to God.
John was a man of boldness, humility and courage. Just as impressive, however, was his determination to bear witness to the Light. John bore witness to the Light in his preaching. He bore witness to God in his life. On the banks of the Jordan, he proclaimed that the Kingdom of God was at hand. When he saw Jesus he declared, “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29). He was the ultimate “ADVON man.” He prepared the way for the coming Messiah with boldness, humility, and clarity. But what does all this mean for us today?
In this season of Advent, as we look toward the Christmas season, as we recall the story about the shepherds, and the wise men, and the star, and Mary and Joseph, and all the rest of the important figures and events of that first Christmas, it would be good for us to give some thought to another small child born six months before Jesus to a deeply devout couple named Zacharias and Elizabeth. Their son was not the Messiah. But his job was very important, John was sent to prepare the way for the coming Messiah.
There was no star shining over the house where he lay, just a mute old man beaming down at him with pride and great joy. It was the joy of one who had lived to see the promises of God fulfilled. It was plain at John’s birth, according to Luke, that the Lord’s blessing was upon him, and it was. He grew into a man of humility and courage who boldly proclaimed the coming of the Lord. Jesus Himself composed John’s epitaph when He said, “No greater man has ever been born than John” (Mt. 11:11).
That was John the Baptist—boldness, humility, courage. And he had a commitment to bear witness to the Light of God. John’s call and our call is the same, as followers of Jesus, we too have been called to, with boldness, courage, and humility, to prepare the way for the return of the long-awaited Messiah. It’s a message the world desperately needs to hear.
Amen
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