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+ + + In Nomine Jesu + + +
Please join me in prayer: May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
You may know that, as today is for us the Third Sunday in Advent, for others today is the third day of Hanukkah. I spoke a little about Hanukkah this past Thursday morning (before Hanukkah began that evening) when I led a devotion at the Kilgore Police Department, focusing on what Jesus said one time when He was in Jerusalem at the time of that Feast of Dedication (John 10:22-42). There may be an intentional connection between the evangelist St. John’s Divinely‑inspired account of that occasion and part of today’s Gospel Reading (Weinrich, ad loc John 1:28, p.207), but Hanukkah, sometimes called “the Festival of Lights” and today’s Gospel Reading’s telling of John the Baptizer’s witness about the Light certainly share an emphasis on light. This morning as we consider today’s Gospel Reading for the Third Sunday in Advent, we put our thoughts under the theme, “Witnessing about the Light”.
The first part of today’s Gospel Reading, an excerpt from what is called “the Prologue” of the Gospel account, repeatedly and emphatically makes clear that John the Baptizer was sent from God as a witness about the Light so that all people might believe the Light through John the Baptizer. The second part of today’s Gospel Reading, which immediately follows the Prologue, provides the testimony (or, perhaps better, the “witness”) of John the Baptizer, when the Jews of Jerusalem sent to him priests and Levites to question him about himself, and he confessed and did not deny that he was not the Christ, the Light, implying that Another standing among them was the Christ—He Whom we know as Jesus, but Whom they did not know, although He had been revealed both to John and by John to all Israel when He was baptized by John (John 1:31‑34).
We may objectively know that Jesus is the Light about Whom John witnessed, but do we always let that objective knowledge subjectively affect us? In other words, does our knowing that Jesus is the Light determine what we think and feel about everything else? Or, do we let this time of year’s shortening days and the at times greyer and colder weather depress us? Because of the country’s political, economic, and coronavirus situations, or for some other reason, do we see only darkness and lose sight of, if not also lose possession of, all hope? We may sin in those ways, and, even if not, we certainly sin in other ways, for we are sinful by nature. Our sinful nature leads us to commit all kinds of actual sins, sometimes unspeakable sins. On account of our sinful nature and all of our actual sin, we deserve nothing but death here in time and torment in hell for eternity.
But, through people like John the Baptizer, though not so obviously in St. John’s Gospel account (Weinrich, ad loc John 1:7, p.98), God calls and so enables us to repent: to turn in sorrow from our sin, to trust God to forgive our sin, and to want to stop sinning. So, we repent of not always letting the objective knowledge that Jesus is the Light subjectively affect us, determining what we think and feel about everything else. We repent of any unnecessary depression and of our losing sight of, if not also losing possession of, all hope. We repent of our sinful natures and of all our actual sins. When we so repent, then God forgives us. God forgives us all our sin, whatever our sin might be. God forgives us for the sake of His Son, Jesus Christ, the Light of the World.
We do not celebrate a supposedly miraculous supply of oil or use eight-branched candelabra as in Hanukkah, but, in Advent and always, we celebrate the true Light, Who gives light to everyone, Who came into the world (John 1:9). The Second Person of the Blessed Trinity took on human flesh in Jesus, Himself confessing and not denying that He was the light of the world (John 8:12; 9:5). At Jesus’s Baptism, He and the other Persons of the Trinity were especially revealed. God the Father spoke from heaven, identifying Jesus as His Son, and the Holy Spirit descended from heaven like a dove and remained on Him. In all, Jesus lived the perfect life that we fail to live, and He died the death that we deserve for failing to live that perfect life. On the cross Jesus died for us, in our place. Our light is the life-giving power that is in Him (John 1:4). As we sang in today’s Introit (Psalm 85:8-9, 12-13; antiphon: Psalm 85:7), His salvation is near to those who fear (or, “believe in”) Him. When we repent, then we receive the benefits of His cross, and we receive those benefits of His cross through His Means of Grace.
The priests and Levites sent to John, from or of the Pharisees, in a sense were so fixated on John the Baptizer and his baptizing that they missed the person of Jesus, but we do not want wrongly to fixate on the person of Jesus so much that we miss how Jesus gives us the benefits of His cross. To be sure, John’s baptizing Jesus was an important part of God’s revealing Jesus through John, but John’s baptizing did not end then: God through John baptized others both before and after John baptized Jesus (John 3:23; compare Weinrich, ad loc John 1:19-28, p.216). Now, God baptizes us through our pastors in order to work forgiveness of sins, rescue us from death and the devil, and give eternal salvation to all who believe the words and promises of God. At the font we are clothed with what today’s Old Testament Reading referred to as a robe of righteousness (Isaiah 61:1-4, 8-11). Jesus’s baptism had a real time and place, which place today’s Gospel Reading alone identifies (Weinrich, ad loc John 1:28, pp.206-207), and our baptisms have real times and places, too, of which displayed baptismal certificates may remind us. In connection with our baptisms we confess and do not deny Jesus, but baptism is still primarily about what God is doing to and for us. Similarly, we may privately confess our sins to our pastors, but we do so for the sake of individual absolution, forgiveness from the pastor as from God Himself. And, in the Sacrament of the Altar, we with the Church confess the truth of the Gospel and all of its articles, as we receive bread that is the Body of Christ given for us and wine that is the Blood of Christ shed for us. Especially in this way Christ is among us in our midst (confer Matthew 1:23; 18:20; 28:20); we do not just recognize that He is here, but we actually receive Him here, and so we also receive the forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation. John the Baptizer may not have considered himself even a slave worthy to untie the strap of Jesus’s sandal, but we are worthy to partake of Jesus’s Body and Blood by faith in His words that they are given and shed for us for the forgiveness of our sins.
So strengthened and preserved in body and soul, we endure whatever God in His wisdom permits us to face. Shorter days and greyer and colder weather are in some ways easier to endure than the challenges from the political, economic, and coronavirus situations, but those things, like all things, in time will come to an end, if not before, then certainly when our Lord comes the final time. There is always hope. There is light at the end of the tunnel. Our knowing that Jesus is the Light determines what we think and feel about everything else: our knowing that Jesus is the Light keeps everything else in perspective. We let His being the Light affect us, and we tell others about His being the Light; we are always prepared to give the reason for the hope that is in us (1 Peter 3:15). As St. Paul exhorts us to do in today’s Epistle Reading (1 Thessalonians 5:16‑24), we can rejoice always and give thanks in all circumstances. Such joy of also the Gradual is reflected in the pink candle on the Advent Wreath, a lightening, as it were, of the “blue” that otherwise indicates our Advent penitence. If only for a moment today, joyous things emerge in the midst of, if not replacing, the mournful things of Advent, as in the Old Testament Reading. Our King came to us in the past; He comes to us now; and He will come to us a final time!
This morning we have considered today’s Gospel Reading under the theme “Witnessing about the Light”. John the Baptizer so witnessed for our benefit, that we might believe the Light through him, and we can and do similarly witness for others’ benefit, that they might believe the Light through us (maybe that will be my focus as I again lead the police department devotion this Thursday before Hanukkah ends on Friday). There may be darkness, but the Light always shines in the darkness; the darkness has not overcome the Light (John 1:5), but the contrary: the Light overcomes the darkness!
Amen.
The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
+ + + Soli Deo Gloria + + +