“John’s Pilgrimage”

Matthew 3:1-12,11:2-19

A Sermon Preached by The Rev. Douglas M. Donley

December 5, 2004

University Baptist Church

Minneapolis, MN

 

            John the Baptist was in prison.

            He was thrown in prison because his preaching was too powerful, too true, too biting.  John’s preaching and baptism of repentance were all of a sudden convicting people who had never had any hope for something better in their lives.  A movement was afoot and God’s power of hope and reconciliation was moving over the face of the waters of despair that had helped to keep the poor, poor and disconnected.

            I think of Malcolm X, Martin Luther King, Gandhi and others who brought a sense of pride and commitment to people through their words.  Like John the Baptist, they were thrown into prison.  Those in power, who are used to controlling people’s perceptions of the world, threw them in jail, launched an incredible smear campaign and eventually got them killed.  You see, they thought if they killed the leader, the movement would stop and everything would just get back to normal, whatever that is.

            John the Baptist, a weird Loring Park kind of guy existing on an odd diet and girded in leather made some people uncomfortable. John baptized people saying “I baptize you with water for repentance, but I am not worthy to baptize the one to come, for he will baptize with fire and with the Holy Spirit.”  When John baptized Jesus, he knew a big part of his mission was completed.  He prepared the way for the messiah.  John’s disciples began following Jesus, which thrilled John for he had said; “He must increase while I decrease.”

            After Jesus came along, John continued being John, never able or willing to sit back and collect a pension at the age of 30 and a half.  He tried to live in the city, we could imagine, but felt too constrained by it all.

            John was a prophet and prophets do not often mince words.  He publicly condemned King Herod Antipas for marrying his brother’s wife.  Herod, of course, had him arrested and thrown in prison.  Adultery begat passion back then, too.

            And while John was in prison, he started hearing from his disciples about this Jesus who was to be the Son of God and the Messiah for whom he was preparing the way.  But word came back also that Jesus was not committed to exactly the same things that John was committed to.  Jesus was not separating the wheat from the chaff, but was preaching and living like a servant.  Where was the cleaning out of sin and the preparation for the reign of God? John wondered.  So, he sent some of his followers to straighten it all out.

            John told his disciples to ask Jesus, “are you the one to come or shall we wait for another?”  John was, I am sure thinking, “Was I wrong in supporting Cousin Jesus?  Is there still one to come who is going to be a judge to condemn the unrepentant?”  And most important, John asked realizing his own imminent demise, “Have I wasted my life?”

            I have kept in contact with some of the folks from my first pastorate in Hartford, Connecticut, many of whom I have not seen in ten years.  From time to time I’ll get a bulletin or some chunk of gossip.  Some things have stayed the same. They are still a multi-racial church trying to be authentic in a poor neighborhood.  They still have a soup kitchen, but not a radio ministry nor a commitment to inclusive language.  And they still have conflict.  Some of it has been too toxic for many of the members to handle and bunches of them have left.  They have been through pastor after pastor.  I feel some guilt that I was not able to fix it all.  Sometimes I wonder if my time there was in vain.  But as one clergy colleague reminded me, “Jesus died for the church.  That means you don’t have to.”

            The scriptures tell us that we shall know a prophet by the prophet’s works.  If their prophecies come true, they are true prophets.  If they do not come true, they are not true prophets.  John the Baptist was concerned about his legacy.  Was all of my work in vain?  There’s too much confusion out there.  I need some clarity. Are you the one to come or shall we wait for another?

            Now Jesus, being the wise person that he was, could quote scripture just as well as John the Baptist.  Jesus knew that he wasn’t the kind of messiah that all of the Hebrew Bible's proscriptions assumed he would be.  Jesus knew John would not be satisfied with a yes or a no answer.  He would search the scriptures to disprove him, if he was skeptical enough.  So Jesus avoided the question.  He said to John, make up your own mind.  “The blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have good news preached to them.” (And here’s the clincher)

“Blessed is the one who takes no offense at me.”  Jesus paraphrased Isaiah 28:18,19 and the first verse of Isaiah 61.  Pretty sneaky.

            It didn’t fit with John the Baptist’s perception of the Messiah.  John the Baptist was interested in the Messiah coming in and sweeping out evil.  Certainly Jesus did that.  Who can forget the moneychangers in the temple and what happened to them?

            But Jesus chose to approach his ministry as one who still opposed evil and worked for social and religious justice, but also sought to create something good among the people to take the place of evil.  That’s what’s sorely missing nowadays.  Too often these days, we are interested in smearing people who are in the public eye.  We get very caught up in the destroying of evil powers, but unless we change the underlying way we look at the world, the same problems will rear their ugly heads again.  Where is the hope for something better: more compassion, better education, a cleaner environment, a sense of trust to counter terror?

            Are you the one to come or shall we wait for another?  Are we closer to John the Baptist or to Jesus?  Are we quicker to point out the problems or are we able to offer solutions to the problems?  Are we quick to notice the speck in someone else’s eye while we ignore the log in our own?  “Are you the one to come or shall we wait for another?”

            John the Baptist’s vocation was to say that God is on the way.  But John had a problem which made it impossible for him to see what was really happening.  John was in prison.

            A lot of us are in prison.  Those prisons can be literal and they can be figurative.  John’s prison was both.  He was bound by an understanding of Messiah that was way too narrow.  He was bound by an arrogance which made him think that he and only he had the right answer.  He was imprisoned by his preconceived notion of the world and his preconceived notion of God.

            John had his doubts, too.  Did he want to give up his vocation and learn a new tune?  Is Jesus the one?  He was sure about three years before.  John said to Jesus, “no you Baptize ME.  I am not worthy to untie your sandal.”  But now he was confused.  Are you the one to come, or shall we wait for another?

            Jesus says to John’s disciples: “Tell John what YOU see and what YOU hear.”

            I have had the privilege to hear the stories of many of you over the past three and a half years.  I have seen you struggle to cling and hold onto a truth beyond yourself because you know it’s right.  I have seen you living that truth and it making you ostracized by family and friends.  I have seen you come here bruised and broken and in these walls retrofitted by the Gospel and regalvanized to proclaim a vision where the blind see, the poor receive good news and no one is left out in the cold.  Are you the one, or shall we wait for another?

            You may not be the Christ sisters and brothers, but you may have a truth that needs to be told. 

            You may have a perspective that needs to be shared. 

            You may have a task that needs to be done.

            You may have a word of comfort.

            You may be a voice of reason or insight amidst a conflict.

            Are you the one to come, or shall we wait for another? 

            John wasn’t asking to know if Jesus was the messiah or not.  He was asking permission to get out of his prison.  Jesus knew this and he sent his disciples to set him free.  “Tell him what you see.  Tell him what you hear.”  What he was saying was “set him free.”  My friends, when there is confusion and discourse and hatred and slander all around, trust what you see. 

            There are many gods out there, especially in the post-election season.  And the Christmas season has its share of gods, too.  It can feel like a prison.  But it’s our task, it’s John’s task, it’s Jesus’ task to set us free, to take the scales from our eyes and to see clearly.  When you find yourself asking, “are you the one to come, or shall we wait for another?”  Look for evidence of justice.  Look for evidence of compassion.  Look for the evidence of mercy.  Look for evidence of a new agenda that sets people free.

            When you see that, then you see God.  And that recognition is the key to your prison door. God wants to set you free!  And when you are set free, you can be the one to set another free.  What a Christmas gift that could be. 

            John’s pilgrimage was first to tell people to repent.  He prepared the way for Jesus who eventually gave us all permission and encouragement to get out of prison.  May we do the same on our pilgrimage this holiday season.  May we first repent, and then set people free so they can be the evidence of the coming of the Messiah.

            Amen.