Article
- Date:
- Sunday 17th December 2023
Year B, The Third Sunday of Advent - Place:
- Holy Trinity, Hurstpierpoint
- Service:
- Parish Eucharist
- Readings:
- [passage=John 1.6-8,1.19-28/]
It is often the case in any sphere of activity that a towering figure tends to lead to an under-estimate of near predecessors or contemporaries: you can see it with JS Bach or with Charles Dickens; and although, of course, nobody can be compared with Jesus, still, John The Baptist tends not to be considered in his own right. It might just be that unfortunate line in the Synoptic Gospels which depicts him wearing camel hair and eating locusts and wild honey (the translations are at best uncertain) which detract from his dignity. He was, after all, the son of a Temple Priest who is seen offering sacrifice at the beginning of Luke's Gospel, he was the Cousin of Jesus, he baptised Jesus and he died a horrible death, so as well as being the last of the prophets, he was the first Christian Martyr. So it is in this context that we have to view John's witness: if he was something of an eccentric out there in the wilderness, he was a very serious man.
Saint John the Evangelist's account of John is much more theological, even sedate, than the synoptics, but the underlying message is the same: above all else, John is not only a herald, he is also a witness.
So, what does it mean to be a witness. The two senses in which we normally use the word are not altogether helpful: a witness in court is summoned to give account; a witness who is killed for belief is admirable but, we pray, unusual.
Let me, then, start with what a witness is not. A witness is not a person who pretends not to have heard a challenging question. A witness is not the sort of person who runs away; a witness is not a stumbler and a mumbler; a witness is not a politician trying not to answer the question. In other words, a witness is not a coward. At the same time, a witness is not a substitute for what he witnesses and she is not there to second-guess or judge on behalf of the person to whom she bears witness. A witness is a fearless messenger and, as we know, sometimes it's the messenger that gets shot; but, most of the time, as is proper, the message outlives the messenger.
Because of the way our stories work, we tend to focus on the dramatic, the messenger in a hostile environment, courageously telling his truth at some risk; but I want to suggest that for us the real issue is not how we witness in a hostile environment but how we witness to each other.
In principle, talking to each other, as opposed to talking in a hostile world, should be easy, but it clearly isn't; but if we cannot talk to each other then no matter how proximate we are physically, we are not a community. Ideally a family or a community is the place where we trust each other in discussing difficult or sensitive issues but more often than not we are civilly evasive. We only really talk to those we agree with; we prefer not to get to grips with disagreement. Ironically, in a society drowning in data, we are ever less comfortable with difference and, unfortunately, this applies to our Church as well as to politics. But the important thing is not whether we can do anything spectacular, it is whether we can, within our community, be honest with each other in our witness.
So here is a thought experiment that is not trying to be too clever. If a John the Baptist figure appeared in our midst, what would he find? Would we be put off by the exotic dress? Would we be offended if he came to dinner and wouldn't eat our fancy food? Would we be put off by his direct language? Would we be frightened of change? Would we be more interested in whether he was a 09.30 or an Eleven O’clock supporter or would we be interested in what he had to say? After all, the real John came into a Palestine divided on religious grounds between the Pharisees and the Sadducees, he confronted a Temple religious establishment in a peculiar and uncomfortable relationship with the client Herodian monarchy and the Romans, once friends of the Hasmoneans but now a threat.
There is a strong tendency among Christians to be trapped in the caricature of the religious authorities described in the Gospels such that the word Pharisaic denotes religious nit-picking; but have we not, as a Church, been somewhat Pharisaic in recent years over matters of sex and gender, usually a matter of a male dominated institution talking down to women? If we are to receive a herald with a message we’d better put our house in order.
Today is traditionally Gaudete Sunday, represented in traditional Advent Wreaths by a Pink candle rather than purple. On this day we take a break from fasting, so it is a good day to cast off our necessary, self-imposed condition of penitence. A good day, then, to take it easy, to stand more easily in the world and to get things into perspective. Nothing that we think, nothing that we say we stand for, is as important as we think it is; except our proclamation of incarnation and salvation, two profound mysteries which no amount of disputation will resolve. Communities are places for mutual listening and understanding, not places where Scripture is weaponised for sectarian ends.
And, finally, if we are to be true messengers to the world, true witnesses of the God of love, what is our message? It is, in the words of Saint Paul (Romans 8.19.23):
''for the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the children of God; for the creation was subjected to futility, not of its own will but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and will obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. We know that the whole of creation has been groaning in labour pains until now; and not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly while we wait for adoption, the redemption of our bodies".
To be a Christian messenger is not to be saved, it is to proclaim the good news that all creation will be saved; that cosmic truth should put our microscopic disputes into perspective.