“Voices in the Wilderness”

John 1:6-8, 19-28

In verse 19 of today’s text the priests and Levites ask John the Baptist a very legitimate sounding question, “Who are you?” But under the surface of their polite request there was probably a more arrogant and condescending question, as in, “Just who do you think you are?”

William Barclay’s commentary on this text gives us a strong hint about what was going on that day in Bethany: “The whole thing shows how suspicious [Judaic] orthodoxy was of anything unusual. John did not conform to the normal idea of a preacher; therefore the ecclesiastical authorities of the day looked upon him askance.”

Those authorized ecclesiastical representatives of orthodoxy were testing John with questions by which he might reveal his heretical unorthodoxy or come off looking like some religiously fanatical nutcase. Ever politically sensitive to the cultural murmurings within the greater population they asked John if he was claiming to be the Messiah some folks hoped him to be. John quickly and firmly squashed that rumor: “I am not the Messiah.”

Aware of Malachi’s prophecy concerning the reappearance of Elijah just prior to the Messiah’s coming they asked him if he was Elijah. Again John said no. Finally they asked him if he was that unknown prophet foreseen by Moses in Deuteronomy 18:5, one who many thought to be another forerunner of the Messiah. John denied that he was that prophet.

Finally they asked him, “Who are you? Let us have an answer for those who sent us. What do you say about yourself?” You’re not the Messiah. Nor are you Elijah. You deny being the unnamed prophet. So who are you and what are you doing?

Then, quoting Isaiah 40:3, John tells them, “I am the voice of one crying out in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way of the Lord.” I’m not the Messiah. I’m not the Christ. Nor am I the Word made flesh dwelling among us or the light of life. I’m not the One. I am but a lowly servant, so low in the pecking order that I’m not fit to kneel down and unlatch his sandals prior to washing his feet.

That last sentence was one he spoke to the ones who had been sent by the Pharisees to question him as to why he was baptizing people, especially Jews who were not Gentile converts to Judaism. His answer, as paraphrased by William Barclay, was probably not one they wanted to hear: “The king is coming. And, for his coming, you need to be cleansed as much as any Gentile. Prepare yourself for your entry into the history of your king.”

John was very secure in his identity. He had a clear and concise perception of his role. His task was to prepare the way for the Messiah, to testify to the True Light who was coming to give life and give it abundantly. He wasn’t Jesus. He was the one who directed others to Jesus, the one who let others know that Jesus was the long-awaited Messiah. He was the voice crying in the wilderness. In the words of William Barclay, “John was what every preacher and every teacher ought to be – only a voice, a pointer to the king.”

If ever the world needed such a voice, it is now. If ever there was a need for a Messiah, it is today. If ever we needed a Savior, this is the time. Who will lift up that voice in this wilderness that is life in 2008? Who will take up John’s task and boldly point to the One who will save us? Who will show lost and hurting people the way to Jesus?

We will, you and I and every Christian together. We don’t need Elijah or that unknown prophet. We don’t even need a resurrected John the Baptist. He showed us what we must do and who we must be 2,000 years ago. His ministry is symbolic of ours. Wrote Paul Achtemeir and Leland Mebut, “[John the] Baptist can be seen as a symbol of the witnessing [Christian] community. Just as his sole function is to point to the Christ, so the church acts as a pointer to One who is greater than itself.”

We are the voices crying in the wilderness, directing people to Christ. We are his servants, witnesses, and evangelists. It is his Gospel that we share by word and deed. We are the ones this Advent season and every season who proclaim Isaiah’s words to an often skeptical and sometime hostile world, “Make straight the way of the Lord.”

It is indeed a high calling from God to which we have said yes. This high holy business of discipleship and evangelism requires both humility and courage. Again in the words of Achtemeir and Mebut, “[There are many] ways in which the Christian community fails in its [function of pointing to Jesus]. It is tempted by the need for self-aggrandizement, which it expresses in narcissism and triumphalism. Then it points to itself, rather than the Lord. The church can also be intimidated by the forum before which it is to bring its witness, the unfriendly forum of the opponents of Christ…” In the one case humility. In the other courage.

In her book Quitting Church, Julia Duin, religious editor for the “Washington Times,” an exploration of why so many evangelicals, especially young evangelicals are giving up on the church, quotes from a letter to the editor that appeared in the March 2006 edition of “Christianity Today:” “In our minds, the local church has become its own culture – from mega-churches with creative marketing campaigns to Christian music, Christian books, Christian clothing, and even Christian weight-loss programs. These things, in and of themselves, are well and good – but they are no substitute for a fleshed out faith.”

Too many churches are losing sight of their primary task of making disciples, of pointing non-believers to the Lord. Whether they mean to or not they are pointing to themselves instead of Jesus. They have confused various means to an end with the end itself: sharing the Good News of Jesus with those who have never heard it. Fascinated by the puny light of the flashy glitter of their own marketing they turn away from the Light of the World. For the record, it’s not just mega-churches that fall into this trap. Any congregation of any size is vulnerable to self-promoting narcissism and triumphalism.

And then there’s that orthodoxy thing. Orthodoxy is good; the basics of the faith must be upheld, proclaimed, and lived. But orthodoxy along with its second cousin tradition can become such a concern of the church that it begins pointing inwardly to its orthodoxy and traditions, using up its resources and energies in their defense. Such churches forget to proclaim the Gospel they’re so busy defending.

Or become so wedded to outmoded forms of proclamation that the world around it is chased away from Jesus rather than pointed toward him. Earlier I quoted William Barclay as he dealt with first century Judaic orthodoxy’s suspicion of John the Baptist’s message and methods. The issue was change. They didn’t like it. And more often than not neither do we. To finish the Barclay quote I began sharing earlier: “The church always runs the danger of condemning a new way because it’s new. In one sense there is hardly any institution in the world which resents change so much as the church does. It has often rejected a great teacher and often refused some great adventure simply because it suspected all things new.”

Jesus is the world’s only hope for salvation. That is an unchanging truth. His Gospel is Good News. That will never change. The Bible is God’s Word. Translations and paraphrases of will come and go. Various denominations and schools of interpretation will disagree about it till kingdom come. But it is still God’s Word. The church is Christ’s Body, his hands, feet, and voice in the world. Even the gates of hell cannot prevail against it.

The church – you, me, and every Christian – has one primary task. It is not self-preservation, not institutional survival, not even the defense of orthodoxy. Our primary task is to point others to Christ, using with integrity whatever styles and methodologies that work in this day and time. It’s not about us or our traditions. It’s not about preserving our comfort zone. It’s about Jesus, the Light of the World toward which all our ministries must point. We are not called to be the Light. We are called to be the witnesses who will testify to it. We must never confuse the method with the message. We must never reject new ways of being church just because we’ve never done it that way before.

As we move through Advent, as we celebrate Christ’s coming and his coming again, let us remember that there are many who have never known Jesus. As we think about Christmas and its emphasis on giving may we never forget that the greatest gift we can give someone is to point him or her toward Jesus. We must make straight the way of the Lord even if doing so requires making changes in our way of being and doing church. And all God’s people said together, “Amen!”