Keeping the Faith

January 15^th, 2017   “Keeping the Faith”    Rev. Heather Jepsen

John 1:29-42 with Psalm 40:1-11

          Upon first examination, our scripture reading for this Sunday looks much like the material we covered last week.  Here again, we read of the baptism of Jesus and the start of his public ministry.  But of course, last week we were reading the gospel of Matthew’s account of the story, and this week we are reading the story as told in the gospel of John.  The differences in the readings are significant.

          When John tells the story, he is not narrating the events of the baptism like Matthew does.  Instead, he has his character John the Baptist, tell the story of Jesus’ baptism in his own voice.  John spots Jesus in the crowd and starts telling everyone how important he is.  John says that he did not know Jesus, and yet at the baptismal event, the Spirit descended upon Jesus and this was the sign that he was the holy one.

          Isn’t that an interesting detail, that John did not know Jesus?  Since we often find ourselves reading this story right after Christmas time, we always assume that John the Baptist and Jesus knew each other.  After Mary and Elizabeth’s connection, and the sharing of a family bloodline, we just naturally put Jesus and John together in our minds.  But of course the Mary and Elizabeth connection is not part of the story that the gospel of John is telling, we get those ideas from the gospel of Luke.

          In John’s gospel we just have John the Baptist, out at the river Jordan.  He is busy baptizing one person after another and waiting and hoping to see the Christ among them.  I wonder how long John was out there.  We only talk about him for a month or so, and I realized this week, then when I imagined the story I only imagined him out there for about that long, a month or so.  That doesn’t make any sense really, as the text doesn’t say anything about that.  The writer of the gospel just says that John is out there, baptizing and preaching . . . out there, waiting for the Messiah.

          I wonder if perhaps he wasn’t out there for years.  John could have spent years hoping, and waiting, and watching.  He could have lived by the river for years.  Waiting for people to come, preaching repentance in a world that seemed to have gone mad, and hoping with each person he dunked that there would finally be a sign and he would finally know that this one was “the one”.  It’s an image of deep faithfulness in the face of uncertainty.

          When Jesus does come, and John does experience the revelation, he doesn’t hesitate to tell others who Jesus is.  “Here is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!”  Twice John declares he did not know him, but that he was revealed as the Messiah in baptism.  Jesus must not look like the Messiah; he must not seem like the one who was expected.  It is almost with astonishment that John declares, “I myself did not know him.”  It is like Jesus was hidden in plain sight.  Which of course John implies might be the case as he declares “Among you stands one you do not know.”

          As the reading continues John is visiting with his followers as Jesus passes by.  John is quick again, to point out the Messiah to others.  It is only after he is pointed out and declared the Lamb of God that John’s disciples seek to follow the new teacher.  Again, the reader of the text is left to wonder at just how easily Jesus is concealed.  Those who will be his disciples, including Andrew, don’t even notice Jesus when he walks by.  Here is the Son of God, in our midst, and yet no one sees him unless someone else first points him out.

          This idea got me wondering about how many times we might miss Jesus in our midst.  Where might he be hidden in plain sight in our world?  Where might we meet God in unexpected places?  How might our lives look if we lived them always ready and expecting to see God around the next corner?  Sometimes we may fear that God has left us alone in our mess.  But if we approach life in hope, looking for God everywhere, then perhaps we will encounter God in ways we never imagined.

          Of course a huge part of looking for God is waiting for that sign, that moment, that break through.  And waiting is all about faithfulness which in turn is about action.  How do we keep living our lives, how do we keep going, in faith, as we await the next revelation of God?

          The scriptures are full of faithful people who kept going as they waited for a word or a sign.  Not just John the Baptist waiting at the river Jordan for the one he was sure was coming.  There are also countless people who have waited for healing for years.  There are numerous barren women who have prayed daily for the miracle of life to grow in their wombs.  There are the prophets who have preached the justice of God, and waited through lifetimes of injustice and unfaithful leaders.  There are apostles who have gone out into the world to preach the news of the Christ, who find themselves waiting for their next welcome and hot meal.  There are the Israelites, wandering in the desert, waiting an entire generation, for the time to be right for God to finally lead them into the Promised Land.  The scriptures are full of people waiting in faithfulness.

          Our reading from the book of Psalms also encourages us to wait in faithfulness.  “I waited patiently for the Lord; God inclined to me and heard my cry.”  The Psalmist describes themselves as living in the desolate pit and the miry bog.  I can imagine myself there sometimes, in the miry bog, can you?  The Psalmist is down in the hole, waiting patiently for the Lord.  I’m not sure how patient I would be down in the hole, but I am sure there is not much else to do there other than to wait. 

          God eventually hears the cry of the Psalmist and draws them out of the pits of despair.  The Psalmist is placed on dry ground, on the rock of safety, and from there they begin to sing praise of God.  The Psalmist sings and sings, telling the wonderful news of salvation to everyone they know.  “I have told the glad news of deliverance in the great congregation . . . I have not hidden your saving help . . . I have spoken of your faithfulness . . . I have not concealed your steadfast love.”  Faithful in waiting for deliverance, the Psalmist is now faithful in preaching the gospel

          Like those in the scriptures, from the Psalmist to John the Baptist, we are called to wait.  Not just simply sit on our backsides and watch the world pass by, but to wait in faith and action.  As the world around us seems to move farther and farther away from God’s justice, we are called to keep the faith.  We are called to pray, to worship, to preach the good news of justice and peace, and to look for God in unexpected places.  In this uncertain day and age, we are called to wait in faithfulness and hope.  And when we do see Jesus, we are called to point him out, just like the Psalmist and John the Baptist do.  We are called to say “look, here is God, in the stranger, in the refugee, in our children, and in each other.”

          This weekend our nation honors one of our greatest spiritual leaders, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.  He is a wonderful example of someone who waited in faith and hope.  He did the work, he preached the gospel, and he inspired folks to look for God in the world.  Though he saw progress, he never saw the just treatment of people that he imagined.  He never saw the beloved community he dared to believe in.  We still haven’t gotten there.  And yet, his life and legacy inspire us to keep working, to keep preaching, to keep looking for God in the world.  This isn’t a sitting down, standing by kind of waiting.  This isn’t letting someone else do the work.  Instead this is a waiting in faithful action.  Like Martin Luther King, we are called to do the work of God while we wait for the long arc of the moral universe to bend ever closer to justice.

          This week, I invite you to reconsider the story of John the Baptist.  I invite you to wonder about how long he might have camped out at the river waiting in faithfulness for the Messiah he was looking for.  Was it months, years, decades?  I invite you to consider his astonishment as suddenly he found the Spirit descending upon Jesus, someone he would never have expected.  “I myself did not know him.”  And I invite you to consider his boldness, in turning around and telling everyone what he had seen.  This one, the one we never expected, was the Messiah, hiding here in plain sight.

          This week, may we live lives of faith as we wait to see God in our world.  May we be aware that God may be hiding in plain sight even now.  And may we declare and point out God in our midst as grace and justice are revealed.  Amen.