Scripture: John 1:6-8, 19-28
(6) There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. (7) He came as a witness to
testify to the light, so that all might believe through him. (8) He himself was not the
light, but he came to testify to the light. (19) This is the testimony given by John when
the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, "Who are you?" (20)
He confessed and did not deny it, but confessed, "I am not the Messiah." (21)
And they asked him, "What then? Are you Elijah?" He said, "I am not."
"Are you the prophet?" He answered, "No." (22) Then they said to him,
"Who are you? Let us have an answer for those who sent us. What do you say about
yourself?" (23) He said, "I am the voice of one crying out in the wilderness,
'Make straight the way of the Lord,'" as the prophet Isaiah said. (24) Now they had
been sent from the Pharisees. (25) They asked him, "Why then are you baptizing if you
are neither the Messiah, nor Elijah, nor the prophet?" (26) John answered them,
"I baptize with water. Among you stands one whom you do not know, (27) the one who is
coming after me; I am not worthy to untie the thong of his sandal." (28) This took
place in Bethany across the Jordan where John was baptizing.
- John 1:6-8, 19-28
One time as a young child, my family and I explored a man-made cave in the southern
Idaho that was dug beside a fault line called the Great Rift. The Great Rift runs for a
hundred miles through high desert and is similar to the many faults that underlie
California. The fault line is readily apparent on the surface; ancient black lava flows
spread from its cleft in every direction as far as the eye can see.
Years ago a cave was carved beside the fault on a steep slant by geologists eager to
study earthquakes in such an uninhabited place. The cave or tunnel is 700 feet deep.
Later, the cave became a minor tourist trap. For a small fee, the curious could descend
into the bowels of the earth to view the power of plate tectonics and the primal forces of
nature.
To a seven year-old, it was a pretty scary place. Hearing about ancient lava flows,
slip faults and fiery magma that could incinerate you in a second was disconcerting. A
big, churning, red ball of molten rock was somewhere underneath my feet. How far away was
unclear.
The cave was lit by the occasional bare light bulb, strung along the wall of the
tunnel, powered by single strand wires. In retrospect, I don't believe it met code. There
were interesting things to see along the way: rocks, ice sculptures, ice ponds and rocks.
It was mostly rocks and the voice of the tour guide who was incessantly cheerful.
Grasping the hand of my father was far more comforting than the tour guide's chatter,
until we came to the end of the cave, 700 feet below the ground, close, very close to that
molten lava. No one said how close it was, but I was seven years old, mind you. I thought
it could be right there beneath my feet.
The perky tour guide delivered her tour de force. Unannounced, the lights went out.
There was total darkness.
Have you ever been in total darkness? I mean not just a dark room or a dark night
without stars or moon or a flash light. Even the on the darkest night there is still
enough ambient light not to be in total darkness. Have you ever been in total darkness?
Total darkness is different. The human brain is not constructed to deal with total
darkness. The brain, optic nerve and retina are constructed to receive external stimuli.
Without stimulus, the mind and eye search relentlessly for some kind of light light to
shine in the darkness. But in a cave, 700 feet down, there is no light.
My sweaty hand squeezed my father's rough hand more tightly. Though I could not see
him, he felt my anxiety. In the darkness, his gravelly voice assured me that it would soon
be over. On came the lights. We raced back to the surface. There was enough light up there
to forget everything, including the magma, the Great Rift and fault lines that divide
continents. Glorious sunlight!
I decided the descent into Hades had been pretty cool. I wanted to do it again.
Have you ever been in total darkness?
Last Sunday's L.A. Times reported that "two Los Angeles police officers sought to
cover up their contact with a 16-year-old gang member who was shot to death on the border
of a rival gang's territory just minutes after the officers released him from their patrol
car . . . One officer was accused by the District Attorney's office of intentionally
dropping off the teen in rival gang territory where he was killed a short time later by
rival gang members." However, there will be no prosecution of the officer due to
testimony that was forcefully compelled from him when he was told that he would lose his
job if he did not tell. The incident was discovered as a part of the Rampart scandal
investigation. There will be no prosecution because of the constitutional protection
against self-incrimination.
Have you ever been in total darkness?
In another story, last Monday's New York Times reported on the growing outrage in South
Korea where polls indicate that 60% of the population want the United States forces to
withdraw after 50 years of joint cooperation. American authorities - not Americans - are
increasingly unpopular despite the growing bellicosity and bizarre behavior of North
Korea. It turns out that a U.S. military court, meeting in secret without media present,
dismissed all charges against two soldiers who, while driving a tank down a public road
ran over and killed two teenage South Korean girls. Surely an accident, at most
involuntary manslaughter, the tragic event has nonetheless enraged a majority of South
Koreans both in Korea and here in America of all ages, walks of life, including church
people, due to the mantle of secrecy and a perceived pattern of arrogance. Meantime the
kook who runs North Korea is reactivating their nuclear reactor.
Have you ever been in total darkness?
When my hand gripped my father's hand in that dark cave where there was no light and I
heard his deep, rumbling voice, the fear didn't go away, but I was able to manage until
the light came on again.
Have you ever been in total darkness?
"There was a man sent from God, whose name was John, John the Baptist. He came as
a witness to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him. He, himself, was
not the light, but he came to testify to the light."
The people of Israel had been walking in darkness for a long time. They were a vassal
state of the Roman Empire. It had been over 160 years since the Hebrews had enjoyed a
brief bout of freedom as their own nation. Jewish traditions were constantly under threat
by the Romans who were particularly effective in getting their conquered peoples to bow
down and worship Caesar by threat of force of arms.
But it wasn't only the Romans who threatened Palestine. There were internal factions
tearing away at unity within Judaism as well. There were differences over theology,
leadership, biblical authority and interpretation. Sounds vaguely familiar, doesn't it?
Sadducees, Zealots, Pharisees, the Qumran Community also known as the Essenes, each had
different beliefs about government (whether to cozy up to the Romans, or overthrow them,
or escape into a monastic community). Each had different beliefs about whether and how God
would raise up a Messiah and the kind of Messiah he would be. Would he be a political
leader like King David or would he be something else? They argued and fought over
doctrine: whether or not to believe in the resurrection of the dead. Some did. Some did
not.
It was an intensely political time. It seethed with partisan politics, rumors of war,
conquest and subjugation, religious confusion and factions vying for truth. Into that
context and in the absence of peace, comes the voice of John the Baptist, crying in the
wilderness, baptizing in the River Jordan, and gathering large crowds around him.
Meanwhile the religious authorities sent priests and Levites to the Jordan River to
inquire whether there is a contender for the throne, the Messiah. When these lackeys find
John and ask him who he is and who he represents, whether he was the promised one, the
Messiah, he said, "No, he wasn't the Messiah." In fact, he wasn't even
"worthy to touch" the Messiah's sandal. He was not worthy. But when they
insisted that he answer who he was, he said quoting from the prophet Isaiah, "I am
the voice of one crying out in the wilderness, 'Make straight the way of the Lord.'"
When my family and I were out in the wilderness in the high desert of Southern Idaho;
when we descended into that cave;
when we were deep in that cave where the tectonic forces of the Pacific plate thrusting
into the North American plate with primeval violence was so evident;
when we were 700 feet down into the darkness of the earth, and the light was turned
out, and it was all dark,
then the reassuring voice of my father, didn't take away my fear of the darkness, but I
was able to manage it.
A voice crying in the darkness. The world I live in has so much good. Police officers
uphold justice. Soldiers protect freedoms. Governments in their messy, time-consuming way
try to further democracy. Children go to bed at night unafraid, because they know that
their fathers and mothers and grandparents and the church love them. There is so much good
in my world.
We are here today because there is so much good. We are here today because God has
blessed us with so much good. We are here because God has given us a Messiah, a Messiah
that is not a king of this world, but a king nonetheless. This king is not a political
king, but he is sovereign over all the earth and the cosmos beyond. We are here because
this King, this Messiah confronts all that is broken with healing, all that is hurting
with comfort, all that is evil with good, whether that is political evil, ecological evil,
evil in the church, or personal evil.
He meddles among the poor and the outcast and in the rich man's conscience. He is not a
political king but he meddles in everything: in Caesar's palace and humble shacks, in
board rooms and bedrooms and war rooms and this sacred room. He is our sovereign King.
We are here today because of this King, and because God has blessed us with so much
good. God has blessed us with a firm hand grasping ours, or a kind heart connecting with
ours, or a compelling word convicting us of our need for God.
And even when we are in darkness, we know that his light shines. We are here today
because we know the light shines and so when we see darkness, we realize that unless we
are vigilant, then power mixed with fear can turn to toxin. We call it sin.
Sometimes human depravity turns a few police officers, called by God to bring about
good and to restrain evil, to deeds that are abhorrent. Sometimes governments grow
callous, whether due to fear of terrorism or forgetting that greatness comes from a
constant adherence to the rule of law and we need to remind them: we have seen the light.
Some times archbishops - maybe only one or two or three, certainly not all - look the
other way when children's bodies are violated by a few very bad men. Because we have seen
the light we abhor such darkness and we do everything in our power to protect the little
ones, the vulnerable, the powerless, those whom Jesus said, "To these belong the
kingdom of heaven."
We come to church today because of all things we long for peace. We come here not
because we want our noses rubbed into the horror and heartache of this world's darkness,
but because we have seen the light, we can no longer tolerate conditions in which darkness
tries to gain the upper hand.
When we live in a world where many, many children, far too many children go to bed at
night afraid, or hungry, or homeless or without parents or grandparents or a church that
loves them; when we live in a world that falls short of God's intent for humanity, we go
to church to prepare, to pray, to hear the Good News that the light shines in the
darkness. And because that light shines and we have heard the voice, we refuse to be cowed
by the darkness that always seeks to connive and seduce and overcome.
A voice in the darkness, in the dark tunnel of human depravity, has called to us, taken
us by the hand and pointed us to another way of being, another way of believing, another
way of acting, another way of seeing.
"Make straight in the desert, a highway for our God. Every mountain shall be made
low and the rough places a plain. For the glory of the Lord shall be revealed."
Because the Lord, the King, who is sovereign over all the world; because the Lord and
his light shines brightly now, we extend our own hand. We lift up the broken hearted. We
protect the vulnerable. We give voice to the voiceless. We remain vigilant for the civil
rights of all. We dare to examine our own government whether it is run by Republicans or
Democrats, and like the prophets of old declare that justice and integrity are always the
plumb line and compassion the compass for what is right.
We are here because we heard the voice in the darkness and we are not afraid. When the
tectonic forces of good and evil cause great rifts and darkness tries to cover the face of
the earth, then the promise comes, the hope is kindled, the shimmering hope is kindled,
that a Messiah, who is Christ the Lord, will come. A young woman will bear a son and name
him Immanuel which means "God is with us."
Pray that day come and make his paths straight in our hearts, in our deeds, in our
nation and world. "Come Lord, Jesus, come." Amen.
