3^rd Sunday of Advent                         

John 1:6-14 & 19-28

There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. 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 true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world came into being through him; yet the world did not know him. He came to what was his own, and his own people did not accept him. But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God. And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth.

This is the testimony given by John when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, “Who are you?” He confessed and did not deny it, but confessed, “I am not the Messiah.” And they asked him, “What then? Are you Elijah?” He said, “I am not.” “Are you the prophet?” He answered, “No.” Then they said to him, “Who are you? Let us have an answer for those who sent us. What do you say about yourself?” 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. Now they had been sent from the Pharisees. They asked him, “Why then are you baptizing if you are neither the Messiah, nor Elijah, nor the prophet?” John answered them, “I baptize with water. Among you stands one whom you do not know, the one who is coming after me; I am not worthy to untie the thong of his sandal.” This took place in Bethany across the Jordan where John was baptizing.

Light of the Moon

Rapid City, South Dakota is the closest town of decent size to Badlands National Park. It’s about sixty miles away, with a population of about seventy-six thousand. When I was on a road trip with my mom, traveling across the country, one of our stops was Badlands National Park. I wanted to take advantage of the fact that there wouldn’t really be any light pollution there, and spend some time looking at the night sky. We were spending the night at the park, so after we set up our tent and had our dinner, we just sat in our camp chairs, looking up at the sky.

It was the perfect night for it. It was the middle of summer, but we were the only people there, so the only sounds we could hear were the chirping of crickets and the warm breeze blowing over the grass. The moon was nowhere to be seen, and there wasn’t a single cloud in the sky. After a while, on a clear night like that, your eyes adjust to the dark, and with all of the stars, it’s actually pretty easy to see. There were more stars in the sky that night than I had ever seen in my entire life, and we could clearly see the band of the Milky Way stretching from horizon to horizon.

I tried to keep a lookout for shooting stars and satellites, as I usually do whenever I’m stargazing. And, I tried to point out the few constellations that I recognized for my mom, but we mostly just sat in silence, looking up at the wonder of creation, and thinking about how small we were compared to the vastness of the universe.

After a while, the horizon started to get lighter, and at first, I was really confused. Did we get so caught up in looking up at the sky that we lost track of time? Was the sun was coming up? I checked my phone, and it wasn’t even midnight yet, so the only thing I could think of was that the moon was rising. But, the light was so bright; it didn’t make any sense! We sat there in awe as the incandescent white disk of the moon rose up into the sky, absolutely enormous so close to the horizon. It was so bright, and our eyes had become so used to the dark, that it was difficult to look at. I remember my eyes watering as I tried to look at it.

With the moon out shining its bright light down us, we couldn’t see the stars as well anymore, and it was never our intention to stay up to watch the sunrise, so we put our chairs away and went to bed so that we could continue our journey the next day.

As we all know, the moon doesn’t generate any light of its own, it reflects the light of the sun. Without the sun’s light, we wouldn’t be able to see the moon at all. There’s a Zen Buddhist teaching that says, “Truth has nothing to do with words. Truth can be likened to the bright moon in the sky. Words, in this case, can be likened to a finger. The finger can point to the moon’s location. However, the finger is not the moon. To look at the moon, it is necessary to gaze beyond the finger, right?” We can take this teaching one step further and say that the light of the moon does not come from the moon. It comes from the sun.

Our gospel reading today is about a man named John, who was sent “as a witness to testify to the light.” “He himself was not the light,” but he was sent to tell everyone about “the true light, which…was coming into the world.”

Hearing about this man who was baptizing in the wilderness, the priests and the Levites grilled him with questions, “Who are you? Are you Elijah? Are you the prophet?” And, John said, “Among you stands one whom you do not know, the one who is coming after me; I am not worthy to untie the thong of his sandal.”

John was making it very clear. He was not the Messiah. He was not the light. He was directing their attention to Jesus, the one who was coming after him. It’s easy to understand why they were asking John all of these questions, trying to figure out who he was. He was a charismatic figure. People were coming to him in the wilderness to be baptized; he had such a large following. He was drawing so much attention to himself that the priests and the Levites had to ask, “Are you Elijah? Are you the prophet?” It’s like thinking the sun is about to rise over the horizon, when it’s only the moon. The moon is not the sun; it is witness to the light of the sun.

The light that Jesus brought into the world was so bright, that it still shines to this day. The light of Jesus is hope. The light of Jesus is peace. The light of Jesus is love. Today is the third Sunday of Advent, Love Sunday, and today we look at the miracle of love that Jesus brought into the world.

We are testaments to that light. The light of love lives on inside of each and every one of us. It’s love that moves us to come together every Sunday, to worship God and reconnect with one another. It’s love that moves new members to join our community and take part in our effort to bring that love to a world so desperately in need of it. It’s love that moves us to help our unsheltered neighbors and look for ways to heal our world.

But, even as we do these good works, we have to remember the reason that we do them. We do it to share the light of God with the world, not to shine a light on ourselves. The point of this all is not to brag and seek admiration. We don’t use the light for self-aggrandizement, or to draw people to us with the grace and mercy that Jesus works through us. The light of Jesus emanates from us, but we are not the source of that light. We point to Jesus. We point to the source of all love, mercy, and healing.

There are some who say that the true essence of God is love, that Jesus is love incarnate. The more that I learn about God, the more I believe that to be true. It’s the miracle of love that will see us through the most difficult times in our lives. Love is the reason that an all-powerful and all-knowing God came into our world as a helpless baby, to be loved by us and to love us in return. It’s what transformed a feast of bread and wine into the sacrament that saves us. Love is what brought Jesus back to life after he was brutally killed for speaking the truth. And, it’s love that will guide us as we step into eternity with our Creator and reunite with all of those who have gone before.

Love is both the easiest and the most difficult thing that God has asked of us. It’s easy to love the people we know, the people who are nice to us, the people who love us back. It’s difficult to love those who hurt us, those who have abandoned or betrayed us. It’s difficult to love our enemies. But, we do not love on our own. Jesus is the light of love that lives inside of us. And, as we draw near to the day of Jesus’ birth, let us remember why Jesus came. Be the living embodiment of that purpose, and share God’s love with the world.

Amen.

~ Rev. Charles Wei