Third Sunday of Advent 2020
Mary Holmen

John 1:6-8, 19-28

Last week, we were introduced to John the Baptist, the desert-dwelling, camel-hair-wearing, locust-and-honey-eating apocalyptic visionary in his role as herald of the Messiah. In her reflection, Donna explored John’s message of repentance and what that might mean for us in the circumstances of this particular year.

Today, we get a very different portrait of John, going about his ministry, not in the wilderness, but in Bethany across the Jordan. First, let’s clear up a potential misunderstanding. There is the John the evangelist, author of the fourth gospel, and there is the figure of John whom we usually call “the Baptist”. Now, the fourth gospel never gives him that title. It’s found in the gospels of Matthew and Mark, and Luke calls him “John the son of Zechariah”. So, even though the fourth gospel refers to John’s activity of baptizing, that is not the focus of his identity or role here. Instead, what we have is John the Witness.

Into the beautiful, poetic, cosmic incarnation narrative of the Prologue to the gospel comes the figure of John. It feels as though he’s just kind of plopped in there, almost like an interruption. But he is not an interruption. Right away we learn four important things about him:

• He is sent from God.
• He is a witness.
• His role is to testify to the light.
• He is not himself the light.

He belongs in the Prologue because of his relation to the true light that was coming into the world – Jesus, who enlightens everyone. John witnesses to the light that shines regardless of the darkness, the light that darkness cannot overcome.

John’s testimony begins when emissaries are sent to ask him who he is and what he is doing. And all he will do is tell them who he is not. He is not the Messiah. He is not Elijah – who was expected to return to prepare the Messiah’s way. He is not the prophet – who was expected as Messiah’s forerunner. He will take no title for himself. He says, “I’m a voice. Just a voice.” He is not just any voice though. He is the voice of the one who announces the Messiah’s coming. He baptizes to reveal the greater one who is coming after him and who is already among them.

John’s testimony continues in the rest of chapter 1 of the gospel, and I encourage you to read verses 19-51 all in one go. It’s too long a passage to use as a gospel selection for a Sunday, but it forms a unified piece. It is a series of encounters between John, Jesus, and their followers that establishes the centrality of Jesus in a crescendo of acclamations: Lamb of God, the one who takes away the sin of the world, the one on whom the Spirit remains, the one who baptizes with the Holy Spirit, rabbi, Son of Man, Son of God.

The gospel of John uses the terms witness (as both a noun and a verb), testify, and testimony a total of 47 times, more than the three Synoptic gospels combined. There’s a kind of forensic quality, especially in the first thirteen chapters, and it’s instructive to read the gospel through that lens. Jesus is presented in what feels almost like a courtroom setting where witnesses give testimony to their belief in him, who he is and what he is doing. There isn’t time in this short reflection to do a bible study on “witness in the gospel of John” but there are certainly resources online if you want to pursue this idea. Suffice it to say that there is a series of witnesses throughout the gospel: John, as we have seen, Jesus himself (3:11), the Samaritan woman (4:39), God the Father (5:32, 8:16-18), Jesus’s works or signs(5:36), the Scriptures (5:39), and the crowd that testifies to the raising of Lazarus (12:17). At the end of his earthly ministry, Jesus tells the disciples that the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, will testify on his behalf and that they also must testify (15:26-27). Finally, the gospel itself is a witness. The evangelist concludes it by saying, “Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book. But these are written so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name.” John’s gospel is sometimes stereotyped as abstract, mystical, “spiritual”. Nothing of the kind. The evangelist’s theology is framed and bookended by very real, human witnesses, anchored in time and place. “This took place in Bethany across the Jordan, where John was baptizing.”

So, what is the purpose of all this witnessing? It is not the witness in and of itself that is important, but what it points to beyond itself. Something is supposed to happen as a result of the witness. The conclusion of the gospel says it – “so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name”. The purpose of witness is to lead to a relationship with Jesus, to discipleship. Witness is one of the chief qualities of a disciple in John’s gospel. As Jesus says, “You also are to testify”. As followers of Jesus, we are called to be witnesses in our turn. Faith, to be useful to anyone, must be anchored in real people in a particular time and place. And the purpose of our witness is to invite others into a relationship with God as we have known God in Jesus, so that sin may be taken away and life may be given in its place.

John’s witness was very public. How can we, disciples in the year 2020, bear witness when we can’t be “out there”, when we can’t gather, when we can’t meet others in person? Well, one way is through our online presence. Our website, our worship, meetings, and study groups that take place on Zoom can’t take the place of meeting in person, but they are good enough for the time being until we can gather again. More than that, though, they are a positive ministry to:

• Former parishioners who have moved away
• Friends and family of St. Peter’s members
• People who, for reasons of health, advanced age, or work schedules aren’t able to attend in-person worship even when it is available
• Anyone who finds us through our website or an online search and who metaphorically “drops in”, including some who might find it difficult or impossible to walk through the door of    the physical building.

Many churches, including St. Peter’s, are beginning to think about how they can continue this kind of online ministry beyond the pandemic as part of our witness to God made known to us in Christ. It has the potential both to enrich our care for one another, especially our more vulnerable members, and to become a powerful means of outreach to people beyond our immediate membership.

Another way we can bear witness is in the ways we respond to the pandemic – by following public health orders; by wearing masks and limiting our contacts; by showing kindness and patience with people who don’t make the rules and are just trying to do their jobs; by showing compassion to those who are fearful and anxious about vaccines, even if we don’t agree with them; by expressing gratitude to the health care workers, long-haul truckers, store clerks and teachers who are keeping us all going; by concrete actions of justice toward those who are impacted disproportionately by the pandemic and its accompanying restrictions; by refraining from self-pity and trying to maintain a hopeful attitude (and I’m preaching to myself here) – at least by limiting our pity parties to an audience of one. There are many small, specific ways we can bear witness.

We need to let our witness be guided by one question: what will people discover about Jesus and God through our witness? Will they experience God’s love? Will they come to know Jesus as the one who mends the world’s broken relationship with God and who brings healing to our social and personal wounds? Will they be drawn to Jesus and so discover the God who wants to be in relationship with them? And through that, will they discover that light does shine in the darkness, and that the darkness cannot put it out?

John came as a witness to testify to the light. May we, too, be faithful to that calling. Amen.