3 Advent, Yr B (2023) The Rev. Karen C. Barfield
3 Advent, Yr B (2023) The Rev. Karen C. Barfield
1 Thes 5:16-24 St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church
John 1:6-8, 19-28
In the name of the one, holy, and living God:
who was, and is, and is to come. Amen.
One early evening a few days before Thanksgiving
a friend pulled into a parking spot at her neighborhood Walgreen’s.
As she walked around the corner,
she almost stepped on a man who was sitting on the ground,
leaning up against one of the pillars.
He looked up at her and asked if she had any spare change.
She mumbled “no”
and went on inside.
As she wandered around the store looking for her items,
it dawned on her
that the man was holding a half-empty bottle of mouthwash in his hand.
So, when she came back outside,
she sat down on the cold concrete next to him,
and they started talking.
He was an alcoholic,
and homeless,
and cold,
and hungry.
Knowing there was a McDonald’s around the corner,
she asked if he’d like her to go get him some food.
He thanked her for the offer.
When she pulled back into the parking lot,
she saw a Walgreen’s employee walk out the front door
and look over in the man’s direction.
But when my friend walked up and sat down next to him,
the employee walked back inside.
She and Bill -
that was his name -
had dinner there by the pillar and talked for an hour.
She then drove home and grabbed a sleeping bag and a pillow
and brought them back to him.
In her rearview mirror
she watched Bill walking down the sidewalk,
looking for a space that might be a little warmer…
and a little more welcoming than the entrance to Walgreen’s.
Meister Eckhart said:
God is found in the soul
not by adding anything
but by subtracting.
In today’s gospel we hear:
“There was a man sent from God, whose name was John.” (Jn 1:6)
Simply “John.”
In the Gospel according to John, he has no identifying title such as “the Baptist.”
There are no details of his appearance or diet.
He is simply “John.”
When the priests and Levites question him as to his identity,
he speaks in the negative.
“I am not the Messiah.”
“Are you Elijah?”
“I am not.”
“Are you the prophet?”
“No.”
Then “Who are you?”
“I am the voice of one crying out in the wilderness…
‘Make straight the way of the Lord.’”
In these 13 verses in the Gospel of John,
some variation of “no,” “not,” “nor,” “neither,” shows up 10 times.
John spends his time saying who he is not in order to point to the One who Is:
the “I AM” made flesh.
This is John who says just a little while later about himself and Jesus:
“He must increase,
but I must decrease.” (Jn 3:30)
God is found in the soul,
not by adding anything
but by subtracting.
This time of year…Advent…a week before Christmas…can become very hectic.
There are presents to buy and parties to attend.
Families are coming and going.
There are planes to catch and gas tanks to fill.
A lot of planning to do: meals to cook and preparations to be made.
In the midst of such busy-ness,
there seems to be something freeing
about the gospel writer’s paring down of John.
John is simply a voice…
pointing the way to Jesus…
pointing the way to Life.
Jesus is the focal point.
John had listened to God,
knew what his task was,
and acted in humble obedience to that call, even if it later drew hostility.
John’s call was to testify to the Light…
his task was to serve as a witness to enable others to see the Light.
As Christians, that is our task too:
to be witnesses to the Light.
We are witnesses to the Light through the way we live our lives.
G. K. Chesterton said:
“the saint…will generally be found restoring the world to sanity
by exaggerating whatever the world neglects,…
[the saint] is not what the people want,
but rather what the people need.” (taken from Synthesis, Advent 3, Yr B, 2014)
Being a witness to the Light
means that we are to take notice of,
and reach out in compassion,
to the lost, the hurting, the lonely, the voiceless ones in our midst.
It means sitting down next to a man who has nothing to his name
but the clothes on his back
and half a bottle of mouthwash,
to ask him his name and listen to his story.
It means lending our voices to those who have no voice in this world…
children, the elderly, persons with disabilities,
the poor, veterans, the abused and neglected of any age.
It means listening to the broken-hearted,
speaking up on issues of justice,
sharing food and cleaning the house of someone who is ill or recovering from surgery.
The list goes on and on…
there are a myriad of ways to point toward Jesus.
Being a witness to the Light
means that we live with compassion
and give ourselves away in whatever capacity we are able at the moment.
In this next week before Christmas,
I invite you to take notice of the people around you…
in your immediate context and in the world.
Look deeply.
Listen to how God may be asking you to respond…
it may be as simple as sitting down and asking someone how they are doing,
or it may mean praying daily for a particular person or group of people somewhere in the world.
As we give ourselves away,
the Light will shine forth…
both within us and in the world we inhabit. Amen.
