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 concerning that light, so that through him all might believe. 8 He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the light.
19 Now this was John’s testimony when the Jewish leaders in Jerusalem sent priests and Levites to ask him who he was. 20 He did not fail to confess, but confessed freely, “I am not the Messiah.”
21 They asked him, “Then who are you? Are you Elijah?”
He said, “I am not.”
“Are you the Prophet?”
He answered, “No.”
22 Finally they said, “Who are you? Give us an answer to take back to those who sent us. What do you say about yourself?”
23 John replied in the words of Isaiah the prophet, “I am the voice of one calling in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way for the Lord.’”
24 Now the Pharisees who had been sent 25 questioned him, “Why then do you baptize if you are not the Messiah, nor Elijah, nor the Prophet?”
26 “I baptize with water,” John replied, “but among you stands one you do not know. 27 He is the one who comes after me, the straps of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie.”
28 This all happened at Bethany on the other side of the Jordan, where John was baptizing.
“One Whom We do Not Know”
“Love came down at Christmas,
love all lovely, love divine;
love was born at Christmas,
star and angles gave the sign.”
And the world did not know him...
And his own people did not accept him.
And as strange as it sounds. even among us, more often then we would like to think, He stands as “One whom we do not know.”
He is among us in places we least expect, in people we find it difficult to be civil toward let alone love and in ways we are far from wanting to take as our way on this earth. For His way is the way of love and that is the hardest thing for us to come to in this world. We say we know what love is yet we reject it as the way to run our world.
It is too soft, we say; too sentimental, too easy, too forgiving. It’s a good way to get yourself killed, And of course, that’s exactly what happened to this Baby who commands so must attention at this time of the year.
Without love, as Paul reminds us so emphatically in his hymn to love, no matter what we do or believe, we are nothing!
That’s what makes this season such a powerful time of the year. This is no casual thing we are celebrating. This is the cosmic event of all time!
For Jesus is pure love coming to dwell in a world where hate has its sway and such love is always on the cutting edge of life going where we do not want to go and asking us to follow in places we would never go alone.
Indeed,
“Love came down at Christmas,
love all lovely, love divine;
love was born at Christmas,
star and angles gave the sign.”
To believe this is to also have to, want to, dare to, rejoice to sing:
“Love shall be our token,
Love be yours and love be mine,
Love to God and all people,
Love for plea and gift and sign.
“One Whom You Do Not Know”
God is always a surprise. There is always more mystery than knowledge with God.
God came in human form and God comes in human form. It is the challenge and task of faith to see God in places we expect Him not and in people we know not.
Jesus was a surprise to all who thought they knew what to expect from God. He was not the One they were looking for - they didn’t want a ‘word become flesh’ - that was too close for comfort.
God is always new even as God is forever of old. God is always close to us, even as God dwells in the far places of heaven. God is deeply intimate even as God is powerfully creative. God is among us as One who would change us into His likeness day by day as we walk with Jesus and dare to see him as the One God sent. This means that we become more human not less, more alive, more joyful, more loving, more real and that our religion becomes not something which keeps God in our control , but something which opens us up to the mystery and surprise which God always is!
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