Less, Not More
By Griff Martin
A
Sermon on John 1:29-42
For
the Second Sunday of Epiphany (Jan 19, 2020)
For
the Beloveds of First Austin: a baptist community of faith
Incarnate and Coming Christ, we ask
that you once again take the Word and transform it into a living and breathing
new reality we can all together experience. Make us aware of your presence here
in this space and in these words God, for if we are present to you then nothing
else will matter, but if we are not present to you then nothing else will
matter. In the name of the Creator, the Christ and the Comforter. Amen.
It
seems more than appropriate on this particular Sunday, the Sunday before the
day we honor the memory of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King (who is, to my knowledge,
the only baptist preacher who gets a federal holiday named after him, the man
who is with Jimmy Carter on the short list of well-known baptists we all need
to aim to be more like. He is our kind of Baptist; or maybe better to say we
should aim to be his kind of Baptist) … It seems fitting to begin the sermon
with the words of one of his sermons that rings so true and relevant this
morning it could be preached in every pulpit in America.
The
sermon was first preached at Riverside Baptist in New York City on April 4,
1967, exactly one year before his assassination. It was his first major speech
on the Vietnam War. The sermon is known by three titles: Beyond Vietnam, A Time
to Break Silence, and Revolution of Values (I prefer the last). King
vocally opposed the Vietnam War, insisting that this war was not the answer and
that this war was distracting us from more important issues happening in our
own country that needed to be addressed – the ills and evils of poverty,
racism, oppression and violence. In this sermon King called for a “shift from a
‘thing-oriented’ society to a ‘person-oriented’ society,” and for us to
“struggle for a new world.”
The
sermon concluded with these words:
“Our
only hope today lies in our ability to recapture the revolutionary spirit and
go out into a sometimes hostile world declaring eternal hostility to poverty,
racism, and militarism. With this powerful commitment we shall boldly challenge
the status quo and unjust mores and thereby speed the day when every valley
shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low, and the
crooked shall be made straight and the rough places plain … Now let us begin.
Now let us rededicate ourselves to the long and bitter—but beautiful—struggle
for a new world.”
A
call to change our values in order to create the Kingdom that God has desired
for so very long.
Now
travel forward with me almost exactly 53 years to a current event and to a
sentence that I never anticipated preaching in a pulpit: If you want to see the
Kingdom of God today, look towards the Royal Family. Because the Royal Family
is giving us a very interesting lesson these days about the revolution of
values. Last week the Duke and Duchess, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, announced
their plans to step back from their official duties as royalty and to begin
pursuing their own financial independence. Now, I am not expecting them to live
like Dorothy Day; I think their finances are probably always going to be just
fine. However, this movement from a position of traditional power to less, of
letting go of titles, houses, wealth and privilege is noteworthy.
Paying
attention to the news, it appears people find this absurd. The average person
is struggling to understand how someone in a powerful role, prominent role
would choose on their own to step aside for a more normal existence, for less
power and prominence. This is swimming upstream in our world today. But church,
this is our very calling; to be less, to realize it’s not about us, to use our
simple lives to point to something greater.
It’s
a revolution of values, a revolution and transformation that could perhaps
begin in the church. God knows it is needed. Today’s text gives us a perfect
picture of this movement.
Our
text begins exactly where we were last Sunday morning, the baptism of Jesus.
All 4 Gospels mention the baptism of Jesus, all 4 Gospels struggle with it in
their own unique way, as if it is this big family secret that no one really
knows what to do with or how to explain.
The
text begins with Jesus coming towards John who is out in the waters of Jordan
River baptizing people. Now, the author John’s telling of this event is
different than Matthew, Mark or Luke. Here John declares the very moment he
sees Jesus, “Here is the Real One.” This testimony of the event does not
actually include a baptism – the actual baptism is merely alluded to – the text
is instead John the Baptist’s words about Jesus.
And
then the text continues with the very next day (Day 3 of John’s introduction
made up of 4 days), when John the Baptist has moved from the muddy waters to
standing alongside a road like a street corner preacher. His disciples are with
him and we can only assume that John is continuing to give the sermon for which
he is so famous, “Repent.”
Hear
the Gospel again: “The next day John again was standing with two of his
disciples, and as he watched Jesus walk by, he exclaimed ‘Look here is the Lamb
of God.’” The two disciples heard him say this and they followed Jesus.
Now,
John the Baptist is always terrifying to me. He is very hellfire and brimstone
when it comes to preaching, which is about as far from my style of preaching as
possible. Add to it his weird diet, his bizarre wardrobe… it’s all just too
much.
However,
this moment is the most confusing to me. John has two chances to jump into the
spotlight and he gives them both away – or at least, tries to. First the
baptism. Can you imagine being forever known as the one who baptized Jesus?
That is quite a title to get to carry; that is quite a way to make sure that
your name will never be forgotten. That is the kind of thing that guarantees
you infamy. And John tries to get out of it, I am not worthy to do this.
And I don’t think it’s false humility, to be honest. I don’t see John doing
this the way I do when some of you stop to tell me that was a really great
sermon and I try to be humble and look down and nod and say ‘thank you’ but I
really want to ask you to list all the things you loved about it and while you
are at it list all you love about me. I don’t think John’s was like that; I
think John really meant it. I am not worthy.
And
then when the story continues and John has disciples there with him and when
Jesus walks by, he points his disciples to Jesus, there he is, and the
disciples go follow Jesus. Now, disciples were a big deal to a Rabbi. A Rabbi
with a lot of disciples was, for lack of a better phrase, a more popular Rabbi.
The more disciples you had, the more your ego could grow. So, John just willingly
pointing to Jesus and telling his disciples, that is the guy you should
follow… Again, it is this odd move that gives up power, prestige and
popularity instead of embracing it. Who does that?
John
the Baptist does that.
And
it’s our call to do that, too.
Our
job is not to make a name for ourselves. Our call is not to accumulate as much
power as possible. Our job is not to rack up titles and accolades. Our job is
not to build a bigger bank account. Our job is not to make this as much about
us as possible. Our job is to live a life where we are constantly pointing
others to Jesus Christ, no matter what that costs us. Hear that again; our job
is to live a life where we are constantly pointing others to Jesus Christ, no
matter what that costs us.
What
the world needs is us pointing to Jesus.
In
her moving memoir, Out of Africa, Issak Denison writes about one of her
favorite workers around her farm in Africa. He was a young man, about 15. He
came to work on the farm and was a good and hard worker. After 6 months he came
to Isaak to say he was moving on to work at another farm. She asked why, was he
getting better pay? Because she would pay him more; she did not want to lose
him. He responded this job was not about money, and then went on to explain
that he was leaving to work in a Muslim household. He was trying to decide the
rest of his faith journey, what to believe in, and one of the ways he wanted to
explore that was to work in a Christian household and a Muslim household and
observe the faiths that way.
She
writes that if she had known he was searching for that, she would have lived
differently while he worked for her.
I
think that story is playing out all around us every day. There are folks who
are watching us and the question we need to ask is are they seeing us point to
Jesus or towards ourselves? The very measure of our faith is found in that
answer.
Our
job is to live a life where we are constantly pointing others to Jesus Christ,
no matter what that costs us.
So,
our lives need to look like Jesus: Justice oriented, full of grace and
forgiveness and mercy, humble, servant oriented, inclusive of all, a listening
ear, a compassionate heart. We live like that so that our lives point to the
greatest truth we know.
It’s
not about us, it’s about Jesus.
Who
do you point people to?
It’s
an old mystical truth, to remember that we are fingers pointing to the moon.
The finger itself is not the end, it’s not the goal. Our world gets this wrong
way too often. We are the finger, not the moon.
John
the Baptist got it right. He says so himself, later in the Gospel according to
John. There is a bit of an argument going on between John the Baptist’s
followers and other religious teachers, and it actually involves that entire
contest about who has the most disciples. The argument eventually is brought
before John the Baptist. “The one you baptized is now gaining followers faster
than you are… look, all are going to him.”
Hear
John’s response: “No one can receive anything except what has been given from
heaven. You yourselves are my witnesses that I said, ‘I am not the Messiah, but
I have been sent ahead of him.’ He who has the bride is the bridegroom. The
friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly at the
bridegroom’s voice. For this reason my joy has been fulfilled. He must
increase, but I must decrease.”
First
Austin, Jesus must increase, we must decrease. Amen and Amen.
*artwork: Martin Luther King, Jr. Quote, everydaypower.com/quotes-by-martin-luther-king-jr
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