HOW TO BE A SIGN POST

Third Sunday in Advent - 11th December 2005

Kingdom Season 7  |  Year A  |  Proper 32 Track 1  |  Ordinary Time Week 37 (Year B)

Isaiah 61.1-4, 8-11  |  1 Thessalonians 5.16-24  |  John 1.6-8, 19-28 : To see the current week's readings, click here

TERRIBLE CHRISTMAS JOKE....

Three men die on Christmas Eve and are met by St Peter at the pearly gates.

"In honour of this holy season," says St Peter, "You must each possess something that symbolises Christmas to get into heaven."

The first man goes through his pockets and pulls out a lighter, flicks it on, saying, "It represents a candle!"

"You may pass through the pearly gates," says St Peter.

The second man pulls out a set of keys, shakes them and says, "They're bells." St Peter lets him pass.

The third man looks desperate and finally pulls a pair of women’s knickers from his pocket. St. Peter looks quizzical and asks, "Just how do those symbolise Christmas?"

The man replies, "They're Carol's."

A FUNNY BLOKE...

John the Baptist. “Not the sort of bloke you’d want your daughter to date” a youth group leader once said to me. And if you thought J the B’s methods appearance and message were unusual, just wait until you see the Messiah...!

It obviously took the Establishment by surprise: “Who are you?” That’s the question they asked John the Baptist...

It’s quite clear that he knew who he was. He knew who he wasn’t! (just as important!) And he knew what his job was.

...BUT A FOCUSED ONE!

He was one focused dude. He wasn’t the Messiah, so he wasn’t doing Messiahry things - his job was to prepare the way for the Boss.

Getting a good handle on who you are and what is your job, is very important. A lot of confusion, stress and disappointment comes from not realising who we are or what our role is. And conversely the world seems a much better place when we realise who we are and where we fit into the great scheme of things.

So who are you, and what’s your job?

COMIC TIME!

When I was little four comics used to arrive in our house every Friday. My brother got a comic called the Dandy. I got a comic called the Beano and my dad got a comic called the Church Times. Isn’t it ironic how life goes around? (And by strange coincidence the Rector of Upper St Leonard’s made an appearance in this week’s Church Times, eating his hat.) The fourth comic was one our parents bought for us to share and it was called Look & Learn - a kind of scientific version of Blue Peter in print - it had allsorts of articles about how lasers worked, or where electricity came from, or why gravity was a good thing... and one of the articles I remember vividly was an analysis of the human body...

And I was told that my body was made up of a lot of water; enough lime to whitewash as medium sized hen coop; enough iron for a six inch nail; enough phosphorus to tip several boxes of matches; enough fat to make a lot of bars of soap; the same amount of carbon as you’d get from a lot of burnt toast; enough sugar to sweeten several cups of tea; enough copper for a small piece of wire and so on.. and the value of these constituent ingredients cost about £2 (this was in the 1970s). And that was what I was worth...

I was a collection of a few chemicals and bits you could buy in a hardware shop. That was who I was.

So who are you?

Are you just a random collection of bits, put together in a kind of haphazard way... who are you?

SO, WHAT DO YOU DO?

And what’s your job? Will the world stop turning if you don’t do whatever it is you think you have to do? Does everything depend on you? Without your role would there be complete chaos? Do you have to be all coping, all knowing, all competent...? Is there a lot of stuff that only you can do?... Are you indispensable?

John the Baptist knew who he was and what his job was.

JOHN THE BAPTIST’S JOB SPEC

So who was he? Well he was sent from God - as opposed to Jesus who was “in the beginning with God”, and in fact was God (John 1.1). So he was important, but not The Most Important. He came as a witness. He was sent with a purpose. He may have been the last of the Old Testament prophets and he was significant because of that, but his job was not all about him, it was all about Jesus. As somebody who told others about God he was important, but he was not God...

We can identify with John the Baptist in lots of ways.... We are, like him, made in the image of God. Loved by God. Cherished by God. Not a random collection of bits, not cheap or worthless; not a mistake or an accident; not a failure or hopeless, but a child of the Creator and Sustainer of the Universe... That’s a pretty impressive pedigree...!

John the Baptist wasn’t there to put himself on a pedestal, or let others do that - he knew that he was just a voice (albeit an important voice), and his job was to point as clearly as he could in his words, actions and attitudes to Jesus.

WORDS... So we see him telling others about Jesus in his words “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1.29)...

ACTIONS... We see him telling others about Jesus in his actions - he physically baptises Jesus (Mk 1.2-11), and enables God to be shown: the Holy Spirit descends as a dove and God’s voice is heard... He points to Jesus “I’m not important enough to take the Messiah’s sandals off... (John 1.27)

ATTITUDES... We see him telling others about Jesus in his continued attitude: saying “He must increase: I must decrease...” (John 3.30) John sends his disciples off to follow Jesus (John 1.35-37).

His job was to point as clearly as he could in his words, actions and attitudes to Jesus.

DEMARCATION! NOT MY JOB, MATE!

John doesn’t try to convince everybody - he merely points to Jesus and lets them get on with making the relationship. He doesn’t try and baptise the entire city of Bethany. He doesn’t even write a course or draw up a rota or convene a baptism committee... so how he was ever successful we’ll never understand...

• He knows where his responsibility lies. He hears what it is that God has called him to do and he does it.

• It’s not our job to fill St John’s church. But it is our job to invite people, and to be willing to talk about our faith.

• It’s not our job to cajole or bully people into the kingdom: our job - like John’s - is to point beyond ourselves to Jesus. We are signposts.

• It’s not our job to convert anybody. That’s the role of the Holy Spirit.

• It’s not our job to have an answer to every question people might ask us. But we are to think through our faith and stretch our God given brains a bit.

• It’s not our job to defend the Spanish Inquisition, or apartheid or other terrible things which have been done in God’s names in years past... But it is our job to say sorry, to turn from what we know to be wrong and live in God’s forgiveness.

A SHARED JOB SPEC...

Like John the Baptist our job is to point to Jesus by our lives, by our actions and eventually by our words - we are to be signposts, we are to be stepping stones, we are to be icons through whom Jesus is glimpsed in our loving and in our living.

...SIGNPOSTS!

John the Baptist prepared the way for Jesus, and we share that task too. We are called to make the gospel story known, to use words if we need to. We are called to show and tell faithfully how God is moulding and changing us - the struggles as well as the joys.

We are called to stand and point....!

Fr Andrew J Perry
Rector, St John the Evangelist, Pevensey Rd, St Leonards on Sea