“The Voice of One Challenging Our Worldview”
December 17, 2023
John 1:6–8; 19–28
There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. He came as a witness to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him. He himself was not the light, but he came to testify to the light.
This is the testimony given by John when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, ‘Who are you?’ He confessed and did not deny it, but confessed, ‘I am not the Messiah.’ And they asked him, ‘What then? Are you Elijah?’ He said, ‘I am not.’ ‘Are you the prophet?’ He answered, ‘No.’ Then they said to him, ‘Who are you? Let us have an answer for those who sent us. What do you say about yourself?’ He said,
‘I am the voice of one crying out in the wilderness,
“Make straight the way of the Lord” ’,
as the prophet Isaiah said.
Now they had been sent from the Pharisees. They asked him, ‘Why then are you baptizing if you are neither the Messiah, nor Elijah, nor the prophet?’ John answered them, ‘I baptize with water. Among you stands one whom you do not know, the one who is coming after me; I am not worthy to untie the thong of his sandal.’ This took place in Bethany across the Jordan where John was baptizing.
Every human being possesses a worldview. However, we are not born with one. The worldview to which we hold forms perspectives and understandings we hold. A personal worldview, for example, could include your perceptions on such things as your view of politics, philosophy, and religion. We may not stop to think about it too often, but it is really our worldview that shapes how we interact with the world, and it greatly influences our values, choices and actions
A worldview is formed in us over time, solidifying as we experience a variety of people and events. By the fact that you are reading this piece means you have a worldview that encompasses Christianity. Along the path of your life, this piece has been shaped and developed in you. What other aspects comprise your worldview?
As a white, middle class person raised in an intact family in a small midwestern town, my worldview began in a very simple, bucolic way. Parents, neighbors, teachers, church members and friends all contributed to this uncomplicated view of the world. The shaping continued through educational pursuits and into a career of working with people who generally looked and lived much I did. The categories by which I understand life were neatly defined and they aligned without presenting any challenge. My worldview changed significantly when I began exploring places and cultures far away and vastly different from life in America.
The truth is we all live with certain categories that make sense to us. We use them to construct our worldview and our understanding of God. We use them to try and make sense of people, circumstances, life, and relationships. Categories by their nature involve definition, limitations, and expectations. There is nothing wrong with that until there is, until those categories begin to close us off, narrow our vision, and impoverish our life. At some point they always do.
Have you had times when you have thought or said something like “I can’t put my finger on it,” “I am just not sure what to make of this,” “I cannot wrap my head around that,” “I cannot figure him out.” In those times our categories are not working. The person or situation does not fit within our worldview, into our boxes and definitions.
In today’s Gospel, we encounter John, the forerunner of Jesus, who is one of those people that does not fit within our categories. He is out in the wilderness, hardly the location to be announcing the coming of the Messiah. Some who encountered John thought he was the long-awaited Messiah. The people sent by the Pharisees to check out John were confused because he did not fit in their categories.
When a situation or person falls outside our worldview and the categories that make sense to us, the temptation is to re-categorize those experiences to fit within our worldview. This helps us stay comfortably within our worldview.
But what if we were not so quick to re-categorize? What if we did not try so hard to pin down an answer or make a judgement? What if we let the narrowness of our worldview and the failure of our categories expand our vision? What if “yes” became our way of seeing? When people, situations, or even God no longer fit the definitions and expectations of our categories maybe it is time to look again, to open ourselves, and to consider that there might be something more.
I wonder if that is why we have two Sundays in Advent with accounts about John in the wilderness. Maybe the purpose is to make us look again, to see that there is more than one way to be shaped by an encounter with him and his message.
The reading today tells us the priests and Levites come to the wilderness and to John with their worldview, crammed with categories, expectations, definitions, and limits. They expect John to fit their construct of the long promised Messiah. He does not. He will not allow that. “I am not the Messiah,” he tells them. They want to know then if he is Elijah. “I am not,” he says. “Are you the prophet?” “No.” With each negation John avoids another of their categories.
If they cannot pigeonhole John, they hope they can get him to categorize himself. “Who are you? Let us have an answer,” they demand. “What do you say about yourself?” John refuses to let himself be boxed in or categorized. How could he? He is the witness and testifier to the light. He has a truly God-inspired and shaped worldview. He has to reflect in his testimony the reality and truth about the light and the light of Christ is beyond all categories.
The priests and the Levites just do not get it. They are hanging on to their categories, limitations, and expectations. “Why then are you baptizing if you are neither the Messiah, nor Elijah, nor the prophet?” Their worldviews have kept them from seeing and knowing the one who already stands among them. Sometimes our worldview does that to us. It keeps us from recognizing the one who stands among us.
What worldview are you living with in this ever changing and increasingly complex and conflicted world? What categories do you hold that define your life and are used to define others? How have your expectations of when, where, and how Christ shows up closed your eyes to his presence and his coming?
John has only one response to the priests, the Levites, and their categories. “Make straight the way of the Lord.” That is also his response to our worldview with all its categories. I wonder, though, if we hear that as meaning we better put ourselves in a different category, a category more acceptable to God. What if that is not at all what John is saying? Maybe John is telling us to open ourselves to a worldview that pushes the horizons? Maybe John is saying that despite all the ways we try to categorize God, ourselves, and each other the light is already among us. Maybe John is telling us to open up our worldview to see the one who is coming.
So, let me ask you this. What do you see? Is this one already among us or is he coming to us?
Image credits: 1) Missale.net 2) Art Is Hard
“The reality of Advent isn’t that we are
waiting for the birth of the Christ Child
The Christ Child is here and waiting for
us to come
He is crying out to us from the border
He is calling to us from voices of the poor
He is shouting out to us from prison
He is waiting for us to live our faith
He is waiting for us to seek justice
He is waiting for us to pursue peace
Let us go for He is waiting.” ~Susan Henry Crowe
He comes in the form of the beggar,
of the dissolute human child in ragged
clothes asking for help.
He confronts you in every person
that you meet. As long as there are
people, Christ will walk the earth as
your neighbor. ~Dietrich Bonhoeffer
