Following in Father’s Footsteps

The Rev. Dr. Skip Ferguson

Manassas Presbyterian Church

Manassas, Virginia

December 9, 2012

The Second Sunday in Advent

Following in Father’s Footsteps

Luke 1:5-7; 57-66

“What then will this child become?”

That’s a question asked of virtually every child.

Adorable baby,

wobbly toddler,

bold pre-schooler,

hesitant middle schooler:

What will this child become?

Will she grow up to be a doctor,

an engineer, a pilot, a teacher?

Will he sing, act,

draw the world to him with his piano playing?

Will she live quietly,

or will she seek to conquer the world?

Will he be a man of peace and compassion,

or will he struggle all his life with an inner restlessness?

In the case of John the Baptizer,

his life should have been very easy to predict.

He was born into a long line of priests:

both on his father’s and his mother’s side.

In fact, through his mother Elizabeth

John could claim lineage all the way back to Aaron,

the brother of Moses.

He was truly part of the “royal priesthood”.

Luke describes Zechariah and Elizabeth

as both “righteous” and “blameless,”

the very model of faithfulness in Israel.

John’s path should have been clear, obvious:

he’d be raised in the Temple,

he’d be taught by priests to be a priest,

and then he’d live his life as one of the leaders

at the great Temple in Jerusalem

following in his father’s footsteps.

But of course that’s not how John’s life played out.

The angel Gabriel came to Zechariah

in the inner sanctum of the Temple

as he was going about his duties as a Temple priest,

to tell him the news that his prayers

had been answered

and that he and Elizabeth would soon have a son.

But Gabriel didn’t stop there;

he went on to tell Zechariah that his son

would be born for a great purpose,

that he

“will be great in the sight of the Lord…

Even before his birth he will be filled with the Holy Spirit.

He will turn many of the people of Israel

 to the Lord their God.

With the spirit and power of Elijah

he will go before him,

to turn the hearts of parents to their children,

and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous,

to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.”

(Luke 1:15-17)

Zechariah must have been thrilled

to hear the angel of the Lord tell him that his son,

the son he and Elizabeth had prayed for for so many years,

would be “great in the sight of the Lord.”

But the rest of Gabriel’s news

must have confused Zechariah:

that his son would turn people to God –

What did that mean?

How would his son turn people to God?

And how would his son make ready a people for the Lord?

We know virtually nothing about Jesus’ upbringing,

his years as a child, an adolescent, and young man,

and in the same way,

we know nothing about those years for John.

All Luke tells us is that,

“The child grew and became strong in spirit”

and then at some age, at some point in his life,

John “was in the wilderness

[up] until the day he appeared publicly in Israel.”

(Luke 1:80)

But once he appeared publicly,

there was no stopping him,

no holding him back,

and certainly no chance of misunderstanding his message.

Perhaps the most polite way to describe John’s appearance,

would be with the term, “counter-cultural”.

John was not a man destined to wear

the elaborate ephod of the Temple priest.

Instead he “wore clothing of camel’s hair

with a leather belt around his waist”

(Matthew 3:4)

reminiscent of the great prophet Elijah,

the one taken up 800 years before in a whirlwind,

who had been described as a

“a hairy man, with a leather belt around his waist.”

(2 Kings 1:8)

And it wasn’t just John’s appearance

that was counter-cultural,

wildly different from his father and other religious leaders.

John had no use for the age-old practice

of sacrifice at the Temple,

calling instead all those who came to him

to be baptized, a novel practice back then,

to be washed clean,

and repent for their sins.

And when he spoke, John had fire in his voice,

fire in his eyes,

shouting at those who came down to the bank of the Jordan

as though sparks were shooting out of his hair

and his fingertips:

“Repent, you brood of vipers!

Bear fruit worthy of repentance!”

Amazingly,

astoundingly,

people flocked to him.

Mark tells us, “people from the whole Judean countryside

and all the people of Jerusalem”

(Mark 1:5)

came to hear his words,

to be baptized,

to repent.

        

John became so popular that before long

he had his own disciples;

some of them certain that he was

Elijah returned from the whirlwind,

while others wondered whether

he might even be the Messiah,

the savior the prophets had promised

would come to redeem Israel.

It would have been easy for John to have let himself

get caught up in his celebrity,

but he was filled with the Spirit of God,

and he knew that his role was not the lead,

but the vital supporting role.

He knew that he was the one to

“go before the Lord to prepare his ways,

to give knowledge of salvation to his people

by the forgiveness of sins.”

(Luke 1:76-77)

John understood his role was to

breathe life into the prophetic words

Isaiah had spoken more than 700 years before:

“In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord,

make straight in the desert a highway for our God.

Every valley shall be lifted up,

and every mountain and hill be made low;

the uneven ground shall become level,

and the rough places a plain.

Then the glory of the Lord shall be revealed,

and all the people shall see it together.”

(Isaiah 40:3-5)

John understood that the glory of the Lord

was to be revealed in the Messiah,

was to be revealed in Jesus the Christ.

And John was to prepare the way,

prepare the way for the coming of the Messiah.

John’s own disciples argued with him, though,

seeing the carpenter from Nazareth a competitor.

But John knew better, saying to them,

“You yourselves are my witnesses that I said,

‘I am not the messiah,

but I have been sent ahead of him….’

For this reason, my joy has been fulfilled.”

He knew he was doing what God wanted him to do,

and for John that was all that mattered.

And he also understood that once his work was done,

the way prepared,

he would step back into the shadows,

as the Messiah stepped fully into the sunlight.

As John put it so poetically:

“He must increase and I must decrease.”

(John 3:22ff)

But yet John has never decreased;

much less faded from view,

for his is the very voice of Advent.

His is the voice that reminds us

to be alert, awake,

attentive, alive,

lamps filled and lit

as we eagerly await the coming of our Lord;

for the one who came

is the one who will come again.

And even as he breathed fire and brimstone

John also made clear that to be ready,

to have our hearts ready for our Lord

was and is as simple as

living lives of compassion, kindness,

charity, and generosity:

as he said to those gathered on the riverbank:

if you have two coats, share one with the person who has none;

don’t steal,

don’t be greedy.

John was the messenger sent to prepare

the children of Israel for the coming of the Messiah.

And John is still the messenger sent to you and me

to prepare us,

to prepare our hearts for the Advent of our Lord.

Hear him cry out to us, his voice still loud, still clear,

urgent,

yet hopeful and loving:

“Prepare the way of the Lord!

Prepare the way of the Lord!

[so that] all flesh shall see the salvation of God!”

AMEN