Accompanying lectionary: http://www.ecsssj.org/member/show_lit.php?myid=18

"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."

A few days ago, a federal judge ruled that it was unconstitutional for the state of South Carolina to issue license plates that had a picture of a cross and stained glass window and the words “I believe” printed on them.  Now I know better than to stand here and preach a sermon that's either for or against these license plates.  (I may have been born at night, but it wasn't last night!)  But it is very interesting to me that this issue has so many people so riled up.  It's as if they feel that they have to tell the world who they are, and identifies them as faithful, church-going people, who believe in Jesus Christ.  They feel that this license tag is an important part of their Christian witness.

We've seen something similar in recent years with that little fish symbol, the icthus.  Two thousand years ago, when the Church was illegal, a person could be put to death for being a Christian.  The icthus was a secret symbol that identified a house or building as “safe” for Christians.  The symbol became popular again back in the 1970's by the Jesus-freak movement.  They took it as a counter-cultural way of saying, “I'm a Christian.”  Now more and more I've seen on bumper stickers, business cards, billboards and yellow pages ads.  Now it's pretty clear that Christians are the dominant religious group in the US these days; nobody's going to be arrested and tortured for being a Christian here.   So I can't help but ask myself why these people put an icthus on their advertising.  My guess is that the reason it's on their advertising is as a way to say, “do business with me, because I'm a Christian.”  But I'd bet that at least some of them believe it is a way to be a witness.

Today's reading from the Gospel of John is about what it really means to be a witness.  As we learned last week, John the Baptist rolled into town preaching and baptizing people.  So the religious leaders of the area sent some folks out to find out who he was.  Now the interesting thing in the reading is that they were very insistent in their demands for him to tell them who he is.  But John is just as insistent to tell them who he is not.  I am not the Messiah.  I am not Elijah.  I am not the prophet.  They keep pressing him, and finally all he will do to identify himself is to say, “I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness.”  In other words, John is a a witness to the coming of the Lord.

Can you imagine that happening today?  Can you imagine someone who has so little ego as to define himself in terms of someone else?  John was a big-time somebody in his own right.  He had his own ministry.  He had his own disciples.  He had a following.  People came from miles around to hear John and be baptized by him.  And he knew that the people are looking for a Messiah.  It would have been so easy for him to say, “Yes, I'm the one,”  at least for a little while. 

But John's mission wasn't to be the Messiah.  His mission wasn't even to be a prophet.  John's mission was to be a witness to the light.  A witness is someone who observes an event, and tells other people about it.  Witnessing requires testimony, it requires proclamation.  To be a witness for Christ requires engaging with people so they come to understand not who I am, but who Christ is and how he worked in the word. 

John was sent to be a witness to Christ.  He didn't do it by telling people who he is; he kept denying that he was anybody special at all.  He did it by pointing beyond himself.  He did it by preaching and teaching, and by doing Jesus' work in the world.  John didn't wear a bumper sticker with a fish on it, or a license plate that says “I believe,” because he knew it wasn't about who he was.  Instead, he talked about what he knew about Jesus Christ.  We worked among the people so that they came to know who Christ was, as they came to know who John was.  John pointed to Jesus, by being Jesus in the world.  He knew that his calling in life was not to be the light, not to tell people who he was, but to work with people so that they also could see the light. 

In the sermon on the mount, Jesus says, “Let your lights so shine before all people that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father, who is in heaven.”  Jesus is talking about being witnesses to the light.  There are lots of ways we can be witnesses to Jesus Christ as the light of the world.  But I can't think of any that involve license plates or bumper stickers.  At the same time, it's not enough just do Jesus' work in the world.  We must also testify.  One of the things that I believe we do pretty well in this church is outreach – we help a families that don't have a lot of money have Christmas presents under the tree through the Giving Tree.  We provide food and clothing through Sharing God's Love.  We help build a school in Haiti.  We help fix up homes, we give money to people who need it.  All of these are wonderful ways we are Jesus hands and feet in the world.

But we're not very good at being the voice; we're not very good at testifying.  Maybe it's because 65% of the people in the Episcopal Church are introverts.  (It's even higher for the clergy!)  Or maybe it's because we think it's somehow too showy or unseemly.  But somewhere along the way, we lost our voice as to why we do what we do.  We've lost our ability to testify to the light. 

I believe John the Baptist probably wouldn't understand why someone would want an “I Believe” license plate or an icthus bumper sticker on their car.  He didn't come to talk about himself.  At the same time, he probably wouldn't understand why people would hesitate to tell people how Christ is the reason for the work they do in the world.  John's entire reason for being was to testify to the light.  Maybe, in addition to being Jesus' hands and feet, we need to regain our voice in the world as well.  Maybe, we need to testify a little more about the One who motivates our action.  Maybe, we need to relearn how to testify to the light.

Thanks be to God.

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