Prepare the Way of the Lord!

The Rev. Kathi Johnson

B Advent 3 – 17 December 2017

Text: John 1: 6-8, 19-28

Our Redeemer Lutheran Church, Grand Prairie, Texas

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John the Baptizer appears in all four gospels in some way or another, usually pretty early in the gospel book. Because he shows up in so many of these ancient writings, we know that the earliest Christians considered him an important figure. In Matthew and Mark, John first shows up as an adult, calling others to repent, and baptizing them in the Jordan River. In Luke, the pregnancy narrative of John’s mother, Elizabeth, is linked quite significantly with the pregnancy narrative of Jesus’ mother, Mary.

In our lesson from the Gospel of John today, we learn that John the Baptizer was sent from God to witness to the light. This gospel writer makes it clear: John isn’t the light; he’s the one called to testify about the light.

During John’s life, there was confusion about who he was. We hear today that some religious leaders want to know more about his identity, so when they ask him, John says he’s not the Messiah, he’s not Elijah, he’s not the prophet. So they ask again, “Who are you?” And he gives them his answer using the ancient words of Isaiah: “I am the voice of one crying out in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way of the Lord.’”

In ancient times, when someone important was traveling the region, a road crew of sorts would go ahead, preparing the way. Travel was arduous, so rough roads would be made smooth, high places would be leveled to match lower places. These crews knew they had a job to do; they also knew they weren’t the focus. Their job was to prepare the way for the emperor, the governor, or the king who was to follow.

So John is the head of the road crew, preparing the way for Jesus.

Put another way: John himself isn’t the light; his job is to tell others about the true light, which enlightens everyone, and is coming into the world.

Years ago, Steve and I visited the Inner Space Cavern, down I-35 near Georgetown, in Central Texas. This cavern was discovered in 1963, and it runs deep enough and through enough solid rock that when you’re in the cavern, you are in the cavern. Important features are well-lit, as are the pathways that the tours follow. During part of the tour, the guide stopped us to explain part of the cavern.

Then, she asked us if we wanted to experience Total Darkness. The cavern has its own unique darkness, called Total Darkness, and the way she said it, I felt like it should be trademarked. At the very least, it’s capitalized: Total Darkness.

Of course, we all said yes – so she hit the lights. And sure enough, it was Total Darkness – she told us to hold up our hands in front of our faces, and I couldn’t see my own hand, even an inch in front of my nose. I couldn’t see anything. We stood completely still in that darkness, and finally the lights began to come back on.

In order for us to experience Total Darkness, we had to make sure every light-giving source was off or put away, for it only takes a bit of light to ruin Total Darkness. One cell phone screen, and the darkness would’ve been gone. One glow-in-the-dark watch face, and there would be no darkness.

Even a small light has this incredible way of banishing the darkness – and when we are in darkness, our eyes are drawn toward light sources. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness does not overcome it. We stumble in the darkness. Sometimes, we are frozen by the darkness, afraid to move. And so the good news of Jesus Christ is this: that God, out of great love for us, offers the greatest light to us in the person of Jesus.

Like John the Baptizer, we are called to be witnesses to the light that shines in the darkness. We need not blind others with the light of Jesus. I recently watched a tv show in which a character brought out an old camera with a flash bright enough to blind everyone in the room. Every picture he took with this camera was a picture of someone squinting in pain or hiding their eyes. What’s the good of blinding someone?

And yet, there are plenty in our world who live in Total Darkness every day of their lives – their lives darkened by illness or injury, grief, oppression, bigotry – the list goes on and on.

It only takes a little bit of light to ruin the darkness, and we are the ones called to witness to the light of Christ, the ones called to hold up that light for all to see. And so, in Advent, we light candles here and there, banishing the darkness a bit more each week, until we arrive at the bright night of Christmas Eve, to welcome the Light of the Christ Child that has come into the world.

And it is Advent that helps us remember that we await the coming of Christ in glory on the final day – the day on which he will shine his light into every dark place – the day on which the darkness of sin and death will be banished forever. We do not know the day or the hour, only that the light will shine into the darkness, and the darkness will not overcome it.

Prepare the way of the Lord, and shine his light in the world.

Amen.

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"Trust in God, trust also in me."

The Rev. Kathi Johnson

Easter 5 – 14 May 2017

Text: John 14:1-14

Our Redeemer Lutheran Church, Grand Prairie, Texas

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Hidden away in the heart of today’s gospel lesson is a message about relationship – specifically, the trust that is required in order for a relationship to exist. Today’s gospel lesson from John 14 is a part of what we call Jesus’ Farewell Discourse – a long speech (of sorts) that Jesus gives to his disciples before his arrest, crucifixion, death, and resurrection. By this point, Jesus has already told them that he will be killed and raised again, so in this discourse, he is trying to help his disciples see that they’re going to have to have some trust.

The word “believe” comes up a lot in the Gospel of John, but it doesn’t always mean what we think it does. When John talks about “believing” in Jesus, he isn’t talking about a head-belief. He’s talking more about a relationship that must exist. Belief in John has to do with trust. So when Jesus says, “Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me,” that second part could very well also be rendered as, “Trust in God, trust also in me.”

So let’s back up for a second and look at the first part of what Jesus says here – “Do not let your hearts be troubled.”

OK, Jesus, you got it.

As much as that seems like an unreasonable expectation for us, imagine how it must’ve come across to his disciples. Guess what happens in John 13 right before Jesus tells his disciples not to let their hearts be troubled?

Jesus tells Peter, “Very truly, I tell you, before the cock crows, you will have denied me three times.”

Oh, and right before that is when Judas Iscariot leaves Jesus to betray him to the authorities.

So, into this emotionally challenging evening filled with betrayal and prediction of denial, Jesus says to them, “Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me.”

This statement of Jesus, then, is not exactly spoken into a time of certainty – a time in which the disciples would find it easy to trust God or, even, to trust Jesus. Rather, Jesus is speaking this word to them at one of the most challenging points, emotionally – and one of the most critical points in terms of his own life and ministry. Lest we think that Jesus speaks this as a platitude from a place of utter comfort and security – no, we have to look at all this context to see that Jesus says these words after being betrayed by one disciple and after predicting the denial of another.

Someone once said, “When a train goes through a tunnel and it gets dark, you don't throw away the ticket and jump off. You sit still and trust the engineer.” The person who said this knew about trust – she knew about hard trust – she knew about trust that is worked out in difficult times. The person who said this was Holocaust survivor and Dutch resistance leader Corrie ten Boom.

Ten Boom and her family hid Jews and resistance workers in their home after the Nazis invaded the Netherlands, making sure that these people were not only kept safe, but had ration coupons to buy food. The ten Boom family was arrested for their work and held in concentration camps.

Corrie was eventually released because of a clerical error, and she went back to taking in those who needed shelter – especially caring for the mentally disabled, who lived in fear of execution by the Nazis. After the war, she cared for the many refugees who emerged from the concentration camps – alive, but often ill and jobless, and through no fault of their own. She tended to the forgotten victims of the war – those whose lives were deeply impacted simply because of who they were when they were born.

All of this work was done out of her deep and abiding trust in God. “When a train goes through a tunnel and it gets dark, you don't throw away the ticket and jump off. You sit still and trust the engineer.” Words spoken by someone who knew better than most about dark tunnels and abiding in trust.

In whom do we place our trust?

When writing about the First Commandment in his Large Catechism, Martin Luther said that “[a]nything on which your heart relies and depends, I say, that is really your god.” But, as opposed to all the things in which we might be tempted to place our trust, Luther goes on to say that, instead, our hearts are to cling to God, to grasp ahold of God, so that we entrust our lives to God completely.

Even as we place our trust in God, sometimes our lives will make us question that trust. But today’s Gospel lesson contains good news for us, hidden in all of the questions and uncertainties expressed by Jesus’ own disciples. Why are these questions and uncertainties good news for us?

Because they show us that God can handle our questions and uncertainties.

In God’s house there are many dwelling places, Jesus says – a statement that is very much about the expansive love of God for us. God has room for us, and for our questions, too. Sometimes, the best way to learn is to ask a question. And really, our questions don’t demonstrate a lack of trust. If anything, questions are a show of trust: it’s easier to ask a question if we trust someone than if we don’t!

In whom do you place your trust?

Trust in God, who will still your troubled heart and who will never fail you. Amen.

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Do You See It?

The Rev. Kathi Johnson

A Lent 4 – 26 March 2017

Text: John 9:1-41

Our Redeemer Lutheran Church, Grand Prairie, Texas

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One lesson that I have struggled with over the past several years is how much our life circumstances influence our perspective or how we see things. What do I mean by this…?

I mean that – even as adults - the circumstances into which we have been born influence our perspective, as do our circumstances growing up as children. Someone born into a poor family has a different perspective than someone born into a rich family. Someone who grew up on a farm has a different perspective than someone who grew up in a city. Our different races, cultures, religious expressions, languages, physical abilities, generations – all of these, and more, shape each of us to see the world in certain ways, and to experience the world in certain ways.

Notice, please, that I’m not placing a value judgment on any one perspective or life experience over another.

To today’s gospel story – the man born blind has had a different life than those around him. He’s been blind for all his life, so for all his life, he’s had to learn how to live in a world full of sighted people.

Not only that, but he’s had to deal with the common assumption at the time which said that he (or his parents) must’ve sinned in some way for him to be born blind. So, not only is he dealing with a physical reality – his own blindness – but he’s dealing with the people around him assuming that he’s done something wrong to bring this upon himself.

Even Jesus’ own disciples ask Jesus whose sin caused this condition. So this was common thinking at the time. And Jesus tries to change their perspective – “No, no, no. That’s not it at all. His blindness gives us the chance to see God at work, first hand! Look!”

Then Jesus smears mud on the blind man’s face, and tells him to go wash, which he does. And for the first time in his life, the man born blind can see.

Then enter into our story a group with yet another perspective: the Pharisees. Their perspective is one that focuses on the Laws of God. That’s why they’re all wound up about Jesus healing someone on the Sabbath. In their perspective, Jesus is a sinner because he has done this deed on the day which is set apart for resting.

So they question the man and then go to his parents (as if he can’t answer for himself), and the parents don’t really want to deal with their questions, so they send the Pharisees back to their son.

The Pharisees are trying to pin their idea of sin onto Jesus. And the man born blind has the perfect response: “I do not know whether he is a sinner. One thing I do know, that though I was blind, now…I see.”

This man who has been blind not only has his physical blindness removed, but he begins, too, to see Jesus – not only as the one who has healed him, but as the One sent by God – the One for whom they have been waiting. His experience of his physical world has been completely changed – he has a new perspective – and his experience of God has changed, too, because here is God-in-the-flesh, rubbing mud in his eyes, and taking away his blindness.

This change in perspective is what Paul is writing about in today’s epistle lesson, too. “Once you were darkness,” Paul says, “But now in the Lord you are light. [So…] Live as children of the light!” Our lives in Christ should change our whole perspective – our whole vision - so that we see our lives as God sees them.

Think about how much our perspective changes just from flipping on a light switch in a dark room. It is one thing to stumble around in the darkness, tripping over furniture or dogs or rugs on the floor. But – we have the light! Why stumble around? Just turn on the light!

Recently, I’ve had several people in my life who have lost loved ones. And in each case, yes, there has, of course, been sadness and grief. But mixed in with that grief has been the perspective that we have as Christians: that God is present, even in someone’s death – and that God gives comfort and peace to those who are still living.

It reminds me of a letter that my dad wrote to family and friends after he had been diagnosed with a brain tumor. Throughout the letter, he sought to explain what was happening medically, and then he ended on a note of where he was spiritually, referring to Philippians 4:7 – that, even in the midst of his illness, he had been given the peace that surpasses all understanding.

Our lives are caught up in Christ. Our lives are caught up in the love of God. Do you see it?

“Once you were darkness,” Paul says, “But now in the Lord you are light. [So…] Live as children of the light!” Our lives in Christ should change our whole perspective – our whole vision - so that we see not only our own lives, but we also see the world as God sees it.

I’ll say again – for the third time this Lent – remember: “God so loved the world…”? That is God’s vision: God’s love for the world. Do you see it?

I close today with this Celtic prayer, and I invite you again to close your eyes as I pray:

God to enfold me,

God to surround me,

God in my speaking,

God in my thinking.

God in my sleeping,

God in my waking,

God in my watching,

God in my hoping.

God in my life,

God in my lips,

God in my soul,

God in my heart.

God in my sufficing,

God in my slumber,

God in mine ever-living soul,

God in mine eternity.

Amen.

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Everyone is Somebody to God

Lent 3 – 19 March 2017

Our Redeemer Lutheran Church, Grand Prairie, Texas

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I’m Nobody! Who are you?

Are you – Nobody – too?

So asked the poet Emily Dickinson, musing about the difference between being a Nobody and being a Somebody. The world is full of Nobodies and Somebodies, it seems, and in this world, the woman at the well who meets Jesus is a Nobody. We don’t even get to know her name!

At the time of Jesus, this woman – as a woman - would’ve had no real power over her life – certainly not over her marital situation. She didn’t have any control over being born a Samaritan, either, and that she was a Samaritan made her even more of a Nobody. Samaritans didn’t follow the True Religion – which made them automatically suspect – so, on the basis of religion, she was a Nobody, too.

So, there is Jesus, traveling along through Samaria, and he decides to take a rest by Jacob’s well. This Nobody woman comes along, and Jesus asks her to draw up some water for him to drink. The fact that Jesus even speaks to her is tremendous. To us, it is no big deal. He’s thirsty – why not ask for a drink from the person who has the bucket? But in speaking to this woman – especially in speaking to her alone – Jesus is crossing gender, ethnic, and religious boundaries.

But Jesus doesn’t stop with asking for water. They begin conversing, this Jewish teacher and this Samaritan Nobody – all about springs of water gushing up to eternal life, and about her marital history, and in all this, she begins – slowly, at first – to see the truth about Jesus. She realizes finally that she is speaking with the Messiah, the One promised by God.

This is when the story is getting good!

But then the disciples come back, and the text tells us that they are astonished to see Jesus speaking with a woman. But they don’t say anything to the woman or to Jesus, and the woman does just as these men have done when they became disciples of Jesus – she leaves what she has (her bucket of water). As one of my seminary professors wrote in her commentary about the book of John: “The woman doesn’t get a husband, but instead gets a new job.”[1] She runs to the city and begins to tell people all about Jesus.

And then the text gives us a gift – especially for those of us who’ve had our ministry questioned because of our gender or ethnicity. The text gives us a gift by saying: “Many Samaritans from that city believed in him because of the woman’s testimony.”

Because of her testimony, many Samaritans come to believe in Jesus. And in the Gospel of John, belief isn’t just a head thing or even just a heart thing – belief is a relationship thing. To say that the Samaritans believed in Jesus has more of the sense that they began their relationship with him as his disciples. Because of her testimony, Jesus stays with them for a couple of days – which shows this relationship that is developing between Jesus and this group of Nobodies.

Our story today wraps up with the Samaritans declaring, “We know that this is truly the Savior of the world.”

And they could’ve added – “The savior of the whole world, even us, the ones who’re called ‘Nobodies.’”

This story, then, is a living-out of what Jesus has just proclaimed in John 3: “God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.” This story also humanizes a group of people who were largely despised in the First Century: the Samaritans. It humanizes them by showing Jesus’ willingness to talk with them, listen to them, spend time with them, be in relationship with them – in the flesh.

And God uses the testimony of the woman at the well to do all this work.

There are times in my life when I’ve received the word of God from a surprising source – maybe words of forgiveness spoken by someone I’ve hurt, or words of assurance spoken at a time when I was faltering, or words of peace spoken into a time of conflict, or words of truth spoken in the midst of lies. At other times, even before I was a pastor, I was the one whom God used to speak those surprising words to someone else – words of forgiveness, or assurance, or peace, or truth.

Just imagine that to which God may be calling you. Now, maybe going out and talking about Jesus willy-nilly to strangers isn’t your gift. But you can show yourself to be a person of faith, and as a person of faith, you can bear witness to Jesus through your words and actions. As a person of faith, you can be the one to offer surprising words of forgiveness, or assurance, or peace, or truth. As a person of faith, each one of us has something we can share or show about God’s love. There are no Nobodies – not one.

God’s vision is so much bigger than our own vision, and God’s love is bigger than our own love. “God so loved the world…” even those whom the world calls “Nobodies,” for everyone is Somebody to God.[2]

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[1] The Very Rev. Cynthia Briggs Kittredge, Conversations with Scripture: The Gospel of John. Published by Morehouse Publishing, p. 62.

[2] The “Nobody”/”Somebody” language came from Deborah J. Kapp’s essay for this Sunday in Feasting on the Word, Kindle Location 20029.

Clothed With Christ

As many of you as were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.

The Rev. Kathi Johnson

Blake Maxwell’s Confirmation – 19 June 2016

Text: Galatians 3:23-29 and John 8:31-36

Our Redeemer Lutheran Church, Grand Prairie, Texas

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A few years ago, I preached a sermon series in which I preached about the epistle lessons, rather than focusing on the gospel lessons. One of the biggest points that I tried to drive home was that the epistles are [letters] – and that whenever we read Paul’s letter to the Galatians, for instance (like today), we are basically reading someone else’s mail.

Have you ever read someone else’s mail, either by accident or – confession time – on purpose?

When I was a church office administrator for a large church in Austin, I was tasked with opening the mail. I would put private mail marked for employees in their boxes without opening it. Every so often, though, there would be mail for someone else that would cross my desk – like if the pastor was asking me to follow up on a letter he’d received – and I would have to read someone else’s mail.

Reading someone else’s mail, I’d get some insight – both into the letter writer and the recipient. I also might gain some insight into their relationship – was it friendly or professional? Was it an easy relationship or a strained relationship?

So, today, we’ve heard part of the epistle that the Apostle Paul wrote to the church in Galatia. Even though you can’t really tell from today’s snippet, this is a difficult letter. Paul is writing to the Galatians because he’s taught them about true faith in Jesus Christ, namely that we are saved by the grace of God, through faith in Jesus Christ. Some other teachers have come after Paul, trying to sway the Galatians away from that true faith, and the influence of these new teachers is setting in.

Paul is concerned about them because the Galatians have turned following Christ into following a list of laws in order to earn God’s favor. They aren’t trusting in the work of the Holy Spirit in their lives to build their faith, but rather in their own works. Paul reminds them: “We know that a person is justified not by the works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ.” And then, right before today’s section of the letter, Paul really ramps up his anger: “You foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you?”

If Paul had been texting this, it would’ve been in all-caps.

In the reading today from the Gospel of John, Jesus tells his disciples that if they continue in his word, they are truly his disciples. Jesus’ word is a word of love. So when Jesus tells his disciples to continue in his word, he is asking them to continue to love God and to love one another. The idea is that loving God and loving one another are parts of our every day lives. True faith in Jesus, and living as his disciples, are meant to be an every day thing.

Paul says it this way: that true faith in Jesus means that – at our baptisms - we have clothed ourselves with Christ.

And, Blake, the faith that was placed within you at your baptism has never gone away. You continue to live in that faith to this day.

One thing that I remind both confirmation students and their parents is that confirmation day is just one step of many in the journey of faith that we are all taking. If you take a look at the bottom of page 5 of your bulletin – you will see the baptismal covenant. Blake, your parents and godparents made this covenant for you when you were baptized as a baby. You are affirming this covenant for yourself today. But do not think of this covenant as simply a checklist to follow. Think of this covenant as a way of life, so that your life shows how much you love God and love your neighbor.

If you look at the covenant again – the first two lines (to live among God’s faithful people; to hear the word of God and share in the Lord’s supper) – those are things that largely take place here or in other church-type settings.

Now look at the last few lines – (to proclaim the good news of God in Christ through word and deed; to serve all people, following the example of Jesus; to strive for justice and peace throughout the earth) – these are things we do mostly outside of these walls.  These are the things you’re already doing in some ways – for example, as you serve at Briarwood these next two weeks.

I will ask you if you intend to continue in all these things, and then comes your answer: I do, and I ask God to help and guide me. So from whom do you get the strength to live as a true disciple of Jesus – to love God and love others?

It is the work of the Holy Spirit in you that helps you live out this covenant. You were given the Spirit at your baptism, and as you go forward from this day, never forget that Christ has claimed you as God’s own forever.

But also never forget that on this day – just like on the day of your baptism – those gathered around you will promise to support you and pray for you in your life in Christ. You are a part of something that is more than you, it’s more than me, it’s more than your mom or dad – you are a part of a community of faith that loves you, and continues to love you along your way.

When you come forward in a few minutes, we will surround you – quite literally – with our love and prayers. We are your brothers and sisters in Christ, and together, we are called to give thanks and praise to God and proclaim the good news of Jesus Christ to all the world.

Amen.

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