John 1 : Sermon

Transcription

1 John 1 : Sermon In case I am about to give you the wrong impression of me, let me make it clear that everything I know about classical art would fit very neatly on the back of a postage stamp. But here is one interesting fact which I do happen to know: the very last painting ever made by Leonardo da Vinci, was a painting of John the Baptist. Should you wish to see it, you can go to the Louvre Museum in Paris; or you could just look it up on google as I did. It is a strange image, largely because the face looks strikingly similar to that of the Mona Lisa, and that sweet, mysterious smile, together with the long curly hair, gives John the Baptist a much more feminine appearance that we might be used to. But it is not the face or the smile or even the hair which are important for us, rather what he is doing with his hands. His right hand carries a long thin cross, and his left hand is raised in front of his chest, with one finger pointing upwards. Both the cross and the pointing are very deliberate as the artist wants us to understand what his subject was all about. Indeed many paintings of the Baptist feature him pointing for this is what he is best known for; he was the man who pointed away from himself. He pointed away from himself because he understood that his mission, his purpose, his calling, was not to promote himself, but to point people to Jesus Christ. That is what we hear in the gospel this morning. People have gone out to the wilderness, and they have gone down to the bank of the river to see John and to hear him. But instead he directs attention away from himself, and towards Jesus. Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world! That line became particularly well known as from an early age it was used in the liturgy of the church. Which is very appropriate, for everything we do in church, and particularly all that we do in worship, should be following the same principle. It is not about drawing attention to ourselves, or the quality of what we do, and the grandeur of our history,

2 and the stimulating nature of our committees. It is always about directing attention to Jesus Christ, pointing people to him. I say that as though it is somehow self evident and obvious that this is the purpose of the church, and of course it should be self evident and obvious, but in practice we all know how easy it is for any congregation to become rather self obsessed. As soon as a church gets to any kind of size it needs to have structures and committees and practices and traditions. Like any organisation it needs to have ways of making decisions and planning for the future. There is nothing wrong with any of that. But how strong is the human tendency to get caught up the way we do things, and forget about why we do things. Our churches may contain many different things, but they are generally not short of human tendencies. Whenever we focus on our disagreements, or the things we don t like about our church, or the things we don't like about other churches, we are not focusing on Jesus Christ. Or indeed whenever we focus on our achievements and the things we love about our church, and the dreams we might have for our church, we are not focusing on Jesus Christ. Perhaps we ought to consider John the Baptist as some kind of patron saint of congregations, to keep us grounded, to keep drawing us back to our purpose, our calling, which is and always has been to point people to Jesus Christ. And do you remember how the story continues? The next day John again was standing with two of his disciples, and as he watched Jesus walk by, he exclaimed, Look, here is the Lamb of God! The two disciples heard him say this, and they followed Jesus. John encourages two of his disciples to leave him and to go with Jesus instead. Now I have known ministers who have felt the urge to encourage certain members of their congregations to leave and join another church, but that is not really the same thing. Of course I would never think that of any of you! John the Baptist is not interested in building up his movement, because he understands that his role is to direct people to Jesus. Soon he will disappear from the story, only to re-emerge in chapter three when some

3 other of his followers will ask about Jesus growing popularity, when his response will be: "He must increase, but I must decrease. (John 3:30) I was at a meeting of local clergy during the week when one of my colleagues spoke of the difficulties his congregation was having in agreeing a mission statement. So I was led to wonder whether any congregation has ever adopted this as their mission statement: He must increase, and we must decrease. It is not a bad description of our purpose and our calling, and it serves as a good summary of the mission of John the Baptist, who always pointed away from himself, and directed people towards Jesus. It is not a bad phrase to guide the mission of our churches, whose very reason for existing is to remind people of Jesus Christ. And let s not forget, it is a useful phrase to guide our personal development. As I m sure I have said before, a key part of any spiritual development is the discovery that the universe does not, in fact, revolve around me. It is the discovery that I am not as important as I like to think I am. For it is when we begin to get over ourselves, with all our opinions and ideas and expectations and desires, when we begin to get over ourselves and allow Christ his place at the centre of our being, that everything else can begin to fall into place. Taking attention away from the loud demands of our ego, and giving attention to Jesus Christ, is a fundamental part of any Christian growth. And so the example of John focussing his attention beyond himself, and focussing our attention beyond ourselves, is a profound message for us as churches, and for us as individuals. But there is one more thing we should notice, one other aspect of this which we should not overlook. When John points away from himself and towards Jesus he also, in a sense, defines Jesus. He does not say,...here is Jesus Christ the great moral teacher....here is Jesus Christ who can perform miracles....here is Jesus Christ who is going to inspire great music. It is something more significant than any of that: Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!

4 The lamb of God that is quite an image in itself. There is such a contrast in those words: a lamb and God. The devil may be described as a roaring lion looking for people to devour, (1 Peter 5 : 8) but the presence of God in the world is not about fear or threat or danger. Not many people feel threatened by a lamb! The phrase in itself gives us plenty to think about, but of course the bible contains many references to lambs which give these words many layers of meaning. We might think of the story of Abraham, who was about to sacrifice his son until God provided a ram stuck in a bush and ordered him to save his son by sacrificing the ram instead. And remember that Jesus is described as the lamb of God. We might think story of the people in slavery in Egypt who were instructed to mark the doorposts of their houses with the blood of a lamb so that death would passover their houses and allow them escape to freedom. And remember that Jesus is described as the lamb of God. We might think of the words of the prophet Isaiah, who described a figure who would suffer in order to save his people saying that he would be like a lamb being led to be slaughtered without making a sound. And remember that Jesus is described as the lamb of God. We might recall that John the Baptist's father was a priest in the Temple so he would have been very aware of the practice of killing a lamb in a ritual way as a method of atoning for sin. And remember that Jesus is described as the lamb of God. We might even think on to the book of Revelation which describes twenty Four elders singing to a lamb, "You are worthy to take the book, and to open its seals: for you were killed, and bought us for God with your blood ) (Rev 5) And remember that Jesus is described as the lamb of God. To take any of those images and apply their meaning to Jesus in a literal way might lead us to all sorts of strange ideas, but taken together they point us to what John was saying about Jesus. Saying... you want to watch

5 this man, because what he is about is really going to make a difference. You want to trust this man, because he is God's way of changing things. You want to follow this man, for he is the one with the answers to our deepest anxieties. You want to stay close to this man, for is going to be the key that can open up a whole new way of living. When John pointed people to Jesus it was not because the thought they would enjoy his company, but because, as Simon Peter will state at the end of chapter 6, he has the words of eternal life. (John 6:68) John the Baptist does not invite us to think too much about him, and he doesn't encourage us to go on being obsessed with ourselves, but he points us to Jesus, who is worth following. May we discover that in our own experience, and may we follow his example in our lives together.