3rd Sunday of Advent
December 15, 2002
Christ Church, Covington

“Among you stands one whom you do not know…” or do you?

The Gospel you just heard ought to seem like one of the darndest interactions you’ve heard, even in the strange symbolic world of scripture. A delegation is dispatched from the temple to the banks of the Jordan; they ask this guy, “Who are you?” and he responds, “I am not the Messiah.” What kind of response is that? If he’d just say who he is, they could figure out for themselves that he is not the messiah and be done with it. But notice that John the Baptist never really does answer that question, “Who are you?” In this dialogue, he never says, “Well, I’m John the Baptist, son of Zechariah and Elizabeth. Pleased to meet you.” He tells them who he’s not. He tells them what he’s doing – baptizing and crying out in the wilderness. But he never really identifies himself as an individual. That is important to notice, and I’ll come back to that in a moment.

John the Baptist would have been an enigmatic figure for the congregation for whom this Gospel was originally written. He didn’t fit neatly into any of the personas or roles that others perform in the narrative: he wasn’t Jesus’ disciple, he wasn’t Jesus’ enemy, he wasn’t an object of Jesus’ ministry, but he wasn’t just a bystander either. Yet as difficult as John the Baptist would have been to pin down, he was too great to be overlooked. The Gospel writer couldn’t just say, “Oh, let’s skip the John the Baptist part, he gets killed off early on anyway.” He had to be mentioned, and the mystery surrounding him had to be cleared up. Hence the dialogue that you just heard was entered into the Gospel record, thus allowing John the Baptist himself to testify on his own behalf. But as I said earlier, this record doesn’t clear up much. All it really clears up is that if John the Baptist’s role wasn’t easy to pin down, it’s because he himself wouldn’t be pinned down. His individual identity was something that he kept cloaked in mystery, because his mission was not to identify himself. His mission was to identify the one who was coming after him. His mission was to reveal Jesus Christ.

According to this testimony of John the Baptist, who he was apart from the one he proclaimed was irrelevant. He wouldn’t answer the question, “Who are you?” because who he was only mattered with respect to who he was in relation to who Jesus was.

Now, if John the Baptist was that faithful to one who was coming after him, we who follow Jesus can claim a similar fidelity. Let’s play a little game. Let’s ask ourselves the question that was put to John. Who are you?
Did anyone answer, “a member of the Body of Christ?”

Now, I’m not trying to make anyone who did not come up with that answer feel bad. But we all need to be aware of the fact that here, an individual’s identity, is only important as it relates to our corporate identity. “Members of the Body of Christ” is the most that we can say of ourselves as individuals here and now. This is because Jesus Christ is why we are together here and now, and experiencing and revealing Jesus Christ is our mission here and now. Jesus Christ has called us out of the isolation and alienation of individuality, has called us into oneness in Himself as His Body. That is what our Sunday worship is all about: the Body of Christ gathered as the Body of Christ, to receive the Body of Christ, and go forth as the Body of Christ.

Now take a minute to take that in. Look around you. Look at the people here. How many do you suppose there are? ##? ##? ONE Body. You are One Body with all these people – One Body in Jesus Christ. Each of you is a member of the Body of Christ, and that’s the answer to the question, “Who are you?”

While this is certainly true here and now, this identity stays with you when you walk out those doors. And as wonderful as that feeling of oneness in Christ might be while we’re here singing, praying, and receiving communion together, it is beyond these walls that our answer to that question is both put to the test and answered most genuinely.

Who are you? We answer that question when temptation draws near.
Who are you? We answer that question when we fell anger or hatred welling up.
Who are you? We answer that question when our neighbors need to be ministered to.
Who are you? We answer that question when we are confronted with people in despair or need.
When you come to the altar rail, remember who you are: Members of the Body of Christ. Remember that also throughout this week, so that you’re not mistaken for anyone you’re not.
Amen.

The Rev’d Robert M. Odom
M.Div., Curate

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