Sermon "Bethlehem Via Jordan"
Rev. Lonnie Richardson
Sunday, December 5, 1999
Mark 1:1-8
Have you noticed, John the Baptist just doesn't seem to belong in the Christmas story. Have you ever received a Christmas card with John the Baptist on it? A neighbor where I use to live had the most inclusive portrayal of the Christmas story I have ever witnessed. They have displayed on their well-lighted lawn all the characters ever associated with Christmas. Rudolph is there along with all the other reindeer. Santa Claus is there. Frosty the snowman is there. Mary and Joseph are poised beside the manger, surrounded by plastic sheep, watched over by plastic shepherds. Angels are represented, as are the wise men perched on their cardboard camels. But I have looked closely; and there is no John the Baptist. He just doesn't seem to belong in Christmas.
However, the gospel writers are convinced that if we don't stop by the Jordan and confront John the Baptist, we will not know who the baby down in Bethlehem is. We will go to Bethlehem, kneel piously before the infant Jesus, sing a few carols, unwrap a few gifts; and return to the routine ~ unchanged. Only by going out of the way, making a trip over to the Jordan, listening to the call to repentance and wading out into the cross-over river between the wilderness and the promised land will we be ready to visit the babe in Bethlehem's manger.
John, the forerunner, the preparer of the way. He knows who Jesus is. He knows that he is not just another promising baby, a new miracle worker, or teacher. John knows there is more to who Jesus is than meets the eye. John knows that the baby in Bethlehem's manger is the firstborn of a new creation. God, through the babe of Bethlehem, is bringing a new world. This trip to Bethlehem is no sentimental annual pilgrimage to a shrine of the past. It is no mere birthday celebration of a historic figure. It is the preparation for a new heaven and new earth that God is bringing. The reign of God, the power and presence of God, the purposes of God are coming toward us.
It is a world where there is neither Jew nor gentile, bond or free, male or female, but all are one. The world that is coming is a world in which all people are claimed as beloved children of God. The world that is coming will be a world in which justice and righteousness reign. Love will characterize all relationships; and the power of love will replace the love of power.
John calls us to repentance, to turn away from the old world and toward the new thing God is doing down in Bethlehem. Only by being willing to turn away from the old world and toward God's coming reign of justice, generosity, and joy, are we ready to kneel before Bethlehem's babe, who is the incarnation of God's reign. Paying attention to John the Baptist will confront us with the radical new reality coming into the world in Jesus Christ.
By wading out into the Jordan we recognize and worship the one who is coming in Bethlehem. As disturbing and inconvenient and disruptive as it may be amid the glitter and gaiety of this season, stopping by the Jordan to hear John the Baptist, wading out into the river between the old and the new, and drowning ourselves in the waters of repentance are all necessary if we are to know the identity of the one whose birth we are on the way to celebrate. Amen.
