Who are you?
From Wellington Cathedral of St Paul
Who are you?: 11th December 2011: am: The Very Revd Frank Nelson
- Psalm 126
- Isaiah 61: 1 – 4, 8 - 11
- 1 Thessalonians 5: 16 - 24
- John 1: 6 – 8, 19 - 28
Who are you? Take a moment to think. Who are you? How will you go about answering the question? If I asked you to get up and speak to someone you don’t know, how would you answer? (Don’t worry; I won’t.) What three things will you say about yourself?
Imagine a number of different scenarios. Imagine you are going for a job interview, or perhaps applying for a position of leadership as a Chorister – what will you say to the question, “Who are you?” Imagine you are at a social function, a Christmas party, a sports club, a casual meeting in the cathedral car park at the Farmers’ Market on Saturday morning. What will you say now to the question, “Who are you?” Take yourself back ten, twenty, forty years; or go forward ten, twenty, forty years; will the answer you give today be the same? And what will you say if you are asking for your child to be baptised, your mother to be buried, for a wedding in a church?
I suspect that for most of us, the answer to the question, “Who are you?” depends to some extent on the person asking the question, and the particular situation in which it is being asked. At an Anglican Church conference I would say that I am the Dean of Wellington, knowing that most people would be able to put me in the right box. In another context I might say that I am a minister of religion and work at that big pink building opposite parliament. In yet another, I might claim to be the father of three children. A slightly different answer is given for each different context. And if the person asking me about myself was not satisfied I would have to go on and say more about myself.
Now that you have worked out your answers to the question “Who are you?” let’s take a look at today’s Gospel reading. A group of people, representing the Jewish officials in Jerusalem, are sent off to find out about someone attracting quite a bit of attention in the provinces. Today it would probably be TV reporters chasing a story – and this could be a biggie. Back then the questioners were priests and Levites – the ones who were expected to know what was going on. Remember what I said about the answer being different depending on the context? The questioning of John the Baptist takes place in a particular context. For a long time the Jews had been living under the occupation of the Romans. They longed to be free and independent again. Over the years stories had grown up about a wonderful new leader who would come, a leader like one of their great leaders from the past. This expected leader even had a name – Messiah – which means “God’s anointed, or chosen, one”. Because of an odd story in the Bible that Elijah had not died, but had been taken up into heaven, some people thought that Elijah would come back one day. So there is a context to the question from the priests and Levites to John the Baptist.
To the surprise and annoyance of the questioners, John gives a series of negative answers. Even in the English translation we get a sense of the power of what John is saying. Look at the string of answers he gives to the initial questions: I am not the Messiah. I am not. No. And then finally, instead of trying to force John the Baptist to give the answer they are hoping for, they ask the right question: “What do you say about yourself?”
His reply must have stunned them. “I am the voice of one crying out in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way of the Lord’”. Well educated priests and Levites that they were they would immediately make the connection with the prophet Isaiah. We heard Isaiah’s words two weeks ago on the first Sunday in Advent. Now we must recall them and their context. Nearly six hundred years before John the Baptist and Jesus, the city of Jerusalem had been sacked and utterly destroyed by the marauding king of the Babylonian empire, Nebuchadnezzar. Instead of simply killing all the citizens, Nebuchadnezzar had taken some of the intellectuals back to his capital city of Babylon where they slowly became integrated into that society. Not all forgot about who they were though. One of the psalms (137), made popular by a pop group about thirty years ago, tells how they refused to sing about their old way of life, their city, their God simply to entertain their captors. For forty and more years the hope of being allowed to go home was nurtured. The stories and teachings of their faith, their people and their God were told to the young people and children. And then finally, one day, things changed. The old king died, and a new king came to power. The people were allowed to go home, back to the ruined city of Jerusalem. In a wonderful poem found in Isaiah chapter 40 we read these words: “A voice cries out: In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God.”
It is this ancient poem that John the Baptist quotes to his questioners. “Who are you?” they ask. Let me tell you, says John the Baptist. “I am the voice of one crying out in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way of the Lord’”. Just as that ancient poem spoke about a new beginning for the people in exile in Babylon, the opportunity to go home and start again, so now John the Baptist is saying that God is about to do something special. Because of our context, we know what John is talking about. He saw himself as the messenger, the one preparing the way for Jesus. But the priests and Levites hadn’t a clue who John was talking about.
Here’s an interesting thing. In John’s Gospel, John the Baptist answers in negatives: I am not the Messiah, I am not Elijah, I am not the prophet. But as you read through John’s Gospel you will see that Jesus never uses the negative, he never says “I am not” – rather, “I am”. There is a whole series of sayings of Jesus all beginning with the words, “I am.” I am the Good Shepherd, I am the true vine, I am the way, the truth and the life…. For those who know their Bibles, people like the priests and Levites, Red Ribbon Choristers, baptised Christians who have not stopped learning and growing and studying, those two little words “I am” open up a whole new chapter of understanding. “I am” is the sacred name for God told to Moses at the burning bush. At the time Moses was trying to put God into a box, to understand, even control, God. Rather like the priests and Levites with John the Baptist, tell us who you are, so we can tell our superiors, so we can know how to understand and deal with you. But wait. God’s name “I am” is actually not a name at all. It is the very essence of God. God is. That’s all we can really say about God. And Jesus claims this title, this name, for himself. “I am.”
John the Baptist chose to answer the question “Who are you?” in the negative. Jesus gives his answer to the same question in a very positive way. Now let’s come back to ourselves. “Who are you?” Did anyone, I wonder, think to answer that question in the context of being a Christian, being baptised? If so, you might have answered, “I am a child of God, blessed in the Spirit, a member of the family of Christ.” These are words spoken to the person immediately following baptism with water in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. We’ll hear them shortly.
Far more than anything we can say about ourselves, our careers, our dreams, even our short-comings, the identity given to us at baptism is profound: “I am a child of God, blessed in the Spirit, a member of the family of Christ.”
Take a moment to think about that as an answer to the question, “Who are you?” Let it run through your head, your mind, your heart, your soul. “I am a child of God, blessed in the Spirit, a member of the family of Christ.” To each of us who says those words, Jesus adds: I am the Way, the Truth, the Life – come and follow me.
I wonder, will it make a difference to the way I celebrate Christmas if I consciously recall my identity in baptism, knowing I am a child of God, blessed in the Spirit, a member of the family of Christ?
