Can I see some Identification, please?

Kevin Gasser

Staunton Mennonite Church

1/11/09

 

Mark 1:1-14

1The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

2As it is written in the prophet Isaiah,

“See, I am sending my messenger ahead of you,
who will prepare your way;
3the voice of one crying out in the wilderness:
‘Prepare the way of the Lord,
make his paths straight,’”

4John the baptizer appeared in the wilderness, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. 5And people from the whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem were going out to him, and were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins. 6Now John was clothed with camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey. 7He proclaimed, “The one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to stoop down and untie the thong of his sandals. 8I have baptized you with water; but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”

 

9In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. 10And just as he was coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens torn apart and the Spirit descending like a dove on him. 11And a voice came from heaven, “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.” 12And the Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness. 13He was in the wilderness forty days, tempted by Satan; and he was with the wild beasts; and the angels waited on him.

 

A middle aged woman has a heart attack and is taken to the hospital. While on the operating table she has a near-death experience. During that experience she sees God and asks if this is it. God says no and explains that she has another 30-40 years to live.

Upon her recovery she decides that, as a way to celebrate her renewed life, to just stay in the hospital and have a face lift, liposuction, and a tummy tuck. She even has someone come in and change her hair color. She figures that since she’s got another 30 or 40 years she might as well make the most of it.

She walks out the hospital after the last operation and is killed by an ambulance speeding up to the hospital.

She arrives in front of God again and asks, “I thought you said I had another 30-40 years?”  God replies, “Sorry, I didn’t recognize you.”

            If I were to ask you who you are, how would you answer that question?  Many of us would give our name.  Maybe you would give your occupation “I’m a nurse” or “I’m a school teacher”.  Or maybe you would give the names of your parents or grandparents, “I’m Kevin, son of Edward, son of Joseph, son of Benjamin…”

            Now all of those methods of answering the question at hand do begin to describe who you are.  But none of these answers fully capture our essence.  None of these answers fully capture our identity.  I am not my name; I am not my occupation; I am not my father or his father, or his father.  Our identity is important to us and unique to us.  Who we are matters. 

            But I believe that what matters most in life isn’t who you can make yourself become or who you can make others believe you are.  The most important thing for us is to be the people that God has created for us to be.  God has an identity for each of us; an identity that we can only fully realize when we give up trying to be someone who we are not and allow God to use us as who he wants us to be.

            Today we are going to look at the scripture above and see that John the Baptist was pretty clear on the identity that he was given and the role that God expected for him to fill.  But I also hope to see that we all need some help in figuring out who God intends for us to become.

            John had it easy when it came to deciding what career to go into as an adult.  Maybe that is a bit of an overstatement.  He may have really struggled with this whole “way preparer” gig that was handed down to him.  He may have really struggled with questions about what it would mean to be a voice in the wilderness crying out, “Prepare the way of the Lord.”  He may have struggled with the vocation that was given to him, but at least he knew what he was called to do.

            Around 500 years before John was born the prophet Isaiah spoke these words, “See, I am sending my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way; the voice of one crying out in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight,’” and I believe that Mark rightly applies this scripture to John.

            We learn from Luke that John’s father received a message from an angel telling him that his wife would bear a son who was to be special; that he would be great in the eyes of the Lord and filled with the Holy Spirit even before birth.  And the angel even told Zechariah what to name this child.

            So it seems to me like John would have had a lot of direction when it came to career choices.  He didn’t have to go through the list of available occupations like shepherd, carpenter, or tent maker.  The basic outline for his career was given to him.  He was to prepare the way of the Lord.  John was a prophet, filled with the Holy Spirit.  John knew what he was called to do and John knew who he was.

            We also see in Luke’s account of today’s scripture that the people of Israel really began flocking to John.  They started to rally around this man and get excited.  Some even wondered if he was the Messiah.  And to this John replied that there is one that is coming after him who is more powerful than John, whose sandals John is not worthy to untie.  And while John baptized with water, this other person who would come along later would baptize with the Holy Spirit.

            John knew his place.  He knew who he was and who he wasn’t.  Now I bet that John enjoyed the attention that he was getting as people would flock up to him and stand in line to be baptized.  We all want that attention.  We all want to be important.  We all want to be liked.  But John passed up an opportunity to take it to the next level when he told the people that he was not the Messiah.  He passed up an opportunity to be worshipped and served.  And instead of taking that opportunity and allowing the people to believe that he was the Messiah, John humbled himself before the crowds of people.  He said, There is another who is coming that is much more powerful than I.  In fact, I’m not worthy of bowing before him and untying his shoe.  Because, while I have been ordained to baptize with water, this other guy has the ability to baptize with the Holy Spirit.  Yeah, John knew his place.  He knew who he was and what he was called to do and he was all right with that.

            And I think we can see just how comfortable John is with knowing his place and his calling by looking at the guy.  What did he wear?  Camel hair loin cloths and a leather belt?  His breath reeked of locust and wild honey.  John was so comfortable with who he was that he didn’t try to impress people with his outer appearance.

            I remember High School, don’t you?  As much as I want to forget it from time to time, I still can recall the pressure to be cool, to be accepted, to sit at the right table during lunch and, this is a big one, to wear the right clothes.  It was during the latter years of my High School experience that the preppy look came into style.  Girls were wearing lime green skirts with button-down shirts and the guys began wearing khaki pants and polo shirts…to school.  And of course, if you bought your clothes at an expensive store, that was even better.  So if you dropped some extra coin on a shirt from Abercrombie and Fitch, you wanted people to know that you were wearing Abercrombie and Fitch.  So it became cool to wear clothes with the store’s name plastered across the chest; Abercrombie, American Eagle, Old Navy, the Gap.  If you wore cool clothes, people would think you were cool.  And everyone wants to be cool, right?  Everyone wants other people to like them.

            I care a whole lot less today about whether people think I am cool or not.  My wife will probably tell you that I care too little about what clothes I wear.  But, I’ll admit, I still want to be liked.  I think it would be pretty hard for me to be like John the Baptist and humble myself to say that I am not the Messiah; that I am not worthy to untie the Messiah’s sandal and instead go around wearing only the most basic of clothes.  John passed up a chance to be bigger than a rock star or a movie star.  All because he knew who he was; all because he knew his identity and what he was called to do.

            Our scripture continues with Jesus coming to John to be baptized in the Jordan River.  And as Jesus is coming out of the river, dripping wet (from head to toe?), the sky is torn open and the Spirit descended upon Jesus like a dove.  Then from out of heaven came a voice saying, “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.”

            I am pretty sure that Jesus had a good idea of the person that he had been called to be.  From the beginning of his life at conception, Jesus and his parents knew that he was to be the one that all of Israel was waiting for.  He was the Messiah.  And as Jesus grew up and studied the Torah and studied the Prophets and studied the wisdom literature, he surely would have made the connection that all of this was pointing toward him.  I would guess that Jesus had a pretty firm grasp on his identity by the time he went to John to be baptized.

            But just in case he didn’t, God made sure to remind Jesus of his calling.  In both Luke and Mark’s account of the baptism of Jesus, the voice that comes out of heaven is addressing Jesus directly saying, “You are my Son…”  This differs from Matthew’s account where the voice from heaven addresses those around Jesus saying, “This is my Son…”

            Now this might not seem like a big difference at first, but I think it is rather significant.  Because in Matthew’s gospel, the voice from heaven is attempting to authenticate Jesus’ identity as God’s own son to others, saying, “Yes, this is the one!”  But in Mark and Luke’s account, the voice from heaven is speaking to Jesus, reassuring him that this is indeed his calling; that this is truly his identity as God’s own son. 

            The reason that this is significant is that is shows us that it is difficult at times to know what identity God has given to us; to know what role God is calling us to.  Wouldn’t it be great if we were all given some sort of job description like John received?  Wouldn’t it be great if we were told, Billy, you’ll be a Sunday School teacher, Jamie, you’ll be Chair of Christian Education, and so on?  Then, after we knew our calling as followers of Jesus Christ, wouldn’t it be nice to get that reassurance that Jesus got from God when God spoke directly to Jesus and said, “You are my Son…”?  Wouldn’t it be nice to hear that reassuring statement from heaven, “You are my chosen Sunday School teacher.  I’m well pleased with you.”

Now John seemed pretty confident in his role as the preparer of the way, but I am sure that he must have questioned it at some point along the way.  John probably needed the occasional reminder, “Hey, don’t get an inflated ego here, you’re not the Messiah.  You are the way preparer.”  Because if the Son of God needed that reassurance every now and then, surely us human beings need it as well.

Last week the Staunton News Leader ran a two part series on Christianity and Young Adults.  The paper noted how so many people from the ages of 16-30 are falling away from the church and have seemingly no interest at all in organized religion.  However, the paper also gave an exception to this trend in church decline.  Right there on the front page was my friend Seth.  Seth and his wife Melissa lead a Young Adult ministry called LaFa right here in Staunton that meets weekly on Tuesday evenings.  This is not a church, the article was very clear about that.  But what Seth’s ministry with LaFa provides is a place for Young Adults to be in fellowship with other people their age, to ask difficult questions without getting criticized for a lack of faith, and to try to connect to God through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ while connecting with their contemporaries as well.

I support Seth and Melissa in their ministry with LaFa 100%.  But yet when I read that newspaper article, something just didn’t sit right with me.  There was something deep inside me that was churning, burning, making me uncomfortable.  And I realized that what I was feeling was green inside.  It was jealousy. 

That’s right, the green eyed monster had reared its ugly head.  And again, I am very thankful for the ministry that Seth is providing and I believe that this newspaper article will help generate more interest in LaFa.  But I found myself a little jealous of the attention that he was getting and the accolades that he was receiving.

Obviously jealousy is not a virtue; it is not one of the Fruit of the Spirit.  But my reaction to this article helped me to remember that I am not called to be Seth.  God didn’t create me to be Seth, He created Seth to be Seth.  He created me to be Kevin.

It is kind of like I had this desire to steal Seth’s identity when he was receiving all of this attention.  Not that I wanted his credit cards and social security number.  But more like I wanted to be important like Seth.  It all comes back to that desire that we all have deep within us to be liked by others.

Now don’t get me wrong, Seth is not the Messiah.  But I believe that the feelings that I was experiencing were the same feelings that John the Baptist had to resist when people came to him and asked him if he was the Messiah.  The question comes down to this, Are you comfortable with who God has called to be, with who God has made you to be?  Or do you secretly wish you could be someone else?  And I know that I don’t need to be Seth to be significant.  I need to be the best me that I can be, to embrace my God-given identity.

If I open up my wallet I find a large number of these plastic cards with my name, my picture, my job title, my birthday, my credit card number, my address, and social security number printed as clear as day.  I really shouldn’t be going through any kind of identity crisis.  If I want to know who I am, all I need to do is look into my wallet, right?

But those little pieces of paper and plastic don’t say who God has called me to be.  I know my name, birthday, and social security number all right.  But we are all searching for our identity in Christ.  We are all searching for our calling.  It isn’t always as easy for us as it was for John the Baptist.  Our birth was not announced to our parents by an angel (at least mine wasn’t).  Nobody ever told my parents that they were going to bear a son and that they were to name him Kevin and that I would prepare the way for Christ, or that I would preach and pastor at Staunton Mennonite.  My life has been a journey.  And the only reason that I have arrived where I am today is because other people have provided the guidance that I have needed to come to the understanding that maybe God has created me to be the pastor of Staunton Mennonite Church.

Jesus heard a voice from heaven that helped him to understand his calling.  I haven’t experienced that yet.  But there have been voices, voices of friends and family members that have helped me to discern how God might intend to use me to do his work here on earth.  We don’t all know like John the Baptist did just how God plans to use us.  This is one reason why we need one another.

I see giftedness in each and everyone person.  And I believe that I need to be more vocal in telling people how I believe they can use their gifts for the kingdom of God.  I believe that I also need to do a better job affirming those who have already understood their giftedness and are putting it to good use.  I believe we are all called to encourage one another to do the things that God has set aside for us to do.  Because we have not been given a job description like John and if Jesus needed that affirmation then surely we will as well.

Pointing to the Christ

Kevin Gasser

Staunton Mennonite Church

1/20/08

 

35The next day John again was standing with two of his disciples, 36and as he watched Jesus walk by, he exclaimed, “Look, here is the Lamb of God!”

37The two disciples heard him say this, and they followed Jesus. 38When Jesus turned and saw them following, he said to them, “What are you looking for?” They said to him, “Rabbi” (which translated means Teacher), “where are you staying?” 39He said to them, “Come and see.” They came and saw where he was staying, and they remained with him that day. It was about four o”clock in the afternoon. 40One of the two who heard John speak and followed him was Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother. 41He first found his brother Simon and said to him, “We have found the Messiah” (which is translated Anointed). 42He brought Simon to Jesus, who looked at him and said, “You are Simon son of John. You are to be called Cephas” (which is translated Peter).

 

            Manners are important.  We probably all learned some manners early on in life.  Keep your elbows off the dinner table.  Don’t chew with your mouth open.  Don’t spit in public.  Be respectful of other people’s space.  I could go on and on.  Even now when I go home my mother is still teaching me to mind my manners.

            But there is one thing that my mother taught me, and your mother probably did as well, that I am going to argue with today.  My mother taught me that it isn’t polite to point.  But today I am going to tell you that as Christians, we all should be pointing.  Just like John the Baptist, we need to be pointing to the Christ.  Today I want to ask three questions.  “How do we point to Jesus?”, “Why do we point to Jesus?”, and “Who can we point to Jesus?”

How do we point to Jesus?

            Our scripture for today begins with John the Baptist standing with two of his disciples.  And as they were standing there, Jesus walks by.  And the text says that John exclaimed, “Look, here is the Lamb of God!”  I don’t think John just whispered this statement to the two disciples standing next to him.  He exclaimed it.  My Bible has an exclamation mark in it.  There is some passion in John’s voice.  There is some excitement in John’s voice.  It wasn’t like, (in a muffled voice) “Look, here is the Lamb of God.”  An exclamation is loud.  “LOOK!! HERE IS THE LAMB OF GOD!”  The two disciples standing next to John the Baptist were probably not the only people to hear this exclamation.

            And when you are exclaiming something, you have to have the body motions to go along with it.  I wouldn’t expect John to be standing there with his hands at his side, stiff as a board yelling this proclamation.  No, he was probably animated, arms and legs flying around.  Grabbing hold of the disciples cloaks to make sure he had their attention he extended his arm and straightened his finger and he said, “Look, here is the Lamb of God!”  John probably did something that many of our mothers would tell us is rude.  He probably pointed to Christ.

            If you look at my computer, you can see that I have a somewhat famous picture set as my wallpaper.  I have a picture that was painted by Matthias Grunewald above the altar in Isenheim Germany in a monastery.  In this picture, front and center we find Jesus Christ hanging on the cross.  To his right is a woman, often assumed to be Mary Magdalene, kneeling on the ground at the feet of Jesus.  To the right of Mary Magdalene we find the apostle John with Mary the mother of Jesus and John is comforting her.  But what is interesting is what is going on to the left of Jesus.

            On Jesus’ left we find a person that we know was not present at the crucifixion of Jesus.  We find a man dressed in camel hair and a leather belt, with shaggy hair and unshaven, toting a book of scripture.  The man to Jesus’ left is clearly John the Baptist.  We know that he was not present at the crucifixion because John the Baptist was beheaded by King Herod.  But for some reason, Grunewald believed that John the Baptist was an important enough figure in the gospel of Jesus Christ to include in this painting.

            But what is really interesting about John the Baptist in this painting is not that he is there, it is what he is doing.  John has the book of scriptures in his left hand, open to a passage in what we would call the Old Testament.  And as John looks at the scriptures in his left hand, his right hand is extended with a long boney finger doing just what he did when he saw Jesus on that day from our scripture when he was with his disciples.  He is pointing to Jesus.

            It was this act of John, this pointing toward Christ that Grunewald found to be John’s defining role.  As great a man, as great a prophet as John the Baptist was, he was nothing more than a man.  But he was a man that knew his calling; his calling was to point to Christ.  He was not the Christ; his job was to point to the Christ.

            One of the greatest theologians of the 20^th century has to be Karl Barth.  Karl Barth is well known for having written a multi-volume resource on systematic theology called Church Dogmatics.  He spent years writing the 14 volumes of his seminal work, and if you read just a paragraph of one of these volumes you can see that they are not an easy read.  Especially because Barth wrote in German.  Barth put a lot of work into Church Dogmatics and his thought remains highly influential to this day.

            Why do I bring Karl Barth into this message today?  Because Karl Barth wrote the majority of his 14 volumes for Church Dogmatics from a desk in his office.  And hanging over that desk was a reproduction of Matthias Grunewald’s Isenheim Altarpiece.  No matter how famous Barth got, no matter how much attention and praise he received, he wanted to remember something.  He was not the Christ.  He was more like John the Baptist.  Because he was pointing toward the Christ.

            Our society tends to look up to certain kinds of people.  Rock stars, actors, even heiresses to multimillion dollar hotel chains are venerated, though I am not sure I will ever figure out why.  But this is also true in our Christian world.  We venerate, or hold in esteem religious people in the public eye.  People like Billy Graham, Mother Theresa, and Karl Barth have gained a lot of respect from a lot of people.  And sometimes they gain this respect for good reasons.

            For instance, tomorrow our country will observe Martin Luther King, Jr. Day.  MLK has earned the respect of a lot of people.  He worked for Civil Rights in America, and he did so founded firmly in his faith in Jesus Christ.  But even though MLK has done some amazing work in the area of Civil Rights, he is not the Christ.  Even though Billy Graham has held evangelistic crusades that have turned many people toward a life of serving God, he is not the Christ.  Even though Mother Theresa dedicated her life to the poor and the orphans in Calcutta touching who knows how many lives, she is not the Christ.  Even though Karl Barth was one of the most influential theologians in the 20^th century, he is not the Christ.  Like John the Baptist before them, these influential people were not the Christ.  But they knew their calling, and their calling was to point to the Christ.

Why do we point to Jesus?

            When we return to our story, we find that the two disciples of John the Baptist have begun to literally follow Jesus.  They were walking a few steps behind Jesus and he notices them and he turns around and he asks them a really good question.  He asks, “What are you looking for?”  And they answer, “Rabbi, where are you staying?”

            What are you looking for?  That, my friends, is one good question.  What are any of us looking for?  In Jesus’ day we need to remember that the Jews were living under the occupation of the Roman Empire.  And there were at least three different options available to the Jews under the Roman Empire.  There was the option to try to escape from all of the occupation and dwell alone in the wilderness.  There was the option of trying to rally enough troops to battle against the Roman Empire in hopes of over throwing them.  And there was a third option, try to get along with the Romans so that they would not wipe you off the face of the earth.

            So the first century was a time when the people knew that life was not as it should be.  There was something wrong with the status quo.  But even with the options available, the people didn’t know what to do about it.  What was the best answer for all of the troubles facing the world?

            When Jesus asked the disciples of John what it was that they were looking for, he knew what they were after.  They were looking for the Messiah or the Christ.  They were looking for the one that would restore God’s chosen people and bring about righteousness and peace.  But the disciples were not exactly sure how to get those things from this man, Jesus of Nazareth.  So when Jesus asks them what it is that they were looking for, they stumble in their answer.  They really don’t know what it is that they are looking for, but they think that this man can provide it for them.

            The disciples of John only knew that Jesus could offer them what they so desperately needed because John first pointed them to Jesus.  They could have gone blindly through the rest of their lives not knowing what it was that they really needed.  They might have tried to fill that void in their lives, that sense that something is not right, with any option that appealed to them at the time.  But John the Baptist pointed them in the direction of Jesus.

            I think you can see where I am going with this.  Because so many of us today sense that not everything is right with this world.  We know there must be more to life than the American Dream, to get rich and die in a big house.  If that was the point of life, then life would be pointless.  Why store up for yourself treasures on earth where moth and rust consume and devour? 

            It has been said that each one of us is born with a Christ size hole in our heart.  And anything that we try to substitute for Christ will not adequately fill that hole.  We can try to fill it with sex and drugs, money and power, sports and fame.  But nothing else will fill that hole.  It is like these children’s toys.  You cannot fit a round peg into a square hole.  You cannot fit any other option into the hole in each of our lives.  Only Jesus will fill that hole.  But we do not recognize what it is that will fill that Christ sized hole until we actually find Christ.  And we cannot find Christ until someone points us toward him.  And I want to talk more about this pointing people toward Christ next week.  This pointing to Christ is what we call Christian discipleship.

Who can we point to Jesus?

            The final point in the story for today is an important one.  When one of the disciples of John leaves the presence of Jesus, he runs off to find his brother.  This disciple of John is none other than the future disciple of Jesus, Andrew.  And his brother is Simon, also known as Peter.  When he find Simon, this former disciple of John the Baptist shows just how much he has learned from John.  Because he begins to mimic John.  How is that?  Because Andrew points his brother to Jesus.

            You see, we can point to Jesus all the time, and we should point to Jesus all the time.  Our work, or talk, our language, all of our being should be pointing to Jesus.  But all of this pointing is much more effective when we are pointing others to Jesus, rather than just pointing in private.

            Imagine with me if you will, that you are going to someone’s home for a wedding.  You have never been to the place you are going, and you are not at all familiar with the area.  So you call the person whose home you are trying to reach.  This is a person that is known for using their hands a lot when they talk.  So you get a hold of them and you ask for directions.  And he begins to give you directions over the phone, “You go to the water tower and you turn this way.  Then you go the third stoplight and you turn this way.  Then we will be on this side of the road.”

            For someone who has made that trip before, this might be adequate.  But for someone that is making the trip for the first time, they are likely to get more lost than ever before.  Why?  Because they can’t see what way you are pointing.  In fact, you might even be misleading the person.

            Pointing to Jesus requires that we do more than just live pious lives.  Pointing to Jesus requires more than not cheating on your taxes and your spouse.  Pointing to Jesus means that you live as Jesus lived and you tell others why you are living in such a way.  I believe firmly that Jesus calls us to be peacemakers and to feed the hungry.  I think that all Christians should be doing these things as well.  But I want everyone to know why I do these things.  I do them out of my love for Christ.

As I think about what my life has in store for me next year, I realize that there are a lot of things that are still up in the air.  I know that I will have to have another part time job and I know I want to work in some kind of service type of setting.  I want it to be in a very public place where I can interact with as many people as possible every day.

Now say I am working in whatever job I find for about six months and people are saying things like, “Kevin is a good guy.  He cares for the environment, he cares for the poor.  He treats everyone with respect…etc.”  Well, that would be nice.  I like to be liked, don’t you?  But if my co-workers or the customers don’t know why these things are important to me, than that is a sin on my part.  It is the sin of silence.

It is a sin if the people around me don’t know why these things matter to me.  It is a sin if I don’t say, “Peace and Justice issues are important to me because they are important to Jesus.”  People should never confuse my desires for peace with some anarchist, flag burning, America bashing person.  My beliefs are formed by my belief in Jesus Christ.  Pointing others to Jesus takes more than just living a life according to the Gospel.  Pointing others to Jesus involves telling others why we live differently from the world around us.   So to answer the question, Who should we be pointing toward Jesus?  The answer is everyone we come in contact with.

How do we point others to Jesus?  With our words and with our lives.  Why do we point others to Jesus?  Because everyone needs him, even if they don’t know it yet.  Who do we point to Jesus?  Everyone.