“THE TESTIMONY OF THE TRUTH”
Saint John 1. 19-28
Rorate Coeli - The Fourth Sunday of Advent: 24 December Anno Domini 2006
Fr Watson
The “old Adam” sinner in you, and in me, doesn’t like testifying. When one testifies one simply speaks the truth. To tell the truth is the hardest thing you ever have to do: period. The hard, cold, unvarnished, factual truth is that you are no damn good. And I certainly am no damn good either. The objective, real and ontological testimony about you is that you can’t do anything right. You disobey, rebel, hurt others, and then lie about it to cover up. The only foolish people who want to hang up wall plaques of the Ten Commandments are Pharisees and liars. If we loved God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength, we wouldn’t be so worried about our jobs, our paychecks, our futures, our reputations and our eventual ends. If we loved our neighbors as ourselves we wouldn’t be so stingy, greedy and covetous with our possessions. Our hearts and hands would be helping and giving and our tongues would stop stabbing and swilling sewage.
The only truth is that I am a poor, miserable, sinner. The only truth is that I cannot by my own reason or strength, believe in my Lord Jesus Christ or come to Him. The only truth is that Jesus Christ true God and true Man has redeemed me a lost and condemned creature; purchased and won me with His bitter sufferings and death. The only truth is that Jesus washes me clean, feeds me His Body and Blood and forgives me in the Name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. The only truth; the only testimony is Christ Crucified!
The false priests and pastors, those who pastured themselves on the people, and who didn’t know the Scriptures of God (the testimony of truth on scrolls) wanted to kill the man known as the “Baptist.” The Levites, those who instead of being a specially chosen and blessed tribe of Jacob in order to help maintain the Temple of the Lord’s presence had become a gang of liturgical Nazis, who wanted to kill the man who was the last of the great Old Testament Prophets. They, like our old sinful natures, were more concerned about “me, myself, and I” than with the testimony of the most Holy One. When they asked John “who are you?” they were revealing their own spiritual vacuity. It was all about status and self and works. They knew who they were. They were the elite; the smartest, most righteous, most rigorous, and most holy. They could see who this “John” was; he appeared to be a crazy, dessert coot who was presuming to do and say things that he had no “official” business doing or saying.
Maybe they, and we, that is, our nation, our society, our culture, our church, our synod, our sorry selves are likewise so pharisaical and Levitical because we don’t have enough John the Baptists who simply preach, teach and confess the testimony of God—the Truth of Christ Crucified.
Do you want to know the truth about yourself apart from the Lord, unconnected from Jesus, doing it on your own and not “in Him?” Do you want to know the truth about me, about Augsburg Lutheran Church, about this place, this altar, this communion if it is not rooted, centered, and built on the “Rock of Ages?”
“Make straight the way of the Lord.” Repent of your sins and your evil nature. Repent parishioners. Repent pastor. Repent one and all.
The truth isn’t mere facts, propositions, theorems and 12-step programs. The truth is He Who is the Truth, the Light, the Life, and the very straight Way Himself.
Ever the pastor, a true shepherd at heart, John does not only preach the Law to terrify and kill: a true testimony of God’s commands and expectations. John also leads his hearers, even Pharisees and Levites, especially Pharisees and Levites, to the Messiah Himself: “I baptize with water, but there stands One among you…It is He Who, coming after me, is preferred before Me…” This is John testifying. This is John stating that the Redeemer Jesus is “before” him, in that, He is eternal God the Son. This is John testifying with His lips and his body “behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world.”
Dear Saints of Augsburg: “Behold the Lamb of God Who takes away your sins. He forgives you. He says eat and drink and be well; know that I love you. Hold on to Me and it will be enough. I will never let you go or leave you. Trust in me. You have Peace.”
Your “old Adam” is drowned in the Truth; the “Truth” of the Blood flowing freely from His Holy Wounds. Your “new man” is quenched with the Blood freely given in His Holy Cup. Your sins are loosed and your sandals are strapped by He Who clothes you with Himself.
I am not the Christ. I am not The Prophet or Elijah. I point you to Lord Christ. Here, not at Bethabara beyond the Jordan, but here at this altar, He places Himself into your ears, mouths and souls.
In the Name of The Father and of The Son + and of The Holy Ghost