POINT - BEHOLD - REJOICE*

3RD SUNDAY OF ADVENT

Isaiah 61:1-2a, 10-11

Luke 1:46-48, 49-50, 53-54

John 1:6-8, 19-28

homily given at Morning Prayer service, St. Stephen's Episcopal Church, New Harmony, Indiana

Third Sunday… Third candle lit

Our Advent light is pointing us to Christmas

And that is making me wonder.

One of my earliest memories of being corrected

Is my Mom’s voice saying:

‘Now Cindy…Don’t point…it is rude’

(and of course ‘Don’t stare’…which is sort of the same thing…pointing without the finger)

and then when I became a mother

I took up these same corrections

My guess is that each of us has a few memories of being on both the pointing and receiving end of such fingers

…neither very happy memories

There is always a broader scene when it comes to pointing

We don’t point when we are all alone

We don’t point unless there is someone point-worthy

and there are at least a few onlookers

It isn’t the fact of pointing that matters

It is how we point

And what we point towards

that matters

Advent is drawing to a close

And it is pointing us toward Christmas

There is a lot of pointing going on in our scripture texts

Some overt

…Some more subtle

Mary points…

Her choice of words…Her Magnificat…Her Song

points back to Isaiah

But her expression of them points to God

There is Good News

And she rejoices

Her rejoicing…quite literally… points to God

I can’t imagine Mary’s song without imagining her

with lifted arms and head

…a broad smile

REJOICING…rejoicing is pointing with the whole body

The crowds are pointing…pointing to John

He is a rock star in his day---His message was so compelling

that his groupies follow him into the barren dessert

I bet it was tempting…all that frenzied attention

How did he resist getting intoxicated by it?

But he doesn’t

He doesn’t take it in just to let it rest in his own ego

No.  He points to Jesus

And Jesus…throughout the Gospel of John

Points to God

Today’s Gospel text gives us some detail about the kind of pointing that John does

Unlike last week…in Mark

In John’s Gospel

(so confusing…too many Johns!)

the Baptist is never called the Baptist

He doesn’t baptize Jesus

And he tells us who he is by telling us who he’s NOT:

I am not the light

I am not the Messiah

I am not Elijah

I am not the prophet…I am not…

Like Mary his words point back to the tradition…to Isaiah

I am…

A voice…A witness…I am one who testifies

With this language, I imagine a courtroom scene

John takes the stand

He is an important witness

He stands up…He points

And because I love crime dramas

This image quickly turns negative for me

It is the REAL murderer who is at the end of the pointing finger!!!

Not so for John

John the witness is testifying to something else

He testifies to the light

And he points with a word

and the word is BEHOLD

We have to add the very next line to see this:

The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Behold…

When a pointing finger is accompanied by the word Behold…

Something happens. 

BEHOLD…suggests bright. 

BEHOLD…implies shining

BEHOLD…manages to take all the focus off the speaker.

This is how John points

This pointing business is very striking in the history of Christian artwork

depicting this scene…it is easy to google;)

And there is one particular image that has an almost comic element

In it, John’s pointing finger is un-naturally-long  (act this out)

It is half as long as his forearm!  The artist is saying something!

But there is nothing accusatory about John’s finger, or his stance, or his gaze

It’s not

POINT---SNEER---GOSSIP

But rather

POINT---BEHOLD---REJOICE

It says:  BEHOLD

We all have pointing power

Individually and as a community

Power to witness

To testify

We have the opportunity to point and

To say with John “Behold…BEHOLD

But it’s the words WITNESS and TESTIFY…that can trip me up

They can be a bit loaded…

But, simply put, they mean

“sharing a first person true account of an experience…

Making a statement about what I have seen and heard and experienced”

And for testimony to qualify as testifying to the light

I’d like to add that the experience must somehow speak the word---BEHOLD

What does it mean for me to testify to the light?

This week I remembered a story from 17 years ago.

I was doing Adult Formation work at my downtown Evansville Parish

We had a lot of members coming and going.  And so in order to orient new members to parish life we had quarterly ‘New Members Dinners’

There was a meal, followed by introductions to various parish ministries…the hope was to get folks involved quickly while their enthusiasm was high!

After the meal, Fr. Steve would invite the new members, if they wished, to take the microphone and say something.

I was there to introduce adult formation opportunities.  Rob and I arrived a bit late that night….it had been a long day…I just remember being tired and not in the mood for this last obligation of the day.

I’ll just sit with my clique of friends, give my prepared little spiel, and go home.  That was my plan.  But when we walked in the tables were all filled…all but one. It would have been completely rude to pull up a couple chairs to the friend table given that there was this woman sitting at a table all by herself.  Given my mood I DID NOT want to sit with her!!!  Rob, thankfully was in a kinder and gentler mood.

So we sat down.  Our table guest was disheveled, aromatic, and continually mumbling to herself.  As a downtown parish St Mary’s often had drop-in visitors from the streets outside her doors.  So this wasn’t really a surprise.

As part of the ice-breaker we had to write our names and something about ourselves on little pieces of paper.  I began writing.  Our newcomer was babbling to herself.  She wasn’t saying anything discernable…just babbling and doodling with the pencil and paper.  I saw…but I didn’t really notice.  Rob saw…and he noticed that likely she couldn’t write her name.  He gently took the paper, asked her name…Janice…and wrote it down for her. When the meal came she doodled with that too.  Once again I saw but Rob noticed.  He reached over and began to cut her chicken for her.  All through dinner ‘our guest’ Janice, didn’t utter a coherent phrase. 

Towards the end of supper I was remembering how Fr. Steve opens up the mic and I began to get anxious

…surely she won’t go up to the microphone

…surely Fr. Steve would notice her odd mumbling and not call her forward if she raises her hand

…surely we could avoid such an embarrassment.

Most of the newcomers took the opportunity.  Janice’s hand was raised.

He invited her forward. She took the mic, and she said:

I just want to thank everyone here

Thank you for being so welcoming

This has been a wonderful evening

Three perfectly coherent sentences!

THIS IS MY TESTIMONY

This is Fluorescence at work. 

By definition

Fluorescence is the taking in of short wavelength light…

It is the absorbing of short wave-length light

And emitting/sending off, longer wavelength light!!!

So becoming fluorescent means

Lengthening the reach of the light!

John is clear…I am not the light

I point to the light…the lamb of God…

I Behold the light…and getting within its reach

I become fluorescent

John fluoresces…he lengthens the reach of the light!

God has made it so.

At the newcomer dinner

There was darkness.  And there was light.

And I had them all mixed up

It took some pointing

Rob pointed to the light and he became fluorescent

Fr. Steve pointed to the light and became fluorescent

And this woman…Janice…

She became fluorescent

As she pointed to the light in everyone gathered.

This is my testimony

What I have seen and heard and experienced

It isn’t quite enough to KNOW that the Word became flesh and dwelt among us

It isn’t quite enough to believe that the light shines in the darkness and the darkness shall not overcome it

The joy of the Gospel

Invites us to re-think our pointing

To re-orient

POINT–SNEER-GOSSIP

into

POINT-BEHOLD-REJOICE

My friends

The joy of the Gospel invites us to fluoresce

To lengthen the reach of the light

God has made it so

Thanks be to God!