|
This is St. John the Baptist
Day. The significance of St. John the Baptist Day is that there are only 180
shopping days until Christmas. We are halfway through the year. The Church
chose this day to celebrate John the Baptist's birth to coincide a Pagan
holiday. Likewise, Christmas was put on December 25th to coincide with
another Pagan holiday. If you can't beat'em, join'em.
After today, the days start getting shorter. After Christmas, the days start
getting longer. As John said, "I must decrease in order that He
increase." The light begins to decrease after John's day. It begins its
steady increase after the Lord's birth.
In many Latin American and Scandinavian countries, St. John the Baptist Day
is part of a three-day weekend. Why do we celebrate him so?
Of course, John the Baptist was kind of a character. He referred to his
followers as a snake pit, a brood of vipers. You won't find many churcges
named "Brood of Vipers Lutheran Church" or "Snake Pit Baptist
Church."
In your bulletins today was a sermon by St. Augustine of Hippo on the
Solemnity of the Birth of St. John the Baptist. St. Augustine says
"John, it seems, has been inserted as a kind of boundary between the two
Testaments, the Old and the New. That he is somehow or other a boundary is
something that the Lord himself indicates when he says, The Law and the
prophets were until John. So he represents the old and heralds the new."
When Luther first translated the Bible into the German vernacular, he kept a
couple of verses in the Latin Vulgate, because they were verses that evryone
understand. One of course was "Gloria in Excelsis Deo." People know
exactly what that means. It needs no translation. Today, we still read the
King James version of the 23rd Psalm, it is so ingrained, and we know it so
well.
The other verse that Luther maintained in Latin was John the Baptist's
proclamation at the river when he sees Jesus. He points at him and says
"Ecce agnus dei qui tollis peccata mundi." "Behold the Lamb of
God who takes away the sins of the world." This is Christ in your lives;
look at him acting among you, living among you.
As Pastor, it is my job to show you Christ in your lives. You as the Baptized
believers have a job to show family, friends, people without hope, the
lonely, the hospitalized, to show them where God is alive. That is your
mission.
That is one of the reasons we invited the Choir of Wesley Methodist to come
up from Pinopolis and celebrate with us.
Those of you who were here Wednesday night know what a wonderful service it
was. It showed God active in people's lives.
I interviewed the kids on Friday about their experiences coming up here from
South Carolina. I asked them what they found different. Almost every one of
them was most surprised at the experience of seeing white and black people
worshiping together.
We had planned to raise money for the roof, but what we actually did by
welcoming 18 African-American teens from the rural south was showing God's
inclusion. By being inclusive, we were pointing to Christ.
By our presence here this morning, we point to Christ.
When we live out the Christian life and share it with others, we are pointing
to God. Evangelism is pointing to Jesus and proclaiming "Behold the Lamb
of God who takes away the sins of the world." Evangelism is pointing to
God, active in the world, active in our lives.
The kids told me that they were always offered a meal by the churches they
visited, but they usually received the meals "TO GO." By inviting
them to sit in fellowship with us, we are more attuned to helping one another
seek Jesus.
|
