but the one who is more powerful than me
is coming. (Luke 3:16)
Karl Barth,
the greatest Protestant theologian of the 20th century,
died on December 10th.
So as we remember saints on the day of their death,
so we remembered Barth at our midweek Eucharist.
I thought of him Friday night,
as I searched the Word of God,
appointed for the Third Sunday of Advent, year C,
for the right word for this Sunday.
Barth once advised preachers
to take a newspaper in one hand,
a Bible in the other,
and read them both together.
So, with one eye on the news,
and the other on my Bible,
I hope and pray
that I’ve heard the right Word this Sunday—
“I baptize you with water,
“but the one who is more powerful than me is coming.”
With one eye on the news,
and the other on my Bible,
what I see in the Word of God
is the word “powerful.”
What I see on the news
is the unspoken word, “powerless.”
There is the powerlessness
felt by those directly affected,
a powerlessness that most of us can only imagine.
But that is a very small circle
which none of us can enter.
Outside that small circle,
for whom no words can be enough,
it’s tempting to assert some power
by trying to explain “why.”
Since it’s too early to know all the facts,
it’s tempting to rush ahead of the facts.
It’s tempting to think that changing laws and policies
will have power over the evil secrets of the human heart.
It’s tempting to think that the power of evil
can simply be overpowered by superior force.
It’s tempting to suppose, as Mike Huckabee did,
that we have the power to “remove God”
from any part of the world God has made.
It is tempting to explain “why,”
and by explaining “why,”
avoid the truth of our powerlessness.
But bless his heart, John the Baptist had that problem too.
“I baptize you with water,
“but the one who is more powerful than me is coming.
“I’m not worthy to loosen the strap of his sandals…
“But he will burn the husks with a fire that can’t be put out.”
He expected a Messiah
who would bring overwhelming force
to crush the evil Romans.
But soon, John was rotting in prison.
And his disciples were asking Jesus,
“Are you the one who is coming,
“or should we look for someone else?”
Does Jesus respond with a battle plan?
“Go, report to John what you have seen and heard.
“Those who were blind are able to see.
“Those who were crippled now walk.
“People with skin diseases are cleansed.
“Those who were deaf now hear.
“Those who were dead are raised up.
“And good news is preached to the poor.”
But Jesus does not say,
“And I’m coming for you John.”
Here again, just like on the news,
is the unspoken word, “powerless.”
The blind see, the crippled walk,
The dead are raised, the poor hear good news.
But John, I’m not coming for you.
And so John would die by the sword,
powerless.
But that is how the Son of God
came into the world,
powerless.
And that is how the Son of God
left this world the first time,
powerless.
But that doesn’t mean John was wrong when he said,
“The one who is more powerful than me is coming.”
His power is the power of endurance;
to endure the worst evil,
trusting that death does not have the last word.
He endured the worst evil without turning to evil himself,
and cursing his enemies.
He was so powerful,
that his response to the evil of the cross was,
“Father, forgive them,
“for they don’t know what they’re doing.”
It takes endurance to accept our powerlessness,
and to stay in our powerlessness.
But that is where our God is,
with those who do evil,
with those to whom evil is done.
And as Jesus endures with us in our powerlessness,
so we can endure with him in his powerlessness.
Let us not resort to the “power” of easy explanations
for the evil of last Friday.
Let us show the world
that love and mercy have the last word,
now and forever, world without end.
Amen.
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