John the Baptizer seems to be always barging into the gospel narrative. He appears in the wilderness, a voice of one, shouting: “Make way! Make way!” He empties out Jerusalem and the countryside, everyone heading down to the River Jordan. He troubles kings and Pharisees: “You brood of vipers!” And later in the story, when Jesus is teaching, John the Baptizer sends Jesus questions from prison: “Are you the one? Or should we move on?”
Even here. In the beauty of the poetry of John 1, here comes John the Baptizer, shouting: “This is the one. Of whom I spoke. This is the Christ. The light bringing life into the world.” John the Baptizer doesn’t let the poetry of John 1 float in the ether; he anchors it in the Christ. This is the one, the Word, the light, the life – grace, truth, grace upon grace – the Word in flesh and bone – the Christ. This is the one.
John the Baptizer connects this Word with the enfleshed body of the Christ, and then he charges us with something to do: testify to the light, bring the life, enflesh this word. John came as a witness to the light: The light that gives light to everyone is coming into the world. Witness to the light.
Hopefully, our prayer this week has let us pray deeply in the present moment – as we have noticed where we see the Word in the enfleshed life of the world – naming in our prayer where we are encountering love and grace and doubt and mystery and the deep need of the world.
John the Baptizer now points us forward. So what will you now do with all this? How will you – how will we – testify to the light? What will you do with all this grace upon grace? Will you feed the hungry? Or offer someone shelter? Or sit with someone in the deep mystery of grief and loss? Or bring a healing touch to meet the deep need of the world? The Word enfleshed in Christ and you and us.
In 2014, how will you – how will we, together – enflesh and embody the Word for the blessing of the world?
