I’m a candidate for ordained pastoral ministry in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, and this is the fourth and final part of my candidacy approval essay.
Approval Part 4: Proclamation and Context
Prompt for Part 4:
Select and submit a sermon you preached during this past year that highlights your role as a missional leader who participates in the formation of disciples.
- Include a brief description of the context in which the sermon was preached that had a direct effect on the crafting of this sermon.
- Describe the core biblical claims in the text, the approach you used in exegesis of the text, and the theological convictions in your chosen context that informed the sermon.
- In light of your exegetical engagement with the biblical text(s), what did you hope would happen to the hearers as a result of hearing this sermon? In what ways did the feedback you solicited and received match your hopes? How might you amend the sermon to equip the hearers’ missional role?
- Include a description of the Triune God’s active role in the preparation and preaching of this sermon.
- How does missional preaching impact how the hearers’ live out the faith in daily life? What do you envision your role to be in that process? Include in your response specific ways you would carry out this role.
This sermon was preached on December 14, 2014, at my internship congregation, St. Peter Lutheran Church in Dubuque, Iowa. This was the third week in a row that I had preached. Two weeks earlier, I had preached about how Jesus calls us to keep awake in the in-between time, keeping our eyes open for injustice (mentioning the unrest in Ferguson, Missouri) and for what God is doing, exhorting the congregation to keep awake and look for God at work, even in times of doubt and fear.
The next week, I had preached about how the gospel message is good news, about how even when we’re called to repent, that’s a call to recognize the good news that Jesus has forgiven us.
In this sermon for the third Sunday of Advent, I focused on the character of John as a witness testifying to Jesus, the incarnation of God’s grace, and how we, like John, are called to live as witnesses proclaiming the good news of what God has done for us and for the world. The primary text for this sermon was John 1:6-8, 19-28, although I also touched on the reading from Isaiah 61:1-4, 8-11.
The congregation I preached this sermon to is a well-established, affluent, upper-middle class congregation of about 700 members. I preached this sermon at all three worship services (one on Saturday afternoon, two on Sunday morning). One of my goals in this sermon was to emphasize that we are all – not just pastors, preachers, or other church leaders – called to be witnesses to God’s action in Christ.
I wanted to build on the previous week’s sermon topic of what the good news is that we’re called to proclaim, using John as an example of someone who understands his role as a witness. We’re all called to testify to God, to be prepared to give an accounting for the hope that we have in Christ.1
I built on this theme in a sermon on the call of Samuel in 1 Samuel 3:1-10 a few weeks later, on January 18, sharing some more of my own call story and relating my doubts that I had a call story to help the congregation recognize that each of them has their own call from God and that the Holy Spirit is at work in their lives calling them, even if it’s in a less dramatic manner than Samuel’s call story.
I hoped that hearers would be inspired to see themselves as children of God, chosen, claimed, called, and forgiven by God, and to recognize their call as witnesses. I wanted the congregation to think about what it is they’re witnessing to both individually and corporately, especially in this advent time of getting ready to celebrate Christmas.
I find myself continually challenged by God to remember that I am a witness to Jesus in my normal activities, and while that challenge is particularly acute for me as a public leader in the church, I believe it’s a challenge for all who claim to follow Jesus, so I felt it would speak well to this congregation.
Sermon manuscript:
What would you do if I were to preach this whole sermon with a paper bag over my head? Would you hear the sermon better if you weren’t distracted by me? Would the message be clearer if the messenger didn’t get in the way? John might say so. He’d be the first to say it’s not about him. It’s all about Jesus. John’s just a witness, pointing to Jesus, testifying about what God’s doing.
I’m here as an intern, so now is a good time to try gimmicks like having a bag on my head, right? After all, I’m here to learn how to preach. A big part of what I’m trying to learn is how to talk about Jesus without me getting in the way. I think John is the perfect role model for that, because his entire role in this story is to point to Jesus. John is the most humble person we talk about 2,000 years after he died.
In last week’s Gospel reading from Mark, we heard about John the Baptizer in the wilderness proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. This week, we hear about John again, but this time from the Gospel of John. Each of the Gospel writers chooses to emphasize different things. I didn’t know it until this week, but the Gospel of John never uses the phrase “John the Baptist” or “John the Baptizer.” There is some mention of John baptizing, but that’s not what’s important about him in this Gospel. We don’t hear about him calling people to repent, or dressed in camel’s hair eating locusts and honey. In John’s Gospel, he’s really John the Witness.
So here, in the first chapter of the book, we have John out in the wilderness baptizing, and, as we know from the other Gospel writers, he’s drawing large crowds. The religious leaders in the city aren’t sure what to make of him, so they send some delegates, some priests and Levites from Jerusalem, to ask him, “Who are you?” But John doesn’t give them the answer they want. He knows what they’re asking, but he answers in negatives.
Picture how this conversation would go. “Who are you?” “I’m not the Messiah.” We read that and think, well, obviously he’s not the Messiah, Jesus is the Messiah. But the idea that John was the Messiah must have been a legitimate possibility, because he wants to be really, really clear that he’s not the Messiah. He’s not anyone particularly important, just a witness.
“Who are you?” “I’m not the Messiah.” “What then? Are you Elijah?” “I am not.” “Are you the prophet?” “No.” Well, now they’re getting frustrated. They’ve been sent to get answers, and all they’re getting is who he’s not. This isn’t helpful. They ask, “Who are you? Let us have an answer for those who sent us. What do you say about yourself?”
And he finally responds…sort of. Like we heard last week, he quotes from Isaiah, about how he’s the voice of one crying out in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way of the Lord.’ When they hear that, they sort of change tactics, and ask, “Ok, if you’re not the Messiah, and you’re not Elijah, and you’re not the prophet, why are you baptizing?”
Basically, what’s your authority? How come you’re doing this? We know the answer, because we read it a few verses ago. The first thing we heard about this character was that “there was a man sent from God.” But they don’t know that, or they don’t get it. Again, he changes the subject. All he’ll say is that there’s one coming after him, and he’s not worthy to untie the thong of his sandal. He’s only here to prepare. John knows who he is, and he’s not the important one. He’s the opening act.
Maybe some of you have had the experience of getting introduced as a speaker, or been to a lecture or seminar where the MC lists the presenter’s credentials. Like if someone introduced the preacher before the sermon. Maybe we should try that next week. Something like: Our preacher today is Daniel Flucke, an intern from the office down the hall. Daniel comes to us from Wartburg Seminary, and Luther College, and has interests in pastoral work, technology, and preaching. Without further ado, please give a warm St. Peter welcome to Daniel. No? Ok.
Of course we don’t have someone introduce the speaker for the sermon, because it’s not about the person preaching. It’s about the message, pointing to Christ. I’ve seen a t-shirt that says, “Be the moon, reflect the son.” S-O-N, son. Maybe you’ve seen it too. If you wanted to take it overly literally, it would look something like this. [slide with a picture of a mirror reflecting the preacher] 
That’s a great summary of the calling not just of a pastor, but of every Christian. Our mission is for our words and our actions to reflect Christ at work in and through us. It’s about the message of the gospel, not the person saying it. Actually, in the traditional liturgy, we do have a kind of opening act. Before we hear the Gospel, we stand and sing the Gospel acclamation, welcoming Christ, the living Word who comes to us as we hear the proclamation of the Gospel. But it’s about the Word, not the speaker.
Or maybe you’ve gone to a concert with a big-name band and an opening act. The people in the opening act know (or they ought to know) that the crowds aren’t there to see them. Their job is to get people fired up, ready for the main event. When an opening act gets carried away and thinks they’re the main event, they’re not doing their job. John is the perfect opening act, God’s choice to introduce Jesus, God’s Son. He knows who he is, what his place is.
When he answers the people wondering about his identity, the wording is quite deliberate. Think back for a minute to the call story of Moses at the burning bush. When God talks to Moses out of the bush and tells him to go speak to Pharaoh and rescue God’s people from Israel, Moses asks for God’s name, so he can say who sent him. God answers, “Say to the people I AM has sent you.”
Later in the Gospel of John, Jesus will say things about himself, like, “I am the bread of life.” “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” “I am the good shepherd.” It’s a not particularly subtle way of claiming to be God, without just saying, “I am God.” But John says the opposite. Instead of “I am,” his answer is consistently, “I am not.” “I am not the messiah, I am not Elijah, etc.” I think that’s deliberate. That’s consistent with John’s character.
Later in his ministry, John’s disciples come to him. His followers like hanging around with him, being part of the in crowd surrounding a celebrity, but they get concerned that the crowds that had been coming to John are now going to Jesus. When they come to him with their concerns, John responds, “He must increase, but I must decrease.” Throughout his life, John’s consistently clear: He’s called to point to the Messiah, not to be the Messiah.
And that’s our call too. As Christians, we know there is one savior of the world, and we also know it’s not us. Our mission is to point to Jesus, not to ourselves. We’re witnesses of what God has done, and what God is doing. But there’s a paradox here. It can sound like we should be anonymous witnesses, completely removing ourselves from the picture in order to focus completely on God, like we should hide ourselves. Like we should put bags over our heads.
And yet, we are the church. We are the body of Christ. God acts in the world through us, through what we do. We can’t hide, because the world needs the message God’s entrusted to us. We talked last week about how the church is about the business of good news. The world needs to hear that good news of God’s love, the good news that God is coming. The good news that we have!
The interesting thing about a witness is that being a witness is personal. If a witness tells a lie, it’s perjury, a major crime. In some sense, possibly a literal sense in some cultures, a witness puts his or her own life on the line, staking their life on the truth of what they’re saying. We can’t separate ourselves from our witness, nor should we.
The Greek word translated witness makes that even more clear. The word is martyria. It’s where we get the English word, “Martyr,” one who dies for what they believe. When we witness to something, when we testify what we believe, we’re revealing what’s important to us, what we’re choosing to stake our lives on.
We share the good news of the Gospel by what we do, and what we say. It’s not just an individual thing, either. It’s a matter of personal witness, yes, but also of our corporate witness together as the church, as the gathered body of Christ. When we choose to come to worship, we’re making a public statement. We’re saying that faith matters. When we put money in the offering, when we volunteer our time to serve others, we’re testifying that we believe God is working through our gifts, through us.
What is our witness? Going back to the Isaiah reading for just a minute, in our witness, how are we comforting all who mourn? In our witness, how are we binding up the broken-hearted? What is our witness to prisoners? Are we proclaiming freedom and forgiveness? What is our witness to our physical neighbors? When people in town look at our church, do they see Christ? Would the message of the church be clearer if it weren’t for all the hypocritical, messed up, broken, sinful Christians like you and me getting in the way?
No, no it wouldn’t. Because the fact that God works through broken people is part of the message. God sends us as witnesses just as we are. It doesn’t mean putting a paper bag over our heads and hiding, but rather embracing who we are, children of God, chosen and forgiven.
As you prepare for Christmas, may those who look at you see Christ at work in and through you. Amen.
As I prepared this sermon, I began by thinking about Advent as a time of getting ready for Christmas, for the incarnation of God in Jesus Christ, and by listening for where the Holy Spirit was calling me in my own Advent preparations. This Gospel reading from John 1 is one of my favorites in the entire Bible, and I knew part of it would be repeated again two weeks later on Christmas Day. I looked especially at how John is described in the prologue verses (John 1:6-8) and then how he describes himself when the priests and Levites from Jerusalem come and question him.
Part of my exegetical understanding of this text came directly from May Persaud’s Exegetical Greek Readings class, where we spent a great deal of time working in John 1, and in which I remember her discussing the frustration John’s questioners must have felt as he continually identified himself in the negative (“I am not the Messiah”).
As a visual illustration for the congregation, after I read the gospel lesson, I began the sermon with a brown paper grocery bag covering my head. I thought this would be a good illustration of what it’s like to focus solely on the content of the message, rather than on the messenger, which is what I saw John doing and what I felt the congregation was being called to do as witnesses. The congregation very much appreciated the bag demonstration, referring to it for months afterwards, and it really did seem to help them recall the point I was making about being a witness, rather than just be remembered as something funny the intern did.
As I often do in my preaching, I tried to slip a few specifically educational nuggets into the sermon, such as mentioning the different ways John is portrayed in the different Gospels. While mentioning that, I put in a bit subtly reminding the congregation that there are four different Gospels and they each tell the story of Jesus in their own ways.
At the same time, I attempted to downplay any embarrassment someone might feel at hearing this by mentioning how I only realized this week in my preparations that John is not called “the Baptist” in the Gospel of John. I see sharing this sort of insight as a way of living out the role I mentioned above of being the one sent to the Scriptures on behalf of the congregation, as Thomas Long describes it.2
It is also a part of how I live my role of equipping the congregation for the task of witnessing that they are called to, particularly in this sermon. Similarly, I felt there was an important connotation of the word martyria, translated “witness” in the NRSV text as also being the root word for martyr, so I included that in the sermon to emphasize the seriousness of our calling to witness. I also used some humor to welcome people into the story, like the bag over my head, and a joke about having a master of ceremonies or opening act introduce me as the preacher.
Missionally, I think the goal of this sermon was to help the congregation see themselves as reflecting Christ in their daily lives. Many people in the congregation are quite socially active and engaged, but I wasn’t sure how much they connected their service activities in the world with their faith. If I were to preach this sermon again, I think I might attempt to make that connection between their witness to Jesus and their good deeds more explicit, perhaps with some more concrete examples of how others might see their witness.
I did try to challenge them towards the end of the sermon by going back to the Isaiah 61 reading and asking what people in the different scenarios described by Isaiah see when they look at our church. Is the church living out its calling to proclaim freedom and forgiveness? There’s a little challenge there about “our physical neighbors” as well, since my understanding was that this congregation has very little involvement with the people in their immediate geographical neighborhood, instead drawing members from across the city.
I also sought to affirm that God is calling each of them as they are, even when they fail to witness successfully, and to remind them that God still uses them. As part of the priesthood of all believers, they are all called to be witnesses to God’s activity in their daily vocations.
I hope that the Holy Spirit used this sermon to inspire hearers to be more open to looking for opportunities to be witnesses to God’s actions in their lives, not in any sort of confrontational way, but to be prepared when opportunities to invite others into God’s mission arise.
As a missional leader, my goal is to equip people to make those connections between their faith in Jesus Christ and their service in daily life. Through teaching, and through reminding the congregation of their call to witness, I hope they are fed in worship and sent out for service, equipped to participate in God’s mission.
Read part 1
Read part 2
Read part 3
Footnotes:
[1] 1 Peter 3:15.
[2] Long, 48.