December 16, 2007

The Norwegian Lutheran Memorial Church

Pr. Per Inge Vik 

Matt 11,2-11  

Go and tell!

”Go, tell it on the mountain,”  we sang in the beginning today. Go and tell, Jesus said  to the disciples of John the Baptist. This happened as the Baptist sent a message from prison, asking if Jesus really was the Messiah that the people expected. Even the Lord’s own road worker needed assurance, and encouragement, where he sat, locked up because he had spoken up against the very King Herod.

The king had in his autocratic power taken the wife from his brother, and lived together with her. But the brave Baptist dared to speak against this: “Herod, what you have done is evil in the Lord’s eyes!” That was not accepted. Again the king used brutal power, and in spite of the respect the Baptist enjoyed among the people, the king imprisoned him.

After a while in captivity, John sends his disciples with a message to Jesus, asking him if he really was the one that the Jews were waiting for, or if they should expect another. Then John’s disciples get this encouraging message: Go and tell John what you hear and see, the Messiah has come! The prophecies are being fulfilled.

Exactly that which Isaiah had predicted, was happening now: the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped; then the lame shall leap like a deer, and the tongue of the speechless sing for joy (Is 35:5-6). Jesus’ miracles and his good message to the poor, those are the signs that the waiting time is over. The kingdom of God has come close.

I am a member of a Norwegian book club here in the Twin Cities, where we read only Norwegian authors. Also our conversation is in Norwegian. At our gathering last Monday, a collection of Jens Bjørneboe’s poems were our focus.

Among other things, I found in this collection from Bjørneboe a pearl of a poem, with the title “John”. It is the most beautiful and strongest sermon on John the Baptist that I have ever encountered. The author lets the Baptist himself speak in these verses (I quote here according to Gracia Grindal’s translation):

“But once my youth was sweet honey!
Before the fifteen summers in Judea’s wilderness,
before the desert wind and the summer drought
had turned my blood to vinegar, before a queen,
(a hussy over Juda!) made me so
that when I, baptizing by the Jordan river,
caught a glimpse of myself in the water,
then I had to close my mouth around a shriek!

I gave my youth. It was sweet as honey.
And then I received power over the word,
before the word grew and made me a servant.
So Herod came to me with his queen.
And the words came out of me like stones. 

At the temple I met my first friend,
We were kin, and all went in that direction.
And so—when we were thirty—he came here
to me whom I did not recognize.

My friend, my friend! He was like a tree
burnt up by lightning. And the word grew:
See the royal pain, crowned with thorns!
See the Lamb who bears the world’s woe! 

I baptized him. And heaven opened up.
The spirit lay around him like a golden robe.
And like a storm came the word, It is finished!
But the fire from the sun came and baptized me.        

With bloody lips I heard myself say
I must decrease, only you will remain.”

The last thing here is the most beautiful and strong of the Baptist’s traits: He himself decreased, and let Jesus increase. He didn’t make himself important. He didn’t put his own person in the center, but stepped aside. The Baptist pointed away from himself, saying: "Here is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world (John 1:29)!

The prophets and the road workers that prepared the way for the Messiah, they paid a high cost, as also James (5,10) reminds us in his letter, that we heard here today, As an example of suffering and patience, beloved, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord.

The Old Testament prophets and John the Baptist had this in common, they dared to speak the truth, also when it was unpopular. They bore the personal costs by putting the word of God on the top.

The Lord’s holy commandments were more important to them than popular opinion. Imagine if we who are the church today could live and preach according to the same ideals. That we can be faithful to the truth, in love, to put it Paul’s way.

This message is still to be proclaimed. The Law and the Gospel. God’s holy will, and his endless love and grace towards sinners. Every believer is called to take part in bringing this along: Go and tell. The gospel is to be proclaimed to the poor!

God’s Kingdom, that we are waiting for to come into power, is already at hand. Through simple means. As the word is proclaimed and the holy sacraments are administered. When Christians bear witness about their faith, then the Spirit is at work. The Kingdom is growing and expanding its limits.

It is Advent time. As we on the one hand are pre-paring for the celebration of Jesus’ birth, and on the other hand are looking further ahead, waiting for Jesus’ return, the power of the Kingdom of Heaven is being released into our world. While we are waiting, evil is to be opposed. Sins are to be cleared away and forgiven. Mourners are to be comforted, prisoners to be freed, ears of the deaf are to be opened.

By our lives, and our words, all Christians are called to bring the Gospel to our neighbours. Go and tell! Tell others, and show them what Jesus has done for you! Let your testimony be heard and seen! Every believer is called to this, to spread the good news that God has not forgotten our world. He has sent us a Savior.

Glory be to the Father and to the Son and the Holy Spirit, who was, is and shall always be one true God, from eternity to eternity. (Congregation:) Amen.

The Norwegian Lutheran Memorial Church ·  924 E. 21st St, Minneapolis, MN 55404-2952 ·  (612)874-0716