“Continuing Christmas Questions:

What Are You Looking For?”

Isaiah 49:1-7 and John 1:29-42

My grandmother thought that black people were dirty. That was the view of many people in her generation whose cultural bias taught that the “Negroes” – as they were called – were not only dirty, but smelly, lazy, criminal, and probably not even human – at least not as human as white people. Although our family lived in the North, far removed from the obvious segregation of the South, the Negroes we encountered were nonetheless kept out on the edges of society. Apartments for rent in white areas suddenly were already rented when Negro families came to inquire. Then the “For Rent” signs would appear again as soon as they left. And many white neighborhoods had covenants about homeowners not selling to “colored” people. After all, they claimed, the property values would go down, and all sorts of bad things would happen. In many ways, the North was - and is - equally as racist as the South - maybe even more so.

Over in the Project – a public housing project – was where most of the Negroes in our area lived, although some of them managed to get out and move to other parts of the city if they could get and hold a job. Vera and Jim were two such people – she a smart, articulate Howard University graduate – a public school teacher - who wouldn’t take “no” for an answer and wasn’t about to be called a Negro, let alone any derivative of that word. Vera was the first person I ever knew who proudly spoke about being “black”, and it was her influence on my life that caused me to let go of calling black people “Negroes.” Her husband Jim, on the other hand, was a guy caught between both worlds. On the one hand, he was married to a very stereotype-busting woman, but on the other, he was a friendly, easy-going fellow whose ambition in life was to drive a city bus. This seemed to Vera to be too low a goal for a true black man, and they used to fight about it.

And all around us in the Northern city where I was raised, these racial tensions were lived out by white people who saw blacks as inferior, by blacks who saw whites as their oppressors, and by blacks who struggled among themselves about whether black was beautiful or just plain ugly. Everybody had an opinion. Everybody had a view of the divisions between themselves and others. It was a disturbing time.

But then, one hot August day in 1963, a prophetic voice rose up in the midst of all this chaos and dared to say, (play audio)

“I have a dream.”

There is a difference, you know, between just having your own personal view of reality, and having a dream for society. Everybody can see life in the particular, as it relates to us personally. But only a very few have the ability to see life in its largeness and can cast a vision that can transform the whole world. These are the prophets among us.

Martin Luther King, Jr. was such a prophet, and the dream he articulated that hot August day in 1963 somehow lifted the eyes of the nation and world to a new vantage point from which people could see the possibility of a world greater than their own personal prejudices and problems. His “I Have A Dream” speech did not itself transform the world, but it provided a vision by which you and I and others can change it!. Dr. King lifted each of us from regarding ourselves as mere pawns in the grip of history to seeing ourselves as the shapers and makers of tomorrow.

But what you may not know is that Dr. King’s speech that August day in 1963 was not just a speech. It was a sermon – a sermon based upon Isaiah 40 – a sermon about the coming of a Messiah who will transform nations and societies - a sermon articulating God’s vision for the world – a vision that calls each of us to lift our lives beyond the personal to the social – from the private home to the community – from “me and Jesus taking care of my life” to “all of us together working with Jesus to bring about the kingdom of God for each other.”

“I have a dream.”

And that thought brings us to the next in our continuing series of Christmas questions. It is a question posed by Jesus in our Gospel reading from John. It is a question Jesus asks those who would come and follow him. And this is the question: “What are you looking for?”

Great question! Let’s ask it of ourselves.

TODAY, as you come to church, seeking the Lord, “What are YOU looking for?”

Maybe you’re looking for comfort in a troubled time. Lots of people come to God for that, and often receive comfort by the grace of God. Or maybe you’re looking for answers to life’s toughest questions. Church is a great place to come to engage those questions. Some people come to church to earn points for heaven, or to find power and strength to overcome their problems, or to find ways of being more effective parents, spouses, neighbors, and friends. Some come just to praise the Lord. And many people come to church just to find happiness and wholeness of heart. “Church just makes me feel good, and ready to start a new week!” says one of my friends.

And all of those are good gifts of grace that often flow into our lives from the heart of a Lord who loves us. God WANTS us to taste the goodness of life, and hopefully, you taste some of that goodness through our ministry here at the Community Church.

But…that’s not enough!

In today’s other reading, from Isaiah 49, which – in many ways - is similar to the Isaiah 40 text Dr. King used, God is speaking about the coming Messiah. What will be his purpose? What will be his mission?

In verse 6, God says that Christ will not simply be a servant of God whose job it is to just raise up people from their sins, and make people well in the midst of their suffering.

You see, God says that just saving people from their sins and healing them of their hurts is not enough.

Listen to what God says about the Christ::

“IT IS TOO LIGHT A THING that you should be my servant, to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to restore the survivors of Israel.”

Did you hear that? It is TOO LIGHT a thing! You see, getting yourself saved, and becoming well yourself are not enough!

So God says that instead of a TOO LIGHT faith like that, the Messiah is called to do much more! Listen:

“I will give you as a light to the NATIONS, that my salvation may reach TO THE ENDS OF THE EARTH.”

What are YOU looking for in Jesus?

Have you come here looking for your own salvation and wellness? Or have you come here looking for the salvation of the world? Are you looking for a LIGHT faith that’s “all about me”, or a BIG faith that is all about transforming the community, the nation, and the world?

“I will give you as a light to the NATIONS, that my salvation may reach TO THE ENDS OF THE EARTH.”

I believe that one of the great sins of our time has been the transforming of a Gospel that is to be other-centered and society-transforming into a self-centered Gospel of personal salvation where what happens between “me and Jesus” is what Christianity is all about.

But listen to God’s judgment on that idea through Isaiah: “It is too light a thing…”

It is not enough!

In God’s heart, you see, it is not enough for black people to have a faith that merely helps them accept racial inequality as their lot in life, while white people sit back and tolerate it. Those whose faith only serves to help people patiently endure and accept evil without trying to change the global and societal structures that support and inflict it have a faith that is TOO LIGHT! It is not the faith of the Bible.

In God’s heart – God who is the Source of all healing - it is not enough for only some people to have access to health care, which is God’s gift to the world, although some seem to think they own the rights to it and sell it for a profit. And a faith that refuses to address that sin on the theory that faith is just about personal matters and not about political, social and economic reform is a faith that is TOO LIGHT! It is not the faith of the Bible.

In God’s heart, it is not enough when what we think is faith causes us to deny basic human rights to some people and groups because we are able to see the speck in their eye much more readily than the log in our own eye. And a faith that spends its time looking for specks in others and not seeing their dignity as people made in the image of God is a faith that is TOO LIGHT! It is not the faith of the Bible.

So Jesus asks all of us who would come and follow him, “What… are you looking for?”

A religious club where you can fill yourself up with the good things of life while neglecting your neighbors needs? A theological society where you can debate the meaning of biblical texts and enjoy the sport of heresy-spotting? A health-club where you can get yourself spiritually fit and toned so that you can be all that you can be?

Is that what you’re looking for in Jesus?

Or are you looking for a dream that can transform the world?

Faith, in all of our lives, almost always begins in the personal. God comes to us in our sin and forgives us. God answers a need through prayer. God heals a deep hurt. God rescues us from a difficult situation. God reaches out and, in some beautiful and graceful way, finds us and makes us whole. “Amazing grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost, but now am found, was blind but now I see.”

Faith almost always begins in the personal experience.

But IT is not enough.

So Jesus asks us all that most important question. “What are you looking for?” And the passage from John gives us the answer of what we find in Jesus: “Behold, the lamb of God who takes away the sin OF THE WORLD!”

So our faith must grow, out from within ourselves and into the wider world of society and culture. Faith must spring from your HEART, and go to the ENDS OF THE EARTH! Faith must have more than a view of oneself. Faith must have a DREAM!

William Booth had a dream. And in 1865, he founded a community whose mission was to transform the way society treated child laborers, women, and the unemployed. We know it today as the Salvation Army.

The first Christians in this country had a dream. They believed that education was the key ingredient to the formation of a strong and healthy nation. So they started the first colleges and universities.

Christian women in America had a dream. There had to be a way of providing health care to people of every economic category. So the Deaconess hospitals were formed.

And Martin Luther King had a dream – a BIG DREAM! (play audio)

“Thank God Almighty, WE – not me, not I, but WE – are free at last!”

God has a dream! Other faithful souls have shared it. I hope you’ll make it your dream, too.