You are not the Light

Advent 3 | Year B | John 16-8,19-28 | TJ Torgerson

Have you heard about the decline of the church lately? As a pastor, I can’t go a week without somehow, somewhere, and in some way hearing about how people are leaving the church. Along with that sentiment is the fearful hand-wringing, saying we must do something! If we don’t do something, then the church… all of Christianity will die within a generation! Sure, the state of the church in the West is not what we would like, and yes, we should not sit on our hands. But even if we do, the church will be okay because the church is in His hands.

In this fearful hand-wringing, we ask a very good question: "What should we do?" Great question, but the issue is we ask it to the wrong people. We ask corporations, and the answer we get is one of demographics, marketing, target audiences, mission statements, etc. There is probably nothing wrong with any of those things in and of themselves, but it's been about 20 years that I have been hearing about these things, and I am not sure if implementing these things has helped. We were told the secret sauce was to have a clear vision/mission statement. So we went to our leadership teams and boards and crafted a concise, clever and memorable statement. Walk into almost any church today, and they will have a catchy statement. The thing is, churches can have a catchy statement but still no vision, and the opposite is true: a church can have vision and no catchy statement to go along with it. The answer wasn’t in corporate America.

We also ask the unchurched people. Well, we don’t actually ask them, but we imagine what their answer might be, and we work to tailor church around what we imagine they want. As a side note, tailoring a worship service around anyone other than the triune God of the universe is idolatry. We make church all about “the lost,” we try to make it fun, inviting, hip, cool—we make it all about them in hopes they will want to come. Of course, our churches should be warm and inviting, and it's great to have  fun, but allowing our assumptions of what unbelievers want at a church to dictate what we do at church is foolish. It also doesn’t seem to be working; we come off as hucksters trying to be relatable in order to sell our product. The whole world has been bent around the individual trying to manipulate the masses to make a purchase. Perhaps when people walk into a church, they are wanting something different. Perhaps we are looking for something bigger than ourselves? Perhaps the unchurched do not have the answer.

We ask church people. Well, we don’t have to ask them; they will share their opinion. They might even start a blog to share their opinion with the world. We will say we have to do it like we used to; it worked then, it will work now. We say we need to do it like the church up the road or that’s how mega-pastor fancy pants is doing it and if we copy them then that would work. Of course, we can learn from one another, whether it be traditions from years past or innovations from up the road, but still, there is something off about that approach. Really what the problem is in any of these approaches is that we are putting all the pressure on ourselves to figure it out, to have the answers or the strategy. We act like it all rests on our shoulders.

In the gospel reading this week, we read about John the Baptizer in John chapter 1. They ask him, “Are you the guy?” John says, “No, I’m not the guy.” So they say, “Well then who are you? You must be someone important.” "No, I'm not Elijah or a prophet. I'm just a guy pointing to Jesus."

I have always liked John the Baptizer. Jesus said John was a prophet. Jesus said John was Elijah. But John didn’t hold on to the pressure of those titles. At the end of the day, John understood he had a simple and important job: Point to Jesus.

Perhaps we can all be John the Baptist this Advent season. We can set aside the pressure. The survival of the church is not on you. The salvation of your friends is not on you. Your success is not based on whether or not someone accepts an invitation to church. The results are up to God; our job is to simply highlight Jesus.

So as Christmas approaches, how can you highlight Jesus? Can you help direct the cashier’s attention to Christ for just a moment? When your friends or relatives are stressed, can you find a way to redirect them to Jesus, even if for a brief moment?

If people’s holiday grief begins to cloud over the whole season, can you bear witness to the light?

Of course you can, because the same Spirit that raised Christ from the dead resides in you.

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