191222 Sermon on John 1:29-34 (Advent 4) December 22, 2019 The first thing that is noticed with John is how he was cowed by no one. We can see that in our reading for today. John was out preaching, and who should show up but some bigwigs from Synod headquarters. They’ve come to make sure that everything that John is doing is proper and in order. They’ve heard some strange things about John baptizing, and they aren’t so sure about that. Had John received the prior approval from his ecclesiastical supervisors before doing that? Or maybe John has some grand ideas about himself. Does he think he’s the Christ or Elijah or the Prophet that Moses speaks about in our Old Testament reading? In any case, they thought they better get to the bottom of it.John, however, was indifferent. If the church bureaucracy doesn’t like what he has to say, then they will just have to continue to not like what he says. He is not accountable to them. He is accountable to the God who sent him to preach and to baptize. He has no need for their exalted titles. He’s content with being just a voice. He is the voice of one calling out in the wilderness, “Make straight the way of the Lord.” The glory of the Lord is about to be revealed in Jesus Christ, whose sandal strap he is unworthy to untie. These words do not require great intelligence to be understood. John was not a genius. He was a voice who spoke what was given to him to speak. But what did set him apart from others was that his voice was wholly dedicated to God and God’s will that has been made known through his Word. What other people thought did not overly concern him.The word that we might use to describe John’s willingness to go against the grain might be “independence.” Someone who is independent is not beholden to others. But that would almost be the opposite of what is really going on here. John was completely dependent—not upon men, to be sure, but upon his God. He was free from making his words sound pretty or plausible so as to please people. God’s truth, served straight, was the way he did things. If trouble came as a result, which it often did, then he was wholly dependent upon God for his comfort, strength, and protection. This dependence upon God set him apart from the herd. Being set apart from everybody else looks like independence, but this is actually an extreme form of dependence.Being dependent upon God and becoming only ever more dependent upon God was the way that John lived and this was the message that he urged upon those who heard his voice. Independence is not a good thing according to the Bible. What happened when Adam and Eve became independent? They ended up going away from God. And when God came after them, they only wanted to get further away. One of the common pictures used in the Scriptures for sin is the picture of a sheep wandering off on its own. “We all like sheep have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way.” The picture of turning away from sin corresponds to this. The sheep are called back. They return to the shepherding of the Lord. When the shepherd finds the one who has wandered off he places it on his shoulders and carries it back to the fold rejoicing. Such sheep are independent no more. They have returned to dependence upon the Good Shepherd.Something that responsibility requires as an accompaniment to this message is the danger—the impossibility—of independence from God. It simply won’t work. Sheep are defenseless against the wolf if they are left to their own devices. They aren’t very big. They don’t have sharp claws or teeth. They aren’t that fast. They also aren’t that smart. If a person decides that he or she wants to remain estranged and alienated from the Good Shepherd, then it is necessary to point out that this can’t turn out well for them.John had the guts to lay out this danger clearly and vividly. The ax is laid at the root of the tree. God’s winnowing fork is in his hand. He will gather the grain into the bin, but the chaff shall be