Are You Anointed? Are You Light?

Joy to the world: we are anointed, Christ-ed, for grace to those in pain, we are light for those in darkness, and we get all this from God, so it’s not ours alone.

Pr. Joseph G. Crippen
The Third Sunday of Advent, year B
Texts: John 1:6-8, 19-28; Isaiah 61:1-4, 8-11; 1 Thessalonians 5:16-24

Sisters and brothers in Christ, grace to you, and peace in the name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen

In Hebrew, “Messiah.” In Greek, “Christ.” In English, “Anointed.”

They’re all the same thing. They’re the title we give to Jesus, sent from God, who is God’s face for us, who died and rose from the dead. Our Savior. Jesus is the Messiah, the Christ, the Anointed.

So we’re not surprised that at his first sermon in his hometown Jesus claimed Isaiah’s words for himself: “The spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me,” he said, “because the LORD has anointed me (“messiahed” me); God has sent me to bring good news to the oppressed, to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and release to the prisoners; to proclaim the year of the LORD’s favor.” Today this is fulfilled in your hearing, Jesus said. (Luke 4:16-21) And it was.

Because of course the Messiah, the Christ, the Anointed One will do these things. It’s what we long for and expect, amidst all the pain in the world. “He comes the prisoners to release,” we sang today. “He comes the broken heart to bind, the bleeding soul to cure, the humble poor to enrich with treasures of grace.”

Now, John the Baptizer was sent to prepare the coming of this Christ.

To testify to the Light of the world that Jesus the Christ, the Anointed, the Messiah, was. A light no darkness can overcome.

But we heard something interesting about John today: “He was not the light;” we heard, “he came to testify to the light.” John was asked directly: “Are you the Messiah?” (Are you the Christ? The Anointed of God?) “I am not the Messiah,” John said. John claimed his job was to make the way ready for the Anointed of God, to straighten Christ’s highway. To point to the Light that is come.

But John was clear: he didn’t consider himself worthy to untie Messiah’s sandals, let alone be called Christ.

In Hebrew, “Messiah.” In Greek, “Christ.” In English, “Anointed.”

They’re all the same thing. But they never applied to only one person. To be anointed, or in Hebrew, to be “messiahed”, was to be set apart for God’s holy work in the world. So Israel’s kings were all anointed, messiahed, Christed, to be God’s holy workers.

But today we hear the prophet himself claim this anointing, just as Jesus did hundreds of years later. The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, has anointed me, Isaiah says. To do all these wondrous things. In fact, in the Hebrew Scriptures, the whole nation of God’s chosen were called the anointed.

And this is true for we who are baptized into Christ. In Scripture and in liturgy we are called the anointed of God. We have anointing oil placed on our foreheads like rulers of old as we are set apart through the waters of Baptism to be God’s holy ones for the healing of the world.

John might have been clear about what he wasn’t. But let’s be just as clear about what we are.

In Hebrew, “Messiah.” In Greek, “Christ.” In English, “Anointed.”

They’re all the same thing. And, wonder of wonders, this is your title as a baptized child of God. You are Christ in the world. Messiah. The one God has anointed to bring healing and hope into the world.

You are also the light of the world. Jesus, the true Light, declared it: “You are the light of the world,” he said. “. . . let your light so shine before others that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.” (Matthew 5:14, 16) In our baptismal liturgy we both anoint God’s child and proclaim this one the light of the world. It’s our truth.

Like John, we testify to the true Light, we point to the Anointed One who died and rose and gives life to the world. But in the wonder and mystery of our baptism, we also are the Light. And the Christ. Or, the Messiah, the Anointed. The Spirit of God is upon us, and has anointed us.

It’s no mystery why Christ Jesus would make us this.

There is far too much darkness and pain in the world for one person to handle, even the Son of God. We know this so well in these days.

And don’t we sing with joy at the Great Vigil of Easter this wonder: that light, when it is divided and borrowed, only gets stronger? The light of Christ no darkness can overcome gets more powerful when it’s divided, when each child of God is light in the darkness, over the whole world, over centuries. With such light, what chance does darkness have?

God’s Spirit is upon us, and has anointed us, and made us light. So God’s healing could spread to all nations and peoples, in all times and places.

So what Jesus claimed from Isaiah is ours to claim, too, as God’s anointed.

And we need Isaiah’s words very much. The darkness that covers this world is manifested in so many difficult and complex and intractable ways. We’ve talked about this a lot. We know the list. We know the things that cause so much suffering, and make our hearts heavy. As we become more aware of our complicity, more aware of the depth of the darkness, the more daunting it is to consider what we can do. What can God’s Anointed, if that’s what we are, do to heal such systemic suffering? What can God’s Light, if that’s what we are, do to dispel such darkness? Haven’t we already shown we’re not up to this?

But a wise rabbi has said, “Do not be daunted by the enormity of the world’s grief. Do justly, now. Love mercy, now. Walk humbly, now. You are not obligated to complete the work. Neither are you free to abandon it.” ^[1] And that’s what Isaiah says, too.

Isaiah shows a path we can actually envision. Not to solve all things or complete the work. But not to abandon it in despair, either. Like Jesus, we can claim this as our calling:

To bring good news to the oppressed. To bind up the brokenhearted. To proclaim liberty to the captives, release to the prisoners.

There is no day where we lack this opportunity.

There’s no day when we don’t meet someone oppressed. By unjust systems, by other people, by depression, by the pain of the world, by many things. When you meet that one, can you, God’s Christ, God’s Light, be good news to them? You maybe aren’t able to remove all that oppresses them. But can you be God’s love for this child of God?

There’s no day when we don’t encounter someone brokenhearted. Over suffering, over loss, over grief, over fear, over betrayal, over many things. When you meet that one, can you, God’s Messiah, God’s Light, somehow bind them up? Be God’s bandage and wrap their pain? You aren’t always able to remove it. But can you be God’s healing for this child of God?

There’s no day when we don’t meet someone captive. To addiction, to fear, to mental illness, to many things. When you meet that one, can you, God’s Anointed, God’s Light, bring release to them? You aren’t able to fix it all, perhaps. But can you be God’s light for this child of God?

The bigger, deeper, intractable things, the structures and systems, those we work on together as God’s community of Christs. That’s how the greater darkness goes away.

But you, and I, we can be Christ and Light every day. The Spirit has anointed you for this. So, dear friends, you already are Christ. You already are Light. God has said so. God has made it so.

So rejoice always, Paul says. And by all means don’t quench the Spirit.

The Spirit of God is upon you and me, anoints us and makes us light. We can do this healing. This lighting. This work of the Anointed. Because God is faithful, Paul says, and will give us what we need to do it. And forgive and restore us when we fail, so we begin again.

Jesus said that first generation wouldn’t pass away without seeing the coming of Christ. Little did we realize he was talking about them. About us. We are the coming we’ve been waiting for.

Messiah, Christ, Anointed. Light. That is what we are, broken and flawed, graced and forgiven, constantly sent out as the coming of God’s Christ and God’s light in the world. And nothing will ever be the same, now that we know this.

In the name of Jesus, Amen.