Photobombing for Jesus

Sermon 12-17-17

Grace to you and peace from God our creator and from our Lord and Savior Jesus the Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

How many of you have taken a selfie? Haha, a few of us. Selfies can be fun -  a way to share with the world when we’re with people we care about or having a good time. But they can have a downside too… when we only share with the world our very best “SELF-ie” self. Our “best hair day” self. Our “marriage is great all the time,” self. Our “handling the diagnosis well” self. Our “I’m just fine” self. Our “I don’t need help, thank-you-very-much” self.

It’s like that perfect photo Christmas card you always get from that one family…. You all know one. Or maybe you are the ones trying to BE “that family.” In your ideal picture, your children smiling, your pets behaved, house clean, tree perfect, everyone dressed in their best and on their best behavior. What usually isn’t included on these cards are the before and after. How the kids were fighting, the cookies came out of the oven burnt, the house is a disaster, the cat had knocked over the tree. THAT doesn’t make for a very good Christmas card.

We have become very good at editing our lives to look perfect inside that Christmas card frame. It takes a lot of energy. What’s inside our perfect frame becomes our world, and we ignore or try to hide everything else. But often, something surprising can sneak into the frame.

A few years ago, I remember an interesting Christmas publicity ad sponsored by the Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn. It’s an image of a young woman taking a selfie, but on the screen of her phone you see someone else in the picture behind her… it’s fuzzy, but I’m pretty sure it’s supposed to be Jesus, with the tagline being “It’s never just a selfie – join us this Christmas.”

Also, this is not really how selfies work!

Ok, Creepy Jesus aside… but I think this ad is TRYING to say… that Jesus is present in with you and will show up when you least expect it, even when – or ESPECIALLY when – we are still stuck focusing on ourselves. Like when we are orchestrating our lives to be a Hallmark Christmas card.

Basically, God is photobombing us. Are you familiar with that term? It’s happened to most of us - you’re on vacation, taking a picture of your family in front of a beautiful vista, and later see that the view is spoiled because in the background is some random kid making a funny face. Or when you’ve set up a nice portrait, put the camera on a timer, and your cat sticks her face right in front at the last minute.

…. Or, apparently, when Jesus unexpectedly shows up in your selfie. Or when he shows up unexpectedly in your life. Or when Jesus’ forerunner sent from God shows up unexpectedly to tell the people that God is about to do something big. That the true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world… spoiling the illusion of our “perfect selfie.”

John the Baptist seems to be the kind of guy who would never take a selfie. We really don’t know much of anything about him, at least if we were to base our facts in the Gospel of John. Here there is no indication of his wardrobe choices, hair style, or eating preferences, like we heard from Mark last week. Even the Pharisees knew next to nothing about him – so they sent their people to get the scoop on this guy: Who was he? Was he the messiah? Was he the prophet? Was he Elijah? Why was he baptizing? What did he have to say for himself?

They tried to get a read on him, tried to get him to write his biography, invited him to be interviewed on Oprah, tried to get him to write a bestseller, “Your Best Baptism Now.” 

After all, he was a smash hit, and people showed up to hear him preach and be baptized in droves. Had there been a Time Magazine, they might have even put his face on the covers as “Person of the Year.”

But nothing deterred him. He stayed on message. John knew who he was – not the promised Messiah, but the voice crying out in the wilderness getting the world ready for his coming.

John came as a witness to testify to the light, to prepare the way of the Lord and make the paths straight, to make the world ready for the one coming after him. In a great devotion from an advent devotional book shared in our council meeting the other night, it was said that John “likes to use his finger”… No not that finger! haha, his pointer-finger. In most of the paintings John throughout the ages, John is pictured pointing…. away from himself, up and out beyond the frame, toward the light. And just a little later in the Gospel of John (not the same John), as the light manifests in Jesus, John the Baptist points and cries out “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world!”

Yes, behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world. Yes, behold the light that is coming into the darkness of the world, the word who became flesh and lives among us. Behold, a little baby born to an unmarried teen mom far from home and placed in a manger. Behold, one who fed the hungry and healed the sick and cared for sinners. Behold the good shepherd, the Way, the Truth, and the Life. Behold, the son of God lifted up on a cross, drawing all people to himself. Behold, the empty tomb and stone rolled away. 

Behold, the Lamb of God photobombing our selfies and interrupting our lives with bright beam shining out in the hopelessness and evil of the world.

John was not the light, and we are not the light either…. but we, like John, are sent from God to be witnesses to the light, to see it, and then tell others what we see. We are created in the IMAGE of God, revealing who God is and pointing to where God IS showing up in the world. And so, we show up too, to the places where cruelty and power holds sway. We are created to be photobombers, too.  

Our lives and are actions are to be like that of Jesus – spoiling the perfect picture that the world would like you to believe, that everything is fine, we’re fine, and nothing needs to change. But God is breaking into the world, and we are called to be like John and to break the silence of oppression and injustice.

What I wore in Namibia for
"Thursdays in Black"

Sometimes this work can even take the form of actually taking selfies. From the Lutheran World Federation staff I met while I was in Namibia, I learned about “Thursdaysin Black.” It’s a global movement started in the 70s to call attention to people who live in fear of being harassed, discriminated against, assaulted, raped, or other violence. It began before selfies were a thing, with women in Argentina protesting while wearing black on Thursdays….  but now has progressed to be a worldwide social media movement with people posted selfies every Thursday, myself included, using the hashtag “Thursdays in black.”

Apparently, the entire staff of the Lutheran World Federation headquarters in Geneva participates. And while we were all together in Namibia we were encouraged to pack black clothes to wear the Thursday we were all there. And many of us did just that.

When I choose to wear black on Thursdays, and to share picture on social media, I do it to speak up. Not just for women around the world who are facing threats of sex trafficking, rape as a weapon of war, and honor killings. I do it also to speak up for women closer to home, like my friend who was sexually harassed in seminary and was never believed. I do it for my female pastor colleagues who are the recipient of inappropriate comments or contact… or worse. I do it because women still aren’t believed or taken seriously. I never imagined that women like Taylor Swift and Ashley Judd would be like modern-day versions of John the Baptist, speaking out and facing push back from people in power. And just like back then, people are taking notice.

We don’t speak out and break the silence of the status quo because it’s easy or fun. We do it because it’s what we are called to speak out like John the Baptist, and be photobombers for Jesus. And there will be resistance. People aren’t always going to be on board. John too was questioned and not believed.

But he kept at it. He knew that the light is going to shine. The darkness will be overcome. Jesus is coming, and will break into the world, to bring good news to the oppressed, to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim freedom to the captives, and release to those who are imprisoned. And that good news it that they are SEEN. God sees them, and we see them too, and we stand with them, pointing with John the Baptist…

Pointing to a world where all people are seen.

Pointing to a world where we don’t have to wear black on Thursdays anymore.

Pointing to where Jesus is photobombing our world - and in our lives - and showing up.

Thanks be to God. Amen.