Yes Chef!
John 1:19-39
Sometimes I think about being a Sous Chef, or maybe more like a line cook. Not about changing careers again and going through culinary school and pulling crazy late-night shifts. But I think about the idea of it.
Mostly because I moonlight as a free line cook for my son Daniel, who’s going to culinary school and doing meal prep for some of our close friends and family.
I’ve been cooking a lot longer than him, but I mostly “Mom” cook. I open cans and add seasonings into a crock pot for a batch of chilli, I put together a tried-and-true casserole, or whip up some chocolate chip cookies. But if I get much more advanced than that, I need a little direction.
When I help Daniel with his meals I’m following HIS directions because what I’m making isn’t my dish…it’s HIS. He’s the chef.
A line cook has a job in which they work under the direction of a chef to chop veggies, stir sauces, and maybe even plate up a meal. But their name isn’t on the restaurant building. And when someone important dines there and says, “My compliments to the chef” the waiter doesn’t go fetch the line cook to receive the applause. Because it’s not about them. They’re there to chop veggies and say, “Yes, Chef!”
But if that chef is worth following…truly one of the greats…just being in proximity to that greatness is what gets them up and to work each day. It’s an honor to work under that sign and participate in something bigger than themselves. To look at the finished product with pride and say, “I got to be part of that!”
This week at church we talked about the calling of John the Baptist and some of Jesus’ first disciples as told in the Gospel of John, chapter 1, verses 19-39.
We read about how John would always clarify that this wasn’t truly about him.
We read about how unworthy he felt.
We read about John’s own disciples leaving him to follow Jesus.
And that was what he’d been working towards all along.
Now, we know a little more about John the Baptist from other places in John and the other gospels.
We know from Luke that he was Jesus’ cousin and his birth too was a miracle.
We know, as it kind of alludes to in what we just read, that John actually baptized Jesus, even though he protested at first that he was unworthy.
We know that Jesus refers to him as “among the greatest” of humans (Matt 3:11) despite having wrestled with possible doubts (Matthew 11)
Will die as a martyr
YET, we will read later in John that he states, referring to Jesus, that “He must increase but I must decrease.”
There are some things that I notice that really can shape how I live.
Sometimes we’re called to a very specific task. Daniel, for example, specializes in carrots. I’m not kidding you. If you have ever had one of his meals, you might notice that he’s mastered the consistent little cube-sized bite of carrot. I cannot recreate it. In fact, I use a chopper most of the time and it looks like I’ve just sent some carrots through a wood chipper. If Daniel gets a job as a line cook, I might personally call them and tell them to put him on carrots.
In the Church, God sometimes entrusted certain people with a certain task. Some people are naturally organized, and they should be doing the spreadsheets (although I am slowly learning). Some are given the gift of healing, preaching, or teaching. Some specialize in leading worship or some other aspect of the functions of the Church.
John specialized in preparing the way, calling others to repentance and New Life. It was a pretty cool task…although quite dangerous.
On that note, I notice that none of us, even John the Baptist, is really the point.
Can you imagine how ridiculous it would have been if John had resented his disciples leaving him to follow Jesus?
I love being a pastor. I have had many pastors over the years that I absolutely adored. But, in the end of the day, pastors are all just line cooks, chopping carrots and saying, “Yes, Chef.”
I love the congregation I am part of at The Table. I really believe the way we live and worship is good and makes sense. But The Table isn’t really the point. House church isn’t the point. It’s just one of many, many congregations and many different expressions of the church that make up the Kingdom of God.
I love being part of the Nazarene denomination. It might not be a popular opinion in the last thirty years or so, but I think that there’s so much to be said for belonging to a denomination, with the accountability, support, camaraderie, and resources that go along with it. There are many reasons I’ve chosen to hang my hat with this one, and I trust that my Lutheran, Baptist, and Methodist brothers and sisters in the faith have done the same. But it’s just one of the chef’s tools…like a knife or a whisk, or a potato peeler. And if the denominations were to fade away, the Kingdom still remains.
The most important thing we notice from this passage in John, though, is the same thing we’ll probably notice every week. The incarnation. If we were reading about this guy in Matthew, or Mark, or Luke, we’d probably be discussing the doctrines of baptism, or how weird John was, and how we too are called to be weird. But we’re in John. And, once again, John wants us to know, without a shadow of a doubt, that Jesus is One with God, and yet, simultaneously, by some mystery and miracle, one of us.
And that changes everything.
I hope you can find ways that this applies to your life as well. Maybe ask yourself if you sometimes struggle with not being the most important person in the room. Maybe you’re an introvert, and you don’t want the spotlight on you in a crowd. But what about in your own home? Or in your own mind?
We can also ask ourselves, when have we let ourselves turn our devotion to someone besides Christ? Has our faith been brought down because we put our faith in a charismatic teacher who turned out to be hiding a dark secret? Have we looked to our spouse or kids as the ones who were supposed to complete us?
And, do we recognize Jesus when we see him? John knew who Jesus was. When we see him at work around us do we take the time to acknowledge it? Where have you seen Jesus this week?
