Advent 3, 2019

 

Advent 3                Matthew 11:2-11                Isaiah 35:1-10                      James 5:7-10

                “Are you the one who is to come, or are we to wait for another?”  These are John the Baptist’s last words in the Gospels.  It’s a tough lament that’s behind his question.  I don’t know if you remember, but John is about to be beheaded by Herod.  He is sitting in jail.  All he can do at this point is wait.  And what is he waiting for?  Does he know that he doesn’t have long?  Is he waiting for his liberation from his prison cell?  Is he waiting for Jesus to come break him out?  Does he send the message to remind Jesus that he needs help?  Some have called this John’s version of “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”  Jesus’ words from the cross.  John wants to know if Jesus has forsaken him and abandoned him to rot in jail.

                Jesus’ answer is somewhat confusing.  He says that the evidence is all around.  People see and hear of his healings.  People who were blind now see.  People who couldn’t walk now can.  People who are sick are made well.  Just a few chapters before this, Jesus raises the little girl who was dead, Jairus’ daughter.  Everywhere he goes, he is performing miracles.  I’m sure John was happy for all those people who Jesus was healing.  But it must have really hurt that Jesus left out the part of the Isaiah quote that says, “And God sets the prisoners free.”  John would have heard that part was missing, the gift he could have used most, what new life most looked like from his perspective.

                And John’s disciples, years later at the writing of Matthew’s Gospel, would have wondered if Jesus was really as powerful as he said he was, why he hadn’t saved their leader, his cousin from the chopping block of Herod.  They must have wondered if he was really the Messiah.  So Matthew is writing his Gospel trying to convince the followers of John to follow the way of Jesus and become Christian.  But they were questioning, still hurt by Jesus’ seeming abandonment of their leader.

                Why are some healed and not others?  Why do some live and some die?  Why do some people have more than their fair share trouble and heartache?  I read an article about a local man who’s car went off the road last week.  He was killed in the accident.  His twin daughters in the backseat are 4 years old.  They unbuckled themselves, checked on daddy, and when he wasn’t responsive, climbed out a broken window and somehow found the road in the dark, where they were located by another driver and brought to safety.  I thought, how sad so close to the holiday for the death of a beloved father.  Couldn’t God have saved him?  I thought how amazing that these resourceful children found their way to safety.  This story could have been far more tragic.  Thank God the little children are ok!

                Jesus tells John’s disciples to report what they experience and see and hear.  When we look around we see a lot of bad news.  We see our country divided.  We grieve those who have died.  People we love suffer from dementia.  I miss my grandma the most this time of year when I should be reading her Christmas letter and making plans to visit her.  The homeless are being swept from parks with nowhere to go.  The days are dark and bad news is all around us.  We want to pay attention to the all the injustice, so that we can do something about it.  We want to be vigilant. 

At the same time there is a lot of good in this world.  There is a lot to give thanks for.  God gives good gifts for our enjoyment, and to share.  There are sweet treats and sweet smells, good food and drink, good company, displays of lights, songs in the air.  People are coming together to celebrate the season with friends.  Families are making amends.  People are donating to Food Banks and many charitable organizations.  People are volunteering their time to help people in need.  People are smiling at each other.  People are making a difference. We have a lot to be joyful about.  Joann’s eye surgery is a miracle.  The blind have received their sight many times over in this congregation.  Baby Stassi has come so far on her journey of healing.  The shelves of the Foodbank are full.  The Little Doves are preparing their songs for their Christmas program.

                How can we hold both these realities at once, the suffering of the world and the joy and beauty that is all around us?  On the one hand, we want to be aware of the suffering and injustice, but not let the bad news overwhelm us and keep us from seeing and hearing the a vision that God gives us of the healing of the nations, cleansed lepers and all creation praising God.  If we only focus on the pain, we miss so many blessings that God gives us.  If we live in hope and see the good in the world, along with the bad news, we will see the Kingdom breaking in at every turn.  We will notice things that we would have otherwise missed if we were only focused on the sad and broken parts of our world. 

People are blind, both physically and mentally.  But that is not the end of the story.  God is more powerful than blindness and sometimes even the blind begin to see.  Someday we will all see clearly.  Sometimes people can’t walk, but that is not the end of the story.  God is more powerful than our ability to get around.  Sometimes people who have been told they will never walk, do just that.  And someday we will all be able to get around.  Some people have serious diseases.  But that is not the end of the story.  God’s healing powers are more powerful than leprosy or AIDS or diabetes or cancer.  Some people who are sick come to healing.  Someday there will be no more disease.  Sometimes people are hearing impaired.  But that is not the end of the story.  People can understand each other many different ways.  There is sign language, lip reading, and cochlear implants.  Someday everyone will be able to understand each other, whether they can hear or not, and maybe changing the hearts of those who have turned a deaf ear will be a greater miracle than giving hearing to a hearing-impaired person.  People die.  But that is not the end of the story.  They live on in us.  They inspire us.  They are part of us.  And someday, when God’s reign is realized, there will be no more dying or pain or crying.  We will all be whole and one in God’s presence. 

                John lived only a few weeks more, before he was beheaded.  But his life pointed to a greater reality.  The end of his life was not the end of the story.  His disciples went on to meet the Messiah and decide for themselves whether to join Jesus’ team.  John’s life reflected that of the other prophets.  Prophets are often killed because of the challenging truths they tell.  John was not alone.  His execution was followed a couple of years later by Jesus’ and still that was not the end of the story.  Even when the Messiah was killed, he rose to new life and offered forgiveness and new life for all of us.

                John warned the people that the Messiah would come with fire and an axe to bring repentance and correction to the people.  Jesus was not the violent one he foretold.  Instead, John experienced the wrath of a violent King, Herod, and lost his own life that way.  Jesus, too, was a victim of violence.  Violence is the tool of our earthly kingdom, not God’s kingdom. Jesus came to bring the reign of peace, one that is hard for earthly kings to understand.  He had a different path.  Instead of the burning that John foretold, he used the fire to illuminate, to bring light so that people could see what once was hidden, so people could see these violent leaders for who they are, so people could see how those in power try to control them.  He recommended pruning rather than chopping down, spreading manure rather than using the axe, waiting a year, rather than making up our minds that there is no hope.  There is always more to the story, as long as God’s vision has not yet been realized.  Even when tools of violence are applied, even then there is more to the story, and the shoot grows out of the stump, new life prevails, the desert blooms, not even fools shall go astray, sorrow and sighing shall flee away and they shall obtain joy and gladness.  God is still active and powerful, that is the end of the story that goes on and on. 

                John is having a hard time reconciling his expectations with the painful reality he finds himself in.  We, too, have difficulty recognizing Jesus.  Do we expect someone all put together?  Do we expect a clean, housed, non-offensive leader in Jesus?  Or can we let go of our expectations and accept this Savior, locked up, sleeping in the barn, dirt on his feet, not hard enough on our enemies, and having high expectations of us?  We can’t define him.  He isn’t here to fit our expectations.  He is here to change our expectations and to teach us to expect the Kingdom of God, the poor hearing good news, the waters in the desert, the little baby as our king, and all of us participating together as the body of Christ.  He is fully human.  He is fully divine.  He is the Christ present at Creation, the word made flesh.  Yet he walks with us in our most difficult hour, reminding us again that this is not the end.