December 12, 2004

Third Sunday of Advent

Matthew 11:2-11

Isaiah 35:1-10

“Keep Looking”

     Do you remember that last Sunday I said we’d be checking in with John the Baptist again today?  In last week’s reading from Matthew, John was waiting for the Messiah and had all these fire-and-brimstone ideas about what would happen when the Messiah came.  He was sure the Messiah would be a vengeful judge bringing down condemnation on anyone who had strayed from the narrow path of righteousness.  Consequently, John was a little confused when Jesus came and humbled himself for baptism.  Jesus didn’t appear as a fiery judge, but as a Prince of Peace, bearing God’s unconditional love, forgiveness and acceptance. 

     So John wondered about Jesus.  Was he really the Messiah?  We read today that he sent some of his own disciples to ask Jesus, “Are you the one who is to come, or should we wait for another?”

     2,000 years after John asked this question, many people are still asking it.  Was Jesus really who he said he was and who countless millions of people have believed he is all these centuries since?  Is he the Savior, the One who is to come, or should we wait for another?  Is this Christmas season about something that really happened or is it just so much wishful thinking, the byproduct of hopeful imaginations? 

     If you sometimes wonder about such things (and I think every faithful person does!), know that you’re in good company – even John the Baptist had these questions.

     At times, I’ve imagined it would be a great thing to be able to step into a time machine and travel back to Galilee to meet Jesus face-to-face (of course, I’d have brush up on my Greek and Hebrew first).  Then, I could see him with my own eyes and have my questions answered.  But you know…Judas, Thomas, John, and even Peter were right there with Jesus day after day and still sometimes wondered.  Maybe I would, too.

     Jesus would often say, “Let those who have ears, hear”, but many were and are deaf to his words.  Even with their own eyes, many could not see him for who he really was.

     Maybe our ears are a little clogged and our eyes are sometimes cloudy, too. There are so many things competing for our attention and demanding our time.  Who has time to really listen or really look?  We hope instead that if we are to have faith that somehow it might just break into us somehow, scale the wall and climb over the barbed wire and slip past the security system!  We really want the truth of Christmas to come through to us, but then we get so busy celebrating it, it doesn’t have a chance.  All these lights and we are still in the dark.

     Perhaps we’re a bit like John the Baptist and come with all our preconceptions intact, making it difficult for us to see or accept anything new or different.  Isaiah tells us that God is forever creative.  From today’s reading we hear God’s promise to turn dry places into lush and fertile gardens of blooming flowers, to turn mourning and sadness into rejoicing, to bring people exiled from their homeland, home.  The feeble will become strong, the lost will be found and the brokenhearted will have joy and gladness.  In other words, everything will be new again. 

      God’s creativity is evident in renewed life, hope and opportunity.  The creation continues to unfold within us and before us.  And maybe that’s a little hard to handle sometimes when the old and comfortable (that fictional place where we think we have all the answers) seems so certain and secure.

     Jesus challenged John’s preconceptions and called him forward in his thinking and believing.  He does the same with us.  And he does something else for us he also did for John – he accepts as where we are and sees in us something redeemable, worth saving, perhaps even worth praising.

     The part of the story about John the Baptist that is most striking is not that the guy wore camel’s hair clothes, ate locusts and preached fiery sermons (although this seems to be what he’s usually remembered for), it’s how Jesus reacted to his confusion and doubts.  Jesus didn’t call him a fool, didn’t criticize him at all.  He said of John,

“What then did you go out to see?  A prophet? Yes, I tell you, and more than a prophet.  This is the one about whom it is written, ‘See, I am sending my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way before you.’  Truly I tell you, among those born of women no one has arisen greater than John the Baptist.”

     We don’t remember and revere John because he had a firm grasp of the truth, but because of what Jesus had to say about him.  Jesus saw in this man, this sometimes unsure and doubtful man, true greatness.  Why?  Because in spite of himself, John did his faithful best to show the way.

     So maybe we don’t always have to get it all right, either, but do our faithful best with what we have and what we know.  Jesus accepts us where we are, just as he accepted John, even if we are unsure and doubtful.  Jesus sees in us something loveable, worthy of praise…even with our clogged ears, cloudy vision, noses to the grindstone, lost in a sea of cars at Crystal Mall.  The Savior sees in us what we often cannot see ourselves.

     Now this may be a bit of an over-simplification, but I think it’s a little like shopping with children.  I remember going through the stores at Christmastime when our kids were small and how they’d be mesmerized by all the toys they saw, losing sight of everything else including their parents.  And when they finally looked up and couldn’t see Mom or Dad because we had moved to another aisle, they suddenly felt totally lost and cried out, “Mommy!  Daddy!”  What they didn’t know was that we could still see them and were looking out for them even when they lost sight of us.  I think it’s something like that.

     We may hold tightly to the past when God tries to show us new things.  We may lose sight of God when we get all wrapped up in ourselves.  We may even go down paths of war and destruction.  But God never loses sight of us and always loves us.  Jesus brought this love to life in the world by saying things like he did about John, by being the Prince of Peace and going all the way to the cross as a sacrifice for us all.

     Is Jesus really the One who is to come?  I think it’s OK to ask that question.  I think we’re supposed to keep looking, keep asking, keep wondering, keep unwrapping the gift, continuing a lifelong faith journey.  And along the way, it’s good to know that “No matter who you are or where you are on life’s journey, you are welcome here”.  Welcome here, you, me, all of us…welcome in the embrace of a compassionate God.