Advent 3: More than Yes

Advent 3: More than Yes

            We’re now thick into Advent, this season of waiting, of preparing for Jesus Christ
—if you are keeping score on your Advent Sermon Bingo sheet, you should have six blanks filled, three more to go today, as we consider again the History, Mystery, and Majesty of Advent
—as we consider what today’s gospel says about the past, means for us personally, and promises to us…
The History, Heart, and Hope.

Prayer

            The History, Heart, and Hope of the One who is to Come.

            History

            John is jailed by Herod Antipas—a ruler known for the reed on his coin
—Jesus compares him unfavorably to John
—while Herod’s reed goes whatever way the wind blows, John stands by his convictions, even when they get him arrested…

            But I wonder… I wonder if John is flagging, when pressed against such wind as this… tired?
John, of course, is known for the prophetic strength and strangeness that it takes to be out in the wilderness…
but there is a wideness to the wilderness he may not have accounted for…
he went to the wilderness to prepare people for the one who is to come,
locusts and honey, baptisms day in and day out, all for the sake of the Kingdom of God…
that’s one thing…
being arrested for the faith… being locked away by the Tetrarchy of Herod (in opposition to the Kingdom of God)… that’s a whole different thing…
it is a whole different kind of wildness…
John finds himself in a wilderness not of his choosing.

            … some Monks take time to meditate and retreat and pray in cells, small rooms with only the bare essentials. On the other hand, when a person is jailed, they are also put into a cell, a small room with only the bare essentials… 
a monk’s cell and a prisoner’s cell are fairly different, aren’t they?

            And so too, the starkness of John’s time in the wilderness and the starkness of John’s imprisonment. The wilderness of Judea was wider than he’d imagined, and so he finds himself wondering:
            “Did I get it right?” 
            John finds himself sending his followers to ask:
            “Cousin, are you the one? Did I do this right? Shouldn’t thing be going a bit better? Isthis what the reign of heaven looks like?”

            To this Jesus points back to his powerful deeds
—Lepers cleansed,
-paralyzed people moved by his words and authority,
            Did John know that Jesus took the weakness and bore the disease of a whole town?
-That he stilled storms,
-depossessed the demon possessed,
-was the good physician to the sick,
-made the blind to see and the mute to speak
—his compassion rescued many who had faith.

            His actions echoed those Isaiah points to as clear signs of God at work, of an end of the Exile
—it is the stuff of Blooming Deserts, Healing, and Holy Highways Home…

            Heart

            Let’s be clear, Jesus could have simply replied to John’s question: “Are you to the one who is to come.”
With a simple: “Yes.”

            But he doesn’t.

            Instead he answers with more than a yes…
Jesus is a good pastor here, he recognizes John is looking for more than information
—John is looking for inspiration. 

            John is asking a deeply personal question, he is expressing his heart felt yearning, and Jesus responds in a way that buoys his spirit.

            And so too, to our many questions of the heart, those existential, life and death, yearnings so personal we can not express them, save to sigh…
Jesus answers us with more than a yes.

            Jesus takes our questions, our desperate moments, our very selves, seriously!

            Jesus knows we need more than a simple yes, a quick fix and moving on…
you see, our questions are so often the start, not the end, of what we are asking for…
and Jesus takes that seriously, Jesus answers more than yes…
Jesus answers with this ongoing relationship in harmony with God’s acts in history…
Jesus answers with his life, death, and resurrection…
takes our whole life (beginning to end) so seriously, he enters into every nook and cranny of it…
…Jesus answers with more than a yes, he answers with a relationship we are walking in right now, gathered in his name, beloved people of God, Children of God!

            Hope

            And that is our Hope. The promise of Christ is not that we’ll find royal palaces and soft robes… neither Jesus, nor John, promises us salvation the way Herod Antipas and all those who echo him down the centuries since, offer salvation…
no false promises that the reign of Heaven will be the way we would like it…
instead that the one who is to come knows us and takes us seriously,
Jesus gives what we need, not what we’d want—that’s our hope. 

            Jesus answers with his works that we might see and hear, good news in word and deed—unexpectedly simple acts, more Holy than would could ever expect…
good news that echoes God’s continuing acts—bloom, healing, and holy highways… yet in a new key or an alternative melody, a re-mix if you will…
            Good news when we love one another
good news when we receive bread and wine and receive new members into the body of Christ through baptism,
good news when the Word of God is read and preach and proclaimed by all means,
good news whenever two or three are gathered in Christ’s name…

            This may not be what we want…
we may want something larger, more powerful sign of God among us, but the one who is promised is a baby in a manger… so there’s that… that little one and all the smallness found there-in, that’s what we need.

            In the wilderness wider than our expectations,
in answers that are more than yes,
in Godly gifts that recognize our needs not our wants… we find the one who is to come. A+A