"Watching, Hoping, Working, Open To Surprise" Advent 3 December 16, 2007

(First read the passages for this sermon: Matthew 11:2-11; James 5:7-10)

John the Baptist is just a big problem! That’s true every Advent, when we read about him on two consecutive Sundays.

It’s ok that his clothing and his food and his actions are just like the prophet Elijah. That’s the point of what we read last Sunday: In those days John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness of Judea, proclaiming, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near." This is the one of whom the prophet Isaiah spoke when he said,
"The voice of one crying out in the wilderness:
'Prepare the way of the Lord,
make his paths straight.' "
Now John wore clothing of camel's hair with a leather belt around his waist, and his food was locusts and wild honey.
Many of God’s people expected the prophet Elijah to return, just before the Messiah would come. So: so far, so good with John the Baptist.

And obviously John spoke to a deep and wide spiritual hunger. Last week we read: Then the people of Jerusalem and all Judea were going out to him, and all the region along the Jordan, and they were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins.

But listen to how last week’s passage concludes:

But when he saw many Pharisees and Sadducees coming for baptism, he said to them, "You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bear fruit worthy of repentance. Do not presume to say to yourselves, 'We have Abraham as our ancestor'; for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham. Even now the ax is lying at the root of the trees; every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.

"I baptize you with water for repentance, but one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to carry his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and will gather his wheat into the granary; but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire."

John the Baptist is a problem, isn’t he, saying frightening things like that?

John the Baptist is in this morning’s story, too, from the gospel of Matthew. But now, eight chapters later, he’s in a much different situation. He’s been thrown in prison by King Herod. (That’s what Herod did after John protested to the king that it was wrong to steal his brother’s wife to be his own wife. Remember that story?) And John had been sure that God would do what he had said God would do – back there in chapter three! And, in the intervening time, Jesus has been calling disciples and healing and teaching.

But has Jesus been doing what John expected of him? Has there been, for instance, unquenchable fire? No! Notice the Baptists’ confusion about all of this, expressed in this morning’s story: When John heard in prison what the Messiah was doing, he sent word by his disciples and said to him, "Are you the one who is to come, or are we to wait for another?" John thinks he was wrong! Then comes Jesus’ reply: Jesus answered them, "Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have good news brought to them. And blessed is anyone who takes no offense at me."

“And blessed is anyone who takes no offense at me." John the Baptist is not alone. Most of God’s people cannot figure Jesus out because what he is doing is not at all what God’s people expected of the Messiah. Most looked to the Messiah to act with great power to bring great national victory! But is Jesus working to overthrow the Romans, restoring Israel as the preeminent power in the world? Instead, Jesus is bringing good news and healing to those considered abhorrent and unclean because of their defects: the blind, the lame, those with leprosy, those who are deaf, the poor. Jesus, the One sent from God, is directing all of his attention to those too poor to afford health insurance, and to those considered unworthy to be with “respectable people” in a place of worship. What a surprise! Indeed, what offense!

If you and I are open to the surprise of what’s really in the Bible stories about Jesus, then where do we look for the coming of the kingdom? According to this passage, and according to all the gospel stories about Jesus, we look to what God is doing among the blind (physically and spiritually!); and among those with physical disabilities; and among those who are unclean and outcast; and among those who are deaf (physically and spiritually!); and among those who are poor (literally and spiritually!). It is there, in human weakness, that we see the advent of the kingdom.

In other words, God is at work in this world in ways you and I least suspect! We’re just like the John the Baptist in this! However, you and I are baptized into the community that is watching, hoping, working, open to surprise, as God enters in.

I find some intriguing commentary to all of this, in a couple of the verses from the passage we read in James this morning. To those in his community at the end of the first century who were anxious because the coming kingdom hadn’t made a great big splash, the author of James writes: Be patient, therefore, beloved, until the coming of the Lord. The farmer waits for the precious crop from the earth, being patient with it until it receives the early and the late rains. You also must be patient. Strengthen your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is near.

When you are called to be patient, don’t you feel called to great tension? Most every one of us struggles with patience!

In the Advent devotional booklet that many of us are using, words from Henri Nouwen give expression to this tension. (This is from the devotion for one week ago today.) “A waiting person is a patient person. The word ‘patience’ implies the willingness to stay where we are and live the situation out to the full in the belief that something hidden there will manifest itself to us. Patient living means to live actively in the present and wait there. Impatient people expect the real thing to happen somewhere else, and therefore they want to get away from the present situation and go elsewhere. For them, the moment is empty. But patient people dare to stay where they are, waiting.”

This is anything but passive! “Patient living means to live actively in the present and wait there.” That is the dynamic tension of Advent.

Do you see the tension for us in this community of the baptized? Remember the verb tenses as we speak the mystery of faith in the Holy Communion liturgy: “Christ is risen. Christ will come again.”

We know how it’s all going to turn out! But we‘re “in-between” what is and what will be.

Advent means watching, hoping, working, open to the surprising ways God is breaking into our world!

In the name of God who is Father and Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.

Pastor Andy Ballentine
St. Stephen Lutheran Church
Williamsburg, Virginia