December 19, 2007 – The Third Sunday of Advent
Matthew 11:2-11
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One of my favorite love story movies of all time is Somewhere in Time. It begins with an old woman giving a pocket watch to a young playwright at the opening of his first play. Years later, a very successful and stressed out Richard Collier, played by Christopher Reeve, escapes to the Grand Hotel on Mackinaw Island for a weekend where he discovers a portrait of a woman. Unfortunately, the portrait is circa 1912, and Elise McKenna, played by Jane Seymour is long gone. Completely enchanted by this portrait, Collier researches the actress, and sees a picture of her in her last days. She is the old woman who had given him the watch! Now determined to go back in time to meet the love of his life, he succeeds, and after much ado, finally has the opportunity to meet her as she takes a quiet walk along the lake one afternoon. As they walk toward each other, the music swells and she whispers to him,“Is it you?” Well, I’ll let you rent it over the holidays to see how it ends, but that line has been echoing behind my study this week as John the Baptist sends a similar message from his prison cell to Jesus, “Are you the One?”
Today’s gospel reading picks up the character of John the Baptist, who we last saw many chapters ago in Matthew. Since all we know of John in Matthew is pretty sketchy, we have to fill in the blanks with the information supplied in Luke’s gospel and we’ll have to “creatively imagine” what has gone on that has brought John to this scene. According to Luke, John was born to elderly parents, Elizabeth and Zechariah, who was a priest. He must have endured the telling and re-telling of the family story about his “leaping” in the womb when Mary arrived to tell Elizabeth the news of her own pregnancy, and perhaps being the hero of that tale caused him to withdraw, to become reflective, quiet, passionate, strange even, the “odd” kid on the block. So as a young man he runs to the desert to discern his career path, and decides to follow in his father’s footsteps, although his preaching might have run a completely different course: “Repent! The Kingdom of God has come near!” One of his greatest accomplishments, amazing even to himself, was the day he baptized his cousin, Jesus, in the Jordan River. And from that day forward, John was absolutely convinced that Jesus was THE ONE, the Messiah, the long-awaited Savior of Israel.
But by the time we get to the John of today’s story, a good deal of time has passed, at least a few years in which Jesus has begun his ministry of teaching and healing and John has been imprisoned for speaking his mind. John continued to preach repentance, and his latest (and last) target was none other than the ruler, Herod Antipas, who John railed against for marrying his brother’s wife. John sits in his jail cell day after day, and as news about Jesus and what Jesus is doing is brought to him by his disciples, John begins to wonder. Doubts about Jesus are creeping into his brain, and he decides to force the issue by sending a message to Jesus, “Are you the One, or are we to look for another?” Even though he had been convinced, his current circumstance, his sacrifice,seem to indicate he had been wrong.
Don’t you just hate it when you’re wrong? Nobody likes to get it wrong, in fact we spend a great deal of time and energy trying really hard NOT to get it wrong, or make a mistake or change. We don’t think we need to change, much less repent (or, we have nothing to repent of.) Apparently, it is difficult for us to remember the difference between what we might call “sins with a little s” (that would be transgressions, missteps, broken commandments) and real sin, or “Sin with a big S” (which was defined by Luther as “the heart turned in on itself.”) For when we forget that we are, indeed, sinful, we become just like the Chosen People of Israel who cried out, even while occupied by Rome, “We are children of Abraham, and have never been slaves to anyone.” (Really.)
This past week the United Nations Conference on Climate Change was held in Bali. Their work looked promising, and a guide was agreed upon for the next two years’ work toward reaching an accord that will replace the Kyoto Treaty, which the U.S. refused to sign. According to Tony Juniper, an environmental spokesman quoted in the Kansas City Star yesterday: “The United States…is behaving like passengers in First Class in a jumbo jet, thinking a catastrophe in economy class won’t affect them.”
What we have displayed here is a fundamental difference in perspective. It is similar to the theological difference between John the Baptist and Jesus that is clearly illustrated in today’s story: John was focused on what was right. Adherence to the LAW, and a clear desire to be responsible for the actions of others (read control) had him preaching repentance as a warning - which separated him from the people around him. Jesus, on the other hand, focused on the people. He was more concerned with proclaiming the GOSPEL, and leading a life of vulnerability which led him to preach repentance as transformation - which endeared him to those who were “dead” – and brought the hope of New Life to all who had ears to hear. New Life, the mark of God.
So many questions raised in today’s lesson. “Are you the One?” “Which perspective is the right perspective?” “Have I misunderstood? John must have been asking that last one because he had expected Jesus would act differently. As the back of our bulletin today points out, John the Baptist “had been certain that the coming messiah would give the bad guys their due reward and protect the good guys.” And wasn’t John one of the good guys? Oh, he would “prepare the way” that Jesus would trod…right to his death for political purposes.
Sometimes, our expectations lead us to ask the wrong questions. But if we allow our expectations to shift, we can come up with some pretty thought-provoking ideas. For instance, “What if Jesus didn’t really come for us?” What if Jesus really did come for the blind, the lame, the lepers, the deaf, the dead and the poor? (It is interesting to note that in this list, “poor” seems to be worse than “dead.”) If Jesus really did come for all the others, then the promise would not be for us in First Class, but for economy only.
Have you ever thought about what you expect from God? Take a minute and think about that. In that regard, do you ask questions like: Where was God on 9/11? Why doesn’t God send a miracle in my family? If God is good, why does God allow evil in the world? Questions like these express expectations about God and how God will work in the world, and almost nothing God could do will change those expectations: no stories of heroism and bravery in the face of terror, no miracles (unless they’re for you) are good enough, no life-giving actions will count against evil, because God is not acting as we expect God to act. But, if we were the blind or lame, if we were lepers, or deaf, if we were dead, or worse… poor…then God’s presence would be a miracle.
