12-15-19
Grace to you and peace from God our creator and from our
Lord and Savior Jesus the Christ, by the power of the Holy Spirit, amen.
Every Advent I feel like I want to start strong, with the
motivation to read daily devotions, taking time to really reflect on the Advent
season. Most years though, like this one, I get to about this point and realize
I have done exactly zero of the things that I had intended to do. Even when I
was in WI during thanksgiving, though we did put up my family’s pre-lit Christmas
tree and got down the boxes of decorations… but we never actually put them on
the tree!
This is pretty funny, given that many years ago when I
was home for Christmas break while in college, I apparently had insisted on
decorated the tree that year, even when my mom was less than thrilled about it.
When I left to go back for the January term… guess who was left to take all the
ornaments down again? Not me! Oops! Most years, my mom
likes to remind me of this time where I didn’t finished what I had
started.
How is your Advent going? Are you going
to finish strong, or did everything go off the rails starting December 2nd?
These texts for this 3rd week in Advent aren’t exactly helping,
either. There is still no sign of Mary, Joseph, angels, shepherds, wise men,
star, manger, no Christmas NOTHIN’. Instead, all we have is
John the Baptist, for the second week in a row. And he is NOT one we usually
associate with Christmas cheer.
This week he is no longer “the preacher on fire” in the
desert, preparing the hearts and minds for the coming of the Lord. Instead,
John has been thrown in prison for his bold words. A prison that was more like
a dungeon, dark and damp and full of chains and despair. But how did he get
from “Israel’s Most Famous” to “Israel’s Most Wanted”? Well, we’ve skipped over
all the in-between chapters in Matthew where John made some very powerful
people angry, resulting in his imprisonment and eventual exception.
Now, at death’s door, John wondered if his life’s work
had been worth it. The Lord’s anointed was SUPPOSED to come with power and might,
with lots of righteous judging and fiery smiting,
and be a savior that basically kicks booty and takes names, with the kingdom of
peace to come LATER. But so far, he doesn’t seem to be exactly living up
to those expectations. He doesn’t seem to be finishing what JOHN started.
Instead, Jesus heals the blind, mute, lepers, and young
girls, and Jesus gives the Sermon on the Mount about peace and the Kingdom of
God, where Jesus hangs out with fisherman and tax collectors and Roman
soldiers. Which, spoiler alert, where NOT how he was supposed to act as the
expected Messiah.
It’s no wonder that John the Baptist sends people to ask
Jesus, “are YOU the one who is to come? … or is it someone else?” And we
might very well wonder right there with John, as he watches Jesus’ ministry
unfold, and wonders if his prep work for the messiah has been premature.
But disappointment does not just come to
us at Christmas time. Though perhaps right around this time of year is when we
feel it the most. Expectations are high to pull into December 25th having
just arranged the best Christmas ever, only it almost actually never
happens that way. Instead, too often, real life happens.
This “most wonderful time of the year” can also bring up
old hurts from people you might only see once a year. Families are complicated,
and nothing hurts more than being disappointed by the ones closest to you, the
very ones who should be supportive through thick and thin.
And last, but not least, we can’t let God off
the hook for being a disappointment. Think about all the “if-onlys” and
“what-ifs,” even of just the past year – where you had wished that God would
have acted more like a Messiah, both in your own lives and in
the world in general. And so, we wonder along with John, since
the fulfillment of the promise is Jesus, the exact wrong kind
of savior – that is, if you are looking for someone to bring fire and brimstone,
Jesus is not your man.
The savior we WERE given came as a helpless baby,
screaming into the world with blood and placenta, born to a teenage mother in a
dirty cave. This savior grew up and hung out with all the wrong kinds of
people. He healed the sick and fed the poor and talked to those on the fringe.
He was a homeless traveler who preached the wrong things, like peace and love,
and got on the wrong side of the people in power. Jesus disappointed John the
Baptist, he disappointed his family, he disappointed his own followers, and he
died, disappointing the hopes of a nation waiting for God to act.
And in dying, Jesus was again a
disappointment… disappointing death itself. Because
dead people are supposed to stay dead, after all.
Dry and barren wildernesses, as Isaiah writes, aren’t
supposed to be joyful and to blossom, either. We expect them to be, well, dry
and barren, not full of life and joy and singing. There aren’t supposed to
be streams in the desert, or pools of water where there once was only burning
sand.
But then again, the blind aren’t supposed to see either,
nor should the deaf be able to hear. The lame are not supposed to run like the
dear, and the mute sing for joy. The poor are not supposed to be given food for
free. There are not supposed to be fools on God’s highway! And if they somehow
find themselves there, they need to GET LOST as soon as possible!
Except that, on God’s highway,
even us fools will not get lost along the way. On this highway, sinners are
welcomed. The poor are fed. The broken are healed and made whole again, and streams
run where there was once a barren desert. There are cracks of hope in the stone
that seals our tombs, a light shining through them in the darkness, and the
dead don’t stay dead.
Jesus asked the crowds what they had expected to see when
they went out to the desert to see John the Baptist. What they got was the
opposite of a man in soft robes – they got a man who lived his convictions with
every ounce of his being – with itchy camel hair to boot. What do WE expect
this Advent season? Are we expecting a Christmas to arrive that is as pristine
as most of our nativity sets? As lovely as they are, most of them depict the
holy family in perfect repose, at peace, and, ironically enough, draped in soft
robes.
But that not the most accurate. God is not just found in the perfect glittery Christmas cards and the Hallmark family channel
movies. God is not just found among the palaces with those wearing soft robes. God
is found among those who are not offended by the fight for what Jesus himself fought
for - justice and equality and kindness and love.
Instead, here is our God, born to us as a tiny
helpless infant. Here is our God, who sticks by us, no matter
what, every year, through all the good and bad Christmases alike. Here
is our God, who died and rose again for you, even when you disappoint
yourself and others. Here is our God, who will see to the finish
what has been begun in all of us.
I believe that God has been faithful to me, over and over
again, in the journey that has brought me to this time
and this place. It has not always been smooth going, but God
has proven to me that great things happen to those who trust. …and God has
always gone beyond my hopes and expectations.
We can’t know exactly where the next year will take us.
But we can know where God is in all the happenings in our
lives. God is right here, in the beginnings and the
endings, in the disappointments, and the busy-ness, in the starting strong and
in the fizzling out, in the dying and in the rising. Our God
is right here. In the manger, on the cross, at the
table. In the bread and wine. And in the face of one another. Thanks be to God.
Amen.
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