Sermon for the Third Sunday of Advent Yr A
December 15, 2019
St. Michael’s Episcopal Church
The Rev. Canon Michael J. Horvath
Gospel: Matthew 11:2-11
For some folks, especially I think for kids, it’s hard to understand why everyone, ok, a few folks, are excited about Advent. I imagine that the entire season goes by, unnoticed by many, as we zoom through the marathon-shopping month between Thanksgiving and Christmas. There are cards to be written, trees to be put up, lights to be strung, concerts and dance recitals to attend; Black Friday, Cyber Monday and Giving Tuesday to navigate. By the time our heads come up for air, boom, it’s Christmas Eve with cooking to do, guests to serve, bikes and dollhouses to assemble, all before you truly lose your mind and self-medicate with dozens of Bourbon balls and fantasies of a nice Caribbean holiday. Yet through it all there has to be more, there has to be something that we are searching for, whether we acknowledge it or not, that will give meaning to what might otherwise look like a pagan bacchanalian smorgasbord. So, what is it?
“What are you looking for?” That's what Jesus asks the crowd--and asks them not once, but three times. First, Jesus says, "What did you go out into the wilderness to see? A reed shaken by the wind?" And then he says, "What then did you go out to see? Someone dressed in soft robes?" And then one more time, "What then did you go out to see? A prophet?"
Jesus asks these questions because John the Baptist, who is already in prison, already at the end of his own ministry, has sent his followers to ask Jesus, "Are you the one who is to come, or are we to wait for another?" And so, clearly, after all that he's been through, John knows who it is that he's been looking for. And even prison, with its isolation and restriction of movement, will not stop John's searching.
Like so many in the birth narratives of Jesus--people like Simeon and Anna in the Gospel of Luke, the shepherds, or even the Magi - the faithfulness of John's searching has become the model for holy yearning. The waiting and searching has shaped him. It has prepared him and has sharpened his senses to know exactly when his Messiah has come.
And so in this short message that John sends out, it's clear he knows what it is he's looking for, the world he’s been waiting for. Jesus knows it, too. He knows it so well that he doesn't give the easy answer. He doesn't say, "Tell John that the Messiah has entered the building and I'll take it from here."
Instead, the answer Jesus gives is the answer you give to someone who's already been shaped - already prepared - by years of searching and anticipation. He says, "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." What is happening speaks for itself; we need only have the eyes to see and the ears to hear.
So when Jesus turns to the crowd and asks them, "What then did you go out to see?" he's asking a question that the Gospel asks of all of us, too. What kinds of things are we looking for during Adventide? What do our hearts yearn for?
I find these questions at the heart of a lot of unrest and disconnection in our world today. I think many people share John’s question ... Is Jesus the one, or should we look for another? And a significant reason why we may question whether God or Jesus are present in our lives is that we usually have a fixed expectation of what Jesus is supposed to be, or who we want him to be, instead of using our eyes and ears to see him as he really is. And when we do that, our vision becomes small, we lose our sense of magical thinking about how the world can and is changed by the arrival of a little boy thousands of years ago.
Harken back to when you were a little child and, just like many kids, you got super excited as Christmas approached. Perhaps you made a Christmas wish list and some of the things on the list you actually received. Now ask yourself, looking back, are many of the gifts you frantically hoped for and received still in your life? I wonder if, instead, the joy and hope of the seasons past remain with you? Like most of you, I have grown up and I no longer make a Christmas list of dreamed-for things. Sadly, I suppose that is a sign of becoming an adult.
As adults our dreams tend to veer towards things like the perfectly rewarding career, the partner or spouse of our dreams, or perhaps even a seaside cape with a lawn that stretches down to a beach. Once we’ve checked off one thing on the list, another dream or wish goes on to replace it.
There’s nothing wrong with these, but my questions is “When did we start to dream so small?” Is this the totality of what we are waiting for? Have we placed our eternal hope solely in Bourbon balls and a Christmas list of “stuff”?
How about a Christmas list with wishes that include, for example, shelter and hot meals for those who would otherwise be living on the streets this cold evening; affording dignity and respect to those regardless of their gender or sexual orientation; love for those who don’t share the same faith we do; the eradication of domestic violence; and an end to the irrational fear of one another that continues to fuel White Supremacists and Neo-Nazi movements in our own time and in our own country. What about a wish that we could find ways to heal our broken environment, which is collapsing before our very eyes? What if we wished for an administration that stopped making policies that were cruelly directed at Americans living in poverty? What if we wished for the true understanding that God always – always - prefers the poor, the orphaned, the widowed, the sick and the stranger/immigrant/refugee; that the Gospel Good News is not some progressive/socialist conspiracy to take down America? Sounds like a list that promises true transformation in Christ. Personally, I don’t see why we cannot put just as much of an effort in fulfilling this list, as we do for lists full of cars, $2000 suits, and destination weddings in exotic locales. Imagine what we could do as the faith community of St. Michael’s church?
At Christmas, so much of what we offer up to the Christ Child are hopes we have for even the smallest hint of redemption or the smallest drop from the cup of blessing.
A way to bring up the most difficult requests without getting shut down. The courage to pursue dreams that have been on our heart for ages – and the courage even just to try. The heart to seek forgiveness for what we've done or the heart to forgive another and find a way forward together.
Is what we really want so different than a world in which "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?" Don’t we desire the very world that becoming aware of the presence of God in our midst reveals? Isn’t the best gift that we could ask for the presence of transformative love that John the Baptist had been in search of his entire life?
Christmas and its treadmill of responsibilities can make us crazy and focused on the many things that draw us away from the most important thing we need to focus on. In all our preparations, let's not forget that question Jesus asked the crowd so many more years ago. What is it that you're looking for? What's the gift behind the gifts you're giving this year? What's the hope behind that generous giving? Whatever those hopes may be, may you find them in the gift of the Christ Child, unwrapped and waiting in Bethlehem, calling you to give tidings of great joy. Amen.
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