First Reading:
35The wilderness and the dry land
shall be glad, the desert shall rejoice and blossom; like the
crocus 2it shall blossom abundantly, and rejoice with joy
and singing. The glory of Lebanon shall be given to it, the majesty of
Carmel and Sharon. They shall see the glory of the Lord, the majesty
of our God. 3Strengthen the weak hands, and make firm the
feeble knees. 4Say to those who are of a fearful
heart, Be strong, do not fear! Here is your God. He will come with
vengeance, with terrible recompense. He will come and save you.
5Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears
of the deaf unstopped; 6then the lame shall leap like a
deer, and the tongue of the speechless sing for joy. For waters shall
break forth in the wilderness, and streams in the
desert; 7the burning sand shall become a pool, and the
thirsty ground springs of water; the haunt of jackals shall become a
swamp, the grass shall become reeds and rushes. 8A highway
shall be there, and it shall be called the Holy Way; the unclean shall
not travel on it, but it shall be for God's people; no traveler, not
even fools, shall go astray. 9No lion shall be there, nor
shall any ravenous beast come up on it; they shall not be found there,
but the redeemed shall walk there. 10And the ransomed of
the Lord shall return, and come to Zion with singing; everlasting joy
shall be upon their heads; they shall obtain joy and gladness, and
sorrow and sighing shall flee away.
Second Reading:
2When John heard in prison what the
Messiah was doing, he sent word by his disciples 3and said
to him, Are you the one who is to come, or are we to wait for
another?
4Jesus answered them, Go and tell John what you
hear and see: 5the 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. 6And blessed is
anyone who takes no offense at me.
7As they went away, Jesus began to speak to the crowds
about John: What did you go out into the wilderness to
look at? A reed shaken by the wind? 8What then did you go
out to see? Someone dressed in soft robes? Look, those who wear soft
robes are in royal palaces. 9What then did you go out to
see? A prophet? Yes, I tell you, and more than a
prophet. 10This is the one about whom it is written,
‘See, I am sending my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare
your way before you.’ 11Truly I tell you, among those
born of women no one has arisen greater than John the Baptist; yet the
least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.
Are you really the one to come? That's the question John sent his disciples to ask of Jesus.
Today's passage comes from the eleventh chapter of the gospel of Matthew… and it's interesting that John seems so unsure here. Last week we had another passage that told us about John where he confidently proclaimed that there was someone coming after him whose sandal he wasn't worthy to carry. He told the Pharisees and Sadducees to repent because the Kingdom of Heaven had come near. Back in Chapter 3, he warned people to be mindful of God's purposes and plan… he warned them that what they did with their lives mattered… that Jesus would separate the wheat from chaff and the fruitful from the unfruitful… And then in the course of the gospel from Chapter 3 to 11, we hear a lot about what's been going on for Jesus. He calls his disciples, he heals people, he teaches them, this is where we get the sermon on the Mount where some of Jesus' most famous sayings come from… and John mostly fades out of view. We don't know exactly how much time had passed, but for John it probably seemed like eternity… you see he was arrested in Chapter 4. For him, it probably felt a lot like he was been treated as chaff… where he expected to be wheat. I can imagine him thinking to himself… This wasn't how I envisioned that it would be. And then telling his disciples who came to visit him, go and ask Jesus if he's the one… go and ask him if this is what I got my hopes up for. It's not hard for me to imagine that… I mean the coming of the Messiah is supposed to be a joyous occasion, isn't it? The Christ is supposed to make everything right, right? It's not surprising then that John, who's sitting in a prison cell, is wondering.
It makes me think about all the people around the world, some far away, some close by and some probably even in this room who hear the talk about Christmas, they hear the tidings of good joy and they see the festivities going on around them and yet for one reason or another they feel stuck… whether it's because of their health or physical limitations, because of grief over losses in their own lives or simply because of distance from loved ones and circumstance of life, there are many people who can't even imagine achieving the sentimental tidings of comfort and joy that are lifted up as the height of the cultural vision of the Christmas celebration. For them, the Christmas season might just be the most difficult time of the year instead of the most wonderful.
A couple of times already this advent season I've lifted up the difference between our cultural Christmas celebration and what the coming of the messiah meant to the people in the bible. In our Old Testament readings throughout the season of advent we've seen Isaiah's visions that have come to be associated with the coming of Christ: a vision of peace, beating swords into plowshares and spears into pruning hooks, a vision of justice where the wolf lies down with the lamb and the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord. And in this week's lesson there's a vision of joy and healing… the eyes of the blind shall be opened, the ears of the deaf unstopped, the lame shall leap like a deer and the tongue of the speechless shall sing for joy.
And when you listen to what Jesus says to tell John, it sounds a lot
like Isaiah's vision doesn't it? The blind receive sight, the lame
walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear and the poor have good
news brought to them. That's how John would know that Jesus was
indeed the Christ. Today we read it in Matthew's gospel and in the
prophet Isaiah's writings… but the same message is all over the
place in the bible. And yet it's hardly anywhere in the cultural
celebration of Christmas. Jesus tells John's disciples, Go and tell
John what you hear and what you see.
Apparently that would be enough
to convince him of the authenticity of Jesus' identity… Imagine
if Jesus told us to tell someone what we hear and what we see that's
associated with the coming of Christ. Two thousand years later and
half a world away the vision that's produced is quite different isn't
it?
As the Beach Boys so eloquently say: Christmas comes this time of year… And every year I, for one, hope to see something, somewhere that reflects the kind of tidings of comfort and joy that are lifted up in our scripture. I want to see that the remembrance of Christ's coming parallels the event itself. Of course we do get tidings of comfort and joy in the cultural celebration but for the most part they're based on sentimentality… feeling good about family and friends; music, decorations and food. It's not a bad thing, but for those of us who believe that the Christ fundamentally changed the world we live in, it's certainly not the full picture. And so I wonder, I wonder what would it be like for us as followers of Christ to reclaim some of that biblical vision of what it means to live into the hope of Christ's coming, in addition to the cultural celebrations we all know and love.
We may not have the power to literally bring sight to the blind or hearing to the deaf… we may not know the first thing about helping the lame to walk or lepers to be cleansed, but we certainly can be bearers of good news this Christmas and in years to come.
Many of us will buy presents this year for people who have everything
they could possibly need. We will pour tons of time and energy into
finding the perfect gift. But every time I think about going to the
mall, I remember a conversation a friend and I had back when I was in
seminary, we were talking about Christmas gifts, and I asked him,
what do you get for someone who has everything.
He didn't
think about his answer, not even for split second… You get
something for someone else,
he replied. And then he told me about
how he and his wife bought a goat for their parents and chickens for
their siblings… they would each get a nice card to commemorate
the gift that was made in their honor. The animals, on the other hand,
along with training on how to raise them and turn them into a
sustainable stream of income were given to families in the developing
world through an ecumenical organization called Heifer International…
And when you look up Heifer's website, it's clear that this is one way good news is being spread. You see goats provide up to a gallon of milk every day. Their manure is used to fertilize the land, they don't need much land to live and they produce 2 or 3 offspring every year. The families who receive the goats are required to pass on one of the offspring to another family. So from that gift of a goat in 2005, there are 32 families somewhere out there that are closer to being able to provide for themselves and better able to nourish their own children… Imagine how many families have been impacted since the project started in 1944 with one man's vision of a world of communities living together in peace and equitably sharing the resources of a healthy planet… I don't think it's coincidence that it sounds a lot like Isaiah's vision of the coming of Christ. The families and communities that have been impacted by Heifer may not know everything that goes into the process, but they do know the good news they've received. So when you're looking at what to buy this year, think about getting something for someone else, and in that way be good news.
And of course, it's not just about the gifts we give. Time is the most important resource that any of us have… the moments of our lives are only lived once. Christmas may come this time each year but this Christmas will come and it will go. And perhaps the way to make a difference this Christmas is to make a commitment to use our time in such a manner that by next Christmas we might be able to bear witness to Christ's good news in the world by reporting what we've seen with our own eyes and heard with our own ears, and if we want to go a step further we can even report the ways we've been a part of it with our own hands and our own feet and our own voices. There are so many organizations that are doing good work in this region of the world and beyond. So this year for Christmas let's be good news by looking for and joining in hands-on opportunities to serve. And if you don't see what you're looking for, make it…
It was just last week someone from this congregation came to me and said that they saw something that bothered them… it was basically a tent city, where homeless people are living, even now just north of DC and they want to do something about it. They've come up with a plan to look into what's already being done and then get involved. They talked about starting by serving hot chocolate on a cold night, right from their van. Gutsy? Yes… Good news? Definitely. And who knows where it will end… because the Christ has come into history and the Christ is coming into our lives and into our world. And that makes all things possible. So go, tell what you hear and what you see… and live into the hope of Christmas. In Jesus name. Amen.
The foregoing sermon was given by Rev. Dan Holland at the United Parish of Bowie on the Third Sunday in Advent, December 12, 2010.
© 2010 Daniel Holland
