A Tale of Two Easters

It was the best of times…and the worst of times.

            I had a lot of time to reflect on worship this past week.  Holy Week can be one of the most humbling, awe-inspiring, and most passionate weeks of the year.  Or it can….you know…not be.

            One of the local start up churches was advertising for their Easter Service.  There was no Holy Week (No Maundy Thursday, no Good Friday)…just Easter.  As if we could skip those times and go straight to the joy of the Resurrection.  The service promised “dynamic worship, an uplifting sermon,” and a “cup of coffee”.  The entire advertisement was perfectly geared for the consumeristic, capitalistic, consumption based ministry that encapsulates American Christianity these days. They hoped that ‘you had a wonderful Easter experience.’

            For full disclosure, I did not attend these services.  Maybe they were completely spiritual and maybe they had moments of honest communion with God. I don’t know.  I couldn’t get my mind off the ‘complimentary cup of coffee.’

            I attended most of the Triduum with my Roman Catholic friends.  There was no rock band experience.  There was no entertainment, and there was no complimentary cup of coffee.

   I was raised Catholic and have been cut off from the Church.  But I do not remember in my childhood ever attending these services near the end of Holy Week. The three services were Maundy Thursday, Good Friday (Adoration of the Cross) and the Easter Vigil. While they did not offer free coffee…these masses offered something much more precious…Christ.

            Unfortunately I was called away from Maundy Thursday service and could not fully meditate on Christ’s Last Supper before He was betrayed by Judas.

            I was there for Good Friday.  It has been my practice for the last several years to go through the Stations of the Cross on the Fridays during Lent.  I had missed the previous one and I missed Stations the morning of this service.  While this was not the Stations, this service was focused on the crucifixion of Christ.  The altar had been stripped and the statues of Mary, Joseph, and Jesus that had decorated the church for the past few weeks had been covered up. As we went through the Gospel narrative (dramatized by the priest and several lay leaders), I was brought into the narrat

ive.  The congregation had to respond with the words of the crowd to ‘crucify Jesus’ and I heard my own voice calling for the death of my Savior. It was humbling and I once again saw the horror of my own sin.

            As the Crucifix came forward, they slowly uncovered it to reveal the statue of Jesus nailed to the cross.  As is custom, the Faithful come forward and kiss the cross.  I could not come forward.  I dared not come forward.  I was stunned in my pew as I beheld the image of my Savior.  I cried.  I a grown man in my 40s, cried at a statue of Christ as the depth of my sins came home. I could not come forward because I do not deserve the death of my Savior. I do not deserve the ability to kiss the cross which He died upon.  The Church…and churches have always been clear to me that I do not belong and I should not presume to come into the presence of the living Christ.

            We gathered the next the night for the Easter Vigil.  There were nine readings (!).  Evangelicals who say that Catholics do not read the Bible have clearly not been to a mass.  The Mass is the most Biblical worship service that exists because almost every word came from the Bible. There were no contemporary praise songs, no emotionally manipulating entertainment…just the words of Scripture as we recounted the story of God and His redemption for mankind.

            Yes there was kneeling.  But kneeling in the presence of the King was appropriate. Yes there was standing…in an almost Catholic Aerobic workout scheme…but it flowed because it was all focused on Christ.  The entire service and the entire community focused on the celebration of Jesus Christ.  They celebrated the prophesies…they celebrated the coming of the Messiah and they celebrated the bursting forth from the grave. 

            I was sorry I could not make it to the Easter mass.  I went to preach my own service…which I do not know if it was received well. I do know that we do not have the lights, we don’t have the big band…we don’t have the technology to make the service appealing for the masses.  Heck, we don’t even have complimentary coffee.

            But as I reflect back on the week…I began to realize that maybe this is what we are doing wrong.  Maybe we have our priorities screwed up.  Maybe, instead of offering complimentary coffee…and ‘dynamic’ (whatever that means) worship…maybe…just like this Roman Catholic Parish…maybe we should just offer them Jesus.   

“What are you Looking For”

            It was a dark time…a time of civil war.  There was not one region that was not affected by the war.  Life was in constant upheaval and people were displaced.  Smuggling was at an all-time high and crime was everywhere.  Hope was a foreign word that nobody believed in any more.  Death and destruction were at every door.  But there were whispers that something was coming, someone was coming to change the tide of the war and to usher in a new era of peace.  Finally, the long awaited savior arrives on the scene…a dirt farmer from a backwaters planet called Tatooine!

         

   You might be a little disappointed to realize that all your hopes and dreams are pinned on a whiny teenager who knows nothing about the Force, international politics or seemingly anything else of importance.

            Of course we know that in Star Wars, everything turns out to be great.  Luke Skywalker arrives on the scene and takes care of the evil Galatic Empire and restores order, peace and harmony to the universe.  But if it was real life, you might be a little skeptical at first…and nobody would blame you. 

            In fact, that is probably exactly how the Israelites felt about Jesus when he was first revealed to them.

            Imagine the scene, John the Baptist is in the wilderness and people are flocking to him.  There was something about John’s message that connected with people and they wanted to hear what he had to say.  So they came in throngs out to where John was preaching to come and be baptized in the Jordan River. 

            We don’t know exactly how long John was out in the wilderness, other than he was at least out there for about a year.  Day after day, people came and asked him questions, “Are YOU the messiah? Are you the one who is going to end the EXILE? Are you the one who is going to kick the Romans out and restore the holiness of the temple?” And every day, day after day, John would answer the question negatively.  “No…I am NOT the one.  There is ONE  who is coming after me…HE is the one.”  And so the very essence of John’s ministry has been to point to the one who is coming, to draw the attention away from himself and to point to the real Messiah, the one who is to establish the Kingdom of God.

            You can almost sense the anticipation that is building up in the people. 

            Today we build anticipation in a number of ways.  We use ‘Kickstarter’ campaigns to help people find out what is going with different people’s efforts.  We launch movie trailer campaigns sometimes two years out (Batman vs. Superman, anyone?) and we try to build as much suspense as we can.  Presidential campaigns start two years before the actual election and the news is already reporting polling data on potential races, before anyone has announced they are running!. 

            But none of these ways existed back in John’s time.  The only thing he had was preaching and word of mouth.  And this generally worked as people waited and waited and anticipation grew and grew.

            Finally, one day, he announces, “Here is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!”(John 1:29).  In fact, so excited is the Gospel of John to announce this that it skips over the account of the baptism…John draws all of his attention on Jesus. 

            But for somebody in the first century, we might expect a little disappointment.  “Where? Where is he?  Is it that Nicodemus guy? He seems pretty rich and politically poised to take control! No? Is it that strong looking young Sadducee? No? What about that guy…over there? No?  Then who the heck is it?”

            Slowly the attention gets directed to a young carpenter from Nazareth.  Nazareth? Can anything good come from Nazareth?  I mean this is like saying that the greatest world leader is coming from Jersey…and we know nothing good comes from Jersey. Jersey is the land of Snooki, just as Nazareth is the home of nobodies. It’s the bad news bears of the ancient world.

            We can almost hear some whispers, “Really?  He doesn’t look like much.  He’s a carpenter?  How is a carpenter supposed to get rid of Rome? Or cleanse the temple?”  

            In fact, it doesn’t seem like it ‘stuck’ the first time.  Jesus left and comes back the next day only to hear John declare for the second time, “Look, here is the Lamb of God!” (1:35).  It’s almost as if John is declaring, “um…look, wasn’t kidding…HERE is the Lamb of God!”

            Now, let’s talk about this phrase, “Lamb of God”.  It was probably not the leading description that people were expecting as they talked about the Messiah.  The Messiah was not supposed to be meek and mild like a lamb, but fierce and strong like a lion. When John announces that this messiah is the “Lamb of God”, they may have been confused. 

            A few years ago, there was a great movie called Gran Turino, starring Clint Eastwood.  We all know Clint…he’s the gunfighter, the angry cop, the loose cannon who is just waiting to get even with the bad guys.  I went into this movie knowing nothing other than it was a Clint Eastwood movie, and I was pumped. As I watched the bad guys take over his neighborhood and as I watched Clint make the ‘Clint’ face, I just knew that they were all in for it.  I kept waiting and waiting for Clint to take out his old Colt .45 and light up the night.  Except he didn’t.  This was CLINT EASTWOOD! Where is the gun fights.  Except there are none.  In the end, Clint Eastwood solved the situation without killing anyone or firing a single shot.  He turns into a lamb instead of the lion I was expecting.

           

We have a hard time when our real life heroes don’t live up to the hype.  We expect Tim Tebow to be the best quarterback in the NFL because the media hyped it so much.  We expect all the problems in the country to go away after Barack Obama becomes president.  We feel let down and disappointed when people reveal themselves to be different then our expectations. We lose heart and we lose hope and we find ourselves walking away from the very thing we had been wishing for.

            After this incident, Jesus is walking through the land, and two disciples of John begin to follow him.  They understand that John has called them to follow Jesus, and not John anymore.  So they follow after him. 

            Jesus, looking at them for a little bit, asks them, “What are you looking for?”

            Wow.

            What a loaded question. 

            Notice it’s not, “who are you looking for?” or “What do you want from me?” But rather the entire question is “What are you looking for?”

            I don’t know that if Jesus were to ask me that question that I would be able to give him an answer.  I might try.  I might list all the things that I find wrong with the world and suggest that He fix them.  I might say that I am looking for someone to take care of all things, or I might just say that I am looking for salvation.

            Or I might just go with what the disciples themselves answered.

            “Where do you live?”

            Now this too, is a pregnant question.  Where do you live might mean, “where are you, I’d like to come and visit.” It might also mean, I want to live with you and share my life with you.  More than likely, the latter is meant here because it seems that the disciples are asking to become Jesus’ disciples.  At that time, having a teacher meant more than ‘going to school’.  Students often lived their lives with their teachers and shared day to day existence and chores with them.

            What are you looking for?  I think this is a question that Jesus asks each and everyone one of us.  It’s an important question, especially important when we think of the person of Jesus.

            What are you looking for?

            Are you looking for somebody just to talk to? Are you looking for somebody to give you ‘salvation’ or are you looking for somebody that will help give meaning to life? 

            All of these questions depend on the view that we have of Jesus.

            Currently one of the nation’s bestselling books is on Jesus.  It’s called Zealot by Aslan Reza, a Muslim scholar.  His answer to this question is that Jesus was just another political revolutionary, a zealot

who wanted to free his country from the tyranny of Rome.

            The Fundamentalists have a different view of Jesus, one who has come to destroy the corrupting power of sin and to justify ‘those who believe.’

            The Liberals have a view of Jesus as one who is here to spread the gospel of universal love.

            The Catholics view Jesus as the King of Heaven and Earth, ruling over the universe from his throne in heaven and through his representatives here on earth.

            And the list goes on and on.  For almost every person, there is a different view of Jesus.  Each of us starts the Christian life from a different vantage point and from a different place.  We all begin following Jesus with a different goal in mind.  Some of us just want to get through the day, while others want a companion along the way. 

            When Jesus answered the disciples, he did not give them a direct answer.  This should not surprise us because after all, it is Jesus we are talking about.  Rather he gives them the cryptic message, “Come and see.” (1:39).

            It’s an invitation, not only to see where Jesus lives, but to see who He is.  It is an invitation to life with him. 

            You never really get to know somebody until you live with them.  We all have hopes and dreams about getting married and we dream about how perfect life will be with our intended spouse.  There are many couples, however, who had false and unrealistic expectations.  “What do you mean you leave your socks on the floor?  THERE’s A PERFECTLY GOOD HAMPER OVER THERE!”  We may discover that our spouse’s view on fun is not exactly our own.  We may discover that there are things that irritate us about our spouse.  We find out that this person is different than the one we expected to live with.

            The same is true with Jesus.  His invitation to us to ‘come and see’ will change our lives and our expectations. 

            We will see Jesus in action.  We will see both his call to the righteous and the unrighteous.  We will see him show up in the most unlikely of situations.  We will discover that His reactions are not OUR reactions to things on a great deal many of things.  We frankly discover that the Jesus of our expectations is quickly overshadowed by the Jesus of reality.

            Some of us will have a hard time and we will reject the real Jesus and construct for ourselves a false Jesus.  Others will fully embrace this idea and some will remained shell shocked for quite some time.

            The disciples quickly realize that although this Jesus did not match their expectations, He is in fact the true Messiah.  They come quickly to Peter and they announce to him, “We have found the Messiah”(1:41).

            When they announce that they have found THE messiah, the disciples are announcing that this person, this Jesus, is the one who is to bring about the Kingdom of God.  They don’t know how and they don’t know when and they aren’t sure of all the particulars, but this is the ONE.  This is the one in whom all the hopes and fears were be consolated.  This is the one who will bring harmony back to creation and this is one who will restore the nation of Israel.  All they have to do is ‘come and see.’

            So what are you looking for?  Who are you seeking?

            Jesus invites us all to come and see.  Jesus invites us all to follow him.  In doing so, our preconceptions and our expectations of Jesus will be shattered. We will be surprised, amazed, filled with wonder, at times hurt, maybe angry, but ultimately the reality of Jesus will far outweigh our conceptions of him. 

            My hope and my prayer is that in following Jesus, we will come to the place where we can say with the disciples, we have found the Messiah.

What's in a name?

Names are funny things.  One of the largest industries in today’s world is the whole baby-naming market.  We can hire consultants for just names and some communities try as hard as they can to make unique names or unique variations of names (Shaniqua or Cheerokee).  We may have lost our minds when it comes to the whole name thing.  We publish lists on the most popular baby names and we read books on the meanings of names. 

            We had fun naming our kids.  My wife and I know that we wanted our kids names to mean something, so that when our kids asked, “what does my name mean?” we could answer with something better than “because we liked it.” (When we found out we were having a boy, I tried to convince Marilee that we needed to name him ‘Luke’ so I could say, “Luke, I am your father!”).  We agonized over names and we tried to be political, so as to not have one side of the family represented too much. 

           I had wanted to name our oldest daughter, “Autumn.”  In fact that was going to be her name until the day she was born.  I had heard of the name “Abigail,” but I was pretty sold on “Autumn.”  But on the day she was born, when the nurse asked us what her name was, I responded, “Abigail.” Abigail is a Hebrew name, from the Bible, that means, “My Father’s Joy.”  It just seemed to fit her and the situation we now found ourselves in as a family.  We have similar stories for our other kids, and we each wanted their names to be something significant.

            Today’s readings are all about names…well, one name in particular….ok...two names in particular.

            Our gospel reading is the familiar story of Jesus’ birth, told in Matthew’s gospel (Matthew 1:18-25).  Matthew sets up the story for us perfectly by saying, “When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together, she was found to be with child…(Matthew 1:18).  So we have here a young couple (no matter how old Joseph is, he is still fairly young) and they are engaged to be married.  What a wonderful time of life!  Happiness and joy abound and there is to be a celebration soon!

            Except Mary is pregnant.

            Now many of us know we live in a time when this would not be a particular problem.  In fact, in our day and age, this seems to be a normal transpiring of events: Boy meets girl, boy and girl have sex, boy and girl exchange names, boy and girl move into together, boy and girl have child and then eventually maybe boy and girl get married.  This is not the time nor the place to discuss the merits or demerits of such a situation, just be it to say that this caused a problem for Joseph. 

            Ancient Jewish purity laws called for a woman to be a virgin when she was married.  The punishment in more of the rural areas like Nazareth, the punishment for not being a virgin was either divorce (which involved disgrace and abandonment) or death.   

            But, why? Why is this such an important deal? Was it just that they were uneducated hicks…you know the sort that watch Duck Dynasty and drink beer out of a can? Or was it just that they were prudes and wanted to stop everybody from having a good time?  Or were they just not enlightened like we are (I mean you can see how well our current sexual ethics are working out for us!) So what was it?

           

            Well, mainly it was about a name.  In a time before DNA and genetic testing, family lines were extremely important to people.  This was a society were everything, from the throne to property lines depended on your family heritage.  As we have moved further and further away from hereditary rights, bloodlines have become less important (as well as our sexual purity). Joseph couldn’t legitimately give his blessing to a child that wasn’t his and he would mess up all the genealogical charts for generations to come.

            So Joseph, a righteous man, now has  choice to make…how to get ‘rid’ of Mary.  Perhaps if he lived in Jersey or worked with the Sopranos, there would be a different option, but Joseph decides to divorce her secretly. 

            And most of us would probably agree with this decision…I mean, after all, what else could he do? He couldn’t marry her and care for her child, could he? He couldn’t really kill her, right? So a quiet divorce sounds like the best option.  Things are desperate for the young carpenter and his fiancée.  And Joseph probably felt that God had  abandoned him, that God was distant from him and that there was no help coming from God in this situation.

That is, until, God pipes in.

            The Angel appears and first tells Joseph “do not fear” (v. 20).  Interesting choice of words…it is not that he should not fear because of the angel, but that he shouldn’t be afraid to marry Mary and to raise her Son.  The reason for this is because “that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit…”(Mathew 1:21).  This is all done in fulfillment of Isaiah 7, which culminates with the baby’s name, “Immanuel”.

            Immanuel. 

            What a name!

            But what’s in a name anyway?

            To understand this prophesy, we need to go back to Isaiah 7.  As we return to this text, we have almost forget everything we know about it.  We have imported the Christmas story so much to it, that we go back to see what was happening.

            It was a desperate time for the nation of Israel.  The country was at war and was about to be destroyed.  King Ahaz was frightened the king of Assyria would overwhelm him and his people would be enslaved, killed, or deported.  He is looking at the end of his reign, the end of his kingdom and the end of the world, as far as he knows!

            Into this, Isaiah comes to him and says tells Ahaz to ask for a sign…any sign! But Ahaz is so scared that he won’t ask for a sign. So Isaiah give him a sign anyway:

Behold the virgin shall conceive and give birth and bear a son, and his name shall be Immanuel (Isaiah 7:14). 

            There has been a lot of discussion about this sign…does it present a miraculous sign? Is the “virgin” still a virgin when she conceives, etc?  I don’t necessarily don’t want to be dogmatic here, but I think we should take the following things from Isaiah.  First, the ‘virgin’ isn’t really a virgin.[1] There is nothing supernatural about the sign, as it is a reference to the time when the siege will be over.  Rather, the most important thing is the name:

            Immanuel

            But what’s in a name?

            Immanuel literally means “God with us!”  The message that Isaiah wants to present to Ahaz is that despite the overwhelming nature of the events that are happening around you, God is with you. God is with you and will deliver you, save you from your enemies.

            That’s a powerful message.  Because Ahaz probably felt that God had abandoned the people of Israel.  He probably felt that God was distant from him and that really there was no help coming from on high. 

            How many of us feel the same way?  How many of us feel that God has abandoned us, that He is distant from us and that he is not coming for us.  This time of year, I always think about those people who feel that God has completely ignored or abandoned.

            I think of Scott, who was desperately trying to put his family back together after his wives numerous affairs and disastrous financial decisions.  “I don’t know where to go from here,” he said as he sat in my study.  “I don’t know who I am supposed to be and I don’t know how I’m supposed to get there.  Where is God?”

            I think of Alice who has been struggling with alcohol for such a long time.  “All I want is one more drink and then I can stop.”  Rehab never quite worked for her and she keeps losing the battle with the bottle. She has lost her job, her family and her God (she thinks).

            I think of Jacob, a youth group member who is trying to find his identity.  He feels an attraction towards men and feels that his family would completely reject him if they ever found out the truth about him.  “I mean, God hates fags, right?”

            And yet, we see the truth played out before us in this reading.  Jesus, the Angel declares, is God with us.

            God with us in our joy.  God with us in our despair.  God with us in our victory and God with us in our defeat.  God with us in our struggles and God with us in our sin.  God with us when we are happy and God with us when we are sad.  God with us in the crowd and God with us when we are alone.  God with us in all aspects of our lives. 

            This is the Gospel for us today, that God is with us.  God was with Joseph in those dark moments of his life, to give him courage to live out God’s plan for him.  God is with us in all situations of our lives.

            The theologians like to use big words and the word they like to use for this is “incarnation”.  That the fullness of God has come to dwell in the baby in Bethlehem.  This was a miracle in the biggest sense of the word because what it says is that, “I, God of the universe, Creator of heaven and earth, the one who has the power and the ability to preserve and destroy any life I see, have come to live in your world.  I want to experience all things with you.  I want to experience your joys and your sorrow.  I want to be with you in all things.”

            One of the great promises of the Old Testament is that “I will walk among you and will be your God and you will be my people” (Lev 26:12).  But there was always something that got in the way.  The people sinned, God got mad and He sent the people into Exile.  But When Jesus comes, he announces to the World, “I am here! I am with you! I am walking among among you! (or as John says, I will ‘dwell’ among you”

            And this promise has no end.  It is no surprise that Matthew ends with Jesus’ promise, “I will never leave you nor forsake you, I am with you always, even to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:20).  Did you hear it? I am with you. 

            So what is in a name?

            First, we have a sign that God has not abandoned or forsaken his people.  God will never just cast us off to the winds.  That is a collective as well as an individual promise. 

            Second, we have knowledge that God is going through all things with us.  He is experiencing the joyous moments as well as the defeats with us.

            Third, we have a promise that God will never leave us or forsake us.  By coming in the person of Jesus as Immanuel, God has permanently identified with us.

            So no matter what you are going through this Advent period, no matter what joys and what sorrows you have during this period in life, remember that through it all, God is with us…God is with you…after all, it’s all in his name.

---

[1] The Hebrew of Isaiah 7:14 has hmlc (which means ‘young maid’ and could mean ‘virgin’) and the Greek of the LXX has  paqehnoj (which means virgin).  Matthew definitely has the LXX in view and it is clear that he indicates that Mary was a virgin throughout her lifr

Joy to the World!

           

          I meet a lot of people by accident.  It is just my lot, it seems.  Either I amble up to somebody and start talking (thinking they are somebody else) or people come and start talking to me, thinking I am somebody else.  At first, I was pretty put off by it, but before long, I’ve learned to roll with it.  I mean, we can all learn something from everybody and we should be open to new experiences every day.   Sometimes things go really well and we both walk away from the encounter having learned something or have just enjoyed each other’s company.   Sometimes, things go bad and then there is awkward moment that happens before one of us leaves.  But mostly, it’s ok. 

            I remember this one time, however, when I was NOT who was expected.  I was visiting somebody in the hospital and they clearly thought I was the priest to come and give them last rights.  Now, it’s important to know that this person was not anywhere close to dying.  They had come in for a relatively minor problem, but because I had been identified as a clergy member, they assumed that the end was near for them.  So, before I could stop her, out came a list of every sin she had committed…and we are not talking about minor ones here!  “Pastor, I had an affair with my neighbor and I never told my husband, I committed insurance fraud and I have a bunch of unpaid parking tickets!”  There was an awkward silence as she caught her breath, in which the doctor was able to say, “Ma’am….you are going to be fine.”  She looked at the doctor…then looked at me…then looked around the room at everybody who was in the room.  I have never seen anybody look redder.

            I was not who she expected…but then again, she was not in the situation she had thought.  I don’t know what ever happened to her, but I like to think that she took that moment as a real opportunity to look at her life, to rejoice in it and to change.

            Today’s Gospel reading is about expecting the right person.  Advent is about waiting with joy for the right person to come and to set all things new. 

            In our lesson, we find John the Baptist in jail.  John is one of those types of people we should probably expect to find in jail.  After all, he was bold in his proclamation and spoke the truth to power.  He even confronted Herod about his practices and that is why he wound up in jail. 

            Prison is a place of waiting…waiting either for release or for death.  German theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who spent the last two years of his life in a prison cell, reflected that “A prison cell, in which one waits, hopes, does various unessential things, and is completely dependent on the fact that the door of freedom has to be opened from the outside, is not a bad picture of Advent.”[1]  But John is waiting and he is uncertain about his waiting around.  He is not sure what it is all about.

            John had initially pointed out Jesus from the crowd.  When Jesus emerged from the crowd to be baptized, John declared, “Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29) He says this with such confidence and such boldness that today’s text has us do a double take.  John has now been waiting in prison for a long time, that he sends his messengers to Jesus and asks the question, “are you the one to come, or should we expect another?” 

            Talk about an embarrassing question to have asked.  Could you imagine the discussion that John’s disciples have on the way to meet Jesus?  “So…he boss seemed pretty sure of himself…” “Yeah…what do you think Jesus will say?”

            It might be easy for us to look down on John, but don’t we do the same thing and ask the very same question?  We might have a little bit more wiggle room…after all, it’s been two thousand years , and Jesus still has not returned.  It’s been two thousand years and those miracles have not been as often as they were when Jesus walked the earth.  It’ s been two thousand years and some of us might begin to wonder… “Jesus, are you the one to come? Or should we expect somebody else?” 

            We get tired of waiting for Jesus to appear…or we get embarrassed that we are called Christians.  Some have answered the question by saying that yes, we have been waiting for somebody else. Various names have been put into contention: Mohammed, Joseph Smith, Mary Eddy, and the Bab.  Others have said that we put our eggs in the wrong basket and that we have been failed by God.  Others have said that there is nothing special about Jesus.

            Maybe the problem is with our perception of Jesus.

            I often talk to sailors who say something like this: I have been good and yet God hates me.  He doesn’t take care of me! Whatever that might be…working too much or not getting the duty station they want or not getting promoted.  They get angry at God and they express their hurt and anger.  But if this is how we view God, you are more than likely to be disappointed.  Because these things will happen to us.  Bad things will inevitably happen to us and we will be looking for another God.

            So we can imagine John’s disappointment as he sends these messengers to Jesus.

            When the messengers get to Jesus, He responds simply, “Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind receive their sight and the lame walk, lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up and the poor have good news preached to them” (Matthew 11:4b-5).  Jesus has this way of not answering the question that actually answers the question and here is no different.  His answer is an affirmation that the evidence speaks for itself.

            Jesus is looking back to the  prophesies of the Old Testament, specifically Isaiah 35.  Here we read,

Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped; then the lame man leap like a deer and the tongue of the mute sing for joy. (Isaiah 35:5).

            This was the time that was supposed to be inaugurated by the coming of the Messiah.  Isaiah had prophesied a time when the curse would be overturned and the kingdom of God would be established.  Jesus is saying that not only is he the one to bring this about, but that it is in fact happening as!   This is the significance of the coming of Jesus, and it is one that the Church needs to recapture.

            The third Sunday in Advent is known as ‘joy’ Sunday.  At about this time during the holiday season, most of us have probably lost our joy.  Stress has overtaken us as we have struggled with crowds to find Christmas presents.  We have endured office Christmas parties and we have watched enough holiday movies to drive us crazy.  Where is the joy? We may ask.

            And we are probably not alone in asking this.  Thousands of people around the world are asking along with us: where is the joy? Where is the joy that promised at Jesus’ coming? Where is the healing that was supposed to come along? Where is the blind that can see? Where is the deaf that can now hear? Where is the restoration of relationships, the politics that are not corrupt? Where is the answer to life’s problem?

            Let’s be honest, the world has expected more from the church and from the gospel.  The Church has often spoke about the greatness of Christ, but this has fallen on the deaf ears of the world. 

            I remember when I was younger…well in high school…and meeting a high school exchange student from Japan.  She was Buddhist and could not understand the Christian faith. She had a problem with the way we celebrated Christmas because we all talked about the ‘happiness’ and ‘joy’ of the season, but all she saw was sorrow and depression.  She could see nothing true about what we sung about or what we said was the holiday season. 

            And we have to say that this is true.  There are so many people stuck in the prison of their poverty, their depression, their addiction during this time of the year that they are truly asking, “are you the one we expected or should we look for someone else?”  Should we look for another answer, should we look for another Messiah?

            But the joyous message of the Church has always been: NO! Jesus is the Messiah! Jesus is the one who sets all things New! Jesus is the one who truly reveals God’s design for us!

            But what about the deaf? The Blind? The poor? What about those who are stuck in prison? What about those for whom the gospel was promised and yet there seems to be no delivery? Is there any true GOOD News for them?

            It may be hard for us, in our age of twenty four hour news cycles and addictions to anti-depressants, to believe that there is any good happening in the world.  But there is!

            It is found in the work of people like Shane Claiborne who has revitalized entire neighborhoods in Philadelphia by rehabbing old abandoned buildings and giving them to the poor. 

            It is found in the ministry of men like Oscar Romero who identified with the poor and oppressed in El Salvador to the point of giving his own life. 

            It is found in the work of institutions like the International Justice Mission that tries to liberate people trapped in the prison of slavery.  It is found in the work of local churches that work for reconciliation, salvation and peace.  Martin Luther King, Jr called this work the creation of the Beloved Community.

            There is good…GREAT news for them! God is at work in the world, utilizing the church to shed his glory and his kingdom! We are there to offer life to those who are outcast, good news to the poor and hope to the infirm. 

            Advent invites us to wait for God, but it also invites us to see God at work and to delight in the work of the Lord.  We are not to expect anybody else, because the one who has come is the one whom we have waited for and Christ is the one to establish this kingdom.  In this, we hope, in him, we rejoice. 

---

[1] Letters and Papers from Prison

Hope and Change

The more things change, the more they stay the same.

We were all expecting…all hoping…that the Bears would win the Superbowl.  They were primed for the game, and as far as we knew…they were ready!  The gamed kicked off…and TOUCHDOWN, Bears! We were off to a fantastic beginning, but it was not to last.  Soon, our hopes were dashed as the Colts quickly regained the ball…and the lead.  Before we knew it, the game was pretty much over and the Bears had been defeated.

  So much for hope.

            Our world seems like it runs out of hope a lot.  The more things change, the more things stay the same.  Can there be any more cynical statement than this.  Underlying this simple statement is just an understanding that nothing ever really changes.  Nothing ever gets better. We can hear it in the desperation of our friends looking for work, those dealing with sickness, and those dealing with the heartbreak of broken families.

            Advent can be difficult for a lot of people, because in the midst of brokenness, in the midst of war, and in the midst of suffering, the church dares to declare hope. 

            We can imagine what it would have been like for the ancient Israelites.  In a lot of ways, their situation is the same as our situation: the more things change, the more they stay the same.  Ancient Israel was surrounded by their enemies.  The economy was taking a down turn and people were desperate for good news.  It must have seemed like the world was falling apart.  There was increased emotional distance between parents and children.  Newer technology scared older generations as the new generation embraced different values.  Politicians promised hope and change for the future, but people found that this hope and change seemed much like the  way things have always been done.  The more things change, the more they stay the same.

            Today, the message of hope can feel as an empty promise, a veiled attempt to cloud the pessimism of the future.  Our politicians have promised hope for the American people…a change in the way things ought to be.  But we see this hope diminished.  Our unemployment rate continues to be large, people continue their downward spiral into poverty.  Morals seem to be slipping as families continue to break up.  Addictions soar and drugs are celebrated in some parts of our country as others pretend not to notice the dreadful effects of addiction.  The sex trade continues to soar as millions of young men and women are enslaved every year to provide entertainment for people.  Our culture celebrates violence, anger and vengeance and peace feels that much farther away.

            The more things change, the more they stay the same.

            That might sound too grand…but our own lives echo the desperation we feel out in culture.  We try to change ourselves, hoping that our family will improve…or we medicate ourselves hoping that the pain will go away. We try to tell ourselves that things will be get better, but deep down in our heart, that refrain echoes in our brain: the more things change, the more they stay the same.

            But Isaiah points to a day when things will change…and there is hope that things will be better.

            There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit. (Isaiah 11:1)

            When YHWH established David as king, he promised that a descendent would always ben on the throne.  The Davidic kingship was supposed to be the way that God established his kingdom…his justice and peace here on earth.  But David’s descendants had other plans.  They departed from YHWH’s ways and justice and peace got obscured and the people of Israel lost hope that anything would change. 

            But now there will be change.  Because out of the ruins of the Davidic dynasty comes the promise of the Messiah.  This has been part of the plan since the beginning.  Because  all of those kings point to the promise of God that has been with us since the beginning of time. Genesis 3:15   I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel. God had promised one offspring would come and set all things right, all things new.  This is the promise that Isaiah now picks up again.

            He describes this ‘branch’ as a king that will establish peace and justice.  He is filled with God’s Spirit, which creates in him the fear of the Lord (v. 3). 

            What this results in is a different type of a regime.  This king is not interested in politics as usual, he is not interested in maintaining the status quo and he is not interested in perpetuating a bureaucracy.  Rather, he redefines what is important.  With righteousness he shall judge the poor and decide with equity or meek of the earth (v. 4).  While most modern politicians are good at rhetoric and sound bites, this ruler proves his concern by his actions.

            So great is this transformation that will happen, that the entire creation will be renewed.  Isaiah describes the highly unlikely pairing of a wolf lying down with a lamb and predators eating grass and ‘prey’ living in a world without fear.  What we see is a world at peace, a peace at rest, and a peace without fear.  Life will be valued for what it truly should be.

            Instead of “the more things change the more they stay the same,” in Isaiah’s prophesy we see ‘the more things change…they really do change!’

            This prophesy became the backbone for how Israelites viewed the world.  Sure things are difficult now….but change is coming!!! Victory is coming! The Messiah is coming!  

            But the further away from this event the people were…the more they began to sink back into their depression.  War gave way to more war, poverty became more prevalent and invaders came from the four corners of the earth to occupy Palestine.  First came the Babylonians, the the Greeks, and finally the Romans.  The more things change, the more they stay the same.

            But eventually, a new voice came on the scene.  After four hundred years of complete silence a young man appears on the scene.  He is wild eyed and crazy sounding….he dresses funny and eats bugs!  And yet….people flock to see him.  People come from all over Judea and all over Jerusalem to come and hear this man preach.

            And yet…they do! It should be no surprise to us that John speaks to a hunger…a desire to the people of Israel.  He speaks to the underlying yearning for the people.  His message is simple: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!”  It is a short simple statement of what John has preached.  There is no simpler sermon that has been preached and yet it connects with the Israelites on such a powerful level…because it addresses their deepest need.

            The key phrase in this passage is ‘the kingdom of God.’  The kingdom of God represents the sum total of Jesus’ preaching and of the New Testament message for all people.  We may find ourselves scratching our heads at this because we very rarely hear sermons preached on ‘the kingdom of God’ and besides a few praise songs, kingdom preaching is usually very limited to a couple of Sundays.  But this is not because the Church has abandoned the idea of the kingdom of God, but because we have found new ways to talk about the reality that John and Jesus preached about.  Paul emphasizes the gospel and talks about being ‘in Christ,’ which is the way that he expresses the kingdom of God. 

            So what is this kingdom of God?  Biblical theologian Geerhardus Vos suggests that the kingdom of God is the ‘end time rule of God.’ In other words, the kingdom of God is that time, at the end of time, when God himself will reign and establish the world as it ought to be.  It is the hope of the Old Testament, the yearning of the ancient Israelites and the point of the prophets.  We may take it as ‘shorthand,’ but there is a large theological significance to this phrase and so when John uses it, he is tapping into a cultural buzzword that people would have been familiar with.

            God reigning…all things created new…sinners judged, the righteous restored and the end of death and of sickness.  These are the principle things that the kingdom of God entailed.  We see this language all over the Old Testament.  Of course we saw this earlier when Isaiah talks about the root of the throne of Jesse.  We read that the messiah is coming to establish this kingdom, because the messiah is the king who establishes it.  But towards the end of Isaiah, we also read

"For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth, and the former things shall not be remembered or come into mind.  ¹⁸ But be glad and rejoice forever in that which I create; for behold, I create Jerusalem to be a joy, and her people to be a gladness.  ¹⁹ I will rejoice in Jerusalem and be glad in my people; no more shall be heard in it the sound of weeping and the cry of distress.  ²⁰ No more shall there be in it an infant who lives but a few days, or an old man who does not fill out his days, for the young man shall die a hundred years old, and the sinner a hundred years old shall be accursed.  ²¹ They shall build houses and inhabit them; they shall plant vineyards and eat their fruit.  ²² They shall not build and another inhabit; they shall not plant and another eat; for like the days of a tree shall the days of my people be, and my chosen shall long enjoy the work of their hands.  ²³ They shall not labor in vain or bear children for calamity, for they shall be the offspring of the blessed of the LORD, and their descendants with them.  ²⁴ Before they call I will answer; while they are yet speaking I will hear.  ²⁵ The wolf and the lamb shall graze together; the lion shall eat straw like the ox, and dust shall be the serpent's food. They shall not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain," says the LORD.  (Isaiah 65:17-25)

            Now that sounds hopeful.  That sounds like there is something to change, that sounds like things just might get better.  All of this is captured in John’s phrase, ‘the kingdom of God.’

            But it gets better for John’s listeners.  Because he says that not only is this kingdom is on its way, this kingdom is at hand!  In other words, it’s here! It’s now! This great kingdom that Isaiah talked about is here in the present.  That’s hope that nobody in Jerusalem or Judea could find anywhere else. 

            But so what? What does this have to do with us? It’s been two thousand years.  Lions still eat lambs, the poor are still persecuted and the sick still die.  Isn’t this just the same old case of ‘the more things change, the more they stay the same?’  Has anything really changed?

            Well yes, something has changed.  Jesus came and died and was resurrected to new life.  That’s a change.  He also came and he changed us!  God established His people as a New Creation, as part of this New Kingdom and as ambassadors for the rule of God. 

            Sure, we may not see some great changes like Bears eating grass or children playing with snakes…but we see change.  We see communities that are dedicated to reaching out to the poor and the needy.  We see Churches establishing hospitals to care for the sick.  We see monasteries established to educate the outcast.  We see a redefining of values for an entire world. 

            We often grow cynical because we don’t see change happening fast enough.  When we do so, we fail to recognize two things.

            First, we fail to recognize that change takes an awful long time.  Think of how long it takes to change yourself, and compare that to changing the world.  Gandhi once said that we needed to become the change that we wanted to see in the world.  But that doesn’t happen overnight.  I know for me, change can be scary and it can take me a long time to get used to it.  For instance, even something simple like learning to not chew my fingernails took me years….and I still do it.  Why wouldn’t it take a long time to change the great things of the world like the foundations of justice and the values of society?

            The second thing is that our sin often clouds the work of God in the world from our eyes.  It is very easy to point out the negative things that are happening.  We are used to them and we see them everywhere.  But it is much harder to see positive change and to see the hand of God working in the lives of very ordinary and mundane events.  We often don’t want to see these things, because we want to wallow in our self pity and in our cynicism.  We want to disbelieve, because our hearts are prone to disbelief. 

            But the message of Advent invites us to chuck our disbelief.  Instead of falling into the cynical trap of believing that things can never change, Advent…and Christ….call us to trust in Him and to believe in hope.  It is the Enemy that wants to deny us hope, for us to fall into living out our hopelessness.  As theologian Jurgen Moltmann says, “to live without hope is to cease to live.  Hell is hopelessness.  It is not by accident that above the entryway to Dante’s hell is the inscription, ‘abandon all hope, ye who enter here.’”  The devil would see us spend eternity rotting and wallowing in hopelessness, but the root of stump of Jesse brings new life.  The devil robs hope from us, but Christ restores us to hope and to life. 

            The more things change, the more they stay the same? Absolutely not! Christ has come…Christ is coming…and that changes everything!