Monday, December 16, 2013

Sermon: John's Story (Dec. 15, 2013)

Advent 3A
December 15, 2013
Isaiah 35:1-10
Matthew 11:2-11

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
            The prison floor is dark and dank. No one spent any time keeping these places looking very nice – and why would they? They were full of alleged criminals. Of course, most of the people in there knew it wasn’t just criminals who ended up in prison. It was anyone who had managed to upset the oppressive Roman government. That’s how John got in there, anyway. While he wasn’t very happy about it, he could understand how it had ended up this way – he said a lot of things that, well, confused people at best, and at worst, angered them to the point of murder.
            You see, John was a rather curious fellow. First of all there was his appearance. His hair was that of a wild man, always unkempt. His dress was unusual – just camel’s hair with a leather belt – as if he had just walked in from the wilderness, which, in fact, he usually had. That was another curious thing about John – he sort of wandered about, living an ascetic lifestyle, feeding on locusts and wild honey. He lived a life centered on repentance – that is, turning away from sin and toward God.
            In fact, he lived that life so fully that he literally shouted it from the mountaintops. He was a prophet, you see, called by God not only to tell people about the need to repent and turn toward God, but also to be baptized with water. That’s how he got his name – John the Baptist – because when people came to him asking for forgiveness from their sins, he also washed them in the river, as a physical representation of their being cleaned from sin and ready for a new life.
            But John always knew that he was called to even more than that. From his very conception, you see, everyone knew he was something special. He was born to Elizabeth and Zechariah. Zechariah was a priest in the Temple, and both he and Elizabeth were quite old, and Elizabeth was barren. It was no wonder that Zechariah didn’t believe it when the angel Gabriel told him that Elizabeth would conceive, and that the child would be a great prophet who would prepare for and announce the way of the Lord, the messiah, God’s chosen one. But, just as the angel promised, they did conceive, and the child was born and he was named John. He was a miracle of God from the very get-go.
            And John had come through. It wasn’t too long before that day in prison, in fact, that he had been down by the River Jordan, telling people, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near!” It was just as the prophets before him – like Isaiah, and Malachi – had said: he was the voice crying out in the wilderness, “Prepare the way of the Lord!” Honestly, he wasn’t sure how he knew what to say or how to say it. God seemed to provide the words and the methods, and he just did as he was told, even though it could be very risky. Like, that time when the Pharisees and Sadducees had come for baptism, and he just knew that they were there under false pretenses, and instead of welcoming them to the water he called them a brood of vipers! (Which is no way to make friends among powerful people!) He had told them and everyone else who was listening that he was there to baptize with water, but someone was coming after him who was even more powerful, someone whose sandals John was not even worthy to carry. This man, John said, would baptize people with the Holy Spirit and with fire. This man was the messiah, the chosen one.
            Shortly after that, the young rabbi, Jesus had come to John’s spot on the Jordan. As soon as John saw him, he knew: this was the man. This was the chosen Messiah, the man who would save them all! When Jesus asked to be baptized, John resisted, saying Jesus should baptize him! But Jesus explained that it must happen this way, and so John, knowing he had just encountered the messiah himself, baptized Jesus.
            But that all seemed so long ago now, as John sat on the dirty and dank prison floor. He had been so sure in that moment that this Jesus was the messiah. John was so confident in his call to prepare the way for this man that he had put it all on the line for him. Unfortunately he had said the wrong thing at the wrong time – a comment about King Herod’s marriage – and had ended up in prison as a result. Confident though he was before, prison has a way of sucking the life and passion out of you. In his hours and days in that dark place, he thought through his life, how he had been believed to be a fulfillment of the prophets. He thought about what those prophets had said about the coming messiah.
And he thought about Jesus. If he was to be honest, Jesus didn’t look much like John expected him to. The scriptures seemed to indicate that the messiah would be a powerful ruler, like King David, and his reign would usher in a new era of peace. He assumed it would be someone who could beat back the oppressive Roman government, and save them all. But Jesus was not really like that. He was humble and lowly. He was born to working class parents – and unmarried ones at that! He certainly upset people, but he didn’t seem like the type to overthrow anything, nor did he seem to have the power even if he wanted to.
And suddenly, John began to doubt. Sitting there on that prison floor, sucked dry of his passion and his drive and his sense of call, John began to doubt. Was this the man? Had he been preparing the way for the right guy? Or had everything he had worked toward, everything he had said and done, everything for which he had put himself on the line been a complete fraud? He didn’t only doubt Jesus; now he doubted himself. What kind of prophet was he?
            Then John saw someone he knew, one of the men who had been a disciple of John’s, walking by the prison. He beckoned him over, urgently. “Please,” he said. “I need to know. I need you to bring a message to the man named Jesus. Please ask him: is he the one who is to come, or are we to wait for another?” Even as he said it, his voice cracked at the fear behind the sentiment. The messenger ran off to carry the message, as John slumped to the ground, feeling defeated.


            It seemed an eternity before the messenger returned. As he approached John at the prison cell door, John noticed about him a certain radiance, a joyfulness in his step as if he were carrying good news. John’s heart lightened. “Yes?” he said. “What did he say?”
            The messenger looked at John thoughtfully, and though his lips didn’t turn up, his face seemed to smile. He said, “Jesus said to tell you what I hear and see.” He paused for a moment before going on. “John, the blind receive their sight. The lame walk. The lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, even the dead are raised! John, the poor have good news brought to them.” As the messenger recounted the things he had seen and heard since Jesus had come around, John felt his heart leap in his chest, and he was left with an immense sense of peace. Quietly, he replied, “Blessed is anyone who takes no offense at him.” The messenger looked at John curiously and said, “Yes, blessed is he,” then went on his way.
            And once again, John’s ears were full of the words of the prophets: Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped; then the lame shall leap like a deer, and the tongue of the speechless sing for joy.” This Jesus – he was the messiah. He was ushering in a new kingdom, a kingdom of peace. It was not an earthly kingdom, and it wasn’t earthly power he possessed. He was here among the people of earth to serve them, to love them, to bring life to them. He was here to reach out to those on the margins of society, and to show them the salvation and restoration that God is capable of. He was here to change things, to turn the world in a different direction. And, John knew, he was here with his Holy Spirit to save the people from their sins.

            Let us pray… Mysterious God, you do not always come to us in ways that we expect or understand. Open our eyes to see you in your many and various forms – in the beggar, in the blind, in the sick, in the downtrodden – and help us in these sightings to see also a glimpse of your restoration and salvation. In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

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