Should We Expect Someone Else?
Pastor Mathew Magera – 12/7/16 – Sermon 197
St. Thomas Lutheran Church, Trufant, MI
To God be the Glory!
Grace and peace to you from
God our Father, from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
I don't go to the movie theater very often. It's not that I don't like movies, I just don't need to see
them right away. However, there are exceptions, two to be exact. James Bond and
Star Wars. When a Bond movie comes out, I will see it in a theater. Now that
Disney owns Star Wars, for each subsequent film they release, I will see it in
the theater. For just about anything else I can usually wait for movies to be
available at the library or I put them on my Christmas list. It just doesn't
bother me to need to see them on a big screen. But, I still watch movies and
I'm sure many of you will catch a flick every now and then or watch shows on TV.
When it comes to TV and movies,
though, if you're fairly observant, you'll notice some unwritten rules about
them. We've become so accustomed to these rules that the only reason we might
think of them is when these laws are broken. Our minds have just come to expect
certain things. Let me give you some examples. Have you ever noticed that if
you're watching a scene in a grocery store someone is always carrying a grocery
bag containing a stick of French bread? Have you ever noticed that a
ventilation system in any building doubles as the perfect hiding place? Have
you ever noticed that when a person is knocked unconscious by a blow to the
head they will never suffer a concussion or brain damage? Have you ever noticed
that any lock can be picked by a credit card or paper clip in seconds, unless
it's the door to a burning building with a child trapped inside? Have you ever
noticed that when the main character is outnumbered in a fight involving
martial arts, the enemies will wait to attack them one by one instead of all at
once? Have you ever noticed that when a deep decision needs to be made, it is
usually raining outside at the time? And maybe dark too? I could go on but you
see how there are parts about movies we expect. We've been trained to accept
these nuances and we are caught off guard if these rules are ever broken.
Now I want you to take that
frame of mind and place it into this Gospel reading. Right before Jesus came on
the scene there was likely no better preacher than John the Baptist. He was the
loud mouth prophet who never looked quite right on the outside and you wondered
if he was really quite right on the inside too. He tells it like it is, he
tells you who you are. He's direct, blunt, and to the point, and if he's right
in front of you, has a real bad case of locust breath. John the Baptist was a
loud preacher and he had a loud message to bring to the people, pointing to
Jesus the entire time. "Soon there will come one more powerful than
I," John says. "I baptize you with water but he will baptize with the
Holy Spirit and with fire!" He preached a message of repentance. Get back
in line! The Kingdom of God is near! You better get yourself right with God
before Jesus comes because he comes to bring judgment! John knew the
Scriptures, it seemed. The people did too. But, something happened to the
peoples' expectations and it was starting to rub off on John too. The rules
that this Messiah was said to follow were being broken and John the Baptist
began to doubt his own preaching. You know it's bad when the loudest voice at
the beginning of the Gospels as the opening act for the Jesus show start to
doubt the one in which he is opening for.
Now, before I go further
into that, why are we talking about doubt in Advent in the first place? These
days leading up to Christmas always seem to surprise us because they aren't
always the prophecies of the Nativity story or even predictions of the end of
the world. We're in the beginning stages of Jesus' public ministry and we're
doubting who he really is. Jesus has been alive for about 30 years already and
he's got only a few more to live and now we're doubting him. Why are we talking
about doubt? We don't want talk about doubt. If anything, this is the season
where we have to be the strongest in faith. We're decorating our homes, our
yards, ourselves with symbols of light, joy and peace on earth. We're relaxing
to the lullaby hymns that dance in our heads. We're walking around wishing
people "Merry Christmas!"
Advent is not a time for
shaken faith. We don't want to doubt what it is we are doing here, bringing the
message of Christ to people using the best and most accepted story of Jesus'
life to do so. We don't want to admit we're shaken. We just want to remain
strong, but inside us we can't help but wonder what is going on, that
Christmastime is becoming so secular, minute after minute after minute. We all
see it, don't we? But, rather than listen to what is going on, we don't want
our time taken from us and we do Christian Christmas louder and better, hoping
to make a change, but it doesn't come. Secular Christmas is here.
This is exactly what's going
on with John the Baptist. He has spent so much time preaching one thing and
then Jesus comes and doesn't seem to be preaching much judgment. He's not
heavily involved with the government. He's healed a few insignificant people of
their illnesses but he's not even baptizing with fire. I mean, how cool would
that be to see that? But, Jesus isn't doing it. Of all the people to have their
faith shaken at a time like this, it would have been unacceptable for it to be
John the Baptist after all he has gone through pointing people to Jesus and
believing his own words. John didn't want to follow this Jesus. He wanted the
other Jesus. He wanted a Jesus with as loud of mouth as his, if not louder! His
Jesus wasn't there. His Jesus never came. Are you really the one, Jesus, or
should I expect someone else? Tell me you haven't asked that question of our
Lord at least once. But, no way would we ask that question during the most
wonderful time of the year, right? But, we do. In our hearts. We want the loud
Jesus, the one that comments on our Christmas lights or our nativity scenes,
the one who points to the seasonal decorations in our sanctuary or in the
sweatshirts that we wear. We want that Jesus who affirms what we do, our
beliefs, our political leanings. But, that's not the Jesus that comes. The message
we are trying to speak louder and louder is only getting drowned out.
We get let down. We get
discouraged. I'm not immune to it either. I, too, am victim to looking for a
Jesus much like John the Baptist is waiting for. I get let down. I get discouraged.
I can't hide it. When there are only 20 people in worship on a Wednesday
evening, I'm discouraged. Why didn't Jesus reach everyone else and bring them
here? What's going on, Jesus? When we have five people at our monthly men's
Breakfast, I get discouraged. I want to see more families in church. I want to
see more people eager to learn and come to Bible study. I want more youth to
get into deep conversations with. It's actually quite easy for me to be let
down in a season like this and yet even I try to mask it up and try not to let
it bother me but it does. I, like you, want a loud Jesus. I want more John the
Baptist. I want more results. But, I am a slave to the flesh and as long as I
keep from putting my trust in Jesus, I will never find the freedom that I'm
looking for. I want to be completely free from looking at numbers and
statistics. But, the only way I'm
going to find that freedom is not by who I want Jesus to be for me but by fully
submitting to who he says he actually is.
When John the Baptist
expected and preached someone who was boisterous and loud, he got someone who
was timid and quiet. It was Jesus, doing the quiet acts of love in the
background that caught John off guard, but it was those acts of love that Jesus
uses to confirm for John who he was. “Go back and report to John what you hear
and see: The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are
cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is proclaimed
to the poor.” I like how Jesus starts that off, encouraging them to tell John
about what they are hearing and seeing. In essence, “Go tell John what I am
doing.” Loud Jesus would put people in the pews and bring in younger families.
What would quiet Jesus do? This is where we need to look.
The truth about Advent is
that doubts abound this time of year. So many things we are expecting are
caught off guard whether it be new family feuds or disconnections, whether it
be financial successes or trials, health concerns, or spiritual desires. Though
this time of year is framed by hope, it is often shadowed by doubt. But, the
thing about shadows is that if you see a shadow, the more defined that shadow
is you know there is a bright light shining. When our doubts seem to get the
best of us, we might notice that the bright light of Jesus shines brighter for
us. While Advent deals with a new beginning, often people are thinking of
endings. Missed accomplishments, dashed hopes, failed resolutions. Seeing
people masked with fake cheer draws out depressed hearts. Jesus recognizes even
the most faithful have doubts sometimes but here in Matthew, the one guy who we
least expect is having second guesses. We're allowed to second guess. Our faith
isn't perfect. But, Jesus will use our doubts as a chance to teach us, to remind
us that some of the greatest work we can do is done quietly. If we believe
Jesus is the One, even in our doubts, we can properly wonder how well we’re
following him. We can wonder if the way we are celebrating and promoting Advent
and Christmas in the church is working in reaching out to the poor and the
marginalized and the disease-ridden in ways that may be quiet but that are
nonetheless the business of grace. We can wonder if what we are doing is linked
with that grace that we are called to be preoccupied with at all times and in
all places.
Like I mentioned as I began
about rules in movies and TV we come to expect and how we can be caught off
guard when those rules are broken, sometimes filmmakers intentionally break
those rules so as to make their film even better. In the same way, our rules
that define Jesus in our minds should be allowed to be broken so that we can
see how Jesus is even better than what we can comprehend. One thing we don't
ever get to know after Jesus told John's followers what to tell him is how John
heard those words. We don't know whether he was once again sparked with hope.
We don't know whether he received the report or not before he died. Regardless
of how John might've responded to Jesus' confirmation of his identity we have the
opportunity right now to accept it or not. I'm sure it took John a long time to
finally admit that he was doubting who Jesus was and have his followers check
in with Jesus about it. We can ask that question now. Jesus, are you really the
one, or should we expect another? Fortunately for us, Jesus answers us right
away right here in Matthew 11 and while he may not be what we are expecting, he
is most definitely, without a doubt, the Christ that we are waiting for. To God
be the glory, now and always. Amen.