What Did You Expect?

Sunday, December 12th, 2004
Third Sunday of Advent (Joy)
Jerusalem Baptist Church, Emmerton
Matthew 11:2-11

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.’
7 As 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.

What did you expect, people?

Did you really think that what you would find in the wilderness was a soft-spoken, gentle, meek, warm and fuzzy sort of a man, who would ask you to “please, if you don’t mind, could you, maybe, just maybe, if you’re not doing anything else important, um … sorry to have to use this word … but … repent? (pretty please with sugar on it and a cherry on top?)”

What did you expect, John?

You’ve been telling people for some time now what to look for, and here it is, all happening just like you and the other prophets said it would. The blind are seeing, the lame are walking, lepers are being healed, the deaf are hearing, the dead are being raised, and the poor have good news brought to them. What more do you want? What better proof do you need?

Sometimes there ISN’T so much lost in the translation, is there?

As much as I’ve grown to appreciate liturgy and ritual over the years, and the solemnity and weight that they can bring to a worship service, there is a definite risk in continuing in that – whatever form of … formality it takes, since there are variations. The forms of worship, such as the discipline of silence that we observed a few minutes ago, or the recitation of the Lord’s Prayer, or the congregational benediction we share at the end of most of our services, in the best sense of the word, lend a predictability to worship that we, being the creatures of habit that we are, find comforting and reassuring in their familiarity, that aspect of them that is most appealing is that in the midst of an unpredictable world, fraught with changing social mores, political upheavals, economic fluctuations, the possibility of waking up one day to a phone call telling of a dear friend’s death, or of a potentially fatal illness of our own, there is much that is reassuring in predictability.

What did you expect?

The thing is, we build up immunity to the predictable. Familiarity breeds contempt. Rote memorization does not engage the heart, just the brain. And the message, whatever that message is, gets lost in the memorization process. We love the old hymns, and we sing them with hardly a glance at the words, either by our eyes OR our hearts. That is why it’s good to occasionally listen to what you are singing, and THINK about the words. If we were to recite the Lord ’s Prayer each Sunday, as some do, it would fairly quickly become little more than a time marker for how far along we are in the service.

Up until a couple of months ago, at a certain point in each message, I would bring up the question “So what does this mean for Jerusalem Baptist Church at Emmerton?” You may or may not have noticed I stopped using that device. (For a while, I should say.) The reason is that someone whose judgment I trust implicitly told me one day that it worked for a while, but it had become the cue to mentally check out and start thinking about where to eat lunch, here comes the end of the sermon, and for the musicians to get up to the piano and the organ. Not that those are bad things, it just helps to occasionally shake things up a bit.

So there is God. Watching and waiting for the fullness of time. God has, through the prophets, let the people know what to expect, what to look for in the Messiah, and how to recognize him. For them, it’s been hundreds of years. As far back as anyone can remember, they’ve all been saying the same thing. And somewhere back around their great-great-great-great-great-great grandfather, it stopped being about the Messiah and started being about the way it was being said, or chanted, or phrased, and by whom, and how often, and on what days, and with what clothes, and with what … accessories.

What did you expect?

It would seem that nothing else was happening. At least nothing like what Isaiah had told of. Actually, yes, there were things happening. Israel got Judges, then some pretty good kings, then a great king, then a not so great king, then several not so great kings, then they got invaded, then the tribes got split up, and the northern Kingdom pretty much disappeared, and the last two tribes, this remnant, this runt of a country was left, constantly being kicked around by bigger neighbors, forced into exile by Babylonians, overrun by Egyptians, Syrians, a whole bunch of political disasters … so the people of Israel got tired of being kicked around, and started to look for a way out … and they were still reading these same passages, and they began to see them in light of THEIR circumstances …

What did you expect?

WE do that on a regular basis. We can’t help it. It’s part of what keeps the word alive for us.

So, what does God’s word have for us here, now, today, at Jerusalem Baptist Church?

Let’s change the emphasis of the question: what did you expect?

When you stepped into the sanctuary this morning, what did you expect? Did you sit in the same seat, smile at the same people and make the same comments about the weather to your neighbor? During the hymns, especially this time of year, did you simply mouth the words, or simply listen to others as they sang? During the discipline of silence, were your thoughts more on ‘how much longer this will go before he starts to pray?’ Or were you truly disciplining yourself into the silence?

What did you expect?

Today is the Third Sunday of Advent, the Sunday of Joy. We’ve observed the lighting of the candles of Hope, Peace, and today, Joy. Next Sunday will be the Sunday of love. As I mentioned on the first Sunday of advent, this is a time of anticipation – of waiting – of waiting for the coming of the Christ Child, and on Christmas Eve we will light the Christ candle.

At the beginning of the text this morning, Jesus tells John’s disciples who’ve come to ask him if he really is the one they’ve been waiting for to “go and tell what you have heard and seen.”

So we are about that business, still. 2000 years later. Going and telling what we have heard and seen God do in our own lives, in our own hearts, in our own families, and in the lives of those around us.

Our telling is to be … full of joy … shedding joy, reeking of joy, because it is the ultimate joy, to be called children of God.

Let’s pray.

Prepare the Way

Sunday, December 5th. 2004
Second Sunday of Advent (Peace)
Jerusalem Baptist Church, Emmerton
Matthew 3:1-12

1In those days John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness of Judea, proclaiming, 2‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.’ 3This is the one of whom the prophet Isaiah spoke when he said, ‘The voice of one crying out in the wilderness: “Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.”’ 4Now John wore clothing of camel’s hair with a leather belt around his waist, and his food was locusts and wild honey. 5Then the people of Jerusalem and all Judea were going out to him, and all the region along the Jordan, 6and they were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins. 7 But when he saw many Pharisees and Sadducees coming for baptism, he said to them, ‘You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? 8Bear fruit worthy of repentance. 9Do not presume to say to yourselves, “We have Abraham as our ancestor”; for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham. 10Even now the ax is lying at the root of the trees; every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 11‘I baptize you with water for repentance, but one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to carry his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. 12His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and will gather his wheat into the granary; but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire."

Peace, like war, is waged.
Peace plans its strategy and encircles the enemy.
Peace marshals its forces and storms the gates.
Peace gathers its weapons and pierces the defense.
Peace, like war, is waged.
But Christ has turned it all around:
the weapons of peace are love, joy, goodness, longsuffering;
the arms of peace are justice, truth, patience, prayer;
the strategy of peace brings safety, welfare, happiness;
the forces of peace are the sons and daughters of God.

This poem by Walker Knight was what first brought to my attention the existence of the Baptist Peace Fellowship of North America. It was founded by a small group of people at Deer Park Baptist Church in Louisville, Kentucky, on March 31st, 1984.

The poem was first published in the Home Missions magazine in 1972. At the time I first read the poem, the country was not engaged in any sort of action that could be considered outright ‘war’ – at least not to the public’s knowledge. There were peacekeeping operations going on in the middle east as well as a couple of other places around the globe, but there was no military conflict comparable to the one that was going on at the time the poem was originally written – the Vietnam war.

Once a year, the Fellowship gathers for a retreat, to work out a continuing strategy to achieve peace in real, physical, tangible ways, primarily focused around issues of justice. Part of the tradition that has grown up around these gatherings has been that they are as much a spiritual retreat as a planning meeting. To that end, each year a passage of scripture is chosen as a theme around which to center that prayer and devotional time, and a banner is made, similar to the ones we would otherwise have hanging behind me on the wall, with the scripture on it.

This year, the man who was carrying the banner to the gathering was stopped, and the case in which the banner was carried was confiscated by agents at the airport. No reason was given for the confiscation. After a two week period, the man was notified that he could return and pick up the suitcase with the banner inside. That was, of course, after the gathering had taken place. No explanation was given, no apology, no reason as to why the banner was confiscated. The absence of the banner did not stop the retreat or the prayers for peace.

It seems that even today, there are those who would hold suspect any organization trying to promote peace in the midst of conflict, perhaps doubting the sincerity of the motives, perhaps questioning the validity of their call to prophetically speak against the grain of what would seem to be most things Baptist. We are, after all, the only denomination to have come out in favor of the war in Iraq. Perhaps it would do us good to lend an ear to those with whom we might disagree, there might be something to learn in the tension created between differing viewpoints.

There is another tension I’d like to talk about this morning.

One of the biblical names for Jesus is ‘Prince of Peace’. There’s a reason for that. He is the one who brings ultimate peace to our lives. It’s not always immediate, it’s not always smooth, and it is not free from rough spots. Anyone in this room can probably attest to that.

We heard a few minutes ago, Lindsey reading from the book of Micah, 4:3-4:

“He will judge between people from many nations. He’ll settle problems among strong nations everywhere. They will hammer their swords into plows. They’ll hammer their spears into pruning tools. Nations will not go to war against one another. They won’t event train to fight anymore. Every man will have his own vine and fig tree. And no one will make them afraid. That’s what the Lord who rules over all has promised.”

So it seems a bit jarring that the passage from Matthew this morning sets Jesus up as something of an instigator and not so much a peacemaker; the words are coming from John’s mouth, but they could just as well have come from Jesus’. “Brood of vipers” is not exactly what you’d call a ‘term of endearment’. It is not designed to “win friends and influence people”.

In this case, what it IS doing is speaking truth. Calling a spade a spade was something Jesus was both good at and unafraid to do. No matter WHOM he was talking to. He didn’t let the Pharisees get by without calling their bluff, or the Sadducees, or the Samaritan woman at the well, or the woman caught in adultery, or his own disciples. Though the ultimate result is and will be peace, the road to reach it is anything but smooth.

If we are called to be Christ’s presence in this world, we are called to be imitators of him. We are to be about the business of building the Kingdom of God – on earth. That is our duty, that is our call, that is our goal, because that is what we have to work with. We live in the present with our hope in the future. We live in the midst of turmoil and pestilence. We live in an age that does not know peace – true peace. It is reflected in so many ways. It is reflected in the incredible inequities we find in our very own society. It is reflected in the constant outbreaks of wars, and insurrections, and infighting between those who should be brothers, it is reflected in estrangement between family members, and broken relationships, and physical and emotional abuse, it is found in the horrible mistreatment of animals, in the exploitation of natural resources with little or no regard for the long-term consequences for our children and their children, it is found in the world at large turning a blind eye and a deaf ear to the masses of hurting and dying people who COULD BE helped, if we only had the heart.

Yes, we are working toward the hope of one day experiencing the Kingdom of God directly – when we are in God’s presence, but for now, we are to be

‘The voice of one crying out in the wilderness: “Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.’

For those of you who were here last Sunday afternoon and evening, I believe we caught a glimpse of what it looks like to make that path straight. With over 60 of our Mexican friends in attendance, the presence of each of you around those tables, smiling and laughing, going over English vocabulary or working in the kitchen, preparing the trays, and yeah, even fretting about whether or not we were going to have enough food to feed everyone, you were preparing the way of the Lord.

Most often, we understand the second coming of Christ to be … shall we say, a … dramatic event. Not something that you might, say, sleep through; angels, and fire, and clouds of light, trumpets, the works.

Picture it, if you will, as unlikely as it may seem; a world that has been so infused with the presence and the work of the Holy Spirit, that the coming of the Kingdom is indeed like that of ‘a thief in the night’ – but in the best sense of the word. Unexpected, yes, but at the same time, the ‘after’ not greatly different from what was there ‘before’. Can you imagine, if we as the body of Christ were to carry out our calling as thoroughly and completely as we could, alongside every other member of the body of Christ? Can you imagine what the world would look like if most of the work of breaking in the Kingdom had already been accomplished?

It’s a dream, I know, perhaps an unrealistic one.

But then, what are dreams for?

Let’s pray.