Third Sunday of Advent

Isaiah 35:1-6a, 10 | James 5:7-10 | Matthew 11:2-11

Oh, God, who sees show your people faithfully await the Feast of the Lord’s Nativity, enable us, we pray, to attain the joys of so great a salvation and to celebrate them always.  With solemn worship and glad rejoicing through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God forever and ever, amen.

This is our third time to gather around the mystery of the incarnation, this mysterious, wonderful, unthinkable thing that God is doing for us, entering into our life.  He came into this world in his very person, in this creature called Jesus, who is 100 percent human.  We have to keep that in mind, and he enters into him as a model of this is the newness, the wonder of this New Testament.  The Old Testament was a deep, deep, important experience for the people, for all of us, for the human race.  It opened our eyes to a God who was able to speak to his people, the patriarchs.  Then he had the prophets and the priests and the scribes and the kings.  All the time he was trying to communicate with the hearts of the people that didn’t know him, that couldn’t really quite conceive of who he was.  When we’re at a lower level of consciousness — and when I use the word consciousness, I’m talking about awareness, holiness, wholeness.  We’re never completely there.  The work of this world is to continue to grow in our understanding of who God is and who we are and what this world is about, and as St. James says in the second reading, this is a gift that’s given to you, but the mystery is it’s not given, boom, all of a sudden.  It’s given in a kind of seed form, and we cooperate with it.  We work with it.  We suffer it.  Sometimes there’s rain, and sometimes there’s drought.  And we have to be patient and wait and wait and hope and believe that this mysterious union that we have with this God is going to bring us all the gifts that are promised to us, and yet when you listen to the gifts as they’re described in the readings today, they’re almost always seeming to me too good to be true.

Remember, last Sunday we talked about a tree that had been cut down with deep, deep, rich, alive roots, and we know that theme of trimming a tree to make it more fruitful.  This is this radical trimming from Old Testament to New Testament.  The tree was the temple.  The tree was the place where God dwelt, and of all the things that Jesus did that got him into so much trouble was his criticism of what those who led and ruled the temple had lost their way.  He said things about them that were incredible.  He said their converts were invited into a dead religion that offers them nothing but fear and shame and anger.  He said things like, “I just — I don’t understand how you all can be the representative of God, yet you don’t love him.”  A religion gone astray, a religion gone dark, a religion given into the will of human beings, the desire of human beings to be in charge, to be in control, it’s addictive, no matter who it is, parent, CEO, bishop, priest, spouse, anyone that has control over you is not loving you but they say that’s what love is.  

So we have this promise that we listen to in the prophet Isaiah, and he said, “What’s going to happen is, when this new shoot comes up, when the Messiah comes, where it’s dry and empty and barren, there will be flowers.  There will be rejoicing.  There will be song.”  People will see the splendor of God, and when they see the splendor of God, which is his love and his acceptance and his desire to be with us and free us from all that enslaves us, it will strengthen us, empower us.  Ours knees will be no longer weak.  Our hearts will no longer be frightened.  We should be strong.  Fear not, for this God doesn’t come with judgment in the person of Jesus, the God who then enters into you.  He comes with vindication, recompense, saves you, ransomed you from all that you owe.  It’s so beautiful, and he said, “When you see this, your eyes will be opened.  Your ears will be cleared.  You’ll leap like a stag.  Your tongues that were mute will sing.”  Well, what is all that?  It’s a kind of new life and freedom.  You’re freed from the bondage of feeling that it’s all up to you to clean up your act and to do exactly as you’re told in order to find any kind of attention from a God who is negative towards you just because of your humanity, and it says, “For those — for those who can see through that illusion, that lie, they’ll be crowned with everlasting joy, gladness.  Sorrow will flee.”  But the issue, when you talk about something as great as that gift, you’re going to say to yourself, “Okay, I think I believe that God loves me.  I think I’m there as I should be.  I’m doing my best.  I’m not sinning in a mortal way all the time, and still I feel shame.  I feel anger.  I feel fear.  I feel pressure, and the more I speak the truth to my friends, the more I feel it in my heart.  I feel a resistance to it, not only inside of me but outside in the culture.”  It’s why Jesus, in the gospel, is saying, when he’s sending a message back to John about what’s happening, and he describes the same thing I’m just trying to describe, how wonderful it’s going to be.  “Go tell John what you see, what you hear.  The blind are regaining their sight.  The lame are walking.  Lepers are cleansed.”  We’re free from the bondage of sin.  You’ll hear the truth.  Those things in you that are undeveloped, afraid to become the creative artist you are, that will all rise.  Life will come into you, enthusiasm, excitement, and the poor — the poor, we understand the poor.  The poor are not people without money.  They’re people without gigantic egos that believe they can do everything that they need to do to make themselves happy.  That’s the poor, and they will proclaim this great news, because they know that everything they are to become is not because of them but because they’re open to a truth that is being offered to them.

Then he goes on to say something so important about John, after John’s disciples leave and go back to John and tell him the things that they’ve thought about in their mind.  I’m sure the hours and hours that John the Baptist and Jesus sat and talked about their sadness over what has happened to religion — the temple lost its way, its direction and had become a place that robbed people of their freedom, their dignity, their value.  So he said, “Who is John the Baptist?  You just saw his disciples coming and asking.”  And he said, “Who was he?”  You all saw him.  You went out to see him,” because I’m sure Jesus was talking to the followers of John the Baptist, because he’s the one who talked about who Jesus would be.  So he said, “Did you go out looking for someone who was like a reed swaying in the wind?”  What is that, a reed swaying in the wind?  Somebody who will tell you exactly what you want to hear.  They go with whatever is the popular thing out there, and they’ll be talking about one direction.  Then they go to another.  It’s not grounded in truth, objectivity.  You didn’t really go out to hear another guy tell you what you already knew.  You didn’t go looking for somebody dressed in fine clothing, meaning you didn’t go to the scribes and the Pharisees.  They dress pretty darn well.  You didn’t go to royal palaces where people had a sense of being greater than you are, and they turned out not to be servants to somehow get you to serve them.  No, you didn’t go out and look for someone like that.  What did you go out to see?  A prophet — prophet.  What is prophet?  You’re a prophet, I’m a prophet any time we speak or act on the truth.  The truth, that’s what John the Baptist came to tell people.  This Jesus, this God/man is going to give us the truth of who God is, who we are and what it is we’re here to accomplish.  That’s the greatest thing about John the Baptist, and to say what he says at the end is so amazing.  He’s saying, “There is never going to be a woman who — there’s never been a man born of a woman who could ever be greater than John the Baptist.”  Well, come on.  Jesus is greater than the Baptist, but what he’s saying is this.  John the Baptist spoke about it.  “It’s coming.  It’s coming.”  That made him the greatest of the Old Testament prophets.  Jesus came to say, “It’s now.  It’s here.  The kingdom is within you.  Believe in it.  Trust in it.  Open your heart to it.”  

Sometimes I listen to people who talk about God’s love and God’s grace, and they say, “Yeah, but I don’t feel like it —” I don't know.  You don’t feel like it should be a gift.  I don't know, but there’s something in us.  It was in Adam and Eve’s story.  They didn’t want to just be cared for.  They just didn’t want everything to work out for them.  They didn’t want a perfect life.  They wanted to work, be engaged in it.  That’s the mystery of the incarnation.  God is saying, “Look, I want you to work with me.  I want you to suffer what I suffered.  I want you to go through a crucifixion of having to be hated or be misunderstood or be condemned by those who claim to have more authority over you than you have.”  That is going to be part of this work, and so it’s not that this joy is going to come as caused by an absence of shame, struggling with shame or struggling with fear or struggling with anger, struggling with being criticized and not being able to handle it.  No, it’s not going to take those things away.  It’s going to use those things, and every time they come up, it’s a chance for you to grow out of that illusion into the truth.  Be patient.  It’s like a little sprig that’s in that gigantic tree coming up, and it was just one or two leaves, and 2,000 years later, it’s a gigantic thing called Christianity.  If there’s anything — anything that evil would want to do is to stop its gift of freedom and goodness and life for us.  So what does it do?  It works on our fear, our needing to be part of a tribe.  It’s hard to go against your religion and to criticize it.  It’s hard to criticize a brother, a sister, a mother, a father, a friend when you can see they’re not living in the truth.  It’s not greeted with, “Oh, thank you.  Thank you.  Thank you.  You’re so helpful.”  No, it’s often with judgment and criticism.  You offend them.  Just like Jesus said, “Blessed are those who take no offense at me as I tell them the truth.”  A prophet has to be willing to put up with rejection, even hatred, and people want to destroy you.  That’s the nature of the game.  Take it as a sign you’re telling the truth at times, because if you are, you’ll see the fruit of that, and you’ll know it’s the truth.  You’ll see people’s lives change, and they’ll tell you they’re changed.  And that’s the most exciting, wonderful thing about being a truthsayer.  If they’re open to it, they’ll flourish.  If they’re afraid of it, they will go to the dark side and do nothing but attack.  So be strong.  Be truthful.  Be wise.  Be patient.  Know everything is being taken care of by a loving God dwelling inside of you who will not let anything happen to you.  You’re safe.  You’re loved.  You’re extraordinarily important.

Father, it is so difficult for us to believe who you are and the goodness that flows from you, the generosity, the patience, the incredible commitment you make to each of us to carry us through this world, and all you long for is for us to be open to the truth so that you may be able to fill us with your grace.  It takes us a long time to realize how powerful we are in keeping you from us, not simply neglecting you by not paying attention, but mostly out of feeling we’re not worthy.  It’s hard for us to believe you are the God who you are.  So bless us with humility during this Advent season to open our hearts to the gifts that you’ve offered, and let us cherish it, embody it and please you.  Amen.