December 11, 2011 – Isaiah 61:1-4, 8-11; I Thessalonians 5:16-24; John 1:6-9, 19-28
Isaiah 61:1-4, 8-11; I Thessalonians 5:16-24; John 1:6-9, 19-28
The Muppet Sermon
3rd Sunday of Advent – December 11, 2011
First Lutheran Church – Winnipeg, MB
Paul writes, “Do not despise the words of the puppets, I mean, the prophets.”
The latest movie starring the Muppets is called, well, The Muppets.
The plot is pretty straightforward.
It’s been years since the Muppets have had a hit.
Nobody remembers them. They’re outdated, no longer in fashion.
Supposedly kids these days are more interested in cynicism and violence.
Their Hollywood studio sits abandoned and decrepit in ruins.
The Muppets themselves have long since disbanded as a group and have been widely dispersed.
Gonzo is a plumbing magnate.
Fozzie bear fronts a second rate Muppets tribute band called the Moopets.
Animal is, naturally, in an anger management course.
Miss Piggy is, just as naturally, the plus-size fashion editor of French Vogue in Paris.
Kermit spends his days alone and depressed in his Bel Air mansion.
Evidently, though, this is not what the Muppets are made for.
It comes to Kermit’s attention that their historic studio, the site of so much joy,
is about to be purchased by a Texas oil tycoon because oil’s been discovered on the site.
He plans to demolish studio and the theatre that now lay in ruins and drill for oil.
The only hope is to stop the sale by purchasing it for 10 million dollars.
But where on earth are puppets going to find money like that?
Maybe – yes! – maybe putting on a show can raise the money needed to re-purchase the studio!
So, led by Kermit, they seek one another out and try to convince each other to
rejoin the troupe and put on a show for a reunion telethon.
The situation is not unlike the one facing the people Isaiah addresses this morning.
Isaiah is addressing a people, now, who have finally returned from exile in Babylon.
Their hopes had been high, their longing eager, their expectations grand.
But they are greeted only by disappointment.
Jerusalem was in ruins, a shadow of its former self.
Homes had been destroyed, vineyards uprooted, the grand temple lay in ruins.
The people wanted to rebuild but the work was slow and hard.
They expected things to be easy.
They became depressed, disheartened, and discouraged.
And who can’t sympathize with them?
Dreams are lovely, and the people had them,
but the reality of working toward that dream is always hard.
Sometimes you wonder where the joy in it is.
It’s hard to rebuild a life. It’s hard to rebuild old relationships or build new ones.
It’s hard to rebuild neighbourhoods like the one we’re worshipping in so that these streets can
become once again the places of safety and joy they were intended to be by God.
It’s hard to rebuild.
It’s hard for the Muppets. And it’s hard for us.
The promise in Isaiah this morning is that the dream can come true.
Because God has dreamed it. It’s God’s dream for people’s lives to be built up again.
For the mourning to be comforted. For the broken-hearted to be mended.
For the faint of spirit to shout out with joy. For the prisoners to be released.
For ruined cities to be repaired. This is the promise. This is God’s dream.
There’s magic in these words.
And there’s magic in these words because in them God promises that God will act.
And that God is acting even now. And that God has already given us what we need.
So that we can do what we need to do. God has done so that we can do.
There’s magic in knowing that we already have everything we need.
There’s magic in knowing that.
At this time of the year,
bombarded with advertising trying to sell us everything we don’t yet have,
deluged with the message that we are not yet complete,
that we need this or that or the other thing.
At this time of the year it’s easy to assume that we need more stuff in order to be
who it is we’re meant to be.
It’s easy to miss John the Baptist way out in the wilderness screaming at the top of his lungs:
The dude you need is already here! Everything you need you already have!
Jesus has come. He stands among you even now even though you do not know him.
He has brought God’s love, so that we can take out God’s love.
God has done so that we can do. And God has done it over and over again.
To the dispirited Israelites longing to rebuild a place where God can dwell.
To the people of Thessalonica who were given a promise that
no matter what happens to us God is faithful.
To a young woman named Mary, a peasant, a nobody, who is assured that she can bear God,
that she is somebody.
You have Jesus, says John.
Worship him: make his love for all people the most important thing in your life.
Follow him: do as he does in serving all people.
Bear him: bear him and his love to those places that desperately need him.
You have everything you need to do this: you have him. And you have each other.
And you do need each other.
At one point early on in The Muppets, it looks as though Miss Piggy is going to
refuse to rejoin the troupe, dashing their dreams and putting an end to the promise.
As one character says, “This is going to be the shortest movie ever!”
I mean, they need Miss Piggy.
But the truth is, they need each other. They need all of them for the dream to come true.
They have everything they need: they have one another. They just need to get it together.
Yeah, they need Miss Piggy.
But they also need Statler and Waldorf, the dudes up in the balcony whose job is to heckle.
Once they make it back to the theatre, Statler says, “I always dreamed we’d be back here,”
and Waldorf replies, “That wasn’t a dream; that was a nightmare!”
We need that joke. We need the joy they bring.
The Muppets also need Animal to keep a steady rhythm on the drums for
their big musical numbers.
They need Kermit who quietly encourages them to do the right thing. And they do.
They need Sweetums, they need the Swedish Chef, and they need Fozzie Bear and
his jokes, like when he says, “I had some really bad seafood last night: salmonella!”
And “How about all these shopping centres? You seen one, you seen a mall!”
Well, with the muppets, you need em all!
Or there’s no show. There’s no rebuilding the theatre. And there’s no magic.
As they sing in the “Life’s a Happy Song” number,
I got everything I need right in front of me.
Okay: eventually everyone is rounded up, gathered together,
and rehearsed for a reunion telethon.
Spoiler Alert: in the end, they save the place of joy.
But more importantly, as one of the characters says, “What’s important is each other.”
They have everything they need: each other. And there’s magic in that. And joy.
Isaiah reminds his people that they have each other and they have God’s promise.
That’s all they need and there’s magic in that.
They have each other and they have God, so they can and will rebuild their lives.
Paul reminds his congregation that they can rejoice always and be filled with hope because
everything they need has been given them by God: they have been given Jesus,
and they have one another,
so they can build a new kind of community in the heart of a heartless empire.
And John reminds us, that among us, in the wilderness of our lives and
in the wilderness of our cities, stands one whom we sometimes do not know,
someone whom we sometimes do not recognize,
someone who stands with us, who has been given to us,
who has been born to us: whose name is Jesus.
There’s magic in that. It’s the magic that still lingers in this time of the year despite everything.
The magic of knowing that God is faithful.
That God’s promises are true.
That by God’s help and with God’s presence, rebuilding is possible.
It’s happening here, in this congregation.
We have one another. We have Jesus. And we have joy.
Now receive this blessing of Paul’s for his congregation at Thessalonica,
in Eugene Peterson’s translation:
May God himself, the God who makes everything holy and whole,
make you holy and whole, put you together – spirit, soul, and body –
and keep you fit for the coming of our Master, Jesus Christ.
The One who called you is completely dependable. If he said it, he’ll do it.
So together let us say, “Amen.”
Pastor Michael Kurtz
If you enjoyed this post, please consider to leave a comment or subscribe to the feed and get future articles delivered to your feed reader.
