December 11, 2016 – Matthew 11:2-11; Luke 1:46b-55
Matthew 11:2-11; Luke 1:46b-55
Are You the One? Dealing with Disappointment
Third Sunday of Advent – December 11, 2016
First Lutheran Church – Winnipeg, MB
Poor John.
Last week he sounded so confident!
Repent! The kingdom of heaven has come near! You brood of vipers!
Who told you to flee from the wrath to come! Even now the axe is lying at the root of the trees!
Well, we’ve come a long way in 7 days!
John has moved from confidence to disappointment.
He is languishing in prison in a dank dark cell.
The powers that be are still in power.
Seemingly nothing has changed.
And he appears to be very disappointed in Jesus.
His question for Jesus says it is all:
“Ask him, ‘Are you the one who is to come? Or should we wait for another?’”
John’s question – as well as his questioning –
speaks to anyone who has experienced disappointment.
To anyone for whom things turn out to be not what you expected them to be.
For whom people turn out to be not what you expected them to be.
This is timely on the Third Sunday of Advent as Christmas is approaching very quickly,
when the expectations to have a completely joy-filled life-changing Christmas experience
loom large – and yet when we continue to experience, loss, depression,
anxiety, uncertainty, and disappointment.
We are still waiting for Christ to come.
We are still waiting for peace on earth – and even in our homes.
We are still waiting for goodwill among all – even in our schools and workplaces.
John expected Jesus to make the world new.
He was supposed to bring fairness and justice – but the kingdom doesn’t seem anywhere near.
The religious elites still hold the power.
A tyrant like Herod sits on the throne.
And now Donald Trump is the president-elect of the United States – okay, that was a cheap shot.
In any case, Jesus says several chapters previously in Matthew’s Gospel that
the meek shall inherit the earth, and we say, “Yeah, right, Jesus.”
This is a dark place is where John is – and it is often where we find ourselves.
I love the part where I get excited about things –
I love the part where John gets excited about things.
But I don’t love the part where I am disappointed by things.
Jesus offers a response to John.
But I doubt Jesus’ answer is very satisfying to him. Jesus says to John’s messengers:
Go and tell John what you hear and what you see:
The blind receive sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear,
the dead are raised, and the poor have good news brought to them.
Jesus does reference the prophesy from Isaiah we had in the first reading this morning.
As if to say, “John! Wake up! God is bringing in the new age already! See?”
But surely John is wondering, “What about that other stuff in Isaiah?
What about the vengeance part? What about that?
And what about that part about prisoners going free that Isaiah also talks about?”
Surely that is a question on the mind of the imprisoned John.
Things are just not working out the way he would like them to.
And then, just to add insult to injury, I imagine Jesus kind of throwing away his last line over
his shoulder to John’s disciples:
“Oh, yeah: blessed are those who take no offense at me – cough ‘John’!”
Mic drop! Hahahaha!!!
For sure, I sympathize with John.
It is very difficult to see the good stuff happening to others when
you yourself are in a dark place.
Yet that is precisely what Jesus is asking John to do – and it is what Jesus is asking us to do.
John is far from the last one who will question and even doubt Jesus.
Jesus’ own family will question his ministry, even believing he has lost his mind.
The disciples will flee and hide.
Judas will betray him and Peter will deny him.
Many more will compromise what they believe, or believe half-heartedly,
or do what is convenient or do what is manageable.
Many many more will just give up altogether.
And with John, let’s face it: we probably all have these questions:
If Jesus is the one, where is the evidence that the great transformation is really underway?
If Jesus is the one, where is the kingdom?
Where is the rule of God’s manna-sharing and mercy-giving and justice-doing?
Why should we think things will get better?
Why should we continue to be committed to Jesus and the church?
Well, says Jesus, tell what you see and hear – so, here goes.
After she conceives Jesus, Mary sings a song – we sang that song as our Psalm today.
And the song speaks of the things the child in her womb will make happen.
The hungry, she says, will be filled with good things.
Not just with anything, but with good things.
I thought about that this year.
And I thought about how Jesus is indeed filling the hungry with good things – through you.
When people come into our building for the first time,
they always ask me about the Community Meal sign up sheet.
What’s that? they ask.
I tell them that our members sign up to make a meal for 80 neighbourhood people
every other week, 26 weeks a year, with their own labour at their own expense.
They make and serve a hot, homemade meal for 80 – something nice, something good,
something tasty, something nutritious and delicious, something made with love.
Many, many of our members and their friends have done this over the past five years.
That’s over 10,000 meals made and served.
When I tell them this, people are blown away.
Are you the one who is to come? Or should we wait for another?
Tell what you see and what you hear: the hungry are filled with good things.
Recently a long-time member said to me,
Michael, when you started this community meal thing,
I didn’t think it would last six months.
And here we are, going on five years.
And do you know why?
It’s because Jesus is the one we’ve been waiting for.
It’s because for whatever crazy reason the spirit of Jesus has been poured into your hearts.
The one who filled the hungry with good things is still filling the hungry with good things
through you.
The one who welcomed everyone now welcomes everyone through you.
The one who loved without limits and without conditions now loves through you.
You, now, are the body of Christ on earth.
Along with telling people what the sign-up sheet is all about I also tell them
I love being the pastor here.
It’s such a wonderful location, such a wonderful neighbourhood,
filled with people who are beloved by God.
And it is such a wonderful church community,
filled with people who are full of the Spirit of Jesus,
filled with people who want to embody Jesus here and now at Sargent and Victor.
See: the thing is: John may have been disappointed with Jesus.
Jesus was not exactly who he was expecting.
Jesus did not spring John from prison – indeed John died there.
But Jesus did do what Jesus does: Jesus did go to prison and Jesus did die for a world he loves.
Jesus maybe didn’t spring John from prison, but his footprints are there in the prison cell.
Jesus comes not always to relieve disappointment, but to sit with us in it.
Jesus comes maybe not always to take away death, but to enter into it with us.
Jesus comes maybe not to wave a magic wand and make poverty disappear,
but Jesus does work through our elected officials and through you to continue to address
the causes of poverty – and Jesus does sit with the hungry and
fill them with good things, through you.
Jesus does not come with vengeance – sorry, John – but with forgiveness.
And there is a lot of hope in that, hope that puts a healing balm on disappointment.
In John’s Gospel, Jesus is named light.
And John says the light doesn’t vanquish darkness – the light simply shines in the darkness.
Go and tell what you see and what you hear: the hungry are filled with good things.
Come to the Community Meal: the kingdom is there:
manna sharing is there, mercy giving is there- above all, Jesus is there.
Jesus comes – and Jesus comes again, this morning, to this table, to fill you with good things.
To fill you with empowerment and love, with forgiveness and healing and, to fill you with hope,
that you might take them and fill those who need them with the same good things.
So together, let us say, “Amen.”
Pastor Michael Kurtz
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