Still the One – A Sermon based on Matthew 11. 2-11 –preached at Covenant Presbyterian Church, Scranton, PA on December 11, 2022
Jill Duffield,
the former editor of The Presbyterian Outlook,
offers a modern image to help us live with today’s readings from Isaiah and
Matthew. She says reading these words
from scripture “brought to mind a recording of a 9-1-1 call,” because they gave
her “a sense of a calm stranger on the other end of a panicked plea for help.”[i]
“We
have heard those recordings of two desperate voices,” writes Duffield, “one laced
with fear and pain, the other methodically asking questions, staying on the
line, giving instructtion, reminding the traumatized other that someone is on
the way to intervene, to bring assistance, to rescue and to save. These readings bring forth those intense
emotions: danger is present, but we aren’t left alone to face its wrath…” they
“offer the reassurance that as desperate as the situation may be, help is right now on the way, so hang on and
hang in and don’t lose hope.”[ii]
When
Isaiah took on the role of 9-1-1 operator, the people of Israel were in exile.
Their depor-tation had taken place in large part because of their willingness to
leave the ways of God behind while embracing the spiritual practices of their
neighbors. They had been hauled away from everything familiar. Having neglected
to build up their spiritual reserves to keep going when the going got tough,
they were at a loss as to how to reconnect with the only source of strength and
help that can be counted upon.
Yet
someone had a little address book tucked a way and in it they found a number to
call, and when Isaiah in the Emergency Call Center answered, he had words of reassurance
to share. “The changed times you are experiencing will not last forever. A new
springtime for people of faith will come around in its season, and the hopeless
landscape that breaks your heart will begin to blossom. Watch for the crocus to
emerge from the ground!”
Calmly,
steadily, the prophet offers instruction to the listening ears on the other end
of the line: “Strengthen the weak hands, and make firm the feeble knees. Say to
those who are of a fearful heart, ‘Be strong, do not fear!’ Here is your God.
He will come with vengeance, with terrible recompense. He will come to save
you.”
The
caller breathes a little easier having heard that all is not lost; there is
help to face it all. “Hang on, hang in
there, don’t lose hope. Help is on the way.”
Though
written long ago, the prophet’s words come to us as if they were penned yesterday.
Living in these times when the Christian church as we know it is in transition,
and the shape of Christendom as it will be is still unknown, the prophet’s
counsel to strengthen and encourage one another is timely. God is still at
work. Get in on it. Don’t sit there; do something.
When
the going gets tough, those who have endured and survived hard times have gifts
to offer those who lack such experience. Back when vaccinations against Covid
began to be available my forty-something niece asked her ninety-something
grandmother if she remembered what it was like to live before the polio
vaccine. My mother responded by telling the story of what a relief it had been
after her mother and aunt dragged five young cousins to the local hospital to
line up for their shots.
Our been
there/done that stories can serve to “strengthen the weak hands and make firm
the feeble knees” near-by. The Church with a capital “C” and every congregation
with a small “c” have endured ups and downs and times of transition. Sharing
the stories is a way to open hearts to remember that the God never gives up on
us. As the beloved hymn reminds us: “Our
God, our help in ages past, our hope for years to come.” One day you may be the
encourager; on another you may be in need of the pep talk. It is one of the ways we can help each other
along the way.
When John the Baptist dialed 9-1-1 by sending his disciples to ask his question of Jesus, it was not quite the panicked call of one seeking to be talked through CPR while performing it on a loved one. John’s call was more like the call to Tech Support when the program you downloaded or the appliance you purchased is not working the way it should. You thought it would do this, but instead it does that, and you want to know, “did I order the right item, or is there another that better meets those expectations.”
When
we meet John the Baptist in his prison cell in Matthew, he becomes less of a
cardboard cut-out figure. Gone is the fiery preacher who attracted people to
the wilderness. Gone are the confident ultimatums. Gone is the demand to “bear
fruits that befit repentance.”
As Lutheran pastor Katie Hines-Shaw puts it: Instead of the open air, sun scorched desert, surrounded by pilgrims, “John finds himself alone in a dark prison cell. Suddenly, he who recognized Jesus as the Messiah seems to harbor doubts. ‘Are you the one who is to come,’ John sends his disciples to ask Jesus, “or are we to wait for another?”[iii]
How
did we get from “one who is more powerful than I is coming after me;” to “are
you the one who is to come, or are we to wait for another?” We get there
precisely because John is in prison. Wisconsin pastor Mark Yurs spells it out
for us:
John “has been arrested and jailed as a political enemy of King Herod. Prison can put doubt into anybody’s heart. It is easy to believe in God in the bright sunlight when all is joyful and free, but let the iron bars of difficulty slam shut and doubt lurks in the darkness. ‘Are you for real Jesus?’ ‘Can religion matter in my case, in my condition, with my concerns, or has it reached the end of its usefullness?’ Hard experiences, like John’s prison bars press such questions upon us.”[iv]
Herod’s
prison accommodations were nothing like the jails and prisons that dot the land-scape
around here. There were no uniforms or bedding provided and laundered. No meals
either. One’s needs were met by family and friends, or not at all. John’s
disciples would have been his lifeline, his support system, his link to what was
going on outside those prison walls.
With the meals they brought, John’s disciples delivered news of what Jesus was doing. They told John the stories the Gospel of Matthew recorded in the chapters leading up to our reading. Katie Hines-Shaw sums it by noting: “In the preceding chapters of Matthew, Jesus has cleansed a leper, caused the lame to walk, restored sight to the blind, and raised the dead. Surely John knows all these stories.”
She continues: “He may also know that this litany of miracles follows a pattern set by Isaiah. In today’s first reading familiar themes emerge: the eyes of the blind are opened and the ears of the deaf unstopped; the lame leap like a deer. Jesus’ reply to John references not just this passage from Isaiah but others as well.”[v]
One
of those other passages is Isaiah 61. After speaking of bringing good news to
the oppressed and binding up the brokenhearted, Isaiah added: “to proclaim
liberty to the captives and to release the prisoners.” That leads some commentators
to wonder if John, sitting in the shadows of his prison cell was waiting for
Jesus to get with the program and bust him out of jail!
In
an Advent meditation accompanying one of her many scripture based hymns,
Carolyn Winfrey Gillette writes “I wonder how John felt when he heard about
Jesus from his own disci-ples, and when he heard that Jesus was not living up
to the Messiah job description that he ex-pected the Lord to have?”[vi]
Bringing
John’s disappointment in Jesus closer to home, Carolyn adds: “We know what it
is to throw our-selves at a cause, a calling, or a project and then to be
disappointed or confused about it. I think about the times when Christians
today have been disappointed by other people, by circumstances, or by
roadblocks to what we believe we are called to do.”[vii]
At
the heart of John’s disappointment with Jesus are unfulfilled
expectations. Montague Williams
explains: “While his main task is to point people to Jesus, he (John) generates
certain expec-tations of what Jesus will accomplish and how. John even has a group of disciples who are
ready to move in support of Jesus’ upcoming cosmic display of authority.
The problem is that Jesus is taking too long. John has a lot riding on
being right about Jesus, but now he is wondering if he is wrong.”[viii]
The
professor narrows the focus further: “Previously, John claimed that the ax was at the root of the trees that
bore no fruit (3:10), but Jesus seems to lack the ability to swing. Rather than
raising a powerful winnowing fork and throwing chaff into fire (3:12), Jesus’
actions identify him more and more with people who hold zero social power. Healing
and forgiving are important and generate a significant following, but John
expects the Christ to be doing much more.
As strange as this may sound, John is not sure Jesus is acting in a
Christlike manner.”[ix]
Stanley
Saunders puts it more bluntly: “Jesus’ minis-try is strong on healing and
restor-ation, but weak on judgment and vindication. As John sits in Herod’s prison, awaiting
death (14.1-12), he may be wondering whether and when the liberation of God’s
people from bondage and oppression will really take place. So far, the dominion
of Rome and of local leaders like Herod and the Jerusalem priesthood remains
undisturbed. What kind of Messiah leaves the forerunner in prison?”[x]
That leads Saunders to point out that “Today, many Christians have similar question: If Jesus is the one who brings God’s rule to fruition, why is our world still marked by exploitation, injustice, polarization, and violence? Why are we still waiting? How long must we wait? Will Jesus really come to redeem those who suffer, or should we look for another? The answer lies,” he says, “in what one makes of the signs Jesus performs: do we believe that when the blind see, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have the good news pro-claimed to them that we are seeing God’s power? Or are we looking for something else? How is God’s power evident today? Will we experience the good news as redemption or judgment?”[xi]
The
John we meet in prison is familiar because his doubts resemble those we
bring. The John we meet in prison is
recognizable because we have wrestled with the distance between our
expectations of Jesus and the kind of savior he turns out to be. Like the John we meet in prison, it is up to
us to reconsider our position once Jesus explains where his priorities and ours
part ways.
Will we, will John, hear the answer Jesus gave as the 9-1-1 message Jill Duffield heard: “Hang on, hang in, don’t lose hope. Help is on the way?” Matthew doesn’t tell us what John made of the answer Jesus sent him. At least one commentator points out that in the end of today’s passage Jesus doesn’t condemn John’s doubt. Instead, he confirms John’s role as preparer of the way, going onto call him a great prophet. Montague Williams concludes by saying: “In this passage, we find that even a prophet committed to holiness who Jesus calls one of the greatest remains a work in progress. Jesus makes room for John to doubt and grow in faith, understanding, and calling. This is good news for us.”[xii]
Yes,
this is good news! The works Jesus spoke of, fulfilling as they do the promises
of Isaiah, all point to lives made whole by the touch of Christ. Though we are distracted by all the bad news
around us, the wholeness restoring work of Christ continues all around us. If
we look and listen carefully we’ll discover where it is happening now.
You
might see it at an Advent workshop, where the grandfather whose grandkids are
thousands of miles away sits beside the fatherless child who loves having the
old man help make an ornament. You might
hear of it in the story of a trucker who was told to find a dumpster for the broken
case of steaks refused by the grocer. Instead he stopped at a church, knocked
on the door, and asked the pastor if he could pass them along to someone in
need. By sundown those steaks were in the hands of the director of a homeless
shelter. You might rejoice at the news
that a family member brought low by drug use has been welcomed into a program
run by a father and the two sons he rescued from the grip of their addictions.
Yes,
Jesus was the one. John need not wait for another. Neither do we. He is still the one…and the
miraculous thing is that even as we do our Advent waiting, the Lord is already
near. He is already here.
He
is in each person who takes the time to help another discover a new way of
looking at things. He is in each individual who speaks a kind word to someone
who has been deafened by criticism. He
is present in the volunteer who pushes a wheelchair to the activity room. He is
visible on that Mitten Tree over there, and as the pile of Angel Tree gifts
back there are distributed, opened and cherished.
Jesus is still the one…and always will be.
To God be the glory!
Amen.
[ii] ibid.
[iii] Katie Hines-Shaw, The Christian Century, November 23, 2016, “Living the Word, Reflections on the Lectionary, December 11, Third Sunday of Advent,” p. 22
[iv] Mark E. Yurs, Feasting on the Word, Year A, Vol. 1, (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2010), p. 71
[v] ibid., Hines-Shaw
[vi] Carolyn Winfrey Gillette, God’s World is Changing, ”Ponder Dissapointments,” ISBN 9798362981679, ©Carolyn Winfrey Gillette, 2022, # 21
[vii] ibid.
[viii] Montague Williams, “In the Lectionary,” The Christian Century, Vol. 139, No. 20, December 2022, p. 25
[ix] ibid.
[x] Stanley Saunders, “Third Sunday of Advent, Commentary on Matthew 11.2-11, workingpreacher.com, 2022, p. 1
[xi] ibid.
[xii] ibid., Willliams
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