What a difference a week makes? At least liturgically speaking…
Last week we heard about
how John the Baptist blazed a trail for Jesus.
In all senses of the word, John the Baptist looked and sounded like a
Jesus freak. Some might have even called
him a fanatic.
John spoke with
confidence about the coming of the Messiah.
He called the people to repentance.
He told of a Messiah who would come with winnowing fork in hand, who
would clear the threshing floor, who would burn the chaff with an unquenchable
fire.
Today,
we see John at rock bottom. He sits in a
prison cell and judging by his question, he has lost the faith. He sends his disciples to ask Jesus, “Are you
the Messiah or not?” “Should we be
looking for another?” What happened to
John’s confidence? What makes him doubt?
We
get a clue by how Jesus responds to John’s question. “Go
and tell John what you hear and see: the 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.” In
essence, Jesus is telling John, you are right that I am the Messiah that you
are preparing for but your interpretation of what kind of Messiah I am is a
little off.
It
truly is amazing what we can make ourselves believe. Unconsciously, we all have a narrative of how
things are supposed to be in life. And
when things don’t fit that narrative, our world unravels and we start to have
fear and doubt.
For John, Jesus is
supposed to be a man on fire—literally.
But in reality, Jesus makes the blind see, the lame walk, the deaf hear,
and brings good news to the poor. He is
not this hell, fire, and brimstone guy that John expects. And because Jesus doesn’t fit John’s image,
John essentially asks, “Are you the real Messiah or another imposter?”
But
at least John has faith enough to ask the question. Surely he hasn’t risked his life for
nothing. There is still a mustard seed
of faith in John. And from this mustard
seed, Jesus gives an image of a Messiah that exceeds expectations. This Messiah even raises the dead to life.
During
this season between Thanksgiving and Christmas, I am not only reminded of the
commercialization of our culture but am reminded of how the Church often falls
into the temptation of trying to sell Jesus like Jesus is a commodity that can
be bought. And by trying to sell Jesus,
we essentially turn Jesus into who we want Jesus to be thus narrowing our view
of Jesus.
Jesus
is the one who can make you have a better life; come to church and see how he
can change yours. Jesus will cure your
cancer; come to our faith healing service and see for yourself. Jesus will give you a community of friends
that you can count on. Or as the sign on
I-65 N says, “Go to church or the devil will get you!”
And when Jesus doesn’t
make your life better, when Jesus doesn’t cure your cancer, when Jesus doesn’t
shoo the devil away, many are left wondering, “This guy isn’t anything like I
thought he was…why bother?”
Now, I am not saying
Jesus doesn’t improve your life, heal you of disease, or keep out the devil but
these things in and of themselves severely limit our understanding of what kind
of Messiah we really have in Jesus, a Messiah who is constantly exceeding our
expectations. The salvation that Jesus
brings takes us beyond this physical and temporal reality.
A parishioner recently told me a story about her agnostic son. The son was asked to be a godfather and was
expected to take part in the sacrament of Holy Eucharist during the
service. However, he was unsure he could
because of all the Jesus propaganda that he had been force fed over the years. He wasn’t sure he believed in this Jesus guy.
The parishioner told her son to forget about all the Jesus propaganda that may or may not be
true. Instead, she told her son to
think of the Eucharist as a mystery. And
this is all it took for the son to take communion. How wonderful! Jesus isn’t not a subject to
be understood. Rather, Jesus is a
mystery to be experienced.
I saw a great picture the
other day depicting a seminary student on the first day of class. The caption read, “I can’t wait to learn how I
can teach people how to love Jesus more.”
The next image showed the professor saying, “today we are going to
conjugate Greek verbs, talk about episcopal history from the 3rd
century, and examine classic arguments for Hebrew authorship.” The last picture showed the seminarian
running out of the classroom in tears.
While I am a strong
believer in study, I do believe we tend to over explain life with Christ. We get tied up in non-essential things that
have little or no relevance to the spreading of the gospel. Like we teach our children in the atrium,
salvation is not something we can teach.
Rather, salvation is something that can only be experienced.
Certainly
Jesus was a great teacher. But Jesus
calls us beyond the classroom. Jesus
calls us to follow where he leads. And
when we follow, we hear and see what kind of Messiah he really is – one who
heals the lame, forgives the unforgiveable, and loves the unlovable. Only when we hear and see with our own eyes
and ears, will we begin to grow in the mystery of salvation.
Just
the other day I saw what happens when people follow the true Messiah. On December 5th, some 2,000 US Army Veterans
kneeled before elders of the Sioux Nation to beg forgiveness. These veterans apologized for the way Native
Americans have been treated by the United States over the years.
One
of the representatives of the Sioux Nation granted forgiveness and offered an
apology in return for when the Sioux killed some 300 US Calvary men at the
Battle of Big Horn. What happened next
was a lively exchange of the peace where there was not a dry eye. The service of reconciliation ended with both
sides calling for world peace – much more convincing than a beauty pageant
contestant.
(click image to watch reconciliation)
Now who would have
thought this kind of reconciliation was possible especially after what we have
seen in the news lately? And is it to
any surprise that none of the major news networks covered this moment?
I speculate this is
because this narrative of reconciliation doesn’t fit the narrative of the kind
of news these major networks want to feed you with. They don’t want to feed you with hope; they
want to feed you with fear. After all,
fear makes more money than hope. But
only hope can save us.
Thanks be to God we have
a Messiah who feeds us with the thrill of hope, with the promise of joy, and
the gift of unending love. And we,
members of Christ’s Church, are the ones who are charged with the telling of
this good news. We are a people who will
not be controlled by fear. We are a
people who are inspired by a narrative of hope, joy, and love.
Beloved,
during this secular season of false narratives, narratives that convince us
that we don’t have enough, narratives that convince us to fear the enemy,
narratives that convince us that we need this, this, and this for a perfect
Christmas, may the true Messiah turn your expectations upside down and re-orient you
to what really matters in a world that longs to be loved and valued.
May
we have the grace to keep Christ in Christmas – not by shaming those who don’t
but by sharing the news that Jesus shared – by healing the sick, visiting the
lonely, lifting up the downtrodden. For
this is the story that speaks to the only truth that will save us, this is
a story that will remind the world that God sends us a Messiah who can raise even
the dead to life. Amen.
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