Third Sunday of Advent-Year A James 5:7-10; Matthew 11: 2-11 [12-15] th December 12, 2010 Having faith to look beyond our expectations This sermon was preached by Pastor Jim Page at Trinity Lutheran Church Dearest brothers and sisters in Christ, grace and peace be with you all. Amen. Throughout church history, this season of Advent has been regarded as a season of waiting. Waiting for the arrival of Jesus Christ in his return to earth in resurrected glory. Waiting in anticipation for the announcement of his birth in a couple weeks. I m glad that all of you are here today to join in this journey together. Waiting. Sounds simple, doesn t it? How good are you at waiting? What are the changing effects for you, physically and emotionally, as you wait? I m talking about the waiting that occurs in everyday life from the store check out line to every stop light on Clairemont Avenue. Perhaps there s a feeling of tension, anger, frustration, anxiety, a darker regard for the world around you where impatience has led to your fuse being shortened. This section today from the gospel of Matthew is about waiting. More specifically, how we can wait faithfully when our expectations, across various life circumstances, are not met. Waiting seems elementary but it is an every day circumstance that holds great opportunities in living out our faith guided by God. Comedian Jerry Seinfeld has entertained people around the world with his observational comedy and frequent use of satire. Considering his comedic sitcom Seinfeld was on the air from 1989-98, along with his touring stand up act, DVD sales, and current directing of plays on Broadway have made him hundreds of millions of dollars. He s the wealthiest comedian ever. One of his insightful and funny acts was focused on waiting rooms, more specifically, the waiting room at the doctor s office. His insights were as follows: I don t mind going to the doctor s office. Doctors are good people, the make you feel better, who doesn t like that? But, in the office area is the waiting room. I hate when they make you wait in the room. Cause it says Waiting room. There s no chance of not waiting, cause they call it the waiting room, they re going to use it. They ve got it. It s all set up for you to wait. And you sit there, you know, and you ve got your little magazine. You pretend you re reading it, but you re really looking at the other people. You know, you re thinking about them things like I wonder what he s got. As soon as she goes, I m getting her magazine. And then, they finally call you and it s a very exciting moment. They finally call you, and you stand up and you kinda look around at the other people in the room. Well, I guess I ve been chosen. I ll see you all later. They re sitting there holding their magazines, looking at you with eyes of envy. You know, so you think you re going to see the doctor, but you re not, are you? No. You re going into the next waiting room. The littler waiting room.
But if they are, you know, doing some sort of medical thing to you, you want to be in the smallest room that they have, I think. You don t want to be in the largest room that they have. You know what I mean? You ever see these operating theaters, that they have, with like, stadium seating? You don t want them doing anything to you that makes other doctors go, I have to see this! Are you kidding? Are they really gonna do that to him? Are there seats? Can we get in? Do they scalp tickets to these things? I got two for the Winslow proceudre, I got two. Ah, yes, it all begins in the waiting room. How good are you at waiting? Whoever designed Advent to be a season of waiting in this time of year had an idealistic view of the world. Advent, in many of our lives, is a season of impatience. There are seasons throughout the year when we experience impatience. Yet, this time between Thanksgiving and Christmas is the pinnacle time of impatience where anxiety, worry, and hurry are crammed into four weeks. We are busy preparing those Christmas cards, shopping for those perfect gifts, decorating our homes, attending Christmas programs, and if it snows we re impatiently shoveling because there s things that need to get done. Why are we so busy days marked with anxiety, worry and hurry? We are actually preparing, each and everyone one of us, for something special to happen to us in this time of year. We ask ourselves various questions that refer to making something special happen. Is this the gift we should buy, or should I look for another? Is this the Christmas card design I want to send out to family and friends, or should I find another? In this time of year with office parties and friendly gift giving, marks the season of white elephant gifts which comes with the question, Gee, thanks. The white elephant referral is fitting for such gifts since they may be odd, very unique, and rarely appealing to your tastes. We laugh about white elephant gifts when we receive what we do not want since our expectations are low. Life also has those white elephant moments where we receive what we do not expect and we often not laughing as a result. The horrible possibility in this time of year, in this holiday season, is that our expectations will go unfulfilled and never happen. Expectations that are shaped by the past, based on the present, and which cast a framework for the future. John the Baptist had expectations and today, his tone is different from last week. If you were here last week this is review but for those of you who were not, I ll cast a framework. John was preaching out in the wilderness, preaching with a confidence and a tenacity
that was appealing to crowds of people who flocked to see him and hear a message they were eager to hear. John was simple, independent and fearless in his message against social convention casting a renewal of hope in God s presence and power that a Savior was coming. He was preparing for something special to happen! John is the accurate model of Advent where the hope of something great was just on the horizon just like a child waiting to open the gifts underneath the Christmas tree. Today, we have a different picture of Advent and John is just as authentic as he was last week. He is now tired. He s discouraged. He questions. He doubts. In John last week, we saw ourselves. We saw the truth in how it s natural to venture into something new with a demeanor of high expectation, high hopes, and high commitment. At times, those white elephant moments happens where we receive what we do not expect. Married couples learn this quickly when the honeymoon stage is over. Others realize the new job isn t what they expected. Others are adjusting to tragic health news such as cancer. As my grandfather once said, I d like to meet the man who said these were the golden years and knock him out. He always had a way of making us laugh. When have you had your high hopes of something special eroded by the realities of life? Are you waiting, perhaps silently, for a change for the better in a certain part of your life? John s feelings have eroded and it s disheartening. So John waits in prison. We do not know how but he has some contact with his followers. His waiting leads to a single, powerful question in the gospel of Matthew. This question for Jesus is based on expectation of the messiah. He sends a few of his disciples to go and ask Jesus, Are you the one who was to come, or should we expect someone else? Waiting it leads to those feeling of frustration, anger, anxiety, impatience with others marked by rude comments and harsh voice tones and glimpses of possibly greener pastures. John s asking, Should we look for another? Waiting it leads us away from God when God does what we do not expect. Jesus response to his cousin in prison isn t one of frustration, anger, anxiety or impatience. It was the following, "Go and tell John what you see and hear. The blind receive their sight, and the lame walk. The dead are raised up, and the poor have good news preached to them." He doesn t answer yes or no but Jesus simply says look around and make up your
minds. The challenge in our lives of faith is to not place God in a box where we call on him only when we need him or when we expect something from him. God is a God who s mission is far beyond our expectations. When Jesus mission of giving sight to the blind and preaching good news to the poor ended on a hill in the town dump of Golgatha many were asking the same question. Standing there, looking at this man who said he was the Son of God nailed to a cross, the question silently asked, Are you the one or should we wait for another? The expectations, hopes, and preparations for something better ended in darkness. And they waited. And waited. And waited. The sun rise shown over the horizon on that glorious morning when the resurrected Christ greeted his disciples, showed them his nail-scarred hands and feet and his first words of resurrected glory on earth, Peace be with you. An act of love that far surpassed the expectations of anyone on earth. John wanted a tidal wave of a Messiah-someone no one could miss. Instead, John got a message telling of a steady stream of mercy from a man named Jesus in whom many saw no Messiah potential to all. I wish I could tell you that Jesus death and resurrection changed everything-that once word got out about God bringing him back to life led to people seeing the light and repented on the spot. They revised their priorities. They reformed their values. They resolved to live the way Jesus taught. That would be our expectation. But we fall short. I would love a powerful blast of raw power from heaven from a tidal wave from God that would wash away both mine and everyone else s doubts and questions of God. Yet, as Jesus told the disciples all we have are steady drips of mercy here in our midst. Just look around Jesus tells us. Look around to our food pantry serving record numbers of families in need. To our quilters provided warmth to those who are cold. Our community table team serving faithfully each month. Our Trinity youth serving in a variety of ways in our congregation and our community. Sunday school teachers teaching children. Ushers and musicians who serve faithfully. People nurturing faith through prayer and devotions at home. Gathering together in this space each week to worship our good and gracious God. Drip. Drip. Drip.
They are not big stories. They are small stories with big effects. That is how God has chosen to come into our midst through small acts of compassion, mercy, forgiveness, and love. That may not be enough for some, but for many it is a way of faithful living. Waiting is not easy, but doing so under the umbrella of what God has done for us will lead us to use seemingly small instances each day to reflect his glory. To trust that God is in our midst, guiding us, knowing what is the best beyond what we can see. At the grocery store, at work, with our family, with those driving near us on Clairemont Avenue, and when the world is full of those white elephant episodes living our lives in response to God s love. Patiently and sincerely. Thanks be to God. Amen.