Sermon delivered on Advent 3A, Gaudete Sunday, December 15, 2013, at St. Augustine’s Anglican Church, Columbus, OH.

If you would prefer to listen to the audio podcast of this sermon, usually somewhat different from the text below, click here.

Lectionary texts: Isaiah 35.1-10; Psalm 146.5-10; James 5.7-10; Matthew 11.2-11.

In the name of God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.

What, if anything, jumped out at you as you listened to our gospel lesson this morning? Did you find it strange that the imprisoned John the Baptist sends messengers to Jesus to ask him if he is the expected Messiah or should John wait for another? After all, wasn’t it John who baptized Jesus and who declared him to be God’s son, the Messiah (cf. John 1.29-34)? So why was John now questioning whether Jesus really was the Messiah? If you have ever been tempted to believe some of the critics of Christianity who argue that the gospels really aren’t history but rather fanciful stories the early Church made up to convince folks that Jesus really was who he said he was, you needn’t look any further than today’s lesson to refute such a silly notion. Here we have the man who baptized Jesus and declared him to be God’s Messiah questioning whether Jesus really was the real deal, hardly a good strategy to convince others to believe in Jesus, and this is what I want us to look at briefly this morning. What are we to do with John’s doubt about Jesus as well as our own? It is important for us to answer this question, especially during Advent, because it encapsulates the glory and frustration of Advent itself.

None of us here are strangers to doubt. We live in a world of broken promises and sadly all of us have broken a few promises ourselves along the way. We grow cynical hearing politicians making promises and then not keeping them. And we don’t know what to do with the rare ones who actually do keep the promises they make. The same dynamic holds true in our relationship with God. Each week preachers like me stand up and make promises that God is with us, even in the midst of extreme adversity, and that a better day is coming. But then we ask God to heal us or a loved one and our prayer apparently goes unanswered. Or we look around our world and see the massive suffering and brokenness that is part of it—just this past week, for example, we’ve suffered another school shooting—and we can’t help but wonder if God really does love us or is in control of his world. The bad guys and the forces behind them just seem to keep on winning. I can see it on some of your faces every time I vocalize these promises to you.

And if we are honest with ourselves, many of us will admit that we really don’t understand this crazy notion of inaugurated eschatology that you hear me talk about regularly, the idea that we are living in the “end times” and that with the birth, death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus, God’s kingdom has started to come on earth as in heaven (that’s the inaugurated part of the end time—God has fulfilled his promise to his people to return to them and live with them), but not completely. That won’t happen fully until Jesus returns in great power to finish the work he started (that’s the fully realized part of the end time). The practical result of this teaching is that as Christians we must take the good with the bad because while we see many signs of the kingdom among us—people do get healed as a result of prayer (but not everyone), lives do get transformed by Jesus (but not all lives do and some who have been changed backslide), reconciliation happens because one or both parties were willing to forgive when there was no reason to do so, our little parish continues to be God’s faithful warriors—we also see rampant evil and injustice apparently going on unchecked or unpunished. There is a mystery here that perplexes and frustrates us. We don’t fully understand why this is and Scripture gives us every indication we are not going to understand these things fully. We have to live with the mystery and enigma of the kingdom come, but not fully realized.

And now we are back to John’s doubt about Jesus being the Messiah. As John languished in prison he had heard about all the mighty acts of salvation that Jesus was doing—healing the sick, giving sight to the blind, raising the dead, preaching good news to the poor, making the deaf hear, cleansing lepers, etc. All these were clearly promised signs of God’s in-breaking kingdom on earth as in heaven. We see part of that evidence in our OT and psalm lessons this morning. So what’s the problem? The problem for John was that he was still in prison and every good Jew knew that when the real Messiah came, he would free the prisoners and punish the oppressors of God’s people, just like the prophets and psalmists had promised. But Jesus hadn’t done that. John still languished in prison and Herod, the one who imprisoned and eventually had John executed, was still in charge and this was problematic for John. Doubtless John had many OT passages like we read today running through his head, passages that foretold the Messiah would not only bring God’s salvation (rescue from their enemies) to his people but also God’s terrible wrath and judgment on God’s enemies. In other words, the good guys would get rescued and the bad guys would get their just desserts. Justice would be served and evil would be vanquished.

But as we’ve just seen, Jesus was only doing part of what the expected Messiah was to do. He was only bringing about healing and salvation to God’s people. Where was God’s punishment on his enemies? Why was Jesus not freeing his own cousin from his unjust imprisonment by Herod? If you want to understand the fundamental reason why most Jews reject Jesus as their Messiah, look no further than this issue. Jesus might have been a miracle worker but he did not bring God’s accompanying wrath on God’s enemies. Evil was not banished nor were God’s people vindicated. And this is the reason why many reject Jesus as Lord and Savior today. They look at what Jesus didn’t/doesn’t do while ignoring or denying what he did/does. All this reminds us that we are not the only ones who struggle with the ambiguities and mystery of the “already-not yet” of inaugurated eschatology.

And lest we are tempted to think that Matthew (or even Jesus himself) did not consider Jesus to be the real deal, we must look closely at Jesus’ response to John’s questions because it shows us clearly that both Matthew and Jesus thought Jesus was the real Messiah. Jesus invites John to look at Jesus’ deeds, the good he is doing and preaching, and then to draw his own conclusions about Jesus’ identity. If John will look beyond the God’s judgment and see the resulting picture Isaiah painted for us in today’s OT lesson, he will surely conclude that Jesus’ actions are fulfilling OT prophecy about the Messiah. In this way Jesus gently encourages John. But Jesus also gently rebukes John for his doubt when he says “blessed are those who do not take offense at me.” The Greek for take offense is scandalizo, which means to cause someone to sin or lose faith. Jesus then goes on to quote Malachi 3.1, “See, I am sending a messenger ahead of you.” But who is this you? It is God. And from the context in which he quotes this passage, it is clear that Jesus sees himself standing in God’s place in fulfillment of OT prophecy and that John was the designated messenger to announce Jesus’ coming. This is why folks are blessed who do not take offense at Jesus and this includes not only John but every one of us!

So what do we do with this? How do we deal with the hope and frustration of inaugurated eschatology that this season of Advent encourages us to observe? We take our cue from both Jesus and his brother James. First, as our Lord himself reminded John, we need to examine the evidence and draw the right conclusions. Instead of focusing on what Jesus didn’t do, we are to focus on all that he did, the signs of the kingdom he performed and the good news he preached. These are part of the historical record and demand a fair hearing. In other words, when considering if Jesus is who he claims he is, we must focus on the presence of salvation, not on the absence of judgment, focusing especially on the historical reality of his resurrection and ascension. This will not resolve the ambiguity and mystery of the “already-not yet,” but it will allow us to deal with it on the level we are capable of dealing with the inscrutable ways of God. This, of course, requires a profound humility on our part. We must acknowledge we are not equals with God and our humility will allow us to wait patiently for God to work out his good purposes for his creation and creatures. Simply put, when we focus on what is missing, we sow doubt. When we focus on what has been accomplished, we sow faith in the power of the Spirit.

And as James reminds us, we are to do this together. As do all our other lessons this morning, so James reminds us of the “already-not yet.” He tells us that we must wait patiently for the Lord’s return and in the interim we are not to grumble against each other because Jesus our Judge is standing at the door! Notice James teaches that Jesus is quite near to his people but has not fully appeared to us as risen Lord and Judge over God’s creation.

But why would James tell us not to grumble against each other, especially in this context? Well, what do stressed-out and fearful people do to each other? They turn on each other! We see it happen all the time in families and other close-knit groups. Precisely because evil has not been fully vanquished, precisely because we are under attack by the enemy, we as Jesus’ followers are subject to the dark pressure of powerful forces and so we must resist our fallen urges to turn on each other in times of great stress. Here again we see the wisdom of patience, which itself is one of the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5.22-25). When we patiently endure our trials and tribulations, we are less inclined to become angry or fearful and turn on each other. We are Christ’s body, the Church, and we are to help encourage one another in matters of faith, especially during times of great personal or collective crises.

Here, then, are the needed tools for us to live faithfully during the “already-not yet.” When we realize that Jesus has helped us see God’s timetable for rescuing his world and its people from captivity to evil, sin, and death in a new light, we have reason to hope. By focusing on all that Jesus has accomplished for us instead of on what is missing, we can count on being strengthened in the power of the Spirit so that we can not only cope but rejoice that we have Good News, both in good times and bad, now and for all eternity.

In the name of God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.