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When I started
reflecting on these texts for this day, the idea popped into my head: Do we
really understand who the prophet of God is? I’m sure many of us shy away from
the thought of prophecy in this day and age.
We don’t have that connection we once had in thinking about being a divinely
inspired witness to God. We once again
have John the Baptist as a continuance from last week except this time John’s
disciples needed to hear it from the source: Jesus. We can recognize some of the beautiful words
from the prophet Isaiah touching our hearts with those radical visions and
actions of the Kingdom of God. “Go and tell John what you hear and
see: 5the 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. 6And blessed is anyone who takes no offense at me.”
Jesus is the way, the truth and the life. He is the light of the world and His living
Word is what leads us to begin to take baby steps in trying to understand why
would God choose to come down to us in our humanity? This is why these scriptures are connected to
Advent as we are once again celebrating, God with us. John the Baptist was someone who heard God’s
commissioning to him to be His messenger to preparing His way into our world. Preparing
and making room in our hearts for the coming of the Lord into our reality is
both a comfort and a joy. I’m sure many of us already hear some of the famous
Advent and Christmas carols playing in our hearts. That’s the landscape of where ‘God with Us,’
will begin His work within. Our hearts
need to be attuned to Hope. And as Saint Paul said in the fifth chapter of
Romans: “1Therefore, since we are justified
by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2through
whom we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand; and we boast in
our hope of sharing the glory of God. 3And not only that, but we
also boast in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, 4and
endurance produces character, and character produces hope, 5and hope
does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts
through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.”
Tuning our hearts to Hope in God… Isn't that the most
beautiful thing to imagine? When we get towards the Christmas season, we think
of the snows. We think of the cold, and we think of that blanket of white
covering most of nature. There's a positive and a negative to that as some of
us who have lived in the Midwest can understand shoveling and driving in the “wonderful
white world of winter,” isn't necessarily a great joy unless you’re in a snow
mobile... But when you think of the Advent of the Lord coming into our world,
the Incarnation of God coming into the Flesh of man, here is this renewal that
prepares us for each and every turning of the year.
With the turning of each and every year, our stories have
more lines, more valleys and more Mountains to weave into the tapestry that is
our lives. We are “extra-ordinary” people and most likely we don't think
of the prophetic Word of God shaking the foundations of our soul for movement into
something wonderful and new. I love the imagery in the Isaiah passage that we
have that we see Jesus also refer to in talking about John the Baptist. It is
truly God's activity in the world, the New Nature moving out and about amongst us.
I had a real interesting dream a few nights back it was both
disturbing as well as it was hopeful. It probably had something to do with a
conversation with a dear friend where I thought that the city of Chicago would
soon be turning into the “fall of Rome.” Not a very positive thought obviously,
but then I also thought about churches all over America and where we are as a
people of God, as the bride of Christ, as the people underneath the steeple
that are supposed to gather and scatter with a good news. In today’s Gospel the preaching of the Good
News is actually referred to as “gospelizing.” This literally means in the
ancient texts of the scriptures—announcing the complete message of the Lord’s
glad tidings.
The visions in this dream, which was profound, and
disturbing was also hopeful at the same time. What remained of these churches
were mere shells that I saw looking like they were carved out of white
alabaster stone, the roads ran through them. These roads were like highway
lanes going through everything such as side windows, the various entryways to
the church and so on, in all different directions. When you think about that in
a positive way, God has us all on our own journeys of faith. When He is
preparing us room for Him in our hearts; which is planting that New seed of
change and renewal… we have a road that he has honed for us to follow. Even with the incarnation, Jesus says Come and
Follow Me.
In some senses then, you could say all those roads that were
going through the stones ruins, but not necessarily ruins of these former
cathedrals… were saying that the church is really something that is beyond the steeple
and has much more to do with the people. I love this image it's an old
Evangelical discipleship image of thinking, we are beyond the building. The few
Church plants I was able to serve did make a bold mark among many marks as
unaffiliated Lutheran congregations meeting out of various hotels in the
Chicagoland area. Now the current church I'm serving is my own church that I
have had in various locations in people's homes, just like the early church
did. This is thinking way beyond the box especially today. This takes guts and no earthly glory except
for God’s Glory alone!
You have to be a pioneer, and in some senses, you can think
that Spirit is what is prophetic about John the Baptist. He was a pioneer
proclaiming the Messiah coming. He had a Divine Vision which influenced his heart
to put it out there boldly and declare in many ways, (even though he was very
much a part of the Old Testament), he did not know the cross that Christ would face.
He knew that the Messiah meant in some senses what Saint Paul would say is the New
Nature. It takes a New Nature to be an optimist. This is even when it doesn't
make sense, even when the money is terrible, even when you're physically
stressed and strained, and families are strained. The world loves to “nickel
and dime” the Spirit to want to give up basically but as we know and what was
mentioned or alluded to in James letter, is the endurance of Job.
The endurance of job, if any of us recall that story, it's
probably one of the most complicated “soap operas” you could say in the Old
Testament that challenges us to think about how we individuals persevere. In
his case obviously, it was a challenge and a questioning of God alongside the
work and problem of evil. Evil is all around us. Evil is within our hearts, but
we know, affirm and believe, at least I do, the Holy Spirit is our little fire
washer. The Holy Spirit helps to wash our hearts of the sins of things we have
done and left undone as well as keeps us positive even when it hurts. With John
the Baptist being arrested and thrown in prison over giving Herod hard time,
his disciples needed some comfort: was Jesus whom John was talking about? They
really needed to know. Jesus most beautifully and personally laid it right out
there for all to hear. Seeing the purpose of God through this endurance that
John’s disciples would face is talked about in James letter as well as is
mentioned by Jesus talking about John as His messenger and this voice coming
from the wilderness.
As the year soon turns into 2020, what kind of vision do we
see ourselves committing to as the people of God? Are we genuinely following the Way, the Truth
and the Light? I love and live for
thinking about being there as one of Jesus’ Apostles. Outside of all that wondering, my heart, my voice,
my hands and my feet are firmly planted in this 21st century. My ministry is here, and it is now. Being the voice, hands and feet of Jesus in
the world, may feel like passing moments in the muck and mire of our
entrenchment here on earth. We were given however, spiritual wings that we can
truly take off the ground and soar high with.
These spiritual butterfly wings are fueled by God’s Living Word and is a
vision with a mission! I may be wearing
soft robes and colored stoles, there may be on occasions of, “bells and smells”
coming from my church…. But the wilderness around us NEEDS the Good News… God
IS with us. Christ Jesus is with us in
more ways than one—this is an ultimate truth.
The wilderness shall become a great flowing Garden alive
with hearts on fire for God, with ministries sprouting forth from the ruins of
abandoned structures. With people from all walks of life on all kinds of
journeys with or battling against God, we will create and prepare a royal
highway for the King of Kings, the Lord Jesus to travel upon WITH us, WITHIN us
and THROUGH us!
Let us Pray,
Gracious and loving Lord Jesus,
Thank You for the fiery witness of extra-ordinary
individuals such as John the Baptist
Thank You for the centuries of those early long-suffering
pioneers with Your Living and Restorative Word
Thank You for every day of Your patience and endurance of
Your children
That You continue to guide daily with Your Holy Spirit
Thank You Lord for helping us to feel and experience Your
purpose as a renewing vision and mission
That we must undertake as Your children of Grace and Promise
We lift this prayer with great Joy and Love
AMEN
December 15th, 2019; The
Third Sunday of Advent; Year A; SOLA Lectionary
Sermon by: Reverend Nicole A.M.
Collins
Psalm 146; Isaiah 35:1-10; James
5:7-11; Matthew 11:2-15
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