Godly Anticipation

Sermon for the Third Sunday of Advent, Year A
Isaiah 35:1-10
Psalm146
James 5:7-10
Matthew 11:2-11
Preached at St. John’s Lancaster

Remember when you were a child waiting for Christmas? Sometimes the excitement just got to be too much. For years, my dad was a volunteer firefighter in the town where we lived. Every December, he would buy the bulk candy for distribution at the annual visit of Santa Claus to our town and store it in our attic until the day arrived. We kids were given strict orders to stay out of the attic, but sometimes, when my cousin Brian and I were the only ones at home, the temptation was just too great. I’m sure dad knew what we did in spite of our most serious attempts to cover up our pilfering. But at the age of 6 or 7 it was just so exciting. Who could stand to wait?
Today’s propers speak of a time of wonderment and excitement for us Christians. Isaiah employs an image that must have been extremely powerful to a people with a history of desert wanderings. “Waters shall break forth in the wilderness, and streams in the desert.” We humans can survive for a while without food if we are relatively healthy. But water is a different story. What a powerful and profound picture the prophet paints for us. The day is coming when Messiah shall come, and those things that we cannot live without will be given to us in abundance. Imagine what this will mean in your own life. A cure for cancer will flow forth in the midst of a disease ridden world. The cure for crippling arthritis will appear as might streams in the desert to refresh the people of God. Where once the dry and constant discouragement of Parkinson’s, of dementia, and family strife was all we could see; now the life giving intervention of God will bring us wholeness and reconciliation. What a transformation it will be.
The Gospel lesson speaks even more directly to those times in our lives we would just as soon avoid. John the Baptist, John the Bold, had possessed a faith which was the encouragement and admiration of Israel. But then came his imprisonment, and what must have been a growing realization that he would soon be executed. In the midst of the mental and physical darkness of that filthy dungeon, his faith began to waver. He sent word to his cousin Jesus, whom he had proclaimed to be the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, “are you the one, or do we wait for another?” Sometimes, in the darkness of our lives circumstances seem to conspire to break our spirits and discourage us beyond measure. And then comes to us that still small voice of God. “Remember the blessings and evidences you have seen of my love. The time is not yet, but do not doubt your senses or your memory. I am coming for you, and that very soon.”
Whether an ancient Hebrew nomad living in a dry and arid land, or a fiery prophet of God undergoing a real time of personal doubt and discouragement, the message of the Scriptures, the message of God, remains the same. “Look forward with expectation, for the fulfillment of the promise is at hand. I will never leave you nor forsake you. I am with you always, even unto the end of the world!” In the words of St. James, the brother of our Lord, “Be patient, beloved, until the coming of the Lord.” All of our lives are a mixture of wonderment and tragedy. “The rain of God’s blessing falls on the just and the unjust.” and “into every life, a bit of the rain of trial must fall.” Through it all, we are called to be patient. Like the farmer or gardener in the springtime, we are called to enter the fields with expectation every morning, wondering what the new day will bring. First the seed in the ground, and then a few days later the blade, and then the growth of spring and finally the ripening and harvest of late summer.
In the midst of our attempts at being patient, St. James suggests some very practical things that may help us as we await the Lord’s appearing in the midst of lives that can be less than ideal and very unpredictable.
1. Take strength in the fact that our Lord’s coming is near. Faith is defined in the Book of Hebrews as “the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” I hope with all my heart that waters shall break forth in the desert, and that cancer will be cured, and that people will learn to live together in peace, and that every child born might have a long, prosperous, and contented life, filled with purpose and belonging. None of those things have happened yet. But the evidence is there that they may well come to pass when Jesus returns, which he has not yet done. When he was here on earth, he gave us a taste of the first fruits of what will one day be. The sick were healed and the dead were raised and the hungry were fed. A Roman soldier demonstrated an act of kindness to the mother of a condemned Jewish criminal, and revolutionary terrorists laid down their swords to preach the gospel of peace. And Jesus walked among us and after he had laid down his life a sacrifice for my sins and for yours, he took it up again by the power of love, God’s love for every one of us. Yes, the evidence is there, even though I have not yet seen the fulfillment of the promise. And so I take strength in the fact that our Lord’s coming is near. At times, like St. John, I may have doubts and experience that weakness which is common to all mankind, but at the end of the day, I find hope in the fact that our Lord’s coming is near.
2. St. James also tells us not to grumble against each other as we work to be patient. Sometimes it is very hard to maintain a positive outlook, but that is the admonition of the Scriptures. It makes sense. No one likes to be around a negative grumbler for very long. For a while they might be entertaining, or even inspirational, but in the end, a grumbler is tiring and drags down everyone around them. Charlene Rowley sent me a little item about dogs this week which maintained that dogs are so wonderful because they wag their tails so much more than they wag their tongues. I am reminded of the admonition from the movie Bambi that “if you can’t say something good- don’t say nuthin at all.” It is still good advice. Participating in negativity on a regular basis sets us up for yet another bad day, and directs our attention away from Jesus and into ourselves. It is a form of idolatry that can, and so often does, consume us. And remember: negativity breeds negativity. If the radio and TV shows, the books you read, and the people you hang out with are negative, the chances are that you will be negative too. Avoid such company. Fill your life with light and beauty and peace, and your heart will come to reflect your surroundings. We can not pick all of our associates and associations, but most of us can do a better job than we have done heretofore.
3. St. James tells us to remember the example of the prophets, who kept their eyes on the prize and often suffered for the sake of the Kingdom of God, but maintained an attitude of patience and expectation through it all. It is a terrible thing to feel alone. We have all known someone who really came to believe that they were so special, so different, that no-one knew the depths of their suffering. Sometimes it was as if they were addicted to the rush of feeling bad. Well, as the stories of God’s people throughout the ages show us, none of us are really that unique. There is nothing that happens in our lives, for good or for ill, that is not common to man. By God’s grace, others have survived and remained faithful, and by God’s grace so shall we. Might we always remember that a loving heavenly Father has surrounded us with so great a cloud of witness in his saints that we might be encouraged by their lives, even as we live our own. As James says in the verse following today’s second lesson, “We count them happy which endure.” God will give you strength, even as he gave them strength, so be patient, until the coming of the Lord.
4. Finally, in a verse which finishes the paragraph from which our second lesson is drawn today, James says “above all things, my brethren, swear not, neither by heaven, neither by the earth, neither by any other oath: but let your yea be yea and your nay, nay; lest ye fall in condemnation.” In other words, as you go about being patient, be yourself. Don’t try to live up to anyone’s expectations but God’s. If someone doesn’t like who you are, they are not going to like you any more because you try to be who they think you should be. They will merely despise you because you have submitted partially to their control. Don’t put on airs either. It only lands you in debt and bad company. Believe me, I speak from experience. If you can’t learn to be happy with who God made you and calls you to be, nothing in the world will ever make you happy. This is not to say that it is ok to wallow in our sins. God expects an honest and ongoing attempt at obedience, but it is to say that true contentment is found only as we patiently live into the role that God has chosen for us in this life, knowing that in the life to come, we shall live with Him forever.
In the remainder of this Holy Advent season, in the midst of life’s joys and vicissitudes, walk with patience, and with hope, the road that God places before you. And may you so live in this life, that you may never be afraid to die, and in the world to come, you may have life everlasting. AMEN.