Third Sunday of Advent

December 16, 2007

Isaiah 35:1-10

Psalm 146

James 5:7-10

Matthew 11:2-11  

           “Are you the one who is to come, or are we to wait for another?”  John the Baptist wants to know as he sits in his jail cell nearing the end of his life.  These are sad words for us to hear on this Sunday, for this third Sunday of Advent is designated as the Sunday of Joy.  And it is time for a little joy in our Advent season.  If you remember, on the first Sunday of Advent our scriptures emphasized end time—when God will come to judge the world, and bring it to an end as we know it.  The good news of Advent 1 is that everything can and will be redeemed.  Even those things which come to an end in our own lives.  The second Sunday of Advent would have us recall the history of God’s people and their struggle to remain faithful to God throughout scripture.  The good news of Advent II is that God will not abandon us.  He is not only with us in our struggles but he will redeem us in them.  

              So there is good news for us on the first two Sundays of Advent, but it is deeply embedded in warning and reminder.  Today, however, we get a break from all that.  Today is the day we celebrate joy, the joy of Advent as we anticipate Jesus’ birth.  You must have heard the joy in our scripture readings for the day.  Both Isaiah and the psalmist tell us many times over how we will rejoice with joy and singing when the Lord comes to redeem the world.  And how will we know God is redeeming his world?  All things will become new.  They will become transformed into what God created them to be.  According to Isaiah all nature will reflect God’s glory and majesty.  The desert will be abundant with water and foliage and there will be no danger in it.  Signs of God’ redemption will be found in his human creation by the ways God strengthens us in our weakness and gives us courage in the face of fear.  God will make enable us to see and the hear his promises anew in a world which has made us blind and deaf to the good purposes of his creation.  

            I especially like Isaiah’s highway imagery.  It makes me realize that the poor decisions we make on our own journeys through life make our little roads so twisted and bumpy.  But Isaiah tells us that God’s is prepared to redeem us on the highway he will set before us, and Isaiah’s prophecy, of course, will become realized in the birth of God’s son.  Jesus will become the way to God.  But we need to follow him on that highway.  And we can only follow him if we are willing to take the exit ramps off our self-made roads to enter there.  And what does God’s way promise for those who follow him?   God promises liberation from living our lives in negative capability, where fear is the underlying motive for every thought we think, every feeling we feel, every word we speak, and every action we take.  In the absence of fear, love can be born in us, and love grows in God’s love.  How many times in scripture do we hear the words, “do not fear.”  There is a good reason for that.  God knows nothing can be born in us out of fear.  Our lives shrink by fear.  They become a desert.  But everything can be born in love.  Love keeps us nourished in the gifts of the spirit.  Love keeps us open and receptive to God’s possibilities for us and for creation.  We grow in love, but growing in love can be difficult.  It is not easy to make a desert bloom.  But we take great joy in living things which blossom and grow.  Isaiah knew that, and Jesus testified to it throughout his life.  This is what we celebrate today. This Sunday is our Advent of Joy.

              Now, I don’t know about you, but it comforts me to know that God is with me in my journey through this life.  And when I can remember that, I take great joy in God’s presence and great comfort in a sure sense of well-being.  Which reminds me of the well-known words spoken by one of the great spiritual teachers of the 14th century, Julian of Norwich.   She spoke simply about faith in the midst of life’s fears and uncertainties.   Our faith assures us that “all will be well,” she said.  “All will be well.”

              Unfortunately, that was not the way John the Baptist was feeling as he sat in his cell doubting the effort he made proclaiming Jesus to the world.  John did not feel particularly loved or joyful.  In his despair and in his hope, he sends his disciples to ask Jesus, “Are you the one?” “Or are we to wait for another?”  It is clear by John’s question that all was not well in his mind.  And it led him to doubt himself and his role as a prophet.  But, in fact, all WAS well.  John just could not see that it was.  He could not see it because John’s vision of a savior was bound up in the messianic hope of ancient Israel.  It was a hope established in the kingship of David, and embedded in a vision that the savior God would send into the world would be a political king who would bring God’s reign on earth.  As I indicated in my sermon last Sunday, John must have been terribly confused and disappointed with this Jesus who was turning out to be not anything like he imagined.  It is not surprising that John’s faith would begin to turn to doubt. 

              I feel sorry for John because he could not know that he was a key player in God’s plan to do something new in salvation history—that it would bring us joy, and all would be well.  He would be the bridge by which a prophet of old would baptize and announce a new savior who would claim redemption for the world much as Isaiah did for Israel—the deaf would hear, and the eyes of the blind would be opened; the lame would walk, the sick would be healed and the dead would be raised.  Most important for Jews, the poor would receive the benefit of his coming.  But this Messiah would accomplish God’s purposes much differently from Israel’s expectations.   This messiah would bring justice to the world, not by vengeance but by mercy.  This messiah would not come simply to redeem the righteous; he would come to save sinners.  His coming would not signal an end to the world, it would usher in a new way to live in the world.  This messiah would live a human life and die a human death, but his resurrection would cancel death as the final victory over life.

           Now, that’s good news; a reason for joy and well-being.   But how could John know what we have come to know—that this IS the one.  Jesus IS the savior of the world; the one who came in love to bring us joy in everything which is life giving.  Like peace, in the midst of war around us and battles within us.   Like hope, in the midst of self-defeating cynicism and despair.  Like abundance, in the midst of perceived scarcity.  Like love in the midst of disabling fear.  And it is amazing how differently we experience our lives when we begin to live them in love and not fear, when we live out of our abundance and not our scarcity, when we live in hope rather than despair, when peace and justice become our reason and our goal for living with each other in a global community.  Now I ask you to imagine for a moment.  What does a life of love, hope, justice, peace and abundance look like?   Well, it certainly looks like Jesus’ life, I would say.  The question is, does it look like my life.   And does it look like yours.  There is one sure way we can know.  We will feel the joy in it.

              And joy is what this third Sunday in Advent is about.  I think it is a good thing that the church designates a Sunday to celebrate joy, because joy is something we all long for, and there is precious little of it in the world.  I think this is why Christmas has become such an important celebration in our secular culture.  Because people yearn for joy, but we will not find joy in the things of this world.  Unless we go to the manger, all we will get in our secular celebrations of Christmas are short-lived moments of happiness.  Now I’m all for happiness, but happiness is an elusive commodity and very demanding.  Our happiness requires a lot of attending to, and on our own terms.  If you pay attention to holiday advertisements they will tell you that happiness can be manufactured into every gift you buy and every gift you will unwrap at Christmas.  The problem with happiness it that it mimics joy, but it is not joy. I have seen and heard the ads for happiness masquerading as joy this season.  Love, hope and peace are for sale in all our stores, and you can have them in abundance.  You can even buy them on sale if you are willing to suffer in patience the indignities of shopping Christmas sales.  You can buy confidence and trust from fine diamond jewelers, and you can buy your vision of fulfillment in a grand vacation or a luxury sedan.  

           It would seem, then, that one really CAN buy happiness, especially at Christmastime.  But it’s not going to last.  Because there is always something else, something more we will want or need to make us happy, if only for the moment.  I am inclined to believe that our frenzy of shopping and holiday preparations leading to Christmas indicates a greater yearning which longs to be satisfied.  And I believe what we yearn for is joy.  But unlike happiness, joy is not so easy to come by.  For joy is not external to us.  We can’t purchase joy.  We can’t beg, borrow or steal it.  We can’t simulate it.  We can’t receive joy as a gift.   Because God has already given us the gift of joy.   We can only respond to joy it when it happens in us.  In a sense joy is born in us; we discover that we have it.  

           This is where the church can make a claim that no commercial enterprise can make when it comes to Christmas.  The church can give us a gift that no one else can give.  Each year the church takes us back to the manger to experience the real gift of Christmas.  It is a gift which far exceeds happiness.  It is the gift of joy.  Each Christmas joy is born to us once again, and once again we discover our joy.  And the wonderful thing about it is once you recognize that you have joy, it will never go away.  In fact, as joy grows in you, you will not be able to hide it or make it go away.  And unlike happiness, no one can take it away from you.  That is what makes Christmas different for those of us who journey to the manger.  Those of us who celebrate Christ’s birth.  And I believe that is why the church experiences great numbers of people attending Christmas services each year.  They are looking for something that will touch their joy.

              It makes me glad that people take the time away from their holiday preparations to attend a Christmas service of worship.  I just don’t know why they don’t return.  Worship at Christmas invites people to open their hearts to receive the child in the manger, but it is obvious that some only come to the manger for a visit.  And when they leave, they go away empty, not yet ready or willing to make the journey with Christ along the highway of regular worship throughout the year, to see how our joy is fulfilled in scripture, prayer, music, and in the thanks giving of Eucharist .  The church is one of the places in our life which teaches us to love; one of the places which touches our joy.  That is what keeps us coming back to worship each week.  Sitting here this morning on the third Sunday of Advent we would not even think of asking the question John asked of Jesus, “Are you the one?”  We are living into the answer.  We know that he is the One, And that makes all the difference in a life which strives for happiness and a life which is filled with joy.