Advent 3A
December 15, 2019
Grace, Waseca, MN
Matthew 11.2-11
Ed Friedman was a Jewish rabbi who worked with clergy of all stripes about church leadership. In his last book before he died, he talked about Columbus and other discoverers of the New World. Whatever you think about him, his voyage and those following him helped to unlock the imaginations of a 15th and 16th c. Europe that had been stuck in the Dark Ages. Friedman mad this observation: it took a long time for them to realize that what they found was far more important than what they had been looking for.
I was reminded of Friedman’s statement during Nobel XLIX in 2013, “The Universe at Its Limits.” In his presentation, astrophysicist and Nobel Laureate Samuel CC Ting displayed a graphic of discoveries in physics. It showed what scientists were looking for, the instrument they used and what they ultimately discovered. In every case, what the scientists found was more important than what they were looking for.
“Are you the one who is to come or should we wait for another,” John the Baptist wonders in our Gospel reading today. It’s an odd question because last week we heard in Matthew Chapter 3 that John was preparing the way for Jesus. Is John the Baptist having doubts about Jesus being the Messiah, the one supposedly coming to save them? There were several ideas about what kind of Messiah could be expected, including the notion that the Messiah would be a warrior-king. Jesus’ answer seems to acknowledge that confusion. He says that the blind see, the deaf hear, the lame walk, the lepers cleansed, and the poor have good news preached to them. In other words, Jesus says, the Messiah they have “found” was far more important than the one they were looking for.
Both the season of Advent in general and our text in particular, prompt us to ask: what kind of Jesus are we looking for? There are many different preachers today who are giving us many different Jesuses; there’s the prosperity Jesus, the warrior Jesus, and the buddy Jesus, to name a few. What kind of Jesus do you seek? And, while we’re being introspective, we might also ask: is the Jesus I want for myself the same Jesus I want for my neighbor? If we are honest, we might want a loving, forgiving Jesus for ourselves and a sin-smiting Jesus for someone else. However, during this Advent, can we be open to the possibility that the Jesus we find is far more important than the one we’re looking for?
Next year sometime, possibly in the spring, we’ll be entering a “Time of Discovery” here at Grace. We’ll begin looking at our God-given identity, who we are, and ask why God put us in this place. From that we’ll seek to discover what God is calling us to be and do in the next 3-5 years. Then we’ll figure out what resources we need, how to organize ourselves, and the leader/s we need to carry out God’s mission and ministry through us. Now, you may have ideas about some or all of this questions, but I’m going to ask you to set them aside for the time being and be open to the possibility that what we discover through is process is more important than what we think we are looking for.
Meanwhile, during this Advent and Christmas season, I wish you a joyous expectancy. The gift that God gives to us is that we will receive the Jesus we need, not the Jesus we necessarily want. The invitation from that gift is to ask God for the grace to open our hearts to receive him. What God asks us is to sacrifice our certainty about who Jesus is and be open to the one who has come, is coming and will come again. Blessed are we who are not scandalized by his coming. Amen.
For an audio version of this sermon, click here.
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