Christ Episcopal Church
December 15, 2013
3 Advent A
Yesterday, while listening to the news coming out of Arapahoe High School in Colorado, people all over the country and perhaps the world, marked the one year anniversary of the shootings in Newtown, Connecticut that left 20 first graders, 6 educators, the gunman and his mother all dead. I remember listening with horror as the media began to cover the shooting, numb to the reality that such a tragedy could happen again. We watched as the children and their teachers were laid to rest, and as a small community came to grips with deep grief and made decisions about how to move forward and live the new life they had been handed. And we hugged our own loved ones a little bit closer having learned, yet again, about the fragility of life. In the face of such overwhelming tragedy, so close to Christmas, the John the Baptist’s question to Jesus echoes in my ears and perhaps yours: "Are you the one who is to come, or shall we wait for another."
Six years ago, my dear friend and mentor of about 35 years was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. Life expectancy for someone with that diagnosis is short. Peggy’s many friends all over the country prayed without ceasing for her healing in the face of really bad odds. Her husband kept a blog so that those of us who were far away could be part of the day to day roller coaster of medical treatments, emotions, hopes, and challenges. Some days there really seemed to be hope for a good long remission if not a cure. Most days, we could hardly imagine that our beloved friend might die. For 13 months, thousands of people, many of whom had never met, road this roller coaster together. But after 13 months, all medical options had been exhausted, the cancer had spread, and despite all our prayers and the belief that God could heal, our loved one died leaving behind a devastated congregation, husband and four children, and thousands of grief stricken friends. And we asked Jesus "Are you the one who is to come, or shall we wait for another?"
When John the Baptist sends his disciples to question Jesus, John is in prison for telling King Herod that Herod should not be taking his brothers’ wife as his own. Given that last week John the Baptist was calling the people " a brood of vipers" and telling them that they would burn with unquenchable fire, we can imagine that the conversation John the Baptist had with Herod was perhaps a little short on tact. Now John is held in prison without bail or much hope of being declared innocent.
John had firm convictions about the Messiah. John believed with all his heart that the Messiah would separate the wheat from the chaff and the chaff would be burned. John’s call was to prepare the way and he gave his life to that call, not just preaching repentance, but embodying a life of repentance as he lived in the wilderness wearing clothing of camel’s hair and eating locusts and wild honey. Now everything John believed and had staked his life on was being called into question. Where is that ax that will cut down the trees that do not bear good fruit? Where is that winnowing fork? Was John’s life’s effort for naught?
When John’s disciples find Jesus and ask "Are you the one who is to come, or are we to wait for another," Jesus reply is not yes, or no. Jesus sends John’s disciples to tell John what they see and hear. And what the disciples see and hear is that "the 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." These words echo the words we heard from Isaiah this morning that point to the coming of the Messiah. John should not believe that Jesus is the Messiah simply because random miracles are happening. John should believe that Jesus is the Messiah because the very prophecies John believed in were coming to fulfillment in Jesus. John’s work was not for naught. John is the messenger sent by God to prepare the way. John is the greatest of among those born of women, according to Jesus. But John was unsure about Jesus because John expected Jesus to be someone else. Several weeks ago, in another reading from Isaiah, we heard God say "Behold, I am about to do a new thing." Jesus is the new thing God is doing.
Like John the Baptist, we have expectations of the Messiah. We want Jesus to prevent tragedy, or bring healing, or reconcile relationships. We believe Jesus can do this, and when tragedy happens or loved ones die, our faith can be called into question just like John’s was. When we say to Jesus "Are you the one who is to come or shall we wait for another," Jesus does not give us a yes or no answer, either. Instead, Jesus says "Look."
I read an article about the Newtown tragedy online last week, and Jesus might as well have been saying to me "Look. In the face of great tragedy, lives are being rebuilt. Forgiveness is triumphing over hate. Life is overcoming death." The people of Newtown are clear that life is painful. A lot of healing still needs to happen, and that there are tensions in their community about how to honor the past and move into a new future. But the article also quoted a city official who said "We are emerging from that darkness with some skills and some confidence that is born of fire from that awful event." Organizations have been formed to help prevent future violence. Over 270,000 people have signed a pledge to "choose love, belief, and hope instead of anger." One father of a child who survived said that he "doesn’t want his child to go through life expecting to be handed teddy bears and complimentary tickets to sporting events. He wants to move on." If we look, we see signs of the work of the Messiah in the midst of deep grief and great loss.
Likewise, in the months after my friend’s death, when we asked Jesus "Are you the one who is to come or shall we wait for another," the answer was also "Look." Those months were filled with renewed relationships, the grace of a community that was spread all over the world but united in prayer, the gift of knowing a person with the strength to meet the challenges of a deadly disease with faith and patience, her ability to live fully in the face of death, and her deep knowledge that nothing can separate us from the love of God.
In both cases, Newtown and Peggy, we wanted a God who would prevent bad things from happening or at least heal the bad things that did happen. We believe God can do that. But when we, like John the Baptist, wonder if Jesus is really the Messiah or if we should look for someone else, Jesus says "Look. See what new, unexpected thing I am doing." Seeing what Jesus is doing is not always easy or obvious. Seeing what Jesus is doing does not take the pain away, nor does Jesus’ presence glorify the pain. But when we can look at see what God is doing in our midst, where there is life in the midst of death or hope in the midst of loss, we can see that Jesus is the one who is to come, and we can show others as well.
Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment