Third Sunday of Advent 2016

It’s not uncommon in times of anxiety to look to the past. This is a time of year for nostalgia. We bring out old decorations. We make grandma’s cookies. We buy our kids toys that we remember. This is not merely escape. We are connecting ourselves to the truth of the story. We are remembering what we’ve been through, and how we hope to get through the next round of uncertainty.

Scripture often sounds like an echo. One verse reminds us of another. The prophets remember promises made in the past. They look to the stories of God’s great works as a way to interpret how God will return to us. The beautiful poetry of the return in Isaiah evokes creation and it has images of the exodus. Even so, God will create something new. Redemption and return will touch the whole of creation. All the people of the earth will be restored to God.

This season we offer our own hopes for peace and goodwill. I wonder how much we believe it will happen. Maybe someday, but not right now? On any particular Sunday morning we can sing the great hymns of faith and feel pretty good. Then we switch on the news on Tuesday and it all seems so far away.

It is good to remind ourselves that the act of faith is not based upon how we feel in any particular moment. We exercise the greatest faith when things seem most bleak. The Apostle James writes to Christians who are not finding it easy to wait. I’m certain that they were suffering persecution. It’s possible that these were Christians forced to flee from Jerusalem (and legend has it that this is James, the brother of Jesus.) James reminds them to be patent in persecution. He even reminds them that they must be patient with one another. We have to work at building community even as we wait for our salvation (and especially in difficult times.)

We gather with a fallacy that because God has saved us that everything ought to be easy. Our salvation is only the first step. We have to grow in our re-creation. We have to stretch ourselves and go deeper in our faith. We will discover along the way just how much we have to let go of. We will discern our true gifts and our true calling. All of these things keep changing as we grow and the world around us keep changing. We can’t escape the stress and confusion of life. Jesus urges us to jump right into the mess, and find our way.

John the Baptist is in prison. I’m sure he wasn’t feeling comfortable or strong. In his weakness, he sends a question to Jesus. “Are you the one, or should we wait for someone else?” Maybe John didn’t think his ministry would end in prison but in revolution. Maybe he thought he would see more conversion and transformation.

Jesus answers back, echoing the prophets, “The blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have good news.” This is what John was preparing for. Salvation comes to those who thought they’d never get it. Did you hear the edge to it? Who hears good news? The poor. Who gets healed? The blind, the lame, the lepers, the deaf. Who gets new life? The dead.

In a confusing and backward and inside-out way, Jesus says that salvation comes to those who are unequipped to look for it. We worry so much about how we look or what people think about us. We are anxious about our place in the world. None of this will save us. It is those very aspects of our lives that we wish to avoid and hide that Jesus uses to save us and recreate us.

There are other worries floating around in the world. When we see injustice, it is still our duty to stand up and fight for what is right. We worry about jobs, we worry about money, and we worry about the weather. Mostly we need to do what we must and trust God to take care of us (and acknowledge that God has done a pretty good job so far.)

Maybe we can let go of the need for perfect holidays. We have more than enough to do in simply loving our families, our friends, and our neighbors. More than ever before, if we can make time to listen to each other, it will go far. When we go through the holidays and we see a family ornament, or taste familiar cookies, part of the joy is in how we got through everything. The blessings have not all been easy. We have also fought and cried. We’ve held one another in our losses. We’ve had to regroup and start again. That’s what we are remembering too.

What have you come to see? Someone in soft robes – an easy message. Nobody needs that. We need the whole truth, and a reminder that it is often hard – and God has been with us always. In a time of worry and confusion, God is still with us.