12th December - Reverend Jo Jones

Sermon 12^thDecember 2010 Advent 3

Last week we encountered John the Baptist preaching repentance and warning of a terrible judgement to come for those who refused …. he saw that Jesus was God’s Messiah, the one who would bring the kingdom of God near - he had read the signs of the times but he was languishing in prison and about to die. He must have been afraid and he must have wondered if he’d got it right – Jesus’ ministry had not brought about the complete reversal of Israel’s situation that he’d perhaps been expecting – Rome still ruled, the unrepentant still flourished, ……..no wonder he asked for some reassurance, are you the one or should we wait for another….surely this is not what God’s judgement is supposed to look like?

And Jesus’ answer is not yes or no but look again at what’s actually happening – John the Baptist preached about the destruction of the wicked he thought must come through the righteous anger of God; Jesus brought a fire of love which burns even more fiercely than John had imagined - the mercy and love that Jesus preached is itself a terrible indictment and judgement against the world of injustice, brokenness and sin; it’s a judgement which brings salvation. It overturns the values of power, might and money – the driving forces of the kingdom are not revenge, violence and selfishness, but compassion, mercy, love, healing and wholeness. And when John the Baptist thought about Jesus’ message to him – surely he recognised the dawning of the age to come which Isaiah foretells, words spoken during the Babylonian exile – when Israel, like John, was held captive, unransomed, mourning in lonely exile – now what they longed for was indeed unfolding when the son of God appeared - the lame were leaping for joy, the blind were learning to see – not just physical but spiritual healing as people began to grasp what it really means to experience God’s kingdom coming into the world. Even John the Baptist, the prophet of the most high who had been commissioned before birth to go before our Lord to prepare his way, even he had his expectations about the Messiah and the kingdom of God challenged by the reality of Jesus. And Jesus challenges us – that if we enter fully into the promises of his love our joy will outstrip all that has gone before. What’s in store for us if we respond to Jesus message will outshine even the ministry of John the Baptist – can that be possible?

Advent is a time of preparation for Christ’s coming – and preparation necessarily involves taking an honest look at ourselves to see how ready we really are to receive and live out the good news of Jesus. This self-examination can be painful, uncomfortable, it makes us, like John the Baptist, ask questions of ourselves and God. What are we expecting from God?

What are we going out into the desert areas of our lives expecting to see? Are we hoping to meet God and be changed by it? Are we still longing for good news and are we able to recognise it when it comes? Or will we be offended by it because it’s not what we were expecting it to look like, not what we thought it would be?

John the Baptist had offended Herod and his court – and Jesus had caused deep offence to the religious community by eating and drinking with tax-collectors and prostitutes and healing on the Sabbath – and his ministry challenged the status quo which suited the political and military authorities. The healing and cleansing he brought was not universally welcomed – it was a threat to the powerful because it reversed everything they stood for.

The gospels are the ultimate in tales of the unexpected. Jesus was not the sort of MessiahIsrael expected and he’s not always what we expect – he is the God of surprises. And that can be hard – we want the church and the world to meet our expectations, we want everyone to do things the way that we think is best, we are always in danger of making God in our own image rather than letting him remake us in Christ’s image. After all the incarnation didn’t take shape how we might have expected it to – God himself being born as a human being, to a poor family in an obscure bit of the Middle East in a time when there was no internet access – surely not????

And what is God’s hope for us in Advent? What is he longing for us to discover as we wait injoyful hope for Jesus who has come, yet is coming and is still to come again? The coming of what Isaiah describes is not jam tomorrow but milk and honey today if we can only open ourselves to Christ at work in us – if we let the Holy Spirit guide our fearful hearts we can come out with his help of the prison of our limited human expectations into the divine freedom of God’s promised land.

So Advent is a time to stay awake and alert to the Spirit of God at work in us and in the world, for being prepared for the unexpected, to be excited by new patterns of living, new ways of being – to experience for ourselves, in our lives, in our church, in our community what John the Baptist saw even though he was in prison awaiting death – that God does what he has always BEEN DOING - A NEW THING!!

So when Christmas comes, we are not just hoping for a surprisepresent that will make us happy, but we are longing for the surprising, transforming presence of our Lord Jesus, whose Spirit is like a stream of water in the dry land of our souls and whose saving love, uncovers our deepest longings and meets our deepest needs and makes us sing for joy.