Watching & Waiting for Unexpected Joy (Advent 3)

Isaiah 35:1-10; Luke 1:47-55 & Matthew 11:2-11

December 15, 2019

3rd Sunday in Advent

(click here for the audio for this sermon)

In this Advent season of watching and waiting, preparing and anticipating, it is helpful to remember who the waiting is for. Christmas has become such a cultural experience, and we are so bombarded by reminders beginning even before Halloween, that it is easy to think of Advent as simply four weeks to get ready for parties and gifts and Santa Claus. And even if we manage to keep our attention focused on Jesus as the real reason for the season, what we quite often find ourselves looking for is the baby born in Bethlehem. We sing carols like “Away in the Manger” and “What Child Is This?”, and we set up nativity scenes with mangers and infants, and we think we have it covered. And there is nothing at all wrong with thinking about the baby Jesus. The miracle of God’s incarnation as Emmanuel, God with Us, begins with that humble birth in a stable. But if we stop there, if our watching and waiting fails to anticipate the rest of the story, then we will have missed most of the power of what God is doing among us. And it is easy to miss, because it is not always what we expect to find, and it is not always even what we want to find. As Ann Weems reminds us, “Our God will be where God will be, with no constraints, no predictability.” 

Last week we met John the Baptist preaching a message of repentance and preparing the way of the Lord. He announced that there would be One coming after him who was more powerful than he could ever be. If anyone qualifies as an Advent role model for watching and waiting and preparing, it is John. Surely he knew who he was waiting for! But then we encounter him again in today’s reading from Matthew, only this time it is at the end of his life and we find him asking Jesus an unexpected question. “Are you the one who is to come, or are we to wait for another?” (Matthew 11:3) How can this be the same John who called the religious leaders a bunch of snakes because they weren’t taking God’s message to heart? How can this be the same John who only reluctantly baptized Jesus, because he didn’t think he was worthy even to tie his sandals? When he was watching and waiting he was filled with such confidence and certainty, and then when faced with the very embodiment of his anticipation he finds only doubt and uncertainty. Where is the message of faith in that?

Actually, the message of faith in this story is two fold. First, there is more than a little comfort to be found in John’s questions. If someone of John’s stature can have doubts, then we can know that we are in pretty good company when our own questions and doubts rise to the surface. It is a part of what it means to be human beings who struggle with issues of faith. At the same time, however, John’s uncertainty serves as a warning for us. Even strong faith can come up short when it seeks to maintain a narrowness of vision against the wild, unpredictability of God. John had spent his whole life growing up in a culture which had spent much of its history anticipating the coming of God’s Messiah in fairly specific terms. John knew who he was waiting for, or at least he thought he did. The problem arose when Jesus re-defined the expectations. He was God’s Messiah, but he lived that out on God’s terms rather than based on any human definition. It is possible that John’s question, “Are you the one...?” came because Jesus was, in fact, not what John expected. He certainly wasn't what the Pharisees and other religious leaders of his day expected.

And the question is, do we recognize the presence of God when that presence shows up in our lives? In this season of Advent, are we so busy watching for the baby Jesus that we fail to remember we are also watching for the one whose coming Isaiah announces with powerful images of the desert blossoming and everlasting joy because the power of the Lord has driven away all sorrow and pain? Does our vision get so stuck at the manger that we miss the one whom Mary announces with such great joy when she sings of the established order of things being turned upside down? Whenever we become certain that we know how God will work in our lives and in our world we begin to run the risk of missing out on what else God might be doing beyond just what we can imagine. Sometimes we find it easier and safer to focus on baby Jesus sweet and mild rather than on the One who helps the blind to see and the lame to walk and the deaf to hear and the poor to find new hope and the dead to live again. It is easier and safer, but look at what we miss! In an episode of the old television show “ER” there was a story about an elderly Jewish woman who was a survivor of the Nazi concentration camps. Through a traumatic and frightening experience she found herself doing something she had stopped doing 50 years before – praying. And what she discovered again was the presence of God. In talking with her family who had gathered around her, bringing their Hanukkah celebration with them to her hospital room, she told them she had long ago decided that she and God had forsaken each other, but what she discovered was that God had been there for her all along in each of them. It was not what she expected to find, but therein lies the miracle.

So, this Advent, as we watch and wait for the coming of God’s holy and anointed One, may we anticipate the quiet wonder of God coming among us as a baby, but may we also be prepared to discover God’s presence among us in unexpected and life-changing ways as well. May we remember that the One for whom we are waiting is more than we can ever imagine. Thanks be to God!