The Unexpected One

In the Gospel lessons of the past two Sundays, Jesus told us to watch for His coming, and John told us to expect a righteous judge. John told us to expect Him to come and baptize with the Holy Spirit and with fire. He further explains, metaphorically, that the wheat and chaff will be separated and that the chaff will be burned with unquenchable fire.

John fully expects the Messiah to come in the power and glory of Almighty God. He preaches this news to those who come to him recognizing his prophetic role, in the image of Elijah. After all there had not been a prophet in Israel in over 400 years and at last, one appears. The multitudes flock to hear him. He speaks powerfully of the coming of the Lord and all that he will do when he arrives. Consequently, John sends his disciples to Jesus to ask the question, “Are you he who is to come, or shall we look for another?” John had been imprisoned by this time, and his ministry was finished. He was greatly concerned to be reassured that his ministry had not been in vain.

For centuries, the people had been looking for a Messiah who had been foretold. John, in his mission to the prepare the way of the Lord was baptizing those who were repentant in the waters of the Jordan River below Jericho, at the point where Joshua had led the people across into the Promised Land. Baptizing in water had become a ritual of entrance in the assembly of the Jews for those wishing to become Jewish. They had to come through the waters as the Israelites did at the Red Sea and the Jordan River. This was a symbolic re-entering of the Promised Land for those of Judaism who had fallen away. The name Joshua or Yeshua or Jesus means Yahweh (Jehovah) Saves. Therefore, John was trying to establish the right relationship between God and the people who had fallen away. The people had been under the domination of many foreign powers and so their spiritual relationship with God had suffered. They had fallen under the influence of those powers that controlled their lives.

Many of the most devout Jews had formed a party called Pharisees and they were attempting to bring about a renewal. They were trying to right this relationship with God by the strict observance of the LAW, the Torah.

Sometimes when we attempt to follow rules to strictly, the rules themselves become more important than the spirit of the law. The next major party in the land was the Sadducees, the influential people who wanted accommodation with the powers that controlled things. Not upsetting the applecart was their main concern. “Let’s just go along to get along.” Into this atmosphere stepped a wild looking man from the desert--a model of Elijah who preached that they should repent because one was coming who will judge what they have done in their lives. He told them to get right with God, be baptized like a newcomer to Judaism and get ready. So, it is little wonder then when Jesus appeared, and his ministry was one of healing and saving, that John was perplexed. Here he had been preaching that the righteous judge would come and what did he see but a forgiving healer. This was a problem for him, and he had to know what was happening in all this. The misconception of the role of the Messiah was not only a problem for John but for the whole nation because it had expected a conquering ruler to break the yoke of the Romans. So, everyone was expecting someone to fulfill his or her expectations. Many times, we have expectations of what a person is like based on his voice, if we have only talked with him over the phone or based on a picture of him or what someone else has told us of him. We get input from all sorts of people on all sorts of subjects. We are quick to make assumptions about people, places and things based on our expectations. As you read scripture and the story of God’s dealings with his people you should come to expect the unexpected. He can be sneaky in how he operates sometimes. God does not operate according to our expectations: Abraham and Sarah did not expect to have a son in their old age. Abraham did not expect God to ask him to sacrifice his son. The Hebrews, in bondage in Egypt, did not expect to be rescued by one of their own brethren who had been raised in the palace, who was a murderer and a fugitive from justice. This same Moses was not even eloquent enough to speak to the Pharaoh but had to have his brother Aaron speak for him. Samson did not expect that in weakness, blindness and helplessness that he would overcome more Philistines at his death than he had during his lifetime. The people of Israel did not expect that their greatest earthly king, David, would come from the small town of Bethlehem. Almighty God shows his great power by working through the weak earthen vessels of those we least expect to have power. Those of us who are chosen also do not expect to be worthy of his call. We spend a lot of time denying that he is calling us to his service.

Saint Paul reminds us that his power is manifest in our weakness and powerlessness. When we finally admit that we have no power to do or be anything, then our heart is open for him to move in and work a wonder. When we finally empty ourselves to allow his Holy Spirit to move in and have his way with us -- to fill us with his peace, then he will act. Part of the Prayer of Consecration, in Eucharistic Rite One, says it very nicely “Here we offer and present unto thee, 0 Lord, our selves, our souls and bodies, to be a reasonable, holy and living sacrifice unto thee.”

Advent is a season of preparation. It is a time for us to prepare our hearts to receive the one on Christmas who comes to be our healer and savior. The actions of our Lord as He goes about His ministry can be described by the Greek word “Sozo” which is defined several ways: heal, preserve, save or make whole. We can see, in His ministry, the works of God as mighty acts. God acts in time and space and does things. He acts through Jesus to save and make people whole, not only the people of 1st century Palestine but down through the centuries all the people who will open their hearts and accept Him as their Lord, their Savior, and their Healer. Jesus does not give the messengers from John a long dissertation on whom He is or what He is trying to accomplish, He simply states that they should report to John what they see and hear. He tells them that the actual deeds and actions of God are taking place before their eyes. Not only are the physically blind seeing, the physically deaf hearing, and the financially poor having preached to them, but also Jesus implies that the spiritually blind, deaf and poor are being made whole. He quotes to them the very things that Isaiah prophesied would happen:

“Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened and the ears of the deaf

unstopped then the lame man shall leap like a hart and the tongue of the dumb sing for joy. For waters shall break forth in the wilderness, and streams in the desert.” (Isaiah 35:5-6)

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because the Lord has anointed me to bring good tidings to the afflicted, he has sent me bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound.” (Isaiah 61:1)

By showing the messengers of John what was happening, in His ministry, He implied that He was the anointed one, the servant of God, come to save us and make us whole and one with God. Therefore, John was the messenger prophesied by Malachi that would go before the Lord’s anointed to prepare his people and a make a straight path or highway into their hearts.

We also are to open our eyes and ears to His mighty acts, to prepare our hearts to receive Him and take Him into our very souls and bodies. We are to become like Him, servants of God, to go out and make whole His people through our servant ministry. Never have things seemed so dark, in respect to corruption, sickness, disease, calamity and outright violence perpetrated on young and old alike. If you listen to the electronic evangelists and read your scripture you will see that we need to raise a mighty cry to God in prayer to show us the way through this period and bring to him a people repentant and ready to receive him. We need to follow his command to go forth and preach his gospel the good news that he saves and makes whole. Those who are serious about this call to prayer will need to make the commitment of time, energy, and sacrifice to bring about real change in the conditions of their lives, the church and the world. It cannot be done alone; it must be done in groups. “Where two or three are gathered together, in my name, there I will be in the midst of them.” Our Lord has promised us. He is here and He is among us and He wants to work a wonder. So that we can shout with the Psalmist “that is was the Lord’s doing and it is marvelous in our eyes” (Psalm 118). It is in small groups that we find churches grow. As we grow, we may find it necessary to form smaller groups to sustain the growth. Isn’t that what happened in the early church? They met in homes to pray together, break bread together, heal the sick and preach the good news. Going out and preaching the good news, evangelizing folks has not been the “thing” for Episcopalians; it has not been expected of us. I think its time that we did the unexpected. It is time to go out and evangelize to bring the good news to the outcast and the poor in spirit and to those who in their poverty of spirit are suffering under the yoke and bondage of Satan. If you have been following the new series on the life of Jesus called “The Chosen” there was an episode in the first season when Jesus called Matthew, the Tax Collector, to follow him. Peter gets upset and asks Jesus what he’s doing. Jesus explains and Peter replies that “this will be different.” Jesus then says, “Get used to different!”

We need to prepare ourselves this Advent season for the Incarnation of our Lord this Christmas. We need His power and His light in our hearts that we may be empowered to go out, to do what is unexpected of us and different from the rest of the world. We need to bring His good news to those who really need good news - that Jesus is alive and among us and that He saves, heals and redeems us from our sins.

A. BACKGROUND NOTES: John the Baptist’s Ministry

1. Meeting with Jesus. Before long Jesus presented Himself to John in order to receive

baptism at his hand, which John declined to administer until the Lord declared, “in this way it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness” [Matt. 3:15].

2. Subsequent Ministry. With the baptism of Jesus, John’s special office ceased. The

King had come, and there was little further need of the herald. We learn that John and his disciples continued to baptize some time after our Lord entered upon His ministry [John 3:23; 4:1]. John also instructed his disciples in certain moral and religious duties, such as fasting [Matt. 9:14; Luke 5:33] and prayer [11:1]. We also learn that he still continued to be a witness to Jesus, so confidently pointing Him out as the Lamb of God that two of his own disciples were led to accept Jesus as the true Messiah and became His followers [John 1:29-39].

3. Character. The nature of John the Baptist was full of impetuosity and fire, a second

Elijah. His life, however, was characterized by the graces of self-denial, humility, and holy courage. His abstinence was so great that some thought him possessed and said, “He has a demon!” In his humility he declined the honors that an admiring multitude almost forced upon him and declared himself to be no one-- merely a voice-- calling upon the people to prepare for the reception of the One whose sandal he was not worthy to remove. And when that One came, he recommended his own disciples to attach themselves to Him, furnishing an example of gracefully accepting the fact that “He must increase, but I must decrease.” For his courage in speaking the truth he went a willing victim to prison and to death.

B. DOCTRINAL POINTS: Luke 3:7-18.

In John’s eschatological preaching he challenges the crowd to show signs of the reformation of their lives required for baptism, rather than merely relying on their heritage as God’s chosen people. It is not sacrificial offerings or religious practices but the good fruit of ethical living that is asked.

1) Three inquiries are made of John. The crowds (the most general and thus universal)

are told not to hoard but to have the practice of helping others in need, which manifests true concern for the neighbor, so that in love and justice all may have the fundamentals of life.

2) Neither the tax collectors nor the soldiers are told to quit their jobs; but rather, in

their present situations they must transact their business in honesty and integrity, so that ethical living reaches all aspects of one’s life.

3) In a symbolic way John anticipates the Christian, prophetic missionary. Like John,

Jesus and the apostles, Christians are called to preach the need for conversion and to prepare the hearts of people for the gift of salvation in Jesus Christ.

4) The people’s question about the messianic nature of John’s ministry leads to

John’s Christological preaching. By emphasizing the “stronger one,” John denies that he is the Messiah. Even as a baptizer he is subordinate to Jesus, because of the nature of Jesus’ baptism with the Holy Spirit and fire.

5) The image of separating the wheat from the chaff depicts the results of the lives of

those who share their possessions and act in honesty and integrity, as opposed to

those who rob, defraud and bully others for their own selfish gain.

C. APPLICATION/DISCUSSION:

1. As the collect says: “Give us grace to heed the warnings of the prophets and forsake

our sins, that we may greet with joy the coming of Jesus Christ our Redeemer.” This season of Advent has been set aside before Christmas so that we might quiet ourselves down long enough to take stock of our lives and prepare for the coming of our Redeemer. The message today can be summed up in the words Repentance, Forgiveness, Hope and Encouragement.

2. Repentance: The action on our part that prepares our hearts to receive the coming

king. John preached to the people, to repent and prepare themselves for the one who was coming after him. That was why he told them that Jesus would baptize with the Holy Spirit and with fire. The fire that John referred to was the celestial, refining fire of God’s Spirit. The Holy Spirit’s celestial fire is refiner’s fire that burns off all the impurities, like the silversmith does when refining silver. He fires the silver ore until all that is left is the pure silver. When the Holy Spirit does his work in our hearts we are changed people. We are ready to receive the Forgiveness that Jesus brings as the Redeemer of the world. He came to bring the forgiveness of sins that we may be made right with God.

3. Forgiveness of sins is what the Gospel is all about- it is the theme of the parable of

the Prodigal Son, which could rightly be renamed the parable of the Forgiving Father. The core of the Lord's Prayer is the Forgiveness that we expect from God, but only if we forgive others. It is no wonder that John and Jesus had such a hard time with the Pharisees and Sadducees. Unforgiveness towards others is a bar and it blocks up the flow of God's Spirit into our lives to bring healing and wholeness. But once it is dealt with, Forgiveness it opens up the way for Hope to flow into our lives.

4. St. Paul wrote to the Romans: "May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in

believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope." [Romans 15:13] We must have hope in our lives if we expect live the fruitful lives that God intends for us to have. One of the triggering causes of suicide is loss of all hope. When the suicide-prone person loses all hope they are very susceptable to commiting suicide. The human spirit needs "hope to cope" with the pressures of life. Hope is like the pilot light in the hot water heater or Gas range. It that little spark you need to ignite your afterburners to get you going when the going gets rough. Hope is built up through encouragement.

5. We might consider these aspects of the ministry of encouragement:

a. Encouragement includes exhortation: Spurring one on to greater effort.

b. Encouragement is honest: It helps us to see ourselves as we are.

c. Encouragement is verbal: It gives good reports of progress.

d. Encouragement is exemplary: It leads by example.

e. Encouragement sees progress: It looks for improvement.

f. Encouragement is reciprocal: We both improve.

g. Encouragement fosters growth: Giving and receiving helps all to grow.

6. PRACTICAL QUESTIONS:

a. What elements of repentance are positive for you?

b. What things are negative about repentance for you?

c. How does repentance fit into the context of our daily lives?

d. Is it possible to teach repentance by word or by example?