Sunday
12/11/16 Freeville/Homer Avenue UMC’s
Sermon Title: “Proclaiming the coming Messiah”
(“The Messiah is coming” Series – Part 3 of 5)
Old Testament
Scripture: Isaiah 35:1-10
New Testament
Scripture: James 5:7-10
Gospel Lesson:
Matthew 11:2-11
My friends, my sisters and brothers, welcome once again on
this the Third Sunday of Advent. It seems hard for me to believe that Christmas
Day is only two weeks from today, but it is. We had the blessing last Sunday of
having a sermon from our Finger Lakes District Superintendent, the Rev. Jeff
McDowell.
In his sermon, Rev. McDowell encouraged us, to “let go and
let God” in our lives. To let God guide us, not the other way around.
I know that for many of us, we know that we are supposed to
“let go and let God,” and yet this is not always easy for us to do. When the
stresses of life, when the complications of life, when the hardships of life,
and when the struggles of life occur, it can be to just hard sometimes to just “let
go and let God”.
The season of Advent that we are in now, is supposed to be
a season of great hope, peace, joy, love, and anticipation. Yet for many of us,
this season has become a season of racing here, and racing there. It has become
a season of buying, and less sleep, of stress, and for some, maybe a season of
sorrow and heartache, and etc.
For
me, it makes me wonder how we got from that first Christmas in Bethlehem, to
what Advent and Christmas has become for us today? Would Jesus be happy with
all of the commercialism and the other aspects of the Advent and Christmas Season
that we have in our culture today? Further, how can try to re-focus on the love
of Jesus Christ in the middle of what has become for many a hectic and a busy
time of the year? How can we in the midst of such things find the hope of Jesus
Christ?
In this being our season of Advent, I began a sermon series
two weeks ago, called, “the Messiah is coming”. Every Advent for nearly
two-thousand years, we have awaited the birth of Christ, like folks did on that
first Christmas in Bethlehem, so long ago. The difference for us today though,
is that Christ has already been born. The big question for us to ask ourselves
then, is can the hope of Jesus’ birth still change us and fill us in this
season of Advent and beyond?
You see, whatever our reality is in this season of Advent,
“the Messiah is coming”. Whether we are hope filled, or whether we are
hopeless, “the Messiah is coming”. The Messiah that came long ago, and
continues to come and fill us, is coming. Through the power of God, and through
the power of God’s people, the hope I believe that we should strive to have in
every Advent and Christmas Season, is to somehow experience the Messiah, Jesus,
anew.
The idea of the Messiah coming is a very ancient idea, as I
discussed on the First Sunday of Advent. Many of the Ancient Hebrew Bible or
Old Testament prophets, like Isaiah, Jeremiah, Micah, and Zephaniah, predicted
the Messiah would come one day, to bring love, hope, renewal, mercy, grace,
healing, and justice. Friends, brothers and sisters, can we recapture this in
this season of Advent, and then Christmas?
In last week’s lectionary reading from the Gospel of
Matthew, John the Baptist, the one who famously “prepared the way” for Jesus,
began his ministry of calling people to repent and be baptized. John the
Baptist claimed that under heavy Roman occupation and persecution, that the
Jewish people, and the people of the world had cause for great hope. How can
people who suffer so, or feel stressed or stretched thin have any cause for
hope?
John the Baptist said in Matthew 3:11, “I baptize you with
water for repentance, but one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I
am not worthy to carry his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit
and fire” (Mt. 3:11, NRSV). John the Baptist, in the face of great hardship and
adversity has found hope in this coming Messiah.
Like many folks though, John the Baptist realized that he
had a part to play in this Messiah story. We also have a part to play in this
hope of the Messiah. We here, all of us, can through the power of God change
the world around us. Do we believe that through God, that God can use us to do
great things in this community and this world?
It
would seem that some in this season of Advent though are doing as the John
Mayer song says, “waiting on the world to change”. I believe that Jesus, the
Messiah did and is coming to do many things. Part of this process though, is us
changing from the inside out, so that instead of “waiting on the world to change,”
we go and change the world around us. What would it take for us to have this
level of hope, joy, peace, love, mercy, and justice?
Do I believe that this Jesus is God in the flesh that is
coming amongst us soon? I do. Do I believe that Jesus on earth will be fully
God and fully human, will live a sinless life, teach us to love, heal, and
forgive, and then die for the sins of all of humanity? I do. Do I believe that
Jesus will then rise again, and return one day in glory? I do.
Yet, if I believe all of these historic Christian
teachings, which I do, what good is it if I sit and around and do what John
Mayer said in saying, “waiting on the world to change”?
In this way, Advent and Christmas is very much about God
coming into the world to change it, to die for us, to rise again, and to one
day return in glory. Are not changed at all by any of this though? Have we
given up on hope? Are we at this point, as John Mayer said, that we are “waiting
on the world to change”? The Jesus Christ that I believe in is reflected in the
scripture from James 1:22 that says, “But be
doers of the word, and not merely hearers” (Jas. 1:22, NRSV).
I have to
admit that I was a little taken aback when our Finger Lakes District
Superintendent, Rev. Jeff McDowell talk last Sunday about how one in four people
living in this Finger Lakes District area have no faith beliefs, and how many people
have given up on church all together. Or perhaps some believe but instead of
coming and changing the world with the church, they are as John
Mayer said, “waiting on the world to change”? Maybe they feel that the church
has harmed them, or maybe they feel that the church has lost its hope, and has
become irrelevant. Whatever this reality may be, “the Messiah is coming”. We
have an opportunity to reach people for Jesus Christ.
So
as we await the messiah in this season of Advent, are we changed from the
inside out by Jesus Christ? How can we “let go and let God” more, like Rev.
Jeff McDowell said to us last week? How can we allow our hearts and our souls
to be filled with God’s love, grace, mercy, peace, and justice, and how can we
then take that to the world? How can we love each other, so that we may
experience healing, grace, and the love of Jesus Christ?
This morning also in the gospel of Matthew like last week,
John the Baptist, the one who was baptizing people and proclaiming the coming
of Christ, is now in jail. It must be hard to be in jail. I participated in a
prison ministry weekend once, and I can imagine that being in prison must be
awful. I can imagine that someone like John the Baptist could have just said
being in jail, “forget all this Messiah stuff! I have no hope!”. Or John the
Baptist could have just said, “well I will just sit here and jail and keep,”
“waiting on the world to change”? Well friends, much like many of us when get
overwhelmed, or sad, or we are struggling, John the Baptist begins to briefly lose
sight of who Jesus is.
So why does John the Baptist, like
some of us might, seem to temporarily lose heart? Well our gospel reading
begins this morning by saying, “When John heard in prison what the Messiah was
doing, he send word by his disciples and said to him, “Are you the one who is
to come, or are we to wait for another?” In our present context, it would be
like saying that John the Baptist, who is in jail now, is now not having a good
Advent any more. He is now doubting if Jesus is even worth having hope in. Some
in this season of Advent and then Christmas, might feel the way that John the
Baptist felt in this moment.
In answering John the Baptist’s inquiry of whether Jesus was
truly the Messiah, Jesus answered them, “Go and tell John what you hear and
see; 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.
And blessed is anyone who takes no offense at me” (Mt. 11:2-6, NRSV).
John the Baptist, the one who proclaimed
the Messiah was coming, the one who announced that Jesus had arrived and was
then baptized him, has what seems to be a moment of weakness or brokenness.
Friends, sisters and brothers, this is why we need each other, so that through
God we can build each other up. In this way we can be doers, by living and
working together in Jesus’ name.
The gospel then goes on, as Jesus is speaking to the folks
that John the Baptist called to repent and be baptized. Specifically it says,
“As they went away, Jesus began to speak to the crowds about John: “What did
you go out into the wilderness to look at? A reed shaken by the wind? What then
did you go out and see? Someone dressed in soft robes? Look, those who wear
soft robes are in royal palaces” (Mt. 11:7-8, NRSV).
Jesus then concludes this gospel reading by saying, “What
then did you go out to see? A prophet” Yes, I tell you, and more than a
prophet. This is the one about whom it is written, ‘See I am sending my
messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way before you.’ Truly I tell
you, among those born of women no one has arisen greater than John the Baptist;
yet the least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he” (Mt. 11:9-11, NRSV).
Jesus Christ said that John was a great man, a great
prophet. Even though John the Baptist did doubt some this morning, Jesus saw
who he was, and he sees who all of us are, as well.
I believe that through the awesome power of God, we can
find the hope, the love, the joy, and peace that is Advent and Christmas
Seasons. Amen?
I
also believe that in loving and caring for each other, that we can also find
these things anew in each other, through God. Friends, “the Messiah is coming”.
The hope of the world is coming. Do we have hope, do we have joy, and do we
have peace? If we come together in love and hope, if we continue to be doers, I
believe we can all be renewed by Jesus, through the power of the Holy Spirit. May
God bless us all. Amen.
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