12/16/07                                                                            MATTHEW 11:2-6

“IT’S BEGINNING TO LOOK A LOT LIKE CHRISTMAS”

Rev. James Singleton

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas
Ev'rywhere you go
Take a look in the five-and-ten, 
Glistening once again
With candy canes and silver lanes aglow

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas
Toys in ev'ry store
But the prettiest sight to see
is the holly that will be
On your own front door

Yes, by this third week of Advent it is beginning to look a lot like Christmas. The Polar Express train is at top speed and so are we as we continue with our Christmas preparations. All around us are the signs of Christmas: trimmed trees, crowded malls, blinking lights, inflated lawn Grinches, cookies in the oven, cards needing to be signed and mailed, television specials, Christmas pageants and those inescapable Christmas carols and songs. We are frantically getting ready for the Big Day.
        

But on this third Sunday of Advent the Christmas express is brought to a screeching halt. What a strange passage of Scripture to plunk down right in the middle of Advent, just nine days before the celebration. What’s with this doubting Thomas question from John the Baptist?  

What does John mean by asking if Jesus is the one we are expecting or should we be waiting for another? Does he mean to say that this Jesus that we have been so diligently preparing for and knocking ourselves out for might not be the one who will save us and the world?

Wasn’t John one of Jesus’ biggest fans? Wasn’t he the one who leaped in his mother Elizabeth’s womb when he heard pregnant Mary’s voice because he recognized that she was carrying the Savior? Wasn’t he the one who said that Jesus should baptize him and not the other way around? So what’s with this question as to whether Jesus is the one we want?

To begin with, John is in prison as a result of confronting King Herod about his illicit love life. John is facing the executioner’s ax, and he knows it. Things have not gone well for this man of God. And as he looks out from his prison cell, he sees a world that isn’t going so well either. There is injustice, disease, evil, war, grief, hardship, and pain. Not a lot seems to have changed since Jesus’ birth.  

John is confused. He is frustrated. If Jesus is the one he has been waiting for to change the world and bring the Kingdom of God to earth, why isn’t the world a better place? In other words, according to John, it’s not looking a lot like Christmas at all! So John sends some of his followers to ask Jesus his famous question, “Are you the one who is to come, or are we to wait for another?”

What are we to make of this question? The temptation is to ignore it and just keep on preparing for the Day. It’s too late now to stop. But still it is a question that will not go away. 

We may not be in prison like John, but there are times when it feels like we are. We live lives often filled with anxiety, troubles, conflicts, disease, disappointments, overworked schedules, underachieved expectations, sorrows, fears, and routine boredom. Who hasn’t felt trapped by circumstances? Who hasn’t wished for a better life or an easier way or some good luck or a miracle or two? Who hasn’t prayed for help or longed for a change for the better?

And, of course, there’s the world that we live in that is anything but the peaceful kingdom we pretend it is this time of the year. It is a world where children are abused, entire populations starve, mall shoppers are gunned down, religion is divisive, morality is plummeting, the economy is sinking, the poor are increasing and the rich are getting fatter.  

We feel like we are at the mercy of bearded oil sheiks in headdresses that play with our pocketbooks at whim. The toys that we buy are proving to be more dangerous than they are fun. And the future we are told is getting hotter in more ways than one.

Don’t tell me that John the Baptist’s question has not haunted the back of your mind like Old Marley’s ghost: “Are you the one who is to come, or are we to wait for another?”

Is Jesus really the Savior of this world and, if so, then why doesn’t it look more like it? Is it really beginning to look a lot like Christmas, or are the signs all merely superficial decorations to cover up our disappointment?  

Jesus’ answer to John is revealing: “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.” What is he telling John?

He is agreeing that the world has not been transformed all at once. But he is telling John to look for the signs that God is here and working in this world. For those who have the eyes and ears of faith, there are miracles here and there that can be found of Jesus changing our lives and the world.

I admit that there are many things that happen in this world that I do not understand how God can allow them to happen. There are many things that happen in this world that shake my faith and make me wonder sometimes if Jesus is really the Savior of the world.  

Then, again, there are many things that happen that I cannot explain in any other terms other than the Savior brought them about and the Kingdom of God is breaking in here and now on this earth.

Countless times over the years I have seen a doctor virtually give up on a patient as a hopeless case. The prayer chain was activated for that patient and there resulted a turnaround to such a degree that the doctors are left befuddled and mumbling to themselves.  

Barb Dutt, one of our own members, was recently given up for dead by everyone who loved her. The doctors gave her virtually no hope. She has been released from the hospital recently and to the overwhelming joy of her and her family she is doing fine.  

Ask her how it was possible and she will look you in the eye and tell you that without a doubt she knew she was dead but, like Lazarus, she was raised from the dead. She doesn’t know why her, but it was a sign. Does it happen every time to everyone? No. But it happens enough to let me know that Jesus is loose in this world healing and blessing. Go and tell John the dead are raised.

I have seen people go through unbelievable tragedy in their lives, to the point where I have wondered how they can keep on living. And I have been amazed at how some have had this strange peace that passes understanding and incredible hope for the future when the past has been so horrible. I have seen them rise up with strength beyond their own strength and find a joy that their sorrow could not take away. Some of them are here this morning because they have to praise God who has turned their mourning into dancing. Go and tell John, the lame walk. 

I have seen people who never believed in Jesus Christ their entire lives turn to me with tears in their eyes and say, “I give thanks to God for everything” because they have experienced a presence in their life they can no longer refute. Their blessings so overwhelmed them that they can no longer deny they are loved. The sense of forgiveness is so powerful for them that they can no longer deny that they have been found by one who has never given up on them.  

I will never forget what one of you said to me once. You said that you can’t believe how you have gone from serving drinks in a bar to serving communion in a church. Go and tell John the blind receive their sight.

I have seen work driven, material obsessed go-getters who have nearly lost their families, their health, the whole meaning of their existence do a complete turn around and begin to hunger and thirst for what money cannot buy. Rather than driven to earn more, they became driven to give more. They ceased their pursuit of the shiny things in life and devoted their life to the pearl of great price they found in Jesus.  

Does it happen to all who worship the things of this world? No. But it happens enough that I can tell John what I have seen: the lepers are cleansed.
 

Society has so distorted the beauty of this season that you would think that Christmas is about nothing more than trying to get as much stuff for me as possible. People fight to be the first in line to grab the Nintendo Wii console system and don’t care how far in debt they go just so long as they get what they want under the tree. Christmas has become an orgy of self indulgence.  

But then I watch you people here stand in line at the giving tree to select the name of a child to buy presents for, a child you will never see and never know, but you want to give a gift to a child who otherwise might not have anything.  

I see people here give special Christmas gifts so that our outreach might bless people near and far who are in great need. I watch you go caroling to the shut-ins who are lonely and share your time with them and remind them they are not alone. And I want to go and tell John, the poor have good news brought to them. 

I recently received an email that was sent by our own Taryn Molnar who is traveling with a drama group in China. There are few places on earth where Christians are more persecuted and ostracized than China. But Taryn found her way to a church where on Sunday she was surrounded by Christians from the US, UK, Africa, Sinagpore, New Zealand and other nations. There in the midst of this atheist country they worshipped and prayed for each other. She wrote, “Singing praise and worship was my favorite part…so overwhelming to realize even more just how big and powerful God is.” Go and tell John the deaf hear.

This earth is filled with signs that Jesus is the one we are waiting for. Our so-called common lives are afire with God. But most people see only the routine and trite. Christians are called upon to open the eyes and ears of faith and begin to recognize the signs.

What are the signs you have seen?

·        Where have you seen or experienced peace amidst turmoil?

·        Where have you found hope shining in a dark place?

·        Where have you witnessed a miracle that cannot be explained?

·         Where is joy so powerful it brings you to your knees?

·        Where have you been given a new life?

·        Where does God seem big and powerful for you?

These are signs of Christ upon the earth.

No, the world is not completely transformed because Jesus is coming into a manger. There is still much we have to wait for. But we can see enough to realize that in a real and meaningful way—it’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

                                                                                    AMEN.