Wondered if Jesus really was God in the flesh? Wondered if Mary REALLY birthed the Son of God?
Did you ever wonder if it’s all true?
This question’s been asked by the most faithful and the least—and it makes sense---how can it be that God’s here? There’s still hatred and intolerance; there’s still violence, hopelessness and loss. How can it be that Emmanuel--God with us --- is true?
Is he really the one?
John the Baptist wondered.
Now don’t get me wrong, John the Baptist BELIEVED.
He believed that he was the one to herald the coming of the King, he believed he was to serve as Elijah to the Messiah, that he was to announce the coming of the Lord. But we find him in today’s Gospel wondering if maybe, just maybe he made a mistake.
“Are you the one to come?” John asks.
“And, if you are, how come you’re letting me languish in this cell? Herod isn’t mellowing, my days are numbered, Lord. HOW ABOUT SOME HELP HERE?”
John believed.
But, what John thought he believed wasn’t playing out like he thought it would. He had faith that the Messiah would come. He had faith in Jesus, but Jesus as Messiah? Jesus didn’t fit the prototype, he wasn’t what John expected.
Think about the Gospel stories we hear throughout the year, think about who they tell us Jesus is… He’s not always who we expect…
We love the man who held children dear, who embraced the outcast and the hated. But to love that Jesus we must also love the Jesus who tells people to turn on their families in order to follow him, who tears up the temple, who compares a Samaritan woman to a dog.
Jesus isn’t always who we want him to be.
Our faith is something we hold dear, the stories of our faith nourish us, the rhythm of our faith soothes us.
But the reality of our faith?
Well that often shakes us to our core.
Where’s the star? The shepherds? Where’s Mary talking to the angel Gabriel? Why oh why must we get these readings about judgment and vengeance 14 days before Christmas? Why can’t we get a nice gentle lead into the story we all know and love?
Well…because the story we know and love isn’t the point. The birth of Jesus isn’t the point.
The life of Jesus and the life of all who follow him is.
Truth is, the factual details of Jesus’ birth don’t necessarily match what we hear in the nativity stories. But it doesn’t matter-- the story rings true in our heart. The Christmas story is an icon of our faith—the census, the barn, the star, the angels, the shepherds, the straw---but in the weeks leading to up to Christmas there’s not a star, a sheep, or an angel in sight.
Instead we get readings foreshadowing the second coming of Christ, the time when Jesus will return to the earth to separate the wheat from the chaff, the sheep from the goats, the followers of God from the non-believers. We get this Gospel where John the Baptist begins to wonder, “are you the one? Because it sure doesn’t look like you are. Where’s the kingdom? Where’s the peace? Where’s the unity?”
Jesus’ words echo here---“what did you come out to see, to hear? A show? A flashy liturgy full of promises, requiring absolutely nothing of you except tossing some money in the collection plate and following a set code of conduct that, if followed guarantees success and happiness…the so –called Prosperity Gospel?”
Wouldn’t it be great if we could come to church every Sunday, listen to beautiful music, recite familiar prayers, hear a decent sermon now and again, enjoy friends at coffee hour….and then go home and not think about it again until next Sunday?
But that’s not how it works is it?
We don’t just wander out of church on Sunday, we are sent out --to seek and serve Christ in all whom we encounter.
We are sent.
To be Christ in the world.
It’s not a spectator sport, is it? We are sent. To see and to do. To notice and to help. To realize and to change.
There’s a lot to do!
John the Baptist is scared, he’s worn out and he’s worried. Had he made a mistake? Was Jesus really the one to come?
Jesus, instead of soothing John with a simple, “YES and oh by the way here are your parole papers…” tells John that he is the One because the lame walk, the blind see and the hungry are fed. He’s telling John –and us---that the work of God here on earth is accomplished one step at a time, one kind act at a time, one healing moment at a time. And that His coming—the first time and the second---are book ends. We, the Body of Christ on earth are the filler.
We, the followers of Christ, full of wonder and doubt, full of hope and despair, full of questions that have no clear answers, fill in the space between the first and the second coming one step at a time, one kind act at a time, one healing moment at a time.
Jesus is the Messiah. And we are his followers.
As we enter into the wondrous story of his birth, don’t worry about what is fact and what is not, worry about what is true and right: that God so loved the world, God sent Jesus to live among us, to teach us, to inspire us and to leave us to finish the work that he began.
Amen.
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