15/12/19 St.James Harpur Hill Advent 3
Isaiah 35:1-10 James 5:7-10 Matt. 11:2-11
Third candle in our Advent Wreath represents John the Baptist so think about him this am.
When we first meet John in Matthew 3 he’s a very definite person - a prophet of the loud denouncing, sackcloth and ashes encouraging, locusts and wild honey eating school - you knew where you were with John - you were in need of repentance.
Jesus said, ‘What did you go out into the wilderness to look at? A reed shaken by the wind? What then did you go out to see? Someone dressed in soft robes? Look, those who wear soft robes are in royal palaces. What then did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I tell you, and more than a prophet.’
When we hear the name John the Baptist, this is who we think of, and this John is quite sure about Jesus -
Even in the womb From Luke And why has this happened to me, that the mother of my Lord comes to me? For as soon as I heard the sound of your greeting, the child in my womb leaped for joy.
and certainly by the time he and Jesus meet at the Jordan
‘I baptise 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 baptise you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and will gather his wheat into the granary; but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.” He knows who Jesus is, he is the one whom God has sent, Messiah, confident about what that means, confident too about what God’s kingdom will look like and how Jesus will bring it about. He doesn’t expect him to take any prisoners,
That John isn’t the figure we see in our reading today. This John is much more hesitant - he sounds as if he’s having second thoughts.
He’d expected to see God’s Messiah shaking the foundations - fighting fire with fire, after all look at the world and how much is wrong with it - it can’t be a world God is happy with - but… the Romans are still in charge, more to the point Herod is still in charge and John is in his prison with a bleak outlook, and Jesus doesn’t seem to be changing anything - how is God at work here?
We understand how John feels - we look at the world - it’s violence - look at Civil War in Syria, it’s despair What can be done about the damage we are doing to the climate? it’s injustice the forced exodus of the Rohingya from Myanmar - and always those who have the least end up picking up the bill, Where is God at work?
This is why John asks, Are you the one who is to come, or are we to wait for another? Have I got it wrong?
And what answer does Jesus give? ‘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 offence at me.’ Remember Isaiah.
What is Jesus doing? Caring for the vulnerable, standing by the needy, the good news starting with those at the bottom of the heap. John was right about who Jesus is but will need to rethink his expectations of what the Kingdom of God looks like. Not the response John expected from Jesus, this not quite how he had seen God. Perhaps not what we expect either. This is not the God who fights fire with fire.
This is a God whose kingdom has no truck with that approach.
We have the advantage over John here - we’ve had 2000 years more experience of seeing what paying people back in their own coin does - again Syria, but throughout history often the revolutions that were going to settle injustice once and for all end up replicating the same old problems,
W.H.Auden put it like this,
‘I and the public know
What all schoolchildren learn.
Those to whom evil is done
Do evil in return.’
The good news made flesh in Jesus is that a different way of life is possible, hearts can change and we’ve had 2000 years more experience of taking Jesus approach more seriously - the recognition that all lives are equally valuable showed itself in active mercy Kinder transport, the charities which go beyond the hand out and enable people to look after themselves, then the times where forgiveness and reconciliation have been seen where you would only expect bitterness - so three years ago after a terrorist attack at the Bataclan nightclub in Paris a husband whose wife had been killed there refused to hate her killers because that would give them the victory and that is not the atmosphere in which he wants their child to grow up.
We heard the same thing from the father of Jack Merritt who died at the end of November in the stabbings near London Bridge ‘He lived and breathed fire in his pursuit of a better world for all humanity, particularly those most in need. He would be seething if his death, and his life, was used to perpetuate an agenda of hate that he gave his everything fighting against.
Violence not being allowed to kill hope.
We have 2000 years more experience than John of seeing how the way of Christ can shed light where there seems only darkness.
‘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 offence at me.’
God’s good news changes lives in a way force never can.
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