3^rd Sunday of Advent
Text: Matthew 11:2-10
14 December, 2008

In the Name of the Father and of the X Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

We would be quite mistaken if we supposed that people only asked questions because they wanted to obtain information that they wouldn’t otherwise have.  As a parent, there are plenty of times when I ask a question that I already know the answer to.  I do so because I want my children to discover the answer for themselves.

Such an instance meets us in today’s Gospel.  A surface reading might have you thinking that St. John the Baptist had fallen into doubt about the Christ.  After all, what other reason could he possibly have for sending from prison his disciples so to ask Christ:  “ARE you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another?”

But stop and think for a moment.  This is the man who, unlike any of us, was filled with the Holy Spirit from his mother’s womb.  This is the man who confessed his Lord even before birth.  This is the man who baptized our Lord, saw the Spirit descend upon Him, heard the very voice of the Father say that Jesus was His Son, His beloved, in whom He was well-pleased.  This is the man who pointed to Jesus and cried out: Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.  This is the man who freely acknowledged:  “He must increase, and I must decrease.”  And now, just because he is in prison and hears of the miracles of Christ, he’s in a crisis of faith?

No.  The fathers of the early Church tell us we’re barking up the wrong tree if we suppose that.  St. John the Baptist was not in doubt.  But he had disciples who stuck to him like burrs to a dog.  He was in prison.  In Herod’s prison.  I don’t suppose he ever expected to get out.  And he knew he was the Lord’s forerunner - the forerunner of Him whom he named “Lamb of God.”  You remember what they do to Lambs, don’t you?  And he was to be forerunner.  Do you understand?

I suspect it was because he was anticipating the moment of his own death that he sent his disciples to Jesus after he heard what Jesus was up to.  He put a question to the Lord through their mouths.  He didn’t need to hear what Jesus would say - remember, he’d already heard about what the Lord was doing.  But they needed to hear it. They needed to take to heart our Lord’s answer.

And what an answer it was.  Jesus sends them packing back to John with these words:  “Go and tell John what you hear and see:  the blind receive their sight and the lame walk, lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, and the poor have good news preached to them.  And blessed is the one who is not offended by me.”

What a message to carry back!  Jesus could just as well have said:  “Isaiah’s prophesies are unfolding before your very eyes, every last one of them.”  And in that long list there was one word that they needed to hold to more than any other.  

Our Lord doesn’t see the way we see.  He knows the future.  He sees already these men, weeping brokenhearted at the death of their beloved John, so cruel and so utterly senseless.  So in the midst of all the rest was the crown jewel:  “and the dead are raised up.”  John would rejoice at that word to, and maybe they were the last words he whispered to himself when the sword was raised.  “The dead are raised up.”  But with their beloved John dead, where else could they turn, but back to the One who raises the dead?  Back to the One whose every deed disclosed the secret that He was Yahweh in our flesh and blood, the Eternal Son of the Father come to save us from sin and death?

Do you need to hear that word too?  I suspect you do.  I know I do.  A good friend of our family is Sam Broughton. Sam has been a Baptist pastor for 20+ years. His wife, Jenny, is an anointed speaker, in her own right, who ministers to thousands of women around the country through her speaking engagements. Recently, they have felt the fear of the unknown when a doctor’s prognosis hit him like a sucker-punch.  Hit him out of nowhere.  It turns out that Sam’s hearing loss and headaches have been caused by 4 benign brain tumors which must be removed tomorrow morning. With poor or no insurance, a perfect result in surgery will only solve half of the problems they are facing. How will the bills get paid? The grief of people weighs heavier in this Christmas Season, I think, than at any other time.  We remember those we have loved, and whose presence brightened our days and filled them with laughter.  And they’re gone; some through death and others by divorce.  And we feel sometimes as cold and dreary inside as a December day.

Is it any accident that the holy Church on this day cries out:  “Lighten the darkness of our hearts by your gracious visitation!”  We beg the Lord Jesus not to leave us, but to come to us so that His light would chase the darkness away.

John asked his question because he knew that those disciples he loved so much needed more than he could ever give them.  So he sent them to Jesus.  And his question has done the same for us this Gaudete morning.  John has sent us to Jesus, to the Only One who CAN lighten our darkness, because He comes bringing good news that He is the forgiver of sinners and the resurrection of the dead.

I mentioned this as “Gaudete” Sunday. Gaudete is a Latin word for rejoice! Advent, as you know, is a semi-penitential Season. It’s representation can be seen in this Advent Wreath of purple (penitential) candles and one pink candle, representing the fruit of the Spirit – joy. As we prepare for the coming of the Lord, we are to take stock of our lives; examine ourselves; judge ourselves, lest we be judged. So you should conclude that this is a good time to participate in the Sacrament of Confession, if you haven’t done so all year.

Yet, when doing a thorough self-examination of your life and you really see yourself to be the unworthy sinner that you are, it is very easy to cross directly over into grief and despair at how could the Lord possibly love someone like you! Maybe you see yourself in an impossible situation in your family, your marriage, your employment and you feel like you are in solitary confinement in the dungeon of a prison. THIS is the day when you hear the words “Rejoice!” Right after our Processional Hymn is sung by the choir a Scripture passage for the Introit . Today, it comes from St. Paul’s letter to the Philippians 4:4-6 “Rejoice in the Lord always; and again I say, rejoice. Let your moderation be known unto all men; for the Lord is at hand.” You do know he wrote that from his prison cell, don’t you? What was his secret?

In today’s epistle reading, St. Paul warns us against pronouncing judgment before the time.  We’re always tempted to do that on others and on ourselves - and, sad to say, on God Himself.  But the Apostle urges us to wait and be patient.  He tells us that the Lord when He comes will bring to light the things that now are hidden and that He will disclose the purposes of the heart.  Not just our hearts, but the purposes of His own heart.  We’ll see clearly then what now is such a blur and bewilderment.

But amid the many things we can’t be certain of, this we can be sure about:  the one St. John sends us to meet is the One whose deeds reveal Him to be indisputably God come in our flesh, not to wipe us out and give us our just desserts, but to love us, to hold us, to heal us. The God who came to know all our sorrows, even the sorrow of death itself.

Risen from the dead and ascended in glory, He comes to you again today - the very same Lord who shouldered your sin on Calvary and who left your death crushed in the dust beneath His feet on Easter morning - He comes to you and feeds into you His body and blood.  “For you” he says.  “For the forgiveness of your sins.”  As though he said:  “This is the light that I will shine into your darkness.  You are mine and I am yours and I will never let anything part you from my love.  Come, child, take, eat and drink.  I will be Your all in all.  And I WILL bring you home.  That’s a Promise.”

And so we confess:  You are the One who is to come, and we look for no other, for You alone, Lord Jesus, with Your Father and Your all-holy, good, and life-giving Spirit, are the only true God to whom be all glory and honor, now and ever and unto the ages of ages.  Amen.