Readings
for Advent 3A:
Isaiah 35:1-10; Psalm 146; James 5: 7-10; Matthew 11: 2-11
December 12, 2004
The Rev. Mary B. Blessing
St. Jude the Apostle Episcopal Church, Cupertino,
CA
At our monthly "Faith-Full Families" gathering, one of the dad's turned to me and said, "There's something I've noticed about the people of St. Jude's lately: people seem happy. They seem happier now than they used to be. The more involved I get here, the more I see people are happy. Have you noticed that?" I paused a moment and looked around the room filled with parents and young children enjoying an evening of music, prayer, art projects, and fellowship. I answered, "Yes, now that you mention it, I have noticed. I would say they seem 'content'. As if they are spiritually satisfied, filled with a joy of knowing they are loved, even if things are not completely right in the world." "Yes," he said, "that's it, they are content."
A few days later, another St. Jude's dad came by my office. He asked, rather casually, "Do you think a person has to make a commitment to Christ before they can be spiritually transformed, or can they begin to be spiritually transformed and then out of transformation make a commitment to Christ?" An hour later we were still pondering.
At first glance, these two conversations do not appear to be related. I believe they are profoundly related. Happiness, commitment to Christ, and spiritual transformation: this is what we are doing here. The order we do them in probably doesn't matter.
Today's reading from Matthew sheds light on this question: do we first commit ourselves to Christ, and then begin to be spiritually transformed, or do we begin to be spiritually transformed and then commit our lives to Christ?
John the Baptist made a commitment to God to give up personal happiness as he sacrificed a normal life for the life of an ascetic prophet. No wife, no family, no comforts of home. John was an itinerant preacher who went around the countryside, commanding people to change their lives, to turn toward God. He called people to a life of repentance; a life of committing oneself to God in new ways. He called people to wash themselves with the water of baptism, as a sign of their repentance. And, he called people to follow Jesus as the Messiah. But John's view of what that Messiah would look like was rather different from how Jesus behaved.
Jesus offered loving mercy, even before people asked for "repentance." Jesus was not the wrathful, Ruler King that John expected. Alone in prison, John began to question whether or not Jesus was "the One", the Messiah, who would free Jews from oppression. Jesus did not do what John expected, yet, Jesus would prove to be Isaiah's vision of the Messiah as a healing servant.
Jesus is the healing servant, already living in a kingdom of peace. Not a kingdom of peace because the world around him is peaceful, but living in a kingdom of inner peace, a state of being, which allows him to move through the world serving and healing and bringing good news to the poor in spirit.
John was disappointed, and, sadly, did not live long enough to realize the full significance of Jesus' mission. Jesus says John was the greatest of all "born of woman". He made his commitment to God, he was faithful to Jesus, but, in the end, even John struggled to truly understand who Jesus was.
How many of us have been "disappointed" in Jesus? During this season of Advent, as the Church asks us to prepare for the coming of Christ, how many of us find it difficult, because Jesus fails to live up to our expectations? We may say, "What's he ever done for me?" Or maybe we just think Jesus is irrelevant. How many of us find that the image of the innocent babe in swaddling clothes fails to satisfy our quest for spiritual transformation? Why would we make a commitment to follow an irrelevant Jesus?
I recently asked our teens to stop and think: "Who is Jesus, Really?" We brainstormed quite a list. Here are some: my best friend, God's Son, teacher, prophet, the anointed one, a Palestinian, the Messiah, Mary's Son, a "bastard", Joseph's adopted son, my confidant, the Risen Lord, the Christ, a baby, a brother, my prayer partner, a convict, a carpenter, a Jew, the founder of a movement, a rebel, the Light, "the Way, the Life and the Truth." Jesus is all these, and more, but he was not always all of these things. Many of these images of Jesus only apply to the Risen Christ, the Jesus that died on a cross and lives on into eternity.
John did not know the Risen Christ. He knew only the pre-Easter Jesus: born of a humble woman, possessing powers to heal, witty, strong, and filled with the Spirit.
Marcus Borg, in his book, Meeting Jesus AGAIN for the First Time, describes the pre-Easter Jesus vs. the post-Easter Jesus. While it is virtually impossible to separate ourselves from the post-Easter Jesus, there is enough evidence to get a sketch of the Jesus known to John the Baptist. This pre-Easter Jesus has 4 basic characteristics:
Perhaps some of us who are reluctant to make a commitment to follow Jesus need to take time to get to know the pre-Easter Jesus. Would you like to follow a spirit person, a holy man who lives in relationship to the sacred in a special way? Or, would your life benefit from the influence of a wise teacher? Would your soul be awakened by truth shared in story and with hope? Perhaps you would be motivated to follow a prophet proclaiming the need to right injustices against the oppressed. If you are inclined to follow this spirit-filled, wise prophet, perhaps you would be willing to participate in the new religious movement that challenged the old ways for a new way of living, Christian living.
To get to know this pre-Easter Jesus, read scripture that tells his story. Read it, and inwardly digest it. As you read, you will discover ways to look at the world differently. No longer will the homeless person be a faceless bundle of pain; no longer will children be seen as a bother; no longer will you despair if you make a foolish mistake, for you, too, will find mercy in Jesus' stories. In Jesus, you can place your burdens, and you will find hope. As you get to know the pre-Easter Jesus, you may discover the post-Easter Jesus, the Risen Lord, entering your heart.
Making a commitment to begin a relationship with Jesus may be the beginning of a life of spiritual transformation, or it may be one step along your spiritual journey. Making the commitment to stay in relationship to Jesus, to meet him again for the first time, over and over throughout your life, will offer you the opportunity to experience greater happiness, a deeper sense of contentment, with each passing year.
Why not give 2 gifts this Christmas:
AMEN
| Updated 12/13/04 |
|