Isaiah 35:1-10; Psalm 146:4-9; James 5:7-10; Matthew 11:2-11
The Rev. Drew Brislin
“Are you the one who is to come, or are we to wait for another?” John asks this question in our reading this morning. It’s no surprise John has doubt. After all he’s sitting in prison at this point in the Gospel narrative. If John the last great prophet is starting to doubt about who Jesus is and he is one of his contemporaries, then what does this do to our confidence as we read these stories some two thousand years later. As we continue in this season of Advent and watch so many decorate and plan for the holidays, it can sometimes be easy to forget that not everyone is experiencing this season in the same way.
One of my favorite traditions during this season though is watching all the Christmas movies. I love the classics like National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, It’s a Wonderful Life, Miracle on 34th Street, White Christmas and then there is my guilty pleasure. I am a huge fan of the Hallmark Christmas Movies. You know the one’s where there is always a story about Nick and Mary or Joe and Holly. I won’t lie, the plot usually involves a young successful businesswoman who moves from the big city to a small town for one reason or another. She meets a rather unassuming guy wearing flannel who seems rather simple. Some sort of calamity besets them and in the process of navigating said problem they fall in love and then she learns at the end that he is some sort of hedge fund manager or tech guy that he is rich. They always have a happy ending though and I’m a sucker for a happy ending. I think John is pointing us to a happy ending this morning as well.
Our Gospel reading this morning, as I mentioned earlier, begins with John in prison questioning whether or not Jesus is the one to come, the Messiah. It’s not hard to understand why he might be starting to doubt. While he is sitting in prison which really was like a purgatory. Jesus, who is God incarnate, is out there working, teaching and healing, John is beginning to wonder why hasn’t he freed me from prison already? So, he sends some of his disciples to Jesus to figure out what is going on. Now if you are worried about this human reaction of doubt, try not to be. We so often hear the word doubt and think of it is a character fault, however, Brian McLaren in his book Faith after Doubt tells us that faith and doubt work together. Without doubt the author explains we cannot stretch our faith, that without doubt we cannot grow from one stage in our faith to another. The questions that come from our doubts help us to engage our faith and God in a way that allows for our relationship with God to grow as unique beings created in God’s image. John’s doubt will allow him to question and through that process of questioning, he will experience transformation.
Jesus replies to John’s disciples, “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 offense at me.” Jesus is again flipping everyone’s worldview upside down. He is not going to be a military leader that will return Israel to the status it enjoyed under David’s rule. He is not going to be dressed in fancy robes or live in palaces. As Jesus is talking to the crowd and telling them about John, he is confirming the message that we heard John proclaim last Sunday in our Gospel reading and that He and John are preaching the same message. Salvation is not just about what happens to us when we die; but is the feast that is available to us today. That if we look and if we can be attentive to where God has already shown up, then we can be reassured of his coming again. How do we see these glimpses of God that will move us to proclaim his presence out loud? I think it is in those whom we get to serve. It is those we see in need that we help. It is in those who are lonely that we sit with. It is in the hungry whom we seek to feed. It is the sick who we try and help find care. It is those in prison that we visit. In proclaiming that the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead raised, and the poor have had good news brought to them, Jesus is proclaiming a transformation that is happening in the world and that a new community is forming.
There is a common thread that seems to run through our Gospel reading this morning and some of those Christmas movies as well as those from Hallmark that I mentioned earlier. The characters all seem to experience doubt as they move from one stage of their experience to another. They all experience transformation. If George Bailey or Clark Griswald never realize just how much they mean to those who love them their stories have a completely different meaning. If the identity of St. Nick is not confirmed in Miracle on 34th Street and Nick and Holly never overcome the challenges in their story, then we are sending a completely different message. In fact, I have heard it suggested that Christmas movies really should be called Advent movies since they all tell a story of transformation and transformation after all is an Advent theme.
So many of us experience seasons of doubt and the holidays make many of us especially susceptible to that doubt. Rather than letting that doubt affect us in a negative way, we should embrace it. If we embrace our doubt, it can help us to grow. In fact, we can find that our doubt is crucial to our growth. We are all in different places spiritually and emotionally. Many of us will experience grief, some loneliness, some anxiety and despair while we look around and think everyone else is experiencing a sense of joy. Quite often many of us are experiencing some or all of these things and maybe all at the same time. These feelings are all normal and they all help us grow and transform. John is helping to show us the way to transformation this morning by questioning what he believes about the One for whom he went out to prepare the way. As we continue our journey through Advent, let us embrace our own doubt so that we can experience our own transformations.
Advent Blessings Friends and Amen