A Sermon by April Alford-Harkey: Advent 3 Year A
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April Alford-Harkey
Advent 3 Year A
December 11, 2016
Trinity Episcopal Church Hartford
In the name of the creator, sustainer, redeemer. Amen
In today’s Old Testament reading in Isaiah, we see the continuation of the prediction, or prophesy of what the world will and can look like when the Messiah arrives. The mercy of God is terrifying and simultaneously a place of justice. The created order will be restored, and the weak and vulnerable are made whole when God visits God's people. God’s arrival heals all of God’s creation. The eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped; Then the lame shall leap like a deer, and the tongue of the speechless sing for joy, waters will burst open in the wilderness. God’s coming makes all that is weak strong and healthy. Isaiah offers promise for the here and now and a promise for future. In the future, Isaiah asserts that God will act for the people to reverse oppression and deliver them.
In the Gospel reading last week in Matthew we learned about John the Baptist’s ministry. A ministry that prepared a path and the way for the Lord. John the Baptist lived in the mountainous area of Judea, between the city of Jerusalem and the Dead Sea. He had a simple life and wore a camel hair shirt and ate locust and wild honey. He had strong unshakeable opinions and appeared not to doubt himself. John baptized those who came to him and also called Jesus the beloved of God and that Jesus is the one people had been waiting for. These things are now juxtaposed for John the Baptist in today’s Gospel.
John the Baptist is in prison waiting…little did he know he would later be beheaded. I can’t believe John the Baptist could have imagined himself waiting for rescue, not if Jesus was the Messiah he understood would come to the people. John the Baptist had done all that he was called to do, as a prophet, announcing the arrival of the Messiah. John the Baptist had blind devotion to Jesus. Frustrated and tired John the Baptist asked the disciples to go ask Jesus,” Are you the one who is to come, or are we to wait for another?” John the Baptist must have been confused…If Jesus was the Messiah why was he imprisoned and why wasn’t he being delivered from Herod?
The disciples come back and told John what Jesus’ response was to his question. Which is the blind, were receiving their sight, the deaf could hear, the lame could walk and the lepers were clean. These signs were Jesus’ answer. To say this is not the answer John the Baptist was expecting or looking for might be an understatement. I believe John the Baptist was looking for a more definitive response to the power that Jesus had.
From experience living under the rule of Herod John the Baptist may not have been able to wrap his mind around Jesus not arriving with majesty and grandeur. John the Baptist would have known about vengeance and military might because of Roman rule. How destruction of the enemy was the way to conquer a people and rule them. John the Baptist was looking for something big really… big. A God that made an entrance to be remembered. Then there is Jesus telling him to look at the signs.
But Jesus had come to change the script, to create a new paradigm and rule. A paradigm that looks like nothing anyone has seen before. A reversal that emboldens God’s creation to do good and to find a different way of being in the world. The type of being that heals and empowers others.
How seductive it is to think about a savior who could come into our world and basically beat up the bad guys. And how much we long for a new world, where, like we hear in the Magnificat, the lowly are raised up and the mighty are cast down. We are and have seen some amazing examples of God’s inbreaking during much chaos in the country and there have been hopeful signs that love and justice can be found in the toughest of times.
At the University of Missouri more than 30 football players refused to participate in any games or practices until the then President of the school Tim Wolfe resigned or was terminated. They felt that Wolfe’s responses to a series of racist’s incidents was inadequate. Especially when a swastika was painted on a wall in human excrement.
The fact that strikes by fast-food workers trying to be paid a living wage became so big that it turned into a social justice movement against wealth inequality in our nation.
Gavin Grimm a transgender male who is fighting for his and other peoples’ right to not have to use the bathroom of their biological sex but the bathroom that aligns with their gender identity. Gavin has sued the board of education in Gloucester Virginia and the case has now gone to the Supreme Court.
Standing Rock South Dakota, where two of the most volatile issues are being fought against, racism and climate change. The Standing Rock Sioux are protesting the Keystone XL Pipeline which is to run through sacred sites for the tribe. And likely destroy Native burial places. The pipeline could also contaminate the tribe’s only water source. Thousands of people have gone to Standing Rock to protest alongside the Sioux to protect their land. Most recently 2,000 veterans were slated to go. The tribe won a small victory when the Army Corp of Engineers has reversed their once decision to approve the pipeline. A small victory in a larger battle that is still to come.
Brothers and Sisters it’s tempting to look for a mighty savior to take revenge on our “enemies”, but just like when Jesus was doing his ministry, it’s the individual and collective healing and Good News that are needed, not revenge and displays of strength.
O God, you bound us together in a common life. Help us, in the midst of our struggles for justice and truth, to confront one another without hatred or bitterness, and to work together with mutual forbearance and respect; through Jesus Christ or Lord. Amen