The Third Sunday of Advent
Dec. 16, 2001

By
The Rev. Ann M. Smith

Based on the Gospel reading: Matthew 11:2-11

"What did you go out into the wilderness to look at?" Jesus says to the crowds about John. "What are you expecting to see?" I wonder if you find that question at all disturbing. After all, it is about John the Baptist, the one who proclaimed our Lord, the prophet who knew Jesus, his contemporary. I find that deeply disturbing. Here is a person who served salvation without owning it. "The least in the kingdom is greater than he," Jesus said of him. There is a sadness about that. It is a sadness that pervades this whole season of Advent. It is a disturbing note that calls us to examine our relationship with God and with God's creation, to look beyond our own limitations for signs of the activity of God in history.

"What did you go out into the wilderness to look at? What did you expect to see?" We have certain expectations when we travel out into the wilderness. We expect to find trees and flowers and birds and animals. We expect to find all the things that are missing in our urban lifestyle. But there is a dark side to the wilderness. Present circumstances make us more and more aware of that dark side. The importance of the wilderness is becoming clearer to us as we see the results of human misuse of creation. Environmentalists remind us that we are depleting the world's resources at an unprecedented rate. The hole in the ozone layer of the earth's atmosphere has increased alarmingly over the past few years. We continue to cut down our forests. We pollute our rivers and oceans. We over-fish. We carry oil in huge tankers that go aground causing widespread devastation. We wage wars. We build our cities on the best agricultural land. While we have enjoy the record-breaking warmth of this winter, we must recognize that it is not part of the normal process of things. It is not to reward us for all the bad winters we have experienced.

What are you going out into the wilderness to look at? What do you expect to find? This is a season of expectations. The stores are full of expectant shoppers, people looking for exactly the right gift in hopes that someone else is searching for exactly the right gift for them. Children are becoming excited about Santa's imminent visit. People place high expectations on their families and friends. They expect – and very often are disappointed. That is obvious in the problems society faces at this time of year. Loneliness and depression take their toll. The highest suicide rate in our country is during this season leading up to Christmas. This is not a happy time of year for everyone. Not everyone's expectations are met.

What are you going out into the wilderness to look at? What are your expectations during this Advent season? Advent is a wilderness time of the Christian year. It is an opportunity for making preparations. We, like the secular world, prepare by shopping and baking. We decorate our homes and churches. We don't go out into the wilderness. But we do decorate in ways that reflect our experience of wilderness. We literally bring the wilderness into our urban setting. We string up lights that glow out in the darkness like stars. We lay out straw and a manger scene. We brighten our homes with poinsettias. We look for the most wonderful, the most perfect pine tree, decorate it as carefully as we can and top it with an angel. We live in a kind of wilderness disorder for a short time as we await the prince of peace.

Advent is meant to be a wilderness experience in our Christian lives. It is intended to be a time of spiritual awakening, of spiritual preparedness for the coming of Christ. We are to prepare ourselves so that Christ may be born again in us. On the first Sunday in Advent we were reminded that it is through our sense of hopefulness that we share hope with others. Last Sunday we heard of the sense of peace that comes about through repentance, through finding peace with God, and letting our actions of love and justice prepare the way for the coming of God's kingdom of shalom. This week we are called to rejoice that in Christ God comes to save humanity.

Isaiah is speaking of the return from the time of exile in Babylon. The wilderness will rejoice and blossom. The ransomed will return. There will be miracles accompanying the return. Isaiah looked for a new age when God's blessings would be manifested through the coming of the Messiah. As Christians we recognize the blossoming of the wilderness in the coming of Christ. It is in him that God's glory is shown. Our assurance as Christians comes from the realization that human experience and human events have meaning and purpose within God's purpose.

John had to ask, "Are you the one who is to come?" He was the one who proclaimed Jesus as Messiah. Yet he does not understand what is happening. He is in prison while Jesus is walking around free. He had dreamed about how God's power would be made manifest. He had certain expectations about Messiah. He fully expected change to come about by force. But Jesus reports a very different kind of sign, a sign that God is indeed with us. "The blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, and the dead are raised to life. And the poor have the good news proclaimed to them."

John's expectations were dashed, and with them his hopes and dreams. We often see force as an effective way to bring about change. The government should use power more efficiently. The death penalty should be exacted. Every plane should have a Marshall on board. We should use force to bring an end to terrorism. The list could go on. But real change comes from within. The whole of human history is proof of that. Rebirth comes from within our hearts, from within our lives and families. Anything else is doomed to failure. New life can be born only from within us, as happened to those in Jesus' presence.

We need to go where Jesus goes. We need to do what Jesus does – serving, healing, helping, and sharing out in the world. Christ can speak to us as we meet new challenges and difficulties in a highly technological age of space and computers. He can lead us as we struggle to work our way through the confusion and loneliness of our age. He will be with us as we face growing apathy and cynicism toward our Christian values and way of life.

Our task during this Advent season is to let Christ come more fully into our lives. It is to share with others the joy of his presence by our concern for the suffering and the poor. It is to embrace this wilderness time and use it as a time to grow spiritually so that the wilderness rejoices and blossoms. It is to embrace the good news that God's kingdom of shalom is breaking in, that change is taking place and that humanity is getting healed.