Rev. Tessie Mandeville
December 16, 2007
Christ Covenant MCC
Decatur, GA 30030

My administrative assistant, Dionne, said to me last Sunday after church: You went Baptist on us in that sermon talking about repentance, unquenchable fire and salvation! To which I said: Hey, that’s the lectionary text; I didn’t write it! But she has a point as anyone who grew up Baptist will tell you. Baptist preachers love gospel stories like that and perhaps the reason they called John, “John the Baptist” wasn’t solely because he baptized a lot of people but because he had a particular style and rhetoric he used when doing so.

John the Baptist used a blazing rhetoric in the gospel story last week when he talked about the coming of the Messiah because John expected his Messiah to be powerful and aggressive. He was looking for particular signs. But John wasn’t alone in looking for a Messiah like that. During that time the Jews were under Roman Occupation and John, and many of the Jewish people, were looking for a Messiah that would be their hero. They were looking for a Messiah who would be their new political king. They were looking for a Messiah who would come in an apocalyptic blaze of glory and level the Roman Empire in one fell swoop as he rode by on his white horse. John had great expectations for the coming of the Messiah.

“There’s nothing wrong with expectations; it's where we look for them that is the problem.”1

We pick up with our story today with John the Baptist in prison pondering some very important questions. Instead of the fiery Baptist preacher from last week, today we hear from a deeply discouraged and disappointed John the Baptist who says to Jesus, Are you the one we’ve been looking for or is there someone else coming? Someone better perhaps. In other words Jesus, you’re not who we were expecting. We expected a vengeful Messiah who would separate the wheat from the chaff and throw the chaff into unquenchable fire. We expected a violent Messiah who would take an axe and cut down the political systems of the Roman Empire. We expected an angry Messiah who would deal ever so severely with the brood of vipers, a term that John used referring to the religious leaders. We expected a Rambo or a Terminator. And we got you! We got someone who goes around touching the untouchables. We got someone who spends time with the outcasts and marginalized people in society. We got someone who heals people and makes them whole. We got someone who spends time restoring people to their birthright as children of God.

Jesus, you were not who we were expecting . Ann Weems writes about the unexpected in this way:

Even now we simply do not expect

to find the deity in a stable.

Somehow the setting is all wrong;

the swaddling clothes too plain,

the manger too common for the likes of a Savior,

the straw inelegant,

the animals, reeking and noisy,

the whole scene too ordinary for our taste.

And the cast of the characters is no better.

With the possible exception of the kings,

who among them is fit for this night?

the shepherds? certainly too crude,

the carpenter too rough,

the girl too young.

And the baby!

Whoever expected a baby?

Whoever expected the advent of God in a helpless child?

It was Mark Twain who said, “A thing long expected takes the form of the unexpected when at last it comes.”2

I believe each of us has expectations about the Messiah we’re looking for. Some of us expect a Messiah who will like the people we like and hate the people we hate. Some of us expect a Messiah who practices the same theology we do and champions the people and causes that we champion. Some of us expect a Messiah who will assure us that he loves us without demanding repentance and changes in our lives. Some of us expect a Messiah who will meet us in our woundedness and victimhood without calling us to heal those wounds and to change our stories. Some of us expect a Messiah who will save us from difficulties. But here’s the thing: Jesus didn’t rescue John the Baptist from his difficulties. John was still in prison and later died a horrible death. And Jesus doesn’t always rescue us either though he is always present in our difficulties. I’ve heard it said that we need to “Beware of finding a Jesus entirely congenial to you.”3   

Each of us has expectations about the Messiah we’re looking for. So the question that we are left to ponder is this: Do we want to follow the real Messiah or simply our idea of who he should be?

John the Baptist said to us last week, “Repent for the realm of heaven has come near.” And they all knew it was near; they just had different ideas about what the signs would be. So they questioned Jesus about it and what’s interesting to me is that Jesus didn’t answer the question, at least not directly with ‘yes’ or ‘no’. They asked, “Are you the one we’ve been looking for or is there someone else coming?” And Jesus said, “Make up your own minds based on what you hear and see. “The blind see. The lame walk. The deaf hear. Lepers are cleansed. The poor receive good news. ” In other words, the proof that he is the Messiah and that the realm of heaven is near is the healing of our bodies, minds and spirits; it is the complete and utter restoration of our senses.

Your restoration may look different from your neighbor’s restoration. Maybe you need to be restored to a sense of wholeness in you body and sexuality that you’ve been estranged from for a long time. Maybe you need to be restored to a state of health. Maybe you need to be restored to a sense of God’s purpose in your life.

Today we are receiving new members into our beloved community, people who have come through these doors asking, “Are you the church we’ve been looking for or do we need to find another one? We have people who were estranged from God and church who are being restored to their spiritual center, to their relationship with God, and to a community of faith that they weren’t sure existed for them. These are signs that the realm of heaven is near. The task for us in Advent is to allow Jesus to restore our senses, to have him open our eyes and ears so that we can go and tell others what we hear and see.

Pay attention because the Messiah is coming. Prepare the way but don’t box the Messiah in so that he fits your expectations. Ponder the questions that really matter: What kind of Messiah are you looking for? Do you want to follow the real Messiah or simply your idea of who he should be? What have you seen and what have you heard in your own life that shows you the realm of heaven is near?

When we take the time to ponder these questions there are messages for us if we, like Mary, will have the faith to listen.

1 Lindy (textweek)

2 Mark Twain

3 Quote from the Jesus Seminar

Copyright © 2007 by Rev. Tessie Mandeville. Permission granted for non- profit circulation with attribution of author and venue. Other rights reserved.