Sermon preached by The Rev. Fredrick A. Robinson
3rd Sunday of Advent
Let’s do a little exercise. Put yourself in John the Baptist’s place. Imagine that you are John, an avid Jew living in Israel in the first century. Like all of the really religious Jews, you hate being under Roman rule and having the many daily reminders of polytheism around you because of that. You know the scriptures well, and you long for the coming of the Messiah, whom you believe will be a conquering hero who will overthrow the Roman government and make Israel the greatest of all nations.
But you’re not just the average devout Jew. You believe God has called you to be the sign that Israel is on the very threshold of the coming of the Messiah. To say you are excited about it would be an understatement. You are on fire with that message, and you believe that what you do will set the stage for the Messiah to come in and build his armies and conquer the Romans. Huge crowds come out to hear you preach and to be baptized by you. You preach a message of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. And you preach that that message is a preparation for One who will bring justice to the kingdom of Israel, and that that One is already beginning the process of the redemption of Israel. “I baptize you with water for repentance,” you proclaim, “but he who is coming is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry; he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and gather his wheat into the granary, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.”
The people have to be ready spiritually for the coming of the Messiah, and you devote every moment and every ounce of your strength to that cause. You’re fearless in your preaching. Sin is sin, whether it’s the sin of a peasant or the sin of a king. In fact, you preached a sermon in which you accused Herod of having broken God’s law by marrying Herodias, his half-brother’s wife.
You’re good at what you do. People are responding to you in huge numbers. In a short time you have a national reputation. Yet, you know none of this is about you. Any pride you are tempted to feel in your abilities needs to be squelched. You are just here to make the road ready for the Messiah. He must increase and you must decrease. Suffice it to say, you’re a fortunate human being. You know what you should be doing with your life. You have a great sense of purpose. You’re not only good at what you do, but you’re also one of a kind. If you were prideful, which you’re not, you might even say you are the very best at what you do and a whole lot of people agree. You do live in the wilderness, wear unbelievably uncomfortable and strange clothing, and eat locusts and wild honey for your nourishment, but that’s all right, because it’s all part of this calling to which God has called you.
But all of a sudden, your life changes drastically. The authorities have taken notice of you and of your antiestablishment preaching. Herod doesn’t like your saying there will be a new king, and Herodias is extremely angry with you for questioning the legitimacy of her marriage to Herod. Because you spoke treasonously of a government in Israel other than Rome, you have broken the law, and have been thrown into prison. You cannot understand this turn of events. You thought that God had told you clearly that Jesus was the Messiah, and yet he isn’t doing what he should be doing to rally the forces. He isn’t building any armies; he isn’t preparing the people for war. Here you are languishing in prison, with the very real possibility that you are soon to lose your life. All of your certainty is gone. Perhaps you have been wrong all along and have wasted your life.
So, you send a few of your disciples to Jesus who are to ask him, “Are you he who is to come, or shall we look for another?” Jesus sends word to John, “Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind receive their sight and the lame walk, lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, and the poor have good news preached to them.” They come back and tell you what Jesus said, and you recognize in his words the prophecy of Isaiah concerning the Messiah. But you are still troubled. If Jesus is the Messiah, why are you in trouble? Why is your life such a mess? Where is God in all of this? The faithful are in trouble and the faithless seem to be blessed.
All of us here are at different places with regard to faith. Some of us have great faith, some very little at all. But if there is any scripture that touches every one of us with its reality, it is this point in John the Baptist’s life. Here an exemplar of faith, and a leader in the religious world, questions who Jesus is. He had staked his life on his belief and now he is doubting, greatly. He was rapidly hitting bottom. Why hasn’t Jesus rescued him, the forerunner? Why hasn’t he delivered him from his distress? Maybe he’s just an imposter.
A loved one gets sick and dies unexpectedly; the breadwinner loses his job and in this economy finds it impossible to find work; that son or daughter who was filled with such promise becomes addicted to drugs and nothing seems to be working to break the addiction. And then there is the larger scene with the country being at war, the environment suffering, and the constant news of violence and murder. We experience the chances and changes of this life, and while we have faith that God is with us, and want so much to believe the claims of our faith are true, doubt is inevitable. “Are you he who is to come?” Are you the Savior? Are you God? Or have I believed in vain and is meaning in life to be found somewhere else?
Jesus knows John’s dilemma. He does not rebuke him for his lack of faith. He realizes that John’s vision, though great, is limited. So how does Jesus respond to John’s doubt? He reminds him of what the scriptures say about the Messiah and how he has been fulfilling those scriptures.
Likewise, in those times of doubt which every person of faith has at times, we should follow John’s example and seek answers from the One who can best give them. Ask Jesus. Bring your doubts to him in prayer. He won’t turn you away, he won’t be angry, he will understand, just as he understood with John. Talk with other people whose faith is strong and ask them how they deal with their doubts. Read the Holy Scriptures, because they are filled with examples that can answer our questions. And treat one another with love and mercy.
It’s interesting that the Church gives us this particular topic so close to Christmas. It’s as if the Church, through the guidance of the Holy Spirit, is saying to us that as we prepare to celebrate the mystery of the Incarnation, almighty God taking the flesh of the Virgin Mary and becoming a human being, that to live in this faith is necessarily going to include doubt, and the best way to deal with it is to acknowledge it and ask God to help us with it. As God does help us through our doubts and uncertainties, we find our faith strengthened and renewed. May this Advent be such a time of strengthening of the faith of each one of us, that when our Lord Jesus comes again to judge the living and the dead, he will find us ready to receive him.