"Are You the One Who Is to Come?"

December 16, 2001 Rev. Gary LeTourneau

I love coming into the sanctuary and seeing the trees at Christmas! It just helps me get ready to celebrate Christmas. But I've been wondering lately if it's so good for my children--and maybe all the children of the church--because for them, it seems to me, it almost approaches bringing idol worship into the sanctuary. Because we all know that in the home, the tree becomes almost a shrine of worship for the children. As they begin to see the presents appearing, they spend increasing time--in my family and I'm sure in yours--just laying there looking, and imagining, and thinking.

When I was a child, I remember being asked, "What do you want for Christmas?" and I was just delighted. Of course, I had already communicated what I wanted for Christmas, but here I was being asked! Now, as a father, I realize that a lot of times when parents ask, "What do you want for Christmas?" it's not so much because they don't know. It's because sometimes I need an opportunity to prepare my children for reality, which may not be a pony because Santa can't fit very many ponies on his sled. And it may not be a Nintendo. And it may not be the whole shopping list. But hopefully it will be some of those.

And then I think all of us have experienced and observed the disappointment, the sense of, "Is this it?" when all of the presents are opened, and you got what you wanted, but you still feel like my life didn't change that much. Is this it? We learn that just as children, but I think it carries on into adult life. Maybe not with gift-giving, but many times we, as adults and as Christians, deal with the question, "Is that it? Is this all there is? This isn't quite what I expected. I'm disappointed." And when you bring those questions into the arena of faith--"God, this isn't what I expected. Is this it?"--it can be quite dangerous to faith.

I'd like to look today at the very healthy corrective for us from Matthew 11, verses 2 through 6. It's found on page 11 of your pew Bible. Every year as we go through Advent, and prepare for the celebration of Christmas, and prepare to meet Christ in our hearts and as He comes again into the world, well, we're reminded of the person and the ministry of Jesus' cousin, John the Baptist. John the Baptist is the one who had the assignment of preparing the way: "Prepare the way! Repent! The Messiah is coming!" John the Baptist, you'll remember, baptized his cousin, Jesus. The dove descended from heaven. The voice spoke and said, "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." And I think John the Baptist heard those words and clapped his hands and said, "Oh, boy! Here we go! Let's all get ready--it's going to happen now!" And what happened is that John the Baptist was arrested, and put in prison, and largely forgotten about.

Doctor Barclay says perhaps for John the Baptist, that was harder even than it would be for us, because he was a man of the wilderness. He lived outdoors. He slept under the stars. And to be confined in a dark room, probably without a window, without a view, would have been especially hard for him. And the coming of the Messiah was not what he expected. So beginning in verse 2 of Matthew 11, we pick it up:

When John heard in prison what the Messiah was doing [and incidentally, by implication, what the He was not doing--specifically, overthrowing the Romans, getting rid of these puppet rulers in Israel, and setting up God's true Kingdom, and getting me out of jail], he sent word by his disciples and said to Jesus, "Are you the one who is to come, or are we to wait for another?" Jesus answered them, "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."

 

You and I live in a world of assumptions. We have assumptions about how things are going to go, and how things are going to turn out, and what our life will be like: If we put our effort in, this will be the outcome. When our assumptions track closely with reality, we're happy. When there is a big gap, we become angry, confused, disappointed, and full of doubt. For John the Baptist, this was a time when his assumptions about the coming of the Messiah--which he was certain would be accompanied by a great show of power, probably military power--none of that happened, and he was disappointed, and he

began to have doubts.

Did you hear his question? "Are you the one, or are we to wait for another?" He was wondering if that voice he heard at the baptism of Jesus was real. If the sign of the Spirit descending on Jesus was real. "Maybe I've made a mistake. Maybe I was wrong." And I'm not sure we Christians deal enough, honestly, with the reality of doubt and disappointment. I'm not sure if, as a pastor, I'm not tempted sometimes to imply (if not outright promise) things which, candidly, are not precisely in Scripture. There is good news there. The gospel message is that God entered the world in Jesus Christ and His power is available now to change your life. But I might go too far when I say if you become a Christian, you will be happy, and successful, and materially satisfied, and you'll have the power you want and need. Because the reality is that God doesn't promise those things.

Think of a hypothetical person. He's got a lousy job, he's got a lousy neighborhood, a lousy car, lousy friends. He becomes a Christian. The promise in Second Corinthians is true: "If anyone is in Christ, he or she is a new creation." They become a new person inside. But guess what: That new person still has a lousy job, a lousy house in a lousy neighborhood, lousy friends. And those circumstances may not change. They will be different--that's the promise of the gospel, and that is a huge unleashing of power when God's Holy Spirit enters you.

But John the Baptist found out that the Messiah came and he was still in jail. And the story got worse, as you know. He was finally beheaded. He was never rescued. And that brought on severe doubt, and severe disappointment, severe disillusionment. This is why Christians through the ages--I found some terrific examples of Christians you and I admire greatly who struggled deeply with disappointment.

Mother Teresa. At the beginning of her ministry when she left the convent, had gone to Calcutta convinced that God wanted her to start a ministry with the poorest of the poor in Calcutta, but she needed a place to do it. She wrote in her diary that she had been walking the streets of Calcutta searching for a house where she could start her work. At the end of the day she wrote in her diary, "I wandered the streets the whole day. My feet are aching. I've not been able to find a home. And I also hear the tempter telling me, "Leave all this. Go back to the convent from which you came." I've experienced that kind of doubt. I'm glad she didn't succumb, aren't you? She's a saint of the twentieth century because she persevered and waited on God. And of course she found the house, she founded the ministry, the resources began to flow to her. But Mother Teresa struggled greatly with doubt.

Martin Luther was one so depressed over a long period that one day his wife came downstairs dressed completely in black, the sign of mourning.

Martin Luther took one look at her and said, "Who died?"

His wife replied, "God has died."

Martin Luther said, "God hasn't died!"

And she said, "Well, live like it and act like it. It's been a funeral around here."

If God is still alive and He is who He said He is, in whatever circumstances you and I are facing, we can expect to see God acting in the world and in our lives. It's sort of ironic that we Americans, who have the best education, the most material resources, the really unprecedented freedom to do the things we want to do, it's amazing how many adults find themselves disappointed and asking the question, "Is this all there is?" So we have aisles of self-help books to help us because we're dealing with disappointment. The gospel of Jesus Christ is not necessarily about our success, our happiness, our material wealth, or our power.

I was interested this week to read a piece by Cal Thomas. Do you know Cal Thomas? He's a writer and columnist from a conservative Christian perspective, but he's syndicated, appearing in all the newspapers. He was commenting here on the resignation of Pat Robertson as president and board member of the Christian Coalition and observing the sort of implosion of the Christian Coalition. And here's what he said:

It wasn't that the so-called Religious Right's diagnosis of societal decline was wrong. [He believes they were right in their diagnosis. And he goes on to say] Even after September 11th, there are some changed attitudes and priorities, but absent a changed heart, most people will revert to their old selves when security and prosperity return. Some leaders of the religious political movement say things would have been worse without the political activism of conservative Christians. [But now hear him:] But the counter-argument might be even truer: Things might have been better if, for the last 20 years instead of sending money to the national headquarters of religious leaders and pledging allegiance to their preferred politicians, Christians had been busy feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, visiting those in prison, caring for widows and orphans, and most noticeably absent from the movement, loving their enemies.

 

Just the course of action prescribed by Jesus as a sure sign of the coming of the Kingdom. Christianity isn't about power. It's about the hungry being fed, the poor receiving what they need wherever they are.

Well, Jesus urges John to step back from his situation and get a different perspective. First of all, by saying, "Tell John what you see and hear," He's telling John's disciples that John in that prison cell has a microscopic view of the world. It's imposed on him by the circumstances. Some of us have a microscopic view of the world imposed by blinders which are self-imposed, and things up close look much more frightening than they do from a distance. One writer says that if all of us had to see spiders all the time as you see them through a microscope, up close where they look horrible--all their eyes and fangs--we'd never dare even dust our homes because we'd be afraid of what those monsters might do. But step back and get perspective, and it's perfectly safe to attack a cobweb!

John the Baptist needed perspective. You and I need perspective. The gospel is true. The Kingdom is coming. And it may not be like you and I expected it. It wasn't like John the Baptist expected it. But Jesus said the forces of evil are being pushed back. You can see that this world is a different place because the Kingdom is coming. And the Messiah came. And the Messiah is coming again.

You and I can find ways to align ourselves with that coming Kingdom and it's power. I want to speak very directly to some of you today, who I know are struggling with disappointment and doubt. We have a couple families in our church who this weekend are dealing with the death of one of their parents, as their lives come to an end. We have people with real setbacks in the hospital. And those are just the things I know about. I know there's more that I don't know about. I want to assure you God hasn't forgotten you. God has not abandoned you. God did not abandon John the Baptist in that cell. His promise was to be with him, to bring him the sense of peace, and of comfort, and of inner strength to face the circumstances, to be a witness for Him, even in a time of suffering. God has not forgotten you. God loves you. And God is walking with you, whatever it is you're facing and going through. Jesus Himself says, wherever you're at--even if it's in a lousy job, lousy house, the whole thing--be there and do your very best to acknowledge my presence in your life and let me change you, and you will see the world really begin to change. Because the Kingdom really is coming.

Let's pray together. Thank you, Lord, that in your Word we find very real human examples of valid disappointment. Thank you that through the ages you promise to be a God of comfort and a God of hope. Thank you that we know that this world is not the final world--there is a new Kingdom coming and we see signs of it all the time in so many places. We ask that as all of us acknowledge that you came as a baby in Bethlehem, that all of us may live our lives knowing that you are coming again, and that we have the privilege of ushering in a new Kingdom. It's in the name of Jesus that we pray. Amen.

Rev. Gary LeTourneau

Senior Pastor

Faith Presbyterian Church

Minnetonka, Minnesota

[Transcribed from an audiotape of the 9:00 a.m. worship service on December 16, 2001]