3 Advent

Jesus Is Not A Warrior King, But He Is Also Not Santa Claus

John, in today’s gospel, sends his disciples to ask Jesus if he is “the one,” the messiah. Perhaps that seems strange to us because John baptized Jesus after balking, saying Jesus should be the one to baptize him. The reason for John’s question is Jesus has not lived up to be the kind of messiah John expected, or that anyone of the time expected. The Jews of Jesus’ time expected a warrior king like David; one who would cause fear and trembling, delivering terrible justice. Instead, Jesus heals the blind, the deaf and raises the dead.

But Jesus and God aren’t Santa Claus either. We can’t help but ask the question: why doesn’t God rescue John from prison and allow him, instead, to be decapitated? Why do we suffer today in so many ways? That is the mystery we all must struggle with in this Advent season. We know, as does John, that Jesus is the messiah because of the miracles he does. Yet we wonder why our personal wishes aren’t granted and, instead, we are called to learn to love all in the world, putting the other before the self. These are hard questions that I certainly don’t have the answers for, yet I try to sit with them in this time of anticipation.

Blessings as you try to do the same,

The Rev. M.E.+

5 Dec - Second Advent

In today’s Gospel lesson, we encounter John the Baptist. John is a well-known figure in Christian tradition. He is eccentric. A wild sort of man, all rough edges and sharp tongue. He wears a camel skin and, so we are told, subsists on a diet of locusts and wild honey. He announces that one greater and more powerful than he is coming. We interpret his statements to be an announcement of the coming of Jesus in his ministry.

But John the Baptist proclaims more than the coming of someone great. He also proclaims that a new kind of world is coming. There will be destruction of the old, of what is known. You would think that people would turn away from such a message. Quite the contrary, people flocked to John the Baptist in large numbers. They were eager to repent and to be baptized. They looked forward with anticipation to a new world order. Who were these followers? Most likely, they were the poor, the weak, the marginalized of their society. People who had nothing to lose and everything to gain if the existing power structure was destroyed.

John’s message, like the message of Jesus, is a message of hope. It brings light into the darkness of the world of pain, suffering, and lack of hope. As we hear John’s message in our world, we are aware of the darkness of our own world: economic downturn, high unemployment, violence. May John’s message bring the light of hope into whatever darkness may be in our own lives. May it bring the light and hope to the darkness of our world around us.



- Deacon Sue Nebel