Note: This sermon – like all others – is part of an oral tradition. For that reason, it was not originally written in paragraph form, but in a form that allows the preacher and hopefully the hearer to be open to the Spirit’s presence. While I preach from a manuscript, there are times during the course of a sermon when I deviate from the manuscript. What follows is my best recollection of the actual delivery of the sermon. - Meghan
Out in the wilderness Jesus is speaking to crowds who had come, at some point in time, to see John the Baptist. And Jesus asks them, “What did you go out into the wilderness to look at?”
Apparently Jesus’ questions are rhetorical…a technique used by great orators and hype men. I imagine there being the collective energy and excitement of a great political rally, or religious revival tent gathering. The crowd is packed in, bursting with anticipation, wondering what the day will bring. And Jesus is getting the crowd excited, drawing them in to hear his message. Then he starts in:
“So what did you people go out into the wilderness to look at today?The crowd is tracking right with him, shouting back their responses, embracing the moment. And then he brings it together:
A reed shaken in the wind?
…NO! No, that’s not you.”“What then?
Someone dressed in soft robes?
…No, I’m sure of it, that is definitely not you.”
“No…I know: You came to see a Prophet.And the crowd is riveted as they hear the good news.
…Yes, that’s it.
And I tell you, you came to see more than a prophet.”
But I don’t know if would have come to that gathering, out in the wilderness, and realized initially that those questions were rhetorical. I imagine that person who has journeyed a great distance, out into the wilderness. I imagine the person who has just arrived… who didn’t stop to buy the most recent newspapers and tabloid magazines, with headlines announcing that John the Baptist had been arrested and imprisoned by Herod, with sources close to John being quoted as saying, “Look we can’t pretend he’s not struggling. We’re trying to support him, but he’s lonely, he is doubting, and in the midst of darkness.”
And so when Jesus starts speaking to the crowds, “So, what then did you go out into the wilderness to look at?...A reed shaken by the wind?” I imagine this person’s answer as being:
“YES!
Are you kidding me?!?!
I completely traveled for months to see John the Baptist,
that crazy train wreck of celebrity prophet,
whose eating locusts and wild honey,
is dressed in camel hair…
I mean you never know what’s coming out of his mouth!
You heard that he called the establishment a brood a vipers, right?
I was laughing for weeks.
I mean that’s pure gold right there!
…Oh wait…And then Jesus starts in again, “So, what then did you go out to see?...Someone dressed in soft robes?”
Oh…Okay the answer is apparently no…
Fine. Okay.
Yeah, I was just joking.
No, of course this isn’t the most entertaining thing we’ve heard about in the desert in ten years…no…totally joking…”
“Wait, there are soft robes?...A-ma-zing!And then Jesus says, “What did you go out to see?...A Prophet?...Yes, I tell you, and more than a prophet.”…And, the words draw you in inexplicably, because you have come to see a reed shaken by the wind. And you watch as this gathered community, yourself included, shake like reeds in the wind as you hear the good news, that John the Baptist, a holy prophet, a man greater than all men born of women, has been sent by God, and has prepared the way for Jesus, the Messiah, the man standing before you.….Oh, come on! Really?! No robes?!Fine. Yeah, I wouldn’t want to look at bright, pretty, soft robes, when I have a closet full of beige burlap tunics at home. No. Not at all.”
In this Christmas Season, this season of Advent, of waiting for the Christ child, it can be so tempting to get distracted by soft colored robes in store windows. It is so easy to set out into the wilderness of holiday traffic and shopping, and distract ourselves with reeds shaking in the wind, of lifestyles not our own, displayed for sale. There is so much shine, glitz, and glitter that we can go virtually unnoticed when our loneliness and darkness emerge in a time where carols sing of jingle and light.
It gives me hope and pause that John the Baptist, a man, a prophet, a messenger, who was chosen above all other people to prepare the way for Jesus, still had to ask, in the midst of a time when Jesus, the light of the world was deep within his ministry, magnifying light everywhere. John the Baptist, who baptized Jesus in the river Jordan, and witnessed a voice from the heavens, proclaiming that Jesus was the son of God, the beloved, still had a moment, in the midst of his darkness…tired, alone, in a prison…when he still had to ask Jesus, “Wait a second, who are you?...Are you really the one, or are we to wait for someone else?...Because if you are the one, how is it that I am in the midst of darkness? How is it that you have not come down with fire and judgment on my tormentors, on my captors, and set me free?”
And Jesus responds to this question, not with an answer, but with a reminder, sending messengers to John to tell of what they have heard and seen of Jesus’ ministry, in which the world has been upended, not by the unquenchable chaff burning fire that John had once imagined, but by the warmth and ferociousness of compassion, healing, and giving good news to those for whom it had felt in short supply. And then at the end of this list, sharing the good news and light he has brought into the world, Jesus says, “And blessed is anyone who takes no offense at me.”
“Blessed is anyone who takes no offense at me.”The word from which “offense” is translated from is actually the root word for “scandalous.” It can refer to a few different things from scandalous to a stumbling block. But it originally referred to a trap spring, that thing which we go for, that draws us in, that we attempt to catch, but actually catches us.
The Gospel, the good news of Jesus Christ, is scandalous. It offends and shakes up world order as we know it, where the least in the Kingdom of Heaven is greater than the greatest on Earth. It confounds us and lures us in like a trap spring. And I think what Jesus is saying to John is, “go ahead and doubt, because you will attempt to catch what is in the trap spring. You will get scandalized. But, if you come to me, if you listen and seek when your reeds are shaken, when you engage the mystery that is my birth, life, and death…well then you have not been offended in the final sense, your stumbling has not been an insurmountable obstacle, because you have pointed to me in your seeking.”
John knows that he is still learning how to follow Jesus, and he goes to the source in his moment of doubt, pointing to God. The Gospel calls us to point. It shakes our reeds when they most need to be shaken in the breath of God.
The first summer I interned as a hospital Chaplain, Hartford Hospital, as seems to always be the case, was in the midst of a construction project, and as a result, Lifestar, the air medical ambulance, had to land in a parking lot behind one of the buildings. And one of nursing units I was assigned, a lower level orthopedic and trauma unit, had a perfect view overlooking the landing area.
The patients on this unit were there for different reasons, usually recovering from some sort of accident, surgery, or procedure. And often, while they were hooked up to IV’s and other medical equipment, they were somewhat mobile, and able to get up and move around. But always, I would be sitting with these patients, listening to them, and at some point in our conversation they would have always mentioned the excruciating pain they were in, wincing with every movement, gasping in pain as they adjusted themselves in their beds. And then we would start to hear the sound, the thumping whir of helicopter blades, as Lifestar approached. At which point, I was suddenly a non-entity. And I would watch as these patients, who had a moment prior complained of pain, grew suddenly silent, maneuvered out of bed closer to the window, their pain appearing to magically disappear as they watched intently as a person was rushed by stretcher from the helicopter, down the path, and through the emergency room doors.
Initially, I used to think that these patients had a lurid fascination with the tragedy that rolled beneath their window…a rubber necking syndrome of the highest level. But, I began to realize that those moments were moments of reed shaking, moments when they saw their pain in another, when they realized that in their own pain, they were not alone, when they realized that what they had gone to the window to see was more than they imagined… moments when silence descended, and their prayers were no longer with themselves, but with another.
This Advent our reeds will be shaken in the wilderness with the birth of the Christ child. Our reeds will be shaken by the moments of reflection and illumination our faith brings. We may have come to the wilderness of this season to see a reed shaken by the wind, but our reeds will be shaken by the breath of God, because the mystery of God can’t help but do that.
But John teaches us, that in those moments, our God calls us out of the wilderness, towards the light. And, when we approach the light that spreads out from Advent, all that is asked of us is to point back towards God, as John did, towards the breath of God that blows in and around us.
As we approach Bethlehem, let us question. Let us wait and wonder. Let us cherish moments of darkness and the questioning and illumination they bring. Let us seek light. Let us sway and move with the God that is with us.
Amen.