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A sermon preached by Mr Antony Weiss The Third Sunday in Advent Christ Church St Laurence Sung Eucharist & Solemn High Mass – Sunday 11th December, 2016 Isaiah 35:1-10, James 5:7-10, Matthew 11:2-11
Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable to you, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer. (Ps 19:14 NRSV). AMEN.
This, the third Sunday in Advent is known as Gaudete Sunday, from the Latin gaudēre, to rejoice. On Gaudete Sunday the Entrance Antiphon of the Mass is often from Philippians 4:4-5, “Rejoice in the Lord always: and again I say, Rejoice” and, as you may have noticed, the vestments and altar frontal are this particular shade of rose. Especially during Advent, expectation, patience, endurance and even doubts are central themes of this penitential season. Indeed today’s Epistle from James and the Gospel from Matthew Chapter 11, present to us the tension of anticipation and the need for patience as well as a call to trust. The latter can be particularly testing in an era when we are distracted from such a message because we have everything at our fingertips and expect immediate attention and gratification at every moment.
In Advent we remember God’s ancient people, Israel, and their hope for the coming of God’s Messiah to save, to forgive, and to restore... In Advent we focus on, as the Rector mentioned in his sermon a fortnight ago, “... the incarnation— God breaking into our world, not with aggression and violence, but rather as a vulnerable and innocent child.” In Advent we remember our need for a Saviour to save us from our sins. In Advent we await impatiently for the second coming of Jesus Christ, to complete the victory He won over sin and death at the cross.
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As James writes in Chapter 5, we are charged as Christians to be patient, to endure and indeed always to be ready. Further to this we have to deal with our doubts for even “the greatest of all the prophets”, John the Baptist had those.
In terms of context, the previous chapter of Matthew’s Gospel, Chapter 10, is where Jesus calls together His Twelve Apostles and commissions them to bring the Good News to Israel in preparation for their wider mission to the Gentiles. Jesus also reveals the necessary characteristics and attributes the disciples will need to adopt in order to carry out their ministry. Chapter 11 then brings us to the imprisoned John the Baptist and his quandary as to whether or not Jesus is in fact “the One who is to come or is there another”? This is a contrast to his confident proclamation we heard read in last week’s Gospel reading from Matthew 3. Verses 2 to 6 present us both with John’s predicament and importantly, Jesus’ response to it. The imprisoned John has been hearing of Jesus’ Galilean ministry though he had not witnessed it himself. John is confused because the message he was proclaiming about the One to come and the nearing Kingdom of God seems to be different the actual unfolding shape of Jesus’ ministry at that point in time. John therefore sends his own followers off to Jesus to clarify his rising doubts if Jesus is the Messiah, or if there is another. And the problem with this? Even the most valued prophet John assumes he fully understands God’s plan for redemption and Christ’s return when in fact that cannot be possible for not even Jesus as the Son of God knows. As recorded in Mark’s Gospel ‘... about that day or hour no one knows, neither the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father (Mk 13:32).’ This should resonate deeply with us as well, for are we ever truly prepared?
In verse 7 and following Matthew brings to us a fascinating insight into the development of God’s salvation history which is mirrored in the basic framework of the season of Advent. When John’s disciples return, they bring with them examples of Jesus’s ministry not seen by John (but already shared with the Gospel readers in previous episodes). Great acts establishing Jesus’ ministry are there in the text before us. They include; sight to the blind, hearing to the deaf, lepers cleansed, the dead raised and the poor hearing the Good News from the Messiah Himself. Just as powerful is the fact that Jesus’ prophetic healing and the message He sends back to John are all from the Hebrew Scriptures. They are the fulfilment of Old Testament prophecies including from
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this morning’s first reading from Isaiah, “Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped; then the lame shall leap like a deer, and the tongue of the speechless sing for joy (Isa 35:5-6).” What’s so effective here is that from verse 7 in the narrative, we, the readers, remain in Jesus’ presence as He addresses the crowd whilst John’s followers compliantly return to share with him, in prison, what the they have seen and heard. And do you notice how Jesus addresses the crowd? By telling them about John, by praising John, the one whom we have seen has his doubts, a jam of which Jesus is fully aware. John’s doubtfulness actually works in Jesus’s favour. This twist in the narrative actually affirms Jesus as the sole figure who brings the kingdom. The same kingdom the increasingly fickle people are so early are awaiting even though they are veiled in their understanding of it! It’s a brilliant narrative technique. Furthermore Jesus uses a series of rhetorical questions as a gentle means of raising a matter in order to pass on the truth. I paraphrase what He asks the crowd in order to make His point; “You didn’t traipse out to the wilderness just to look at reeds blowing this way and that at the whim of the winds, did you? Surely you didn’t go out to the desert expecting to see a man dressed in fine, effeminate clothes living in some luxurious palace?” In speaking this way, Our Lord defends John in the process despite John’s uncertainly about who Jesus is. The same John who had spoken so strongly back in Chapter 3 against the self-righteous and presumptuous Pharisees and Sadducees (not one who at the whim of this way and that like the reeds blown about). The same John dressed in camel hair and a leather belt (not all dolled up in soft, effeminate clobber) and the same John confined to a cell (not in a palace like Herod who had him jailed – a lovely subtle dig by Jesus at John’s captor). (Interestingly the translation renders the clothing as “soft robes” as τὰ μαλακὰ can be both “soft to the touch” and “effeminate”...it makes me think of what the sacred ministers are wearing at Solemn High Mass this morning!) Jesus asserts before the crowds that the equivocating John is the long-awaited prophet. Jesus even quotes from the prophet Malachi, to emphasise that John is more than a prophet. Jesus proclaims that John was the God appointed spokesman calling the people to repentance according to the scriptures, “‘This is the one about whom it is written, “See, I am sending my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way before you.”’ (Mat 11:10) The incarcerated and prevaricating John has his primacy as the principal prophet who pointed directly to Jesus as the Messiah affirmed before the crowds by the Lord himself. But the text goes
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further...there’s a great paradox isn’t there in the last verse with regards to the source of John’s prevarication. “Truly I tell you, among those born of women no one has arisen greater than John the Baptist...” (Mat 11:11a). Well, we have just heard Jesus in no uncertain terms point to John’s greatness and his privileged part in fulfilling God’s plan for redemptive history. Yet with John being termed as the greatest amongst mortals i.e. “those born of women” Jesus teaches us that “...the least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he [John] (Mat 11:11b).” I repeat, “...yet the least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.” Jesus is saying that even the best of the best, like John is less than the least person in the kingdom of heaven. Well that surely ought to get us thinking? We’ve just been hearing that John is the greatest but at this point in the narrative, John the Baptist, alive in prison remains outside the kingdom. But that’s the point, isn’t it? The kingdom is where we want to be only to be in Christ’s presence for all eternity with our fellow saints, partaking fully in the New Covenant, body and soul restored spotless.
The message is then clear for believers...and it is one in fact to rejoice in together on this Gaudete Sunday, “For the time will come when the wilderness and the dry land shall be glad, the desert shall rejoice and blossom (Isa. 35:1).” As those who call on the Great Name in faith and repentance and who are patient enough to participate in, and endure the trials of being Gospel believers and witnesses, it is they who will share in the much awaited kingdom of heaven where there will be utmost joy and blessings for all eternity, greater than anything withstood during these end times. But, as James tells us in today’s epistle, we must be ready, patient, prepared to endure the trials set before us awaiting the Second Advent, the παρουσία until that great day when the Lord returns...
Are we then indeed ready and prepared to endure, “... for the coming of the Lord is near... See, the Judge is standing at the doors! (Jas 5:8b,9b)?
+ In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. AMEN.