December 13, 1998
As we approach the change of the millennium, we are fascinated by a variety of concerns. As we come to the year 2000, we have a fascination growing in the world culture with signs and predictions of what this year change is going to do. What it is going to be like? Will we get strange visitations from another planet? We have had movies and books about the changes that will occur, the cataclysmic upheavals that may happen, the visitors from beyond.
Why is it that we hold such fascination for things that are beyond our very imagination? I think one of the reasons the Y2K computer problem holds such fascination is that some of us are not quite sure how to turn the thing on or off — much less what makes it work on the inside. If there is something in there that is going to leap out and grab us, it makes us nervous.
To me, what is important is how you and I are going to do in our relationships. The fascination with concerns like computer programs is an indicator to me of our inability to cope with things that are beyond our comprehension and so we turn to other ways. The cartoon characters turn to witch doctors to come and solve their computer problems. Every time we turn to thinking about the alignment of the stars and planets and forget there is really one who directs it all, we find ourselves in a hollow, dead end street, a box canyon, a place in which we can't get good answers.
Thanks be to God, we are gathered here today as Christian people, and we believe in one great potential visitor to this planet who doesn't wear a red cape, who wore swaddling clothes and the clothing of a carpenter, and was later clad in a purple robe. The Lord of history has come to us. He lived among us for way too short a period - 30 years or so - ministered among us a prophet and teacher for 18 months to three years, and was executed. We believe in a Lord of history who, after his resurrection and ascension, has come to dwell within us, in our very hearts and very minds, to guide and direct us, and to lead us into all truth.
We believe in a Lord of history who will come again at the end of time, whenever that may be. Will it be in the year 2000 ? Just as likely as any other year. The Lord of history is central to us. The one who walks with us in the deepest darkest nights of our soul. The one who celebrates with us when we have great joy in our hearts: weddings, baptisms and births, reunions and the like. The Lord of history forms for us in his "Christ has died, Christ is risen, Christ will come again", a trilogy of faith.
We know he has been here. We know he dwells here now because we can look in to the eyes of another person and see the light of Christ. As he has been here and he is here, we can be confident that he is coming again. At this Advent season, we look both backward and forward. We look back to the nativity of our Lord in that manger in Bethlehem and we look forward to his coming again in power and great glory to bring us all into the presence of God Almighty.
On this "stir up" Sunday, we began the service by asking God to stir up his power and come among us with great power. That cry is the cry of frustration. The power of God is there, but it is like the Pacific Ocean on a calm day, not showing its real power. So we pray that God will stir us up - boil his power up among us so that we can see it and feel it in all its greatness and its awesomeness and its terror. When we ask God to do that, it speaks of our frustration with the fact that the Kingdom of God is not yet established after 2000 years of our working at it.
It is the cry of humanity around us that we face into a uncertain millennium ahead of us. What is going to happen next? We won the cold war, for instance, but now we have to worry about a lot of people having weapons of mass destruction. It was nice when we had one enemy, now we have a hundred potential enemies and so we seek a power beyond ourselves because we know, we have read history, we cannot solve all the problems of the world - so who is going to do it?
Some of us may not be sure that Christ is really among us. That is where we come to today's Gospel. John the Baptist is in prison. A few short months ago he baptized Jesus in the River Jordan over his own protest, when he said to Jesus, "Lord you should be baptizing me, not the other way around." After John baptized Jesus in the River Jordan and Jesus came up out of the water, John heard the voice of God the Father saying, "This is my beloved son, listen to him." John is encouraged by that and he speaks out against the crimes of the day. He speaks against the king's crimes and now he is in prison. He may not know it yet, but we do, that the wiles of a little ballerina are going to cause the king to cut John's head off - to execute him.
John at this point is not so sure that he had made the right judgment. He sends two of his disciples over to Jesus and says, "Jesus are you really the Messiah or was I wrong? Do we still have to wait for another one to come? Are you really the one?" The cry of desperation and frustration at the very moment Jesus, the Son of God, is making himself known to the world.
In our own prisons of anxiety and confusion, we ask John's question about our own time. We ask John's question about the trends of our age. Is this the Christ? Is this God's work? We ask it of the fads of our time and the movements of our life. We look at our businesses, we look at our government, we look at our church, and we ask, "Is this God's work? Is this what the Kingdom of God is going to be like? Is it?" We ask those things in the midst of our busy life, in the midst of our politics, in the midst of our community life, in the midst of our church - what would Christ do if he were here today? What would he say? What would he direct us to do? And what would he do himself?
We ask what is our task as a church, as individual Christians? What is the church's responsibility, first in its own community? That is where we can have the most influence and change the most lives. It is the one-on-one, eyeball-to-eyeball contact we have with other people who want to know the Lord. They have a God-shaped hole in our hearts that cannot be filled unless we introduce them to Christ.
We ask that about our state and our nation because those are next arenas in which we can be of most service. Then we ask beyond - what is our responsibility to the crises in the world: in Nicaragua and Honduras after that terrible hurricane; in the Mid-East where they are still trying to find and destroy peace simultaneously; in the various other hot spots of the world where our soldiers are sent to be policemen. What is our responsibility as Christians? Is it to pray? Always. Is it to act? Probably. Is it to send others to act? Perhaps. But ask the question first: What is Christ's purpose here? We can better answer the last one: What is our purpose here?
It brings us to the terrible need we have for the gift of discernment. The very difficult task of determining what is good and what is evil. I used to think it is easy to know bad things and it is easy to know good things. Then I read Genesis. When I got to the fall, I discovered that evil is not all that easy to discern. For the first evil act of humanity's disobedience to God was the result of their coming to believe they were doing the right thing.
You remember the story: Satan did not come up to Adam and Eve and say, "Hi, do you want to do something really naughty, something that will really lock God's jaws down tight?" He said, "Has God denied you anything?" "Well no, not really, just the fruit of those two trees over there." And he said, "Look, see that one of moral choices? That is good. If you eat that fruit you will be like God. Being like God is a good thing. Wouldn't you want to be like God?"
That is how it was. The hook was set through seduction. The first human evil was the result of a choice of what they thought was good, but what turned out to be evil. Discerning good and evil in our own world is no easier.It is still exceptionally difficult and like Adam and Eve, our best ability is in hind sight. So, as we pray, let us also pray for the gift of discernment. How do we discern? How do we know what God's will is?
Jesus gives us a little bit of a clue when he starts asking those questions: What did you come out to see? Did you come out to see a reed blowing in the wind? The wind blows everywhere, the reeds grow everywhere. You do not have to come out to see that. Did you come out to see someone dressed in fine clothes? Well, this is the wrong place for that. Go to the palaces, go to the cities, then you will find them. Did you come out to see a prophet, one who speaks God's word into your ears? That is what you came out to see and hear.
Jesus gives us the problem because what you hear is your choice. You and I both know that people have spoken to us and we have not heard them. Sometimes, we hear just the opposite because we hear what we expect to hear, rather than what is really said. We know how hard it is to hear clearly what is being said to us.
Jesus points us again to look into the lives
of the people around us, the people who are speaking, the people
who are acting in the name of Christ, and find there the divine
nature. God is in this world working in the lives of men and women
among us. He is also working among people who do not even know
him and he bids us to look into this world to find his work.
One of the movies being reprised in our time is Psycho. In the
original Alfred Hitchcock was the director. As you will remember,
in every one of Hitchcock's movies he himself appeared in a cameo
role which frequently lasted less than two seconds. And so, to
find him you had to be very carefully attentive and know what
you were looking for. Sometimes, in my life finding out how Christ
is working has been that difficult. I know that if I look hard
enough and long enough I will find Christ in spite of all the
evidence to the contrary.
Our faith tells us that just as God appeared to us in the flesh once, just as God seeks us out and takes the initiative to bring us to him, so he will do it again, and again, and again until he finally gets our attention and bids us home. God's grace isn't an imagined power "out there." He did not create this world and leave it to its own resources. He is interested in us and working with us on a daily basis, hands on, to bring his Kingdom to bear.
Christ has died, yes, but Christ is risen and Christ lives among us and Christ will come again. As we look to our past, we see how God works from the time of creation and right through all of Scriptures. As we look at our history books, we see how God has acted in all of history, and as we look at the lives around us and the men and women sitting in the pews with us this morning, we see how Christ is working in our neighbors' lives. We can be confident that if that is what he has been up to all this time, he is going to be up to it on January 1, 2000 and January 1, 2001, and every day from now until eternity.
The Kingdom is coming. The Kingdom is very near. The wonderful picture of the Peaceable Kingdom in Isaiah is true - just not quite realized, but it is coming and will be perfected. As we see that kind of Kingdom, so we must be committed to it. Not pie in the sky, bye and bye, but to work for it day in and day out, to bring the love of Christ to one other human being on one other day, so that one human being can bring it to another one. We must be committed to the Kingdom, not just with our lips as we sing praises to God - although that is important. We must be committed to the Kingdom, not just with our checkbooks - although that, too, is important, because the Kingdom of God cannot come without the resources of the earth. We must be committed to the Kingdom of God not just in our prayers. It is important to keep the lines of communication open between us and God, both to speak to him and to listen to him, but if we are truly listening in our prayers, then we must be committed to the Kingdom of God in our actions, in our very lives, for that is the proof of our commitment. .
So as we started this day, we prayed to God to "stir up" his power among us and come with great might, that he would complete his Kingdom, and that he would complete it by using our hands and our arms and our voices, that he would use us as he used the Apostles to spread his Kingdom to all the world.
AMEN
The Rev. Dr. Robert G. Certain
rgcertain@aol.com
13 December 1998