12/10/23 Sermon

This morning, I want to do something different.  I want to share with you the exact same story from the Gospels, but I want to read you Luke’s version of the events and what John the Baptist says about Jesus because it goes into a little bit more detail in some ways and is just dramatically different.  And I find it fascinating how Luke portrays John’s understanding of who and what Jesus is… Luke reports pretty much what mark does but then adds this in

 Luke 3:7-18

 John said to the crowds that came out to be baptized by him, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bear fruits worthy of repentance. Do not begin to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our ancestor’; for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham. Even now the ax is lying at the root of the trees; every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.” And the crowds asked him, “What then should we do?” In reply he said to them, “Whoever has two coats must share with anyone who has none; and whoever has food must do likewise.” Even tax collectors came to be baptized, and they asked him, “Teacher, what should we do?” He said to them, “Collect no more than the amount prescribed for you.” Soldiers also asked him, “And we, what should we do?” He said to them, “Do not extort money from anyone by threats or false accusation and be satisfied with your wages.”

As the people were filled with expectation, and all were questioning in their hearts concerning John, whether he might be the Messiah, John answered all of them by saying, “I baptize you with water; but one who is more powerful than I is coming; I am not worthy to untie the thong of his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand, to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his granary; but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.” So, with many other exhortations, he proclaimed the good news to the people.

 WORD OF LORD

 People ask me all the time - or at least enough for me to comment on it - they’ll turn to me and ask, “Quincy… is there ever a time… where someone has mistaken you for a homeless person?”  And I usually answer that there are at least three times that’s happened so far.

The first time I understood why it happened and it was an honest mistake.  I was living in Vermont, and it was winter. And I went to visit a good friend of mine in Boston.  In Vermont when it’s winter you don’t worry about being fashionable. In Boston, you do. I mean I was surprised to see women wearing make-up. That didn’t happen in my small Vermont town.  So, I had a big bushy beard and was wearing three different kinds of plaid as my friend, and I were getting coffee in Harvard Square.  I was standing outside minding my own business when a gentleman walked by and dropped some change into my coffee.  It wasn’t even enough money to replace it. But instead of changing my fashion choices, I just always put lids on my coffee now.

The second time was a little more surprising.  I was in a student center at Seminary between Hebrew class and lunch.  I was tired so I laid down on the couch to take a nap.  That’s when a Korean student came in and started yelling at me that there were plenty of shelters throughout the city and that this was for students only.  My friends at lunch that day wondered why a very embarrassed Korean student came up and started apologizing profusely to me.’

The third and I suspect not the last time was when I was actually helping out at a homeless program.  I was sitting talking with a bunch of the guys when one of them noticed my wedding ring and asked where my wife was.  I said at home, and he said, “Oh yeah... I know how that goes.”  I was a little confused as to what he meant by that and told him I was going back home to her. He said hopefully we all are at some point.  And I said no.  I’m going home… like tonight.  And he gently patted me on the back saying, “Sure you are buddy, sure you are.  It’s okay.”  They actually weren’t going to let me leave until one of my other friends who was volunteering at the program as well assured them I, in fact, was volunteering with her and had a home and a wife, who indeed, wanted me to come home...  At least I think my wife wanted me to come home…   I don’t hold it against any of these people. Sometimes people are right in front of us, and we have no idea what we’re looking at. I’m guilty of it too.

In the summers I spent in Chautauqua, NY. one of my favorite things to do after a long hot day at work was to go get an ice cream cone at a place called the refectory which is right on the main square.  There are these great park benches off the sidewalk, and I had a favorite one.  Now we’ve already established that I guess I’m a little rough looking and I was wearing shorts and a t-shirt, so all my tattoos were hanging out. But this nice older lady came and sat at the bench next to mine and she had ice cream too.  Now, some people at Chautauqua could be a little snooty and would give me dirty looks or avoid me all together.  Tattoos back then weren’t as common or accepted as they are now.  But this lady was really nice.  We struck up a conversation and I found out her name was Sandy and she asked me about school.  I was studying theology and constitutional law at the time. Which usually bores the bejesus out of people, but she was really interested in it.  And we had this great conversation about the Supreme Court and law in this country and how it’s actually vitally important to us as citizens and people of faith. And we discussed cases that involved religion and the constitution and why they were decided in particular ways, etc. We got up and parted ways. And as soon as I was like 10 feet from her, my friend ran up to me and told me how cool it was that I knew Sandra Day O’Connor.  I asked him what in the world he was talking about.  He told me I just had ice cream with him and discussed Constitutional Law with a Supreme Court Justice.  I thought it was just a nice lady who oddly had an interest in Political Theory.  I felt like an idiot. I’ve been remembering that sweet memory and even sweeter lady since her death recently.  But things aren’t always what they seem, you know?

And it isn’t just our judgements and determinations of others that can be way off.  It can be the judgements of others against us, sometimes too.  We aren’t always given a fair shake. Sometimes we’re condemned and doomed to fail in the eyes of others before we even begin.  We don’t come from the right family, or our last name is wrong.  Where I grew up it depended on what neighborhood you lived in and how much your father made that seemed to make all the difference in the world.  Some of us can seem pushed aside and outcast for no reason at all.

And then it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.  Nobody thinks I’m worthwhile so I’m not going to be worthwhile.  Or we get discouraged and don’t put our whole heart into something. Sometimes we give into pressure and do things we wouldn’t normally do to try to fit into a place we may not belong and be somebody we aren’t.  I mean, people aren’t always what they look like at first glance. And sometimes when we look at people and they look at us, we miss that what is standing in front of us is really a precious child of God. So, we have to be careful with our judgments of people.  We don’t know how they may affect the person we’re judging.  When I tell people I’m a minister, the number one reaction I get is they say, “Funny, you don’t look like a minister.” Apparently, that’s because I look homeless. But we judge people by what we expect to see, and they often do the same to us.

Sometimes I think that’s John’s situation here.  He’s expecting to see one thing when the Messiah comes - someone who is going to separate the wheat from the chaff, someone who is going to clear the threshing floor, someone who is going to baptize with fire.  That’s what John expected to see when the Messiah showed up.  But then Jesus shows up and I wonder sometimes if Jesus wasn’t necessarily the Messiah that John the Baptist expected because Jesus ends up saying and doing things contrary to what John the Baptist seems to think he’ll do.  Later on, while he’s sitting in jail, John will send his disciples to question Jesus.  Are you the messiah or should we wait for another?  And Jesus tells them to tell John what they see.  Not wheat being separated from the chaff but people being healed.  Jesus wasn’t doing what John expected the Messiah to do and Jesus didn’t hang out with the people that everyone expected the Messiah to hang out with.  That’s part of what got him killed.  People had certain ideas about who the Messiah was and what the Messiah was supposed to do, and Jesus wasn’t really the Messiah that people expected.  Not even John the Baptist I don’t think expected what Jesus was.

 And so, here’s my question and why I think it’s an important question for both the season we’re in and for the world in which we live. Where do we expect to find God and what are we expecting God to do?  Where do we look for God and what do we expect to find God doing?  I think it may be easy to come here to church once a week and find God among the music and the liturgy and prayers.  It may be harder to find God in the sermon sometimes.  But generally, it’s easy to come here and find God at Church.  I think it’s fairly safe to say that we expect to find God at Church and among the people here.  And we come here expecting something, don’t we?  I mean I do.  What we expect might be different for all of us. We may expect to be comforted or challenged perhaps.  Maybe we expect to be nurtured or forgiven or recharged. And these are all fair expectations.

 And although coming here for worship is a good opportunity to take a pause and to focus on God and rest and hopefully have some of our expectations met on most Sundays.  When we leave here, we walk out these doors to a world that hasn’t stopped.  To a world that continues to go on. And have problems.  And have struggles.  And have hardships.  And have losses.  And have sufferings. And have doubts. And the world can sometimes have a very hard time living up to any of our expectations.  Where do we find God out there?  And what is it that we’re expecting God to do?

 And I can’t answer that for any of you really because our expectations are all different.  But perhaps we can learn from John and put down our expectations.  Maybe we should keep our eyes open to the possibility of God working in our midst in unexpected places and in unexpected ways.  Maybe in Advent, in our time of preparation and expectation we should look for what is unexpected.  Maybe what we need to prepare ourselves for is to find God working in our lives and in our world in ways and in places we don’t normally expect to find God working.

And maybe it isn’t about looking for God at all.  Maybe it’s about simply being open to the possibility of God and the possibility God working in our lives.  Maybe it’s about putting down our expectations entirely and simply living this life with eyes wide open to the reality of seeing God where we are at any given moment.  And then what Advent is about is a rededication to our commitments to God, and allowing God to be God where and how God chooses.  It means going to the places where we expect God, sure, because it means nurturing and strengthening ourselves spiritually so that we can be open to God. But we do THAT so we don’t limit where and how we choose to see God with our expectations. 

 We may find that when we come to God without expectations, when we don’t limit how or where we find God, that we then begin to see God everywhere.  Even in the most unlikely places, working in the most unlikely ways.  And it is when that happens that we can then see the light that shines in the darkness, we can then see the beauty among the ugliness, the sacred among the profane, and holiness that lies in each moment of our lives.  And maybe that’s what Advent is about.  Preparing ourselves to truly see that Christ is present among us at each moment. even in ways and in places and in people we don’t necessarily choose.  And when we walk into Christmas with that realization, that Christ is born and walks with us at every step and in each thing, we do... well, I cannot think of a greater gift.

 So may you put down your expectations of other people and even expectations of God.

May you travel through your life with eyes open to God’s presence.

 May you find Christ in the places you don’t expect.

 Amen.