SO...ARE YOU THE ONE?

Sermon preached by the Rev. Michael Anderson Bullock

[Isaiah 35:1-10; James 5:7-10; Matthew 11:2-11]

“So.”  It is understandably easy to miss this unobtrusive word that begins today’s gospel lesson from Matthew.  In fact, many translations (like the one printed in our bulletin) omit it.  “So.”  A bit curious, don’t you think?  “So” … so what?   Even though “so” is just a two-letter word, upon formal investigation, its many usages and meanings emerge that belie its simple ordinariness.  When I looked it up in terms of its place in English grammar, at least seven usages were suggested.  One reference mentioned ten!  Who knew?!

For instance, “so” can indicate purpose: as in “I got up extra early so that I could get to church on time.”  Or “so” as an indicator, as in “He has the answer but so does everyone else.”  Or “so” as a degree of reporting, as in “it was so cold last night that I didn’t want to get out of bed this morning to go to church.”  Or “so” as a verification, as in “She really liked my sermon, and she told me so.”  Or, “so” as that infamous exclamation: “So!” often expressed in the body language of a hands-on-hips posture – haroomph!

All this being said, I am struck by the fact that this Advent 3 gospel begins with “So”, and I wonder why this is?  And more to the point, what does this little word mean in the biblical context we just heard: “So when John heard in prison what the Messiah was doing …”?[1]  So, what does this “so” mean, especially for us in our Advent journey?

Grammatically, I believe that Matthew was using “so” as English teachers and other word nerds refer to as a “coordinating conjunction”.  (Don’t scoff.  This very well might be a Jeopardy category; and in good, Advent faith as your priest, I want you to be prepared to crush the game!  “Prepare ye the way…”)  Seriously, “so” as a “coordinating conjunction” carries a tremendous volume and weight for such a tiny word.  In particular and in this gospel case, “so” joins the impact of one event upon the other: namely, what John’s imprisonment has to do with Jesus’ public demonstration of life on God’s terms.

It is clear that John the Baptist is in prison by the hand of the paranoid “King of the Jews”, Herod the Great.  Eventually, Herod will behead John to bolster his own self-image and intimidating political reputation.  But the other event that the “so” presumes we know about is all the information about what Jesus has been saying and doing in terms of his public demonstration about what life on God’s terms is like.

“So”, with that two-letter word, Matthew refers to Jesus as God’s “Messiah”, the Savior, but the content of the first line in today’s gospel triggers the Baptizer: “So” in the sense of “therefore”, the line begins, “when John heard in prison what the Messiah was doing…” With this connection in mind, we are now ready for the Advent action to start.

In prison John is confused and has his gnawing doubts about the extent to which Jesus meets the expectations about the nature and reality of God’s Messiah, God’s Savior.  So, in prison, John sends two of his own disciples to ask Jesus a face-to-face question: “Are you the one; or are we to wait for another?”[2]

As we heard in the lesson, Jesus tellingly responds, not with an explanation, much less a defense of his position, but with a challenge to pay attention to what is going on.  So, Jesus tells the Baptizer’s two messengers this: “Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind recieve their sight and the lame walk, lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, and the poor have good news preached to them.  And blessed is the one who takes no offense at me.”

Another rendering of Jesus’ concluding comment puts the Lord’s response like this: “Is this what you were expecting?  If yes, then count yourselves most blessed.”[3]

“Are you the One?”  What a question!  What I want to convey to you in this sermon is that we all are in John the Baptist’s situation.  We all ask – if not with words, then with gut-wrenching worry – this desperate question.  And the point to be recognized is that this question – our question – is rooted in despair.  It is a desperate question, and it desperately seeks relief.

“Are you the one?”  Are you the one who will love me no matter how much of a jerk I am?  Are you the one who will allow me in my imperfections to love you?  Are you the one who will accompany me and I you to grow into what God calls us to be?  Is this the one job, the one choice, the one option – that will save me, save you, save us … make life better?  “Are you the one?”

It's not (is it?) an abstract question, at its emotional heart lies the recognition that our lives lack something deep, and beyond our capacity to provide it for ourselves.  But John the Baptist, imprisoned and headed for death at the hands of the self-serving, power-suckers, is not depressed.  He is, I believe, in despair; and despair is an existential issue, not just an emotional one.

“Are you the one who is to come; or shall we look for another?”

Sitting in jail with the weight of his confusion and his isolating doubts, John the Baptist despairs that he has, in a manner of speaking, not only bet on the wrong horse but also in the wrong race.  It wasn’t supposed to be like this.  It wasn’t supposed to end up like this!  Where are you, God?  You promised to deliver us from all this brokenness and – yes – this despair.  “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel…”.  Save us from all that keeps us from you.  Save us from ourselves.  How long, O Lord?  “Are you the one who is to come; or shall we look for another?”

The world is not working the way it is supposed to.  Our nation is not meeting – much less honoring) its inspiring principles, where the law guides, not the whims of modern-day Herods.  In terms of the church, we have been reduced in our faithful truth-telling, and often operate in contradiction to this day’s Collect of the Day: namely, we pray to have God “stir” us up, when we are prone to retreat and act like a James Bond martini: “Shaken, not stirred”.  In all the tumult and the consternation around us and in us, we ask the question: “Are you the one?”  Are you the one to make the difference in our lives that we need and cannot provide for ourselves?

This is, as I am bold to say, a question rooted in despair, a question rooted in the existential brokenness and heartbreak of our lives.  And in our lives, we are desperate enough, it seems, to take any viable answer to our question, pledging our allegiance to anyone who will respond: “I only can fix it!”  But, of course, there is a price for such idolatrous and addictive false hope.

I don’t know what John the Baptist’s response was when his disciples brought the message from Jesus.  I am quite sure that Jesus’ message didn’t make everything all better for him – like some magical kiss on the cheek.  Jesus never said, “only I can fix it”, even if that was what John’s broken expectation thought was needed.  However, what Jesus did say and what he says to us now is, “this is what is going on: The blind see; the lame walk; Lepers are cleansed; the deaf hear; the dead are raised.  The wretched of the earth learn that God is on their side.”[4]

One of the things that I know about my own experience of despair and desperate times is that the community of faith, that aspect of the church that is the faithful remnant – the church is called to see what God is already doing among us.  We need other eyes, seeing not just from our own, narrow vantage point, but to see what God is doing among us and with us and in us.So!  Here's my concluding point.  What we experience as the reality of life’s darkness, what the spiritual tradition calls “the dark night of the soul”, is a time and an experience of deep frustration and – yes, even despair.  But the “dark night of the soul” is not a matter of spiritual depression nor a prelude to the reality of Hell.  But rather (and here is the good and unexpected news) the darkness is necessary so that God can repair damaged souls in secret because if we were aware of this saving repair job that only God can do, we’d either try to control it or we would run away from it.  So! – God comes to us undercover in the darkness to do the healing work of new life in each of us and in the world.

For those of you who have looked forward to this “Rejoice Sunday” in Advent and have sought the hopeful light that the rose candle conveys, the good news comes unexpectedly, and it is this: We can trust God’s quiet work in us and on us; That only God is “the one”, and Emmanuel is with us.

Yes, we do need to wait but not for another.  If it helps you and me in this sacred, renewing time of darkness, perhaps we should create bright-yellow, diamond-shaped warning signs with big, black letters that we can wear like a sandwich board:  not Men at work” but “God at Work”.  And, in so doing, we remind one another that this work is a great reason to hope and a stunning occasion to “Rejoice”.  Amen.

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[1] Matthew 11:2.

[2] Matthew 11:3.

[3] Matthew 11:6b – The Message.

[4] Matthew 11:4-6 –The Message.