December 16, 2007
Sermon preached by Rev. Donald Ng at the First Chinese Baptist Church in San Francisco.
This is a strange passage in the middle of Advent. Are you the one who is to come, or are we to wait for another?
I thought we were supposed to be on our way to Bethlehem. I thought we were supposed to be cleaning out the stable and putting fresh hay in the manger. I thought we were supposed to be singing, “O Come, O Come Emmanuel.” Why interrupt our preparations with such a deflating question?
This isn’t the way the shepherds and wise men greeted Jesus when they met him: Then they found the child with Mary his mother, and they fell down and paid him homage. But before opening their treasure chests to offer him gifts, they quietly asked the babe, “Are you the one who is to come, or are we to wait for another? It seems to me that anyone who has followed the star that far has more or less passed the point of doubt.
How about all of us? Many of you have climbed up into that attic or crawled in that dark basement to take out all those Christmas decorations to prepare for the season; hung the lights, trimmed the tree, baked those cookies, mailed the packages, wrapped the gifts, deck the halls. You know exactly what I mean–you have more or less passed the point of doubt. We may not always like the Christmas treadmill, but we get on it all the same. We don’t stop to second guess ourselves. We don’t ask, “Wait a minute: is this baby really the One?”
Maybe we should. Maybe we should just put down that wrapping paper. Is this baby really the One, or should we wait for another?
John The Baptist
What makes this question even stranger is the person in Matthew 11 who is asking it: John the Baptist. It’s strange because wasn’t John supposed to be Jesus’ first and biggest fan? It’s strange because didn’t John recognize Jesus when they were both still in their mothers’ wombs? Didn’t John baptize Jesus in the Jordan when they were all grown up? Wasn’t it John’s preaching that announced Jesus’ coming?
But John was in prison because of Herod. This Herod was as crazy as the Herod who tried to get rid of baby Jesus when he was born. John was now facing an executioner’s ax, and he knows it. All locked up behind bars, John, one of the greatest prophets of his time, couldn’t even carry the message himself to Jesus but had to send his disciples with the question: “Are you the one who is to come, or should we wait for another?”
When you are in prison, literally or metaphorically, it’s hard to think clearly. It’s hard to see clearly. Things that were obvious only a short while ago are murky, cloudy, difficult to discern; you start to doubt yourself. Because you aren’t free to move and stretch, to go and take a second look and see things from another angle, to test for yourself in your own way, the doubt grows. When you are boxed in, locked up, caught in the treadmill place, there just isn’t enough room to see the truth.
It’s kind of like your Christmas decorations. They have been boxed up, locked away in the attic or in the basement just like the way you stored them away last year. It’s like that artificial Christmas tree that you pulled a plastic bag over all the decorations to store away until you take it out again the next year without one ornament out of place.
Caught in the treadmill of the busy holiday season, we go on this autopilot decorating routine just to get up all the decorations and trim the tree. When you and I are locked up in the same way of celebrating Christmas year after year, things become murky, cloudy, difficult to discern and we ask: Jesus, are you the one who is to come, or should we wait for another?
We begin to second-guess ourselves in who we believe. We need to put down the wrapping paper.
Jesus’ Actions
There was a man who was approached by a street evangelist “Are you a Christian?” to which the man replies, “Why are you asking me? I could tell you anything. Ask my family. Talk with my neighbors. Speak to the folk with whom I work. They can tell you whether or not I am a Christian.”
When John’s disciples asked Jesus, “Are you the one who is to come, or are we to wait for another?” to which Jesus replied, “Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have good news brought to them.” Jesus was saying, “Don’t ask me if I am the one or not, go and ask those who have seen my ministries and they will tell you I am the one.
All the miracles that Jesus had performed matched the definition of who the Messiah is. Jesus was saying, “If I healed like a Messiah and raised the dead like a Messiah and helped the poor like a Messiah, then you can be reasonably sure that I am the Messiah.”
Baptism
Today we are blessed once again to witness believers’ baptism. Welcoming 5 new disciples and members into our church community and two more in the 11:15 Service disrupts and interrupts our Christmas schedules and activities. We start our service earlier. The new disciples wear robes and get completely immersed. Family and friends whom we don’t normally see at church are here. We have cake to eat afterward. This service of believers’ baptism is like a prison breakout. We free ourselves from the everyday Sunday routine to see from a new and fresh perspective about what is truth.
Across years of Christian nurture and upbringing, reading and studying the Bible, engaging in heartfelt praying and being actively engaged in life-changing Christian experiences, these who were baptized this morning also asked Jesus, “Are you the one who is to come, or are we to wait for another?”
These new believers have seen in their own way that the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have good news brought to them. These five newly baptized Christians know Jesus Christ is the One. They are telling us that Jesus is Lord and Savior!
The Whale Rider
Some years ago, there was this marvelous movie about faith and believing the signs. It’s the Whale Rider. It is the story of the Maori girl Paikea of New Zealand. Paikea is named after the original whale rider from deep in Maori collective memory. The first Paikea had come riding a great whale when the people had cried out for God’s aid. Paikea was sent by God to form the Maori community.
Paikea’s life had begun tragically. At her birth, Paikea’s mother and twin brother had died. Her father, heir to the throne and grief-stricken over the loss, abandons the daughter to be raised by her austere grandfather, Moro the tribal leader.
Paikea is thus the next in line. However, Moro rejects her as a leader because she is a girl.
While being raised and cared for by Moro, Paikea matures into a gifted young girl. All others can see that she is the chosen one, the anointed tribal leader, except Moro.
Moro sets up after school activities just for the boys to instruct them in the tribal wisdom, in the stubborn hope that one might emerge as leader. Paikea, while pointedly excluded, nevertheless studies on her own. And even on her own, she excels where all the boys fail.
One test for the chosen one is to retrieve a hidden whale’s tooth submerged in deep water. She finds the tooth after all the boys have given up. She wins a public speaking award for her recitation of tribal lore.
All signs point to Paikea. Even her name screams out her anointing, but Moro will still not accept. Moro will not pass the mantle to her. He sees the signs, same as every one else, but his hard-edged traditional view of gender roles blinds him to the signs. He seems to demand another, then another, never satisfied.
The final sign comes when a beached whale chooses Paikea to ride it out to sea. When Moro sees this wisp of a girl riding the whale, nearly drowned in the effort, he knows she is the chosen one. Moro finally sees. He accepts.
Grandfather Moro’s faith is based on tradition and blind tradition at that. Paikea’s faith is based on grace, gift of the spirit, and prophecy fulfilled.
Are You the One?
With only days away from Christmas, are you boxed up, locked up, caught up in the blind traditions of celebrating Christmas that you have some doubt about the truth? Are we still asking Jesus, “Are you the one who is to come, or are we to wait for another?”
When Jesus was born, he fulfilled none of the traditions, none of the traditional expectations at all. And yet, he fulfilled all the prophecies. When we are looking for a king in a palace, our King was born in a stable. When we think that a prophet should come from the best family pedigree, Jesus was born of an unwed mother. When we think about someone who will be a world leader coming from the center of culture and commerce, Jesus was born in the most backward province of the most backwater nation of the day. When we might think that the Lord Jesus would be rich and powerful, he was born instead among the poorest of the poor.
Jesus did not live up to any of the traditional expectations, but the signs were still there for those who had the eyes of faith to see.
Jesus tells us, “Go and see what you hear and see.” Today we have seen the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, the poor have good news and 5 new Christians who professed that they believe in Jesus Christ is Lord, Savior, and the Messiah.
Let us pray.
O Merciful God, answer our question, “Are you the one?” by helping us see that you have transformed lives right before our eyes. In the birth and the ministry and the death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, you come into the world to be with us and lead us to follow you. In this Advent season, call us to a new hope for love and peace in the world. All these things, we joyously pray in the name of Christ Jesus, the Incarnate One, Amen.