A Sermon for the Third Sunday of Advent
The Rev. Patricia A. Gillespie

Isaiah 35;1-10
Psalm 146
James 5:7-10
Matthew 11:2-11

It's that time of year: even without the snow, everywhere you go, people are singing or saying Merry Christmas. But for some folks this time of year is anything but merry. There's more depression around the holidays than any other time of year. Things don't work out like we've planned. Other folks seem to gather in happy families, but some are not welcome anymore in the homes where they grew up. Or they're welcome, but only if they come without the one they love. And some are alone -- no family and no partner. Some live in fear-- fear of loneliness, even fear for their lives. And some are in prison -- living in a dark and lonely closet in order to survive.

In today's reading John the Baptist is in prison. So don't try to tell him "merry anything." He's given his whole life to getting ready for the Messiah -- for Jesus to save his people. And it doesn't look like it's happening. All those things God told John to tell the people -- about judgment and unquenchable fire and axes at the root of trees -- where are they now? Why isn't Jesus doing what a good messiah is supposed to do? John is in a pretty depressing place, wondering if he's been wrong and asking about Jesus, "Are you the One?"

Jesus' answer is simple: "Look around, what do you see?" For John's followers the evidence is clear: those things that Isaiah predicted about the Messiah seem to be happening: the blind see, the lame walk, the dead are raised. We see them too sometimes. Some of us have seen amazing healing in people's lives, but there is still so much suffering around -- loving relationships fall apart, painful diseases like AIDS strike us, and explosions demolish buildings and bring untimely death. Like John, we too might wonder just what's going on here. Christmas is coming and where's the Messiah and all that healing now when we need it? Like Jesus, we want to ask, "Jesus, are you the one?"

But Jesus is harder to find for questioning today than when John sent his friends out. Sometimes it's especially hard for us to find Jesus in the church. I think that may be not because Jesus is absent or hiding, but because John is not here to help. There's no one to prepare the way. No one to make a clear path for us to get to Jesus. Especially for GLBT people, there seem to be so many huge roadblocks between us and Jesus. Many of those roadblocks have been put there by the church. And where is John the Baptist to prepare the way?

I think that if we, who have managed somehow to get past some of those roadblocks and to get ourselves to this place, if we were to ask Jesus, "Are you the one who is to come, or are we to wait for another?" Jesus' answer to us might be: "Are YOU the one who is to come, or am I to wait for another? You are the one who can prepare the way for me. You are the one who is in the wilderness today, on the margins of a homophobic society. You are the one who can shatter some of the roadblocks between me and my GLBT sisters and brothers. You found your way here somehow. Now prepare the way for others. It is with your hands and your voices that I can reach out to bring healing and hope." Perhaps Jesus is asking you today:

Return to The Living Waters Main Page
Go to The Living Waters Sermon Index