SPEAKER_00: Welcome to the First Love Church podcast.
SPEAKER_00: This is a collection of Sunday teachings inspired by the Revised Common Lectionary and recorded weekly in Ocala, Florida.
SPEAKER_00: I'm so grateful to be in your presence this morning on this uh third Sunday of Advent.
SPEAKER_00: Joy.
SPEAKER_00: Joy, joy, joy.
SPEAKER_00: God kind of joy.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you, Thomas, for reminding us of that.
SPEAKER_00: Joy.
SPEAKER_00: There's so much reading this morning.
SPEAKER_00: You're going to be so glad that I already did it for you.
SPEAKER_00: You're welcome.
SPEAKER_00: But it's so good in this beginning part when we remember that this is the hope of God.
SPEAKER_00: This is the good news that God shows action on behalf of those who are oppressed.
SPEAKER_00: On those that are weighed down, God comes to us and relieves the burden.
SPEAKER_00: God is a God of action, and love shows us what those actions are.
SPEAKER_00: I want to read to you from the prophet Isaiah.
SPEAKER_00: You should tremble a little bit, I think, when you're reading Isaiah.
SPEAKER_00: It should cause us to pause.
SPEAKER_00: He's one of those prophets.
SPEAKER_00: Isaiah chapter 35.
SPEAKER_00: The oracle tells us this.
SPEAKER_00: The wilderness and the dry land shall be glad.
SPEAKER_00: The desert shall rejoice and blossom like the crocus.
SPEAKER_00: It shall bloom abundantly and rejoice with joy and singing.
SPEAKER_00: And the glory of Lebanon shall be given to it the majesty of Carmel and Sharon.
SPEAKER_00: And they will see the glory of the Lord, the majesty of our God.
SPEAKER_00: Strengthen the weak hands and make firm the feeble knees.
SPEAKER_00: Say to those who are of a fearful heart, be strong, do not fear.
SPEAKER_00: Here is your God.
SPEAKER_00: He will come with vengeance, with terrible recompense.
SPEAKER_00: He will come and save you.
SPEAKER_00: Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped, and the lame shall leap like a deer, and the tongue of the speechless will sing for joy.
SPEAKER_00: For waters shall break forth in the wilderness and streams in the desert.
SPEAKER_00: The burning sand shall become a pool, and the thirsty ground springs of water, and the haunt of jackals shall become a swamp, and the grass shall become reeds and bushes.
SPEAKER_00: A highway shall be there, and it shall be called the holy way.
SPEAKER_00: The unclean shall not travel on it, but it shall be for God's people.
SPEAKER_00: No traveler, not even fools, shall go astray.
SPEAKER_00: No lion shall be there, nor shall any ravenous beast come upon it.
SPEAKER_00: They shall not be found there, but the redeemed shall walk there.
SPEAKER_00: What a beautiful hope for us.
SPEAKER_00: The ransomed of the Lord will return and come to Zion with singing, and everlasting joy shall be upon their heads.
SPEAKER_00: They shall obtain joy and gladness and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.
SPEAKER_00: This is the word of the Lord for God's people.
SPEAKER_00: The prophet Isaiah begins to tell us of a time when the things that are marked by death will be marked by resurrection life.
SPEAKER_00: The dead of the desert, the no life that is there will turn into a glorious garden.
SPEAKER_00: This is the word of the prophet Isaiah.
SPEAKER_00: And then he tells us to give a good word to those who are of an anxious heart.
SPEAKER_00: Be strong, do not fear.
SPEAKER_00: Your God is here.
SPEAKER_00: I happen to be looking up other words in the translation in the original text.
SPEAKER_00: And this word, anxious heart, is okay.
SPEAKER_00: It's an okay translation, but there's actually a better and more succinct and accurate one.
SPEAKER_00: And when I read it in the language, it made tears come to my eyes.
SPEAKER_00: And this is what it says say to those whose hearts are always racing.
SPEAKER_00: Say to those who are so aware of the world around them that this becomes a difficult place to navigate.
SPEAKER_00: When we hear the news, when we see what's happening around us, and our hearts begin to race, saying, What can be done?
SPEAKER_00: What can I do?
SPEAKER_00: To those whose hearts are always racing, remind them.
SPEAKER_00: Be strong.
SPEAKER_00: God is with you.
SPEAKER_00: When your heart races, remember this is the promise to you from love, the very source of all things.
SPEAKER_00: Peace to you.
SPEAKER_00: God is with you.
SPEAKER_00: You do not have to be anxious.
SPEAKER_00: You are not alone.
SPEAKER_00: And then he begins to tell us a beautiful story.
SPEAKER_00: And in the middle of this story, there are these words God will come with vengeance.
SPEAKER_00: And this is a very important way that we translate and we understand this ancient text that is given to us.
SPEAKER_00: That we don't come to it with our own definitions and our own words and tell it what it means.
SPEAKER_00: We allow the scripture to actually read us.
SPEAKER_00: And we allow these things to bring us into wholeness.
SPEAKER_00: And so when I thought about this word vengeance, I thought about how I would like to see vengeance.
SPEAKER_00: I would like to see, you know, the people that I think that are bad or wicked or doing terrible things to others, that they would get it.
SPEAKER_00: And what I mean by get it is what you mean by get it.
SPEAKER_00: Like they would be punished.
SPEAKER_00: They would be sorry they ever thought that way.
SPEAKER_00: There would be a terrible recompense because I like that as long as it's not for me.
SPEAKER_00: I do not want a terrible recompense.
SPEAKER_00: I want all mercy.
SPEAKER_00: That's what I want.
SPEAKER_00: I want all love and mercy, and I want all the judgments of God that are just and true.
SPEAKER_00: So I did a little bit of research for you.
SPEAKER_00: And it's so beautiful.
SPEAKER_00: In this particular word, translated as vengeance.
SPEAKER_00: It really means these words: retribution that brings liberation to all the oppressed.
SPEAKER_00: God will come, and God will bring liberation to all the oppressed.
SPEAKER_00: In this verse, in the same way, translated terrible recompense, it's a very artful rendering.
SPEAKER_00: And I appreciate very much the artistry that is in the text that we read, some of it very poetic language, and so this terrible recompense makes you feel a thing, doesn't it?
SPEAKER_00: And this is what it simply means: the dealing or the response or the benefit.
SPEAKER_00: And so I retranslated it for us based on just changing those two words and giving us a different meaning, but not of my own meaning.
SPEAKER_00: Say to God's people, God is here.
SPEAKER_00: Restorative justice is on the way.
SPEAKER_00: Hope now in God's dealing.
SPEAKER_00: Expect God's response.
SPEAKER_00: And then it tells us what God's response is.
SPEAKER_00: The desert is going to bloom.
SPEAKER_00: Those who are weak, those will be strong.
SPEAKER_00: Those who cannot walk will now dance.
SPEAKER_00: Those who are in grief will now sing for joy.
SPEAKER_00: God is showing us what God's dealings look like.
SPEAKER_00: They look like healing for the whole world and for every person.
SPEAKER_00: Beloved, that is the good news.
SPEAKER_00: That is great joy.
SPEAKER_00: The prophet Isaiah told people this: when God comes, the lame will walk.
SPEAKER_00: The deaf will hear.
SPEAKER_00: Those that are mute will begin to sing praises to God.
SPEAKER_00: And he gives us a picture of what it will look like.
SPEAKER_00: What a glorious hope for us.
SPEAKER_00: This morning we read from James.
SPEAKER_00: Meanwhile, brothers and sisters, please remember the family language here.
SPEAKER_00: In case you didn't know if you belong, you're already family.
SPEAKER_00: There's already a seat at the communion table for you.
SPEAKER_00: Love is already said you belong, and this is your place.
SPEAKER_00: Meanwhile, brothers and sisters, we must be patient.
SPEAKER_00: Filled with expectation as we wait for the appearing of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Think about the farmer who has to wait patiently for the earth's harvest as it ripens because of the early and latter rains.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know if any of you have farmed.
SPEAKER_00: We've seen it on television and movies, I guess.
SPEAKER_00: But if you've farmed, you know this, there is a very uncomfortable period of waiting.
SPEAKER_00: And it's uncomfortable because it's out of your hands.
SPEAKER_00: You do not know if the heavens will open and rains will fall.
SPEAKER_00: You do not know if the sun will shine the right amount.
SPEAKER_00: You just have to trust.
SPEAKER_00: If the seed is in the ground, then God already put the information into the seed for it to become the plant that it is.
SPEAKER_00: Tiny acorns.
SPEAKER_00: Tiny acorns bring forth majestic oaks, reminding us little things that will blossom into big things.
SPEAKER_00: James chapter 5 says this so also keep your hopes high.
SPEAKER_00: Beloved, that's a full-time job.
SPEAKER_00: In 2025, that is a full-time job.
SPEAKER_00: Keeping your hope high.
SPEAKER_00: And I just want to tell you, it's almost impossible to do alone.
SPEAKER_00: It's one of the reasons why we do it in community.
SPEAKER_00: We come together and we remember, this is why we hope.
SPEAKER_00: And hope is not without teeth.
SPEAKER_00: Hope is something that has so much tenacity.
SPEAKER_00: There's a famous poem by Emily Dickinson, and it says, Hope is a bird with feathers, and it's beautiful, it's beautiful.
SPEAKER_00: But there's a newer poem that feels more alive to me.
SPEAKER_00: And it says, Hope is not a bird, Emily, it is a sewer rat.
SPEAKER_00: I love that.
SPEAKER_00: Because sewer rats, they're like indestructible.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, think about the places that they live and arrive.
SPEAKER_00: I'm thinking that's the kind of hope I want.
SPEAKER_00: Not a bird.
SPEAKER_00: God bless the birds, but they're particular about where they live.
SPEAKER_00: They really are.
SPEAKER_00: But the sewer rats, I want to hope like a sewer rat, Emily.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, give it garbage and it's still gonna eat and it's gonna thrive.
SPEAKER_00: Now, I don't want to say that hope is as unattractive as a sewer rat.
SPEAKER_00: But hope has teeth, beloved.
SPEAKER_00: Hope is not just something that has no power.
SPEAKER_00: Hope, in fact, is so powerful.
SPEAKER_00: Stories change, beloved, when somebody has hope.
SPEAKER_00: People can live and thrive in places where there are hope.
SPEAKER_00: And so keep your hopes high and be patient, for the presence of the Lord is drawing closer.
SPEAKER_00: Since each of you are a part of God's family.
SPEAKER_00: Remember that, beloved, you are a part of what God is doing on the earth.
SPEAKER_00: You are here for purpose, you are loved and you belong.
SPEAKER_00: Never complain or grumble about each other.
SPEAKER_00: Well, I'm sorry that's in there for you, because complaining and grumbling is something that we've practiced for a long time.
SPEAKER_00: And James is reminding us this is a different family.
SPEAKER_00: This is God's family.
SPEAKER_00: No complaining or grumbling about each other, so that judgment will not come on you.
SPEAKER_00: For the true judge is near and very ready to appear.
SPEAKER_00: My brothers and sisters, take the prophets as your mentors.
SPEAKER_00: They've prophesied in the name of the Lord, and yet it brought them great sufferings, and they have patiently endured.
SPEAKER_00: I want to tell you something about prophecy.
SPEAKER_00: And maybe you have had people in your life maybe give you a prophetic word or say this is a prophet.
SPEAKER_00: So the scripture also tells us to pay attention to those things.
SPEAKER_00: Try them, sort them out.
SPEAKER_00: And here is what true prophecy is: it's not fortune telling.
SPEAKER_00: True prophecy is not saying, okay, tomorrow you're going to meet this person and they're gonna give you a million dollars.
SPEAKER_00: That's not prophecy.
SPEAKER_00: Prophet, true prophets, the prophets of God show us they can look at a terrible situation and not ignore it, but say, I see something better than this.
SPEAKER_00: When we see two people fighting, we don't have to lower ourselves to that kind of crazy, that kind of not so we can go, oh, I can see brothers.
SPEAKER_00: I can see people who know that they're loved, and I can see people who understand the abundance that we do not have to fight each other, there is no scarcity.
SPEAKER_00: And so the invitation for all of us to enter into a prophetic voice is for us to ask Jesus to heal our eyes so we see the world as he does.
SPEAKER_00: So we see each other as he does.
SPEAKER_00: And that is how we have hope.
SPEAKER_00: If we look around us and we say, This is all there is, beloved, there is no hope in that.
SPEAKER_00: But if we look around this and we remind ourselves, resurrection is coming.
SPEAKER_00: One day, every sad story will be rewritten, every sad thing will be untrue, and love will have its perfect way.
SPEAKER_00: Beloved, we can all birth the holy, each one of us invited into this prophetic world, and this is what the prophets say to us.
SPEAKER_00: Have hope.
SPEAKER_00: There's another coming.
SPEAKER_00: We enter into this text, into joy.
SPEAKER_00: In the third week of joy, in this time of Advent, and we meet up again with our beloved John the Baptist.
SPEAKER_00: Now, I don't know if you were here the past couple weeks, but we do love him.
SPEAKER_00: And he is an oddball.
SPEAKER_00: And he is our oddball.
SPEAKER_00: And we identify with him and we love him.
SPEAKER_00: And he tells us how to live differently.
SPEAKER_00: And I hope you went home and you read that particular part of the story.
SPEAKER_00: If not, you still have a week.
SPEAKER_00: Actually, you have the rest of your life, but just take this week with us and read John the Baptist and read what he was talking about to people.
SPEAKER_00: Because one of the things that John the Baptist insisted on was that your life, your actions, equate your words.
SPEAKER_00: He said, Let actions.
SPEAKER_00: And he said, if you see someone, if you have two coats and you see someone without a coat, you should give one of your coats to them.
SPEAKER_00: And he said, if somebody asks you to walk one mile, walk two.
SPEAKER_00: Do more than what is expected.
SPEAKER_00: And John the Baptist reminds us that it's not so much in what you say you believe, but how you live.
SPEAKER_00: And this is the baptism of John.
SPEAKER_00: We meet John in this time of the story, and he's in prison.
SPEAKER_00: It's essential for us to remember where our questions come from.
SPEAKER_00: John is suffering.
SPEAKER_00: Roman prisons were notoriously cruel.
SPEAKER_00: They were not there for rehabilitation, they were there to incite fear.
SPEAKER_00: Beloved, that is all that cruelty does.
SPEAKER_00: And fear is not love.
SPEAKER_00: John was in a place that was intentionally made for the cruelty to make them fearful.
SPEAKER_00: And very often, in times like this, when someone was in prison, the community or the people around those people would leave because no one wanted to go to that terrible place.
SPEAKER_00: We see John's followers and his disciples did not abandon him.
SPEAKER_00: He is not alone in the prison.
SPEAKER_00: He has people who are bringing him supplies, he has people that are taking messages for him.
SPEAKER_00: But I want you to listen to the words of someone who is suffering.
SPEAKER_00: These words were not sent when he was baptizing Jesus and the heavens were opening, and God said, This is my son in whom I am deeply love and whom I am well pleased.
SPEAKER_00: That's not when John had the question.
SPEAKER_00: The question comes when John is suffering.
SPEAKER_00: John the Baptist sends this question from the cell, from a place of cruelty.
SPEAKER_00: John the Baptist, who was in prison, heard about all the things the Messiah was doing, so he sent his disciples to ask Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Are you the Messiah that we've been expecting?
SPEAKER_00: Or should we keep looking for someone else?
SPEAKER_00: This is really important for us to remember and for us to read the text, allow it to read us, but I want to encourage you to see something this morning: that there is no shame in John's doubt.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus does not shame him.
SPEAKER_00: No one there shames him.
SPEAKER_00: There is no shame in the doubt.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, doubting is a very human experience, and we are not asked to deny our humanity.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, we are asked to be compassionate that we should look at our doubt with curiosity.
SPEAKER_00: But look at the way that Jesus responds.
SPEAKER_00: Are you the Messiah, or should we look for someone else?
SPEAKER_00: Should we keep looking?
SPEAKER_00: Jesus hears the question from John's disciples and says, Go back and tell John what you've heard and seen.
SPEAKER_00: This is essential again because this is the baptism of John.
SPEAKER_00: This is John's way.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus did not say, Well, let me tell you who my lineage is, and let me start giving you a theological treaty.
SPEAKER_00: What he said was, tell him what you see, tell him what's happening.
SPEAKER_00: The blind see, the lame walk, those with leprosy are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised to life, and good news is being preached to the poor.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus reminds him, this is what Hosea said.
SPEAKER_00: This is what it looks like.
SPEAKER_00: It looks like this.
SPEAKER_00: Love is action, beloved.
SPEAKER_00: And when it says good news is preached to the poor, it doesn't mean preached with a lot of words.
SPEAKER_00: It reminds us good news is being demonstrated to the poor, to those who do not have.
SPEAKER_00: Now God is coming and giving to them.
SPEAKER_00: And this is an invitation into a way of life.
SPEAKER_00: And here's what the text refuses to do.
SPEAKER_00: It will not scold John for the question.
SPEAKER_00: In your suffering, in your pain, we meet our questions with compassion.
SPEAKER_00: And we ask them to look at what love is doing in the world.
SPEAKER_00: Where are the good things?
SPEAKER_00: Where is the hope?
SPEAKER_00: It reminds me of doubting Thomas, which I would love to rename for all of us.
SPEAKER_00: But I have a son named Thomas, in case you are thought you were talking about him.
SPEAKER_00: The Apostle Thomas.
SPEAKER_00: Again, somebody else that I love.
SPEAKER_00: He says to his friends who have already seen Jesus, okay, let's put that out there.
SPEAKER_00: They're not also having to believe.
SPEAKER_00: They have actually experienced Jesus in their midst.
SPEAKER_00: And they tell Thomas, we've seen the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: And Thomas says, I'm not going to believe that until I see the wounds.
SPEAKER_00: And you know what Thomas is actually saying?
SPEAKER_00: I'm not going to bypass my grief.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not going to pretend like my friend did not suffer and die.
SPEAKER_00: Thomas says, I will not just get over this.
SPEAKER_00: Thomas said, when I see the wounds that are healed, and when I touch him, then I'll believe.
SPEAKER_00: And do you know what Jesus does the next time that he sees Thomas?
SPEAKER_00: Shows him the wounds.
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't ask him to say anything else or believe anything else.
SPEAKER_00: He just says, here, if you want to see.
SPEAKER_00: And Thomas's response is, My Lord and my God, he believes.
SPEAKER_00: But do not for any of us find that there is any shame in asking the question, in doubting, in saying, Are you the one or should we look for another?
SPEAKER_00: Did we get this wrong?
SPEAKER_00: Again, because John finds himself in prison asking the question.
SPEAKER_00: So when you find yourself in places of suffering, honor the doubt.
SPEAKER_00: Be compassionate with the question.
SPEAKER_00: And ask yourself, what am I to see in this?
SPEAKER_00: We pause here for a moment to thank you for joining us today.
SPEAKER_00: If you're finding this episode meaningful, would you take a moment to share it with a friend?
SPEAKER_00: This podcast is made possible thanks to the generosity of people just like you.
SPEAKER_00: If you would like to support the ongoing work of First Love Church and the continued work of our podcast, visit us online at firstlovechurch.org, reminding you to like, follow, and subscribe.
SPEAKER_00: The church is not to be a tribunal for doubt.
SPEAKER_00: We are not to judge other people's doubts.
SPEAKER_00: We are to be a shelter and a safe place for questions.
SPEAKER_00: We are to be a place where people can wrestle with really important things that are happening in their life.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe someone told someone else that a hope was like a bird, and you can remind them hope is a sewer rat.
SPEAKER_00: Have hope, beloved, with teeth.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know that much about sewer rats, but the things that I have seen, I will tell you one time I grew up in Chicago, so I have seen my fair share of them.
SPEAKER_00: One time there was a sewer rat that I encountered.
SPEAKER_00: I was going downtown, and without exaggeration, without hyperbole, this sewer rat was the size of a cat, a house cat.
SPEAKER_00: And he was sitting by a door that I was supposed to enter.
SPEAKER_00: And I thought to myself, I'm not going that way today.
SPEAKER_00: That's his door today.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know if he was waiting for me to open the door so that he could get inside, which would have been a nightmare.
SPEAKER_00: So I just walked around the block.
SPEAKER_00: But I thought to myself, that is not something to be wrestled with.
SPEAKER_00: And I want that kind of hope.
SPEAKER_00: I want my hope to scare people in the good way.
SPEAKER_00: In a good way.
SPEAKER_00: I don't want you to say, oh, she believes this, she really believes this.
SPEAKER_00: Beloved, I do.
SPEAKER_00: I do, with my whole being, believe that love will have the last word.
SPEAKER_00: That resurrection reminds us of a truth, that death no longer gets to separate us.
SPEAKER_00: That God is here and yet God is still coming.
SPEAKER_00: Our consciousness being enlightened so that we can see the work of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And then Jesus said, here's his little add-on.
SPEAKER_00: God blesses those who do not fall away because of me.
SPEAKER_00: In our minds, at least in Western Christianity, we think of this picture of this very white icon of a Jesus who is just all beautiful and glorious, and we say, How could you be offended with that?
SPEAKER_00: I just want to remind you, Jesus was completely offensive the same way that John the Baptist was offensive.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus ate with people that you were not supposed to eat with.
SPEAKER_00: Through loving service to the other.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus said, This is how the kingdom comes, that you love your neighbor.
SPEAKER_00: And neighbor is not a geographical term.
SPEAKER_00: Neighbor is a family.
SPEAKER_00: Neighbor are the people around us who remind us of this truth that we are all in God's family.
SPEAKER_00: And once we know that, we start behaving like that.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know how things happened in your families, but often in mine, because I had a little pile of people that belong to me.
SPEAKER_00: Now they're adults, but they were all little at one time.
SPEAKER_00: And one of the things that I would say on a regular basis is the Drakes don't do that.
SPEAKER_00: I don't want to discuss how other people do things, but we do not.
SPEAKER_00: And I remind them, I am your mother.
SPEAKER_00: There's different rules for you.
SPEAKER_00: I feel like this is what God is saying to us all the time.
SPEAKER_00: I know that others are misbehaving.
SPEAKER_00: I am your father.
SPEAKER_00: I am love.
SPEAKER_00: I have given you everything that you need for life and godliness.
SPEAKER_00: There is no scarcity.
SPEAKER_00: And God consistently asks us to give up our illusions and come into the truth.
SPEAKER_00: And he says to John, Blessed are you if you do not get offended at my gentle way.
SPEAKER_00: Blessed are you if you are not so offended with the way I am coming.
SPEAKER_00: As John's disciples were leaving, Jesus begins talking about him to the crowds.
SPEAKER_00: What kind of man did you go to the wilderness to see?
SPEAKER_00: Jesus begins asking questions.
SPEAKER_00: I want to remind you that in the beginning of our sacred text, there is a story of a garden.
SPEAKER_00: And there are many questions presented in the garden.
SPEAKER_00: One of the questions that is a life question for me, and perhaps you'll use it too, Adam and Eve find themselves in a place where they are hiding.
SPEAKER_00: And they have shame.
SPEAKER_00: If you find yourself in a place that you feel like you need to hide, or in a place that you have shame.
SPEAKER_00: The sacred text tells us God comes to them and asks a question.
SPEAKER_00: Who told you that you have anything to be ashamed of?
SPEAKER_00: And then God sows for them.
SPEAKER_00: I was thinking about this the other day.
SPEAKER_00: God takes some fig leaves and he sows.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know if you know this about God, but wherever you find yourself, God is there.
SPEAKER_00: And if you find yourself in shame, God will sew for you a garment that will restore to you your dignity.
SPEAKER_00: There are many beautiful things about God, but a God who sows, for all of you who quilt or do crafts, good news, God is really good with the needle.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus says, What kind of man did you go to the wilderness to see?
SPEAKER_00: Was he a weak reed swayed by every breath of the wind?
SPEAKER_00: That's an important thing that Jesus asks them.
SPEAKER_00: We don't live in the desert.
SPEAKER_00: There's two things about reeds.
SPEAKER_00: Reeds grow around water.
SPEAKER_00: Even water you can't see.
SPEAKER_00: If you see a reed, there's water somewhere.
SPEAKER_00: But then one of the things that the prophets tells us is this about God.
SPEAKER_00: God will not break the reeds.
SPEAKER_00: Those things that feel stiff, those things that are hardened, God does not come to break them.
SPEAKER_00: And so when Jesus was reminding them, who did you go to see?
SPEAKER_00: Were you expecting to see a man dressed in expensive clothes?
SPEAKER_00: We're reminded already.
SPEAKER_00: The clothes are a big deal in this story.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know about you, but in good storytelling, costumes are really important.
SPEAKER_00: And John, John is wearing camel.
SPEAKER_00: Itchy camel.
SPEAKER_00: And the refined people were not wearing this.
SPEAKER_00: And he was wearing a leather belt.
SPEAKER_00: Which leads us to believe the camel was not sewn.
SPEAKER_00: The camel was belted on, which can be on sometimes a little disheveled.
SPEAKER_00: And he ate weird things.
SPEAKER_00: And so Jesus begins asking, all of these things that you're gonna separate someone by, all these things that you're gonna judge someone by, were you expecting, because a prophet, the one who came before the Messiah?
SPEAKER_00: Were you expecting someone in expensive clothes?
SPEAKER_00: No people with expensive clothing live in palaces.
SPEAKER_00: Were you looking for a prophet?
SPEAKER_00: What will the prophet who speaks to you look like?
SPEAKER_00: I hope it's a sewer rat.
SPEAKER_00: They, in my estimation, and I cannot speak for every sewer rat, but they have jagged teeth.
SPEAKER_00: And I think that jagged teeth is for tearing into things.
SPEAKER_00: And I think sometimes our hope needs to be like a sewer rat because we need to hold on to goodness when everything feels like it's evil and it's slipping away.
SPEAKER_00: Were you looking for a prophet?
SPEAKER_00: Yes, and he is more than a prophet.
SPEAKER_00: John is the man to whom the scriptures refer to when they say, Look, I am sending my messenger ahead of you, and he will prepare the way for you.
SPEAKER_00: John was prophesied about Elizabeth, his mother, a woman of great joy.
SPEAKER_00: He will prepare the way.
SPEAKER_00: During Advent, we practice preparing our hearts for the coming of the Christ.
SPEAKER_00: What does it mean to prepare your heart for the coming of Christ?
SPEAKER_00: It means that you open yourself to more love than you could have imagined.
SPEAKER_00: You open yourself to a way of living and to a way of experiencing the world that maybe you could not have imagined.
SPEAKER_00: I am sending my messenger ahead of you, and he will prepare the way before you.
SPEAKER_00: I tell you the truth.
SPEAKER_00: Of all who have ever lived.
SPEAKER_00: That's a lot of people, beloved.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus said, of all who have ever lived, no one is greater than John the Baptist.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know this, but I hope that Elizabeth was alive to hear that.
SPEAKER_00: I hope his mother was alive to hear Jesus say, Well done.
SPEAKER_00: Well done.
SPEAKER_00: Yet even the least person in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he is.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is telling us the hierarchy is dissolved.
SPEAKER_00: There is no greatest and there is no least.
SPEAKER_00: In the kingdom of heaven, everything is upside down.
SPEAKER_00: If you want to be the greatest in the kingdom, Jesus said, then you must become a servant of all.
SPEAKER_00: If you want to find joy, you find it in the service of others.
SPEAKER_00: You find it in remembering I am loved, that there is abundance in the world.
SPEAKER_00: I do not have to fear scarcity.
SPEAKER_00: I tell you the truth, of all who have ever lived, none is greater than John the Baptist.
SPEAKER_00: But even the least person in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.
SPEAKER_00: Honoring our questions, wrestling them out, being compassionate with ourselves, working and practicing and holding joy and grief in the same hand.
SPEAKER_00: Imagine with me the story that comes back to John.
SPEAKER_00: He's still in prison.
SPEAKER_00: And it doesn't end well for him.
SPEAKER_00: The empire is threatened by his story, the story that he tells others, a new way of living.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, even the historian Josephus tells us that John the Baptist's story and the way that he lived and how he told people and the authority, the genuine authority that he spoke in, changed the stories that people were telling about each other.
SPEAKER_00: And they began to care for each other and love each other and offer generosity to each other.
SPEAKER_00: And it scared the empire so badly because of what could happen if this little band of people start behaving like this, the world could change.
SPEAKER_00: John hears the message.
SPEAKER_00: And the message is the lame walk, the deaf hear, the blind see.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know what he was hoping for.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe that his cousin would come and that he would get out of jail.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe he was hoping for the promise that you will not die.
SPEAKER_00: But I know that John knew how to hold joy and grief.
SPEAKER_00: The grief of knowing this would be his end, and the joy of knowing this is not the end of the story.
SPEAKER_00: For all of us, beloved.
SPEAKER_00: Whatever sorrow we find ourselves in, whatever exhaustion.
SPEAKER_00: I was reminded of something this week that no one can destroy energy.
SPEAKER_00: It just transmutes itself, it changes form, doesn't dist is not destroyed.
SPEAKER_00: And I was thinking about grief as an energy.
SPEAKER_00: You know, if you ignore grief, it does not go away.
SPEAKER_00: I didn't know if you knew that.
SPEAKER_00: It just shows up as exhaustion.
SPEAKER_00: Or it shows up as anger with no logic attached to it.
SPEAKER_00: Or it shows up with discontentment.
SPEAKER_00: And so I remind you that this time of Advent is a beautiful time to practice sacred alchemy, to understand the power that is within us, to hold grief with reverence and whisper to grief, this is not the end of the story.
SPEAKER_00: Have you ever read a really good book and in the middle you find the character that you love in peril?
SPEAKER_00: It's a good idea not to close the book.
SPEAKER_00: Stay up later and read on.
SPEAKER_00: That's a terrible idea, don't get that from me.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes you miss sleep altogether because you're like, I can't leave them there.
SPEAKER_00: I have to know more.
SPEAKER_00: You, beloved, are characters in the play that is happening around us.
SPEAKER_00: You have an essential role to play.
SPEAKER_00: Do not panic.
SPEAKER_00: To those whose hearts are always racing, here is the good news.
SPEAKER_00: God is coming.
SPEAKER_00: And God is healing everything.
SPEAKER_00: That's the plan, beloved.
SPEAKER_00: And so we hold on to this hope.
SPEAKER_00: We give up our ideas that love and the kingdom is gonna come in a way that's gonna smash our enemies.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, what God is gonna do, and he told us about it early on, was he inviting our enemies to the same table.
SPEAKER_00: You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies.
SPEAKER_00: You anoint my head with oil.
SPEAKER_00: God intends to love people back to life.
SPEAKER_00: There will be justice because mercy has justice built in.
SPEAKER_00: But it's not my justice and it's not your justice.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, the scripture says this leave the vengeance to God.
SPEAKER_00: Do not take it because you do not know how to apply it.
SPEAKER_00: You do not know, in fact, it's impossible.
SPEAKER_00: It's absolutely impossible for us to be just in our vengeance.
SPEAKER_00: In order to do that, you would have to know everything, and none of us do.
SPEAKER_00: You would have to know all the sides of the story.
SPEAKER_00: You would have to know the history.
SPEAKER_00: You would have to know the future in order for you to be just.
SPEAKER_00: And we don't have that.
SPEAKER_00: We only have what we see.
SPEAKER_00: And that's why the apostle reminds us: leave the vengeance to God.
SPEAKER_00: You, beloved, love your neighbor.
SPEAKER_00: You, beloved, look for signs that resurrection is coming.
SPEAKER_00: It's one of the reasons that it's a good idea to get outside.
SPEAKER_00: It's cooler now, so all of us can come out from our time of hiding and listen to the witness of nature, remind us that there are cycles in the world, in nature.
SPEAKER_00: There is a time where we practice this beauty of saying that we will look at decay, we will look at death, we will look at things that are failing, and we will not be afraid.
SPEAKER_00: Because there is a resurrection coming.
SPEAKER_00: There is a time in Revelation 21, in this vision that John has.
SPEAKER_00: He said, I saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven.
SPEAKER_00: And I heard a great voice saying, Behold, the dwelling place of God is with men again.
SPEAKER_00: And God will be with them, and they will be with God, and God will be their light.
SPEAKER_00: They will have no need for the sun because they will be illumined by the light of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And there will be no more sorrow nor crying, and there won't be any more pain, for the former things have all passed away.
SPEAKER_00: Behold, I have come and all things are new.
SPEAKER_00: Beloved, that's the end of the story.
SPEAKER_00: When all things are remade.
SPEAKER_00: We have been practicing since the beginning of Event to listen to the prophets who tell us.
SPEAKER_00: Imagine what it looks like when a lion lays down with a lamb.
SPEAKER_00: Imagine what it looks like when children are not afraid to go that they will go hungry.
SPEAKER_00: Imagine what it looks like when we no longer train for war.
SPEAKER_00: But what we do is beat our swords into plowshears for the thriving of all humanity.
SPEAKER_00: This is the good news, beloved.
SPEAKER_00: When John finds himself suffering, he says, I don't know.
SPEAKER_00: Was this the way?
SPEAKER_00: I loved what we read in the beginning in Isaiah when he says this is the way that God's going to make the holy way, and even fools and travelers won't go astray.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, that's such good news, beloved.
SPEAKER_00: Because none of us have been where we are.
SPEAKER_00: We're all new here.
SPEAKER_00: This holy way of God, this way of love, we are not going to get lost.
SPEAKER_00: We have a good shepherd, beloved.
SPEAKER_00: You have a good shepherd.
SPEAKER_00: God is with us.
SPEAKER_00: I tell you the truth, of all who have ever lived, none is greater than John the Baptist.
SPEAKER_00: And even the least person in the kingdom is greater than he is.
SPEAKER_00: Would you close your eyes?
SPEAKER_00: Not because we are hiding, but because we want to rid ourselves of distraction.
SPEAKER_00: Faithful God.
SPEAKER_00: You are not threatened by our questions, nor are you offended by our trembling hope.
SPEAKER_00: You meet us in our prisons of iron and fear, and you answer us not with force, but with mercy made flesh.
SPEAKER_00: Teach us to be a people who listen before we lecture, who heal before we explain, who stand in solidarity with the forgotten or the oppressed until good news becomes real.
SPEAKER_00: And when we ask, are you the one, shape our very lives into your reply and make us a church where doubt finds shelter and the poor encounter joy.
unknown: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: We hope you've enjoyed this week's sermon.
SPEAKER_00: If you would like more information about us, visit us online at firstlovechurch.org.