3 Advent B
St. Philip's Church, Charleston, SC
David M. Dubay+
When my son Joseph was younger I gave him his first hand held video game…my old gameboy….and he began to play a game called pokemon…
Well.. at 6 years old ….he couldn’t quite get the hang of a strategy game..
So I …because I try to be a good father I sat hunched over a tiny screen watching little dots move around until we won the game..together.
An important part of one of the levels of this game was the transportation disks…
At certain places in the game you can put your tiny hero on one of these “transportation disks” and you (that is your character) will be transported to another place in the game.. sometimes it’s to a good place..like a room of treasure.. and sometimes it’s to a bad place like back to the beginning of the game or into a room full of monsters…. Uh ..virtual monsters….
So Joseph and I would seek out these disks in order to hopefully make it through the game and win.
I started to wonder after a while if there was anyway to tell whether a disk was a beneficial disk or a disk that would just make me want to smash the game boy and write angry letters to Nintendo…
There was not…. The good disks were the same in all ways as the bad disks so you just take your chances …
During much of my 41years I have wished there were places like that in life…shortcuts…shortcuts that if you could stand on them they would transport you to success without working for it…or zap you away from a time of tension and frustration…right into a place of peace and security…
And what about a button you could push …and shortcut that could get you right to Jesus…right into his presence….without any kneeling or giving up the Sunday morning news programs.. or …in my case…fishing…
What if I could find a person who could answer all my questions without any sort of spiritual discipline on my part…the soul stretching… that Christianity seems to demand.
There is a whole industry out there of quick fix spirituality programming. At least they seem to quick fix…but they’re not
I’ve known people to become down right grouchy when they find out that the prayer of Jabez, the Purpose Driven Life, and Alpha don’t offer short cuts to Jesus…If anything they ask us to put more effort into our faith lives…they call us to action and to work hard at aligning our daily walk with the will of God,
It’s not about you… say’s Rick Warren… what? You mean …I’m not the center of the Universe… That’s not what my Momma told me….
What I do know is that there is a hunger in this world for the presence of God. But in today’s world of instant messaging and instant gratification…Which I a really attracted to….I sometimes think that church and church life are just to complicated and time consuming…I mean some of these sermons last 17 minutes!!
in Jesus’ day, The Children of Israel, were as impatient as we are…they wanted deliverance, …they were hungry for the messiah. The prophecies of Isaiah and Jeremiah were part of there daily worship…
When they heard what we call our Old Testament reading …when they heard
For I am about to create new heavens
and a new earth;
the former things shall not be remembered
or come to mind.
But be glad and rejoice forever
in what I am creating;
for I am about to create Jerusalem as a joy,
and its people as a delight.
They knew it was God’s Kingdom come that was at hand and the Messiah.. the Savior who would change the known world would be a part of that glorious day…
They were so hungry for a messiah that many people claimed to be one. There are ancient records of many, many men claiming to be him… And we find here in the Gospel of John that many thought that John the Baptizer was in fact Emmanuel, God with us…
But John says no...no.. I am not the Christ. I’ve told you before that I am not but I point you to him…there he is….he is the bridegroom…I’m just a servant at the wedding..
But it’s understandable…John had charisma…John was a powerful prophet and teacher….John was counter culture and seemed to possess the where- with-all to bring about the revolution that would eventually over throw the Romans…..
Of course he’s the messiah, they thought…. He’s odd! He’s powerful…He knows the Lord.
Let me tell you how stubborn people can be …to this day there is still a group of people directly descended from John’s disciples ..on a tiny strip of the border between Iraq and Iran live the Mandeans… Mandean beliefs are Gnostic in nature, which means they believe they have been the recipients of secret knowledge denied to so called pretenders like Christians, Well… they need our prayers…
But John the Baptist would have none of that… almost the entire first section of the Gospel of John is John the Baptizer saying…no…I am not him….he’s over there… follow Him… He is the lamb of God!!
Beat
So what does that have to do with any of us…well…I’ll tell you.
I remember quite clearly when a friend of mine in college joined the Episcopal church… He joined it because of the really great Christmas service we had. He joined it because the people were so kind to him. He joined it because the sermons were short. He joined for every good reason that someone joins the YMCA… any club or fraternity.. it was so comfortable there.
But what he didn’t join it for was to know more about Jesus. The parishioners were good and kind to him, they supported him through tough times but they never brought him Jesus. Yes the Gospel was read in church but all of the sermons were about social issues and what it means to be a neighbor and loving one another and that in it self is not a bad thing.. God want’s us to love eachother…
but people of God that is only half of the picture and it’s not the first part it’s the second.
the verse says… love GOD with all your heart soul and mind and Love you neighbor as yourself and not the other way round….
John the Baptist didn’t point his people to Jesus because Jesus was nicer then John
not because he was a better teacher than him, not because he was more compassionate then him..but because He recognized his cousin Yeshuah ben Yosheph…Jesus…as Jesus the Messieah, Emmanuel, God with us…the Christ… the son of God…
And as followers of Christ we are called to do no less than to point others to the Son of God.
When someone asks us, ” wasn’t that a beautiful anthem?”
I believe the proper answer is something like …yes it was beautiful…. And I think it really blessed the Lord.
When someone writes in the newspaper about how beautiful our parish is at Christmas…a proper letter to the editor would include the sentence…yes it is so beautiful…gorgeous, magnificent… and did you notice in which direction the steeple is pointing?...To heaven!!
And when someone mentions how handsome your priests are tell them…yes it’s true…did you hear him talk about Jesus today…..
Beat
When I first came to St. Philips…I must admit something to you…I did a little secret reconnaissance. A few days before I started here…. I put on my tourist clothing and walk around a bit.
When I came in to the narthex to look around…there was Bill McIntosh…
Hello, I’m Bill, I’m a church mouse…. How special for him,…. I thought…where’s the door…
Here’s a small historical sketch of the church….and really I had expected that…
But what I hadn’t expected was to open up the little booklet to find a copy of the Gospel of John, today’s Gospel…right there. Someone from a downtown church had just given me a Gospel of John Tract…..Praise the Lord I thought.. I’m home…
Bill had pointed me to Jesus….
and he’s made it his personal cause to teach as many people as possible how to do the same…
Want to tell someone about the Lord..? Are you a hesitant? can’t find the right words.. Bill has a list of come backs and answers and conversation starters that will grease the way for you…Yes you an Episcopalian can evangelize…I’ve seen it done…
Haden told me a snappy line for Jesus about a week after I arrived here…
He told me about someone who had mentioned that if they could just win the lottery …life would be so much better…
My standard answer to that would have been something up lifting like…fat chance buddy or yeah dream on….
But Haden looked at the person and said….yes…I used to think that too….bingo.. right there an open door to point straight to Jesus…
I’ve heard people talk about priests like that you know…
I’ve actually heard it said…you know that fellow sure talks about Jesus a lot I wish he’d change the subject once in a while…..
Well folks…we don’t put on these collars and these robes to start selling vacuum cleaners…
I’m always amazed every time a Christian is berated for praying in the name of Jesus at a public function…
and you can debate this with me after the service but the only reason that I am alive today…the only reason I get up in the morning….the only reason I am who I am this very moment… is because of Jesus Christ and he might just pop out in public when I’m praying…
Because it is only through Jesus that we can know God the Father…
St. Paul tells us in his letter to the Galatians that God the Father’s blessing to Abraham…comes to us Through Jesus Christ….
and in his letter to the church in Ephesus he tells us that God adopted us..you and me…through Jesus Christ…
You and I know God by knowing Jesus…
And God knows us fully…through Jesus Christ who lived laughed, suffered, and died among us…
our path to God…God the three in one is through Jesus the Son…that’s why John the Baptist did not hesitate to tell the people…no..It’s not me….it’s him…he’s the one you need…not me…
In our world the cult of personality is king…. In churches all around the country there are people sitting in the pews who love the church but don’t love the Savior…
Who know the pastor but don’t know the Lord.
Who love the feelings they get but don’t stick around with the emotion dries up…
It’s up to you and me to point those beloved, dear, precious people to the only person who can make a real difference in their lives…
the lamb of God…the baby in the manger…Christ Crucified …and Jesus risen from the grave…
beat..
I leave you with a quote from C.S. Lewis… who…thanks to Disney is experiencing super stardom these days…
in his book.. Mere Christianity he writes these shocking and challenging words…
"It's so easy to think that the Church has a lot of different objects – education, building, missions, holding services…. The Church exists for nothing else but to draw men [people] into Christ, to make them little Christs. If they are not doing that, all cathedrals, clergy, missions, sermons, even the Bible itself, are simply a waste of time. God became Man [human] for no other purpose. It is even doubtful, you know, whether the whole universe was created for any other purpose." [1]
tough words…
But they are words to live by…
And So daily with God’s help, I will try to realign my life…
If I hear a good sermon… I will look passed the preacher to Jesus.
If I partake in the Eucharist from a beautiful silver chalice I will remember His death and His resurrection.
When I hear my neighbor praying the Lord’s prayer along side me… I will remember the one who taught it to us all…Jesus the savior…
who with the Father and the Holy Spirit loves us and yearn for our faces to be pointed heavenward in all that we do…in all that we say…in all our relationships….good times and bad…
and we can’t do that on our own… and that’s why Jesus gave us his church.
Praise be to thee Lord Christ. Amen
[1] C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, bk. IV, chap. 8, para. 10 pp. 169-170
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