Emptiness, Triscuits, and Doubt | November 29, 2020
(see sources at the bottom)
As you may have seen in the bulletin, my name is Michael LeBlanc and I am so lucky to be able to step in for Meghan and David as they go on parental leave. Thank you for the warm welcome I have received already and I look forward to this time together. Some greater context on who I am, I serve First United Methodist Church of Winter Park as their Youth Director. Beyond that, I am a graduate of Iliff School of Theology and I am in the process of being commissioned as an elder in the UMC.
I also really am enjoying being back in church. The church I serve has been gathering together in digital ways and smaller groups for the last few weeks but this is the first time I get to step into a pulpit while there are people in front of me since the beginning of the year. What a blessing!
I know all of you are grateful for your fantastic pastors. My spouse, Amanda and I love Meghan and David and our kids are good buddies. It was a fun moment five years ago texting David telling him that we were pregnant with our Annabelle and him responding with a sonogram of sweet Moses. It’s been cool to do life with them.
It’s also amazing to finally be in the church I have heard so much about. You see, I know you love your pastors, but I think it is safe to say that they love y’all even more. It is normal to get a text from either of them, extolling the virtues of this city or the people who make up this church. I know a lot of Methodist pastors and let me assure you, y’all have got some very good ones.
Church today if you leave remembering one thing, remember this-- Beloved, do not feel ashamed of your emptiness.
Instead, see that it is the perfect preparation in providing a space for something Holy.
As we recover from the Turkey ladened celebration of Thanksgiving, we head towards the season of Advent. I grew up in the Southern Baptist tradition and so I never heard of Advent until I found the United Methodist Church. Along with narthex and sacristy, Advent is a very churchy word. It’s a churchy word that has a lot of meaning.
Coming from the Latin word, adventus it means the arrival of a notable person. Adventure is the arrival of a new and powerful experience, which is the perspective we as the church need when it comes to Advent. It is a whole season pointed towards preparing our own hearts and minds for the celebration of Christmas.
It is the season we enter, like Lent, with the specific purpose of preparing the way for the Lord as we expect the arrival of Christ at Christmas. It is in this celebration that we celebrate that the Kingdom of God has come and God is reigning. We also come to grips with the fact that though God reigns on God’s throne, things are not yet perfect. It’s a celebration of “right now,” and “not yet.” Still pretty churchy, right?
Let me put Advent this way-- company is coming over and Advent is the cleaning our parents did in preparation for that visit. The Triscuits will be put on the good plat and summer sausage as been sliced. The good Yankee Candle is lit. But in a departure from the analogy, you can indeed put your feet up on the couch. Advent is also a seasons of expectations and stress.
Let’s dive in. We have two passages today, our first from Isaiah and the second from Matthew. And both are traditional of the advent season.
Today we are dealing with the idea of emptiness. Our first passage comes from Isaiah. Specifically, it comes from the second half of Isaiah. The book of Isaiah was written for the people of Israel in two different time periods, both of which were incredibly turbulent and anxious. The people of Israel were split in two. One group was left living among ruins in Judah, the Temple of Jerusalem left as an ash heap. The other group of Israel’s people they were kept in comfort under oppression in modern-day Iraq. Far from home, they were allowed to participate in the occupiers’ economy, and because of that became quite wealthy. Both of these populations were completely miserable in completely different ways. The one remaining in Judah was miserable because their sense of national identity was removed from them. They were left without the symbol of order in this world, the Temple of the Most High. The people who were put into bondage in Babylon were miserable because though they were comfortable in their wealth, they were away from everything that made them “them.” They too lost their identity.
Both of these groups felt as if they were far away from God and because of that found a chasm within their souls. They were anchorless in a windy world-- they had no hope. They knew how things were meant to be and they were not yet that way.
Let’s all pause for here for a moment and acknowledge that for many people, 2020 has been an anchorless time. It may have even been miserable for you. I love seeing the positive in everything, but I think that if we can’t acknowledge that things aren’t going in great when we are in church, then really, where else can we acknowledge it? In a time of global uncertainty, it has been easy to feel far from God as we are far from others, far from things and people that give us identity. Let’s hold that in our mind as we journey through this scripture.
And yet the hearers of Isaiah would have known this let down feeling so well. They would have felt emptiness on both ends of the spectrum. One group, so desperately needing the kind of security and comfort that things provide. This group wouldn’t be able to think about the future for fear of the crippling grip of uncertainty. This remnant group living in Judah would literally be surrounded by ruins of a once wondrous and powerful nation. They would have no security, no sense of a foundation. They would have felt empty.
That is where Isaiah comes to this remnant group and says, essentially, “Beloved, do not feel ashamed of your emptiness.
Instead, see that it is the perfect preparation in providing a space for something Holy.”
The second group - the exiled group would have felt a different emptiness. The temple was destroyed and with it was the very presence of God in the world. This group would want for nothing but would also possess nothing. They would feel their identity as the people of Israel slowly waste away as they grew content in another’s world. They would have nothing to pass on their children in the way of cultural inheritance. Though their children would have ever creatur comfort, they would not be able to hold on to that thing that kept them grounded as the children of God.
And then the writer of Isaiah arrives to this exiled group and says essentially, “Beloved, do not feel ashamed of your emptiness.
Instead, see that it is the perfect preparation in providing a space for something Holy.”
And then our second passage deals with that same sense of emptiness. John the Baptizer is stuck in prison. As students of the Bible we know that John the Baptizer and Jesus were cousins. They were thick as thieves, they probably fished together and Jesus did ministry in a very similar way to John.
For our purposes as followers of Christ, John is of course important because he is the voice calling in the wilderness preparing the way for the Messiah. John the Baptizer was the son of a priest, from a venerated family in the community. And yet, John hears a call from God and goes into the wilderness to proclaim the good news that God was coming in human form. John is promised in Isaiah and we get to benefit as well.
John the Baptizer went into the wilderness and began shouting as loud as he could for anyone who could listen-- the Messiah was on the way and all of creation needed to be prepared. John baptised people, offering new life and new beginnings for people who had forgotten the love that God had for them. He ate locusts and wild honey and wore camel skin.
John wore funny clothes and ate funny food and did things that were strange…. As a youth director I feel a certain kinship-- I think John the Baptist was the very first youth pastor! All of what John did in his life was point people towards Jesus as the Messiah, in many ways his whole life was a celebration of Advent.
And then we fast forward to our passage this morning and things are a little different for John. He is in prison. You see, John and Jesus were all about getting into trouble-- good trouble. John had finally preached the gospel loud enough and made enough powerful people angry that he ended up in prison. And when John got into prison, it got worse. He finds himself on death row.
John had spent his whole life pointing people to Jesus-- saying “this is the one! This is the Christ! He will save us from this world and give us a new chance!” And here John is, sitting on death row, wondering if he got it all wrong. You see as everyone around Jesus thought of it, the Messiah was going to fix things. The Romans would be out, the Messiah would be in and everything would be fixed.
And yet John the Baptist is worried the timing won’t work out for him. He sits condemned and he is needing the Messiah to hurry up and fix things.
John speaks for us in many ways, doesn’t he? As a youth director, I talk with a lot of people who have lost their faith. These might be young people who wrestled with questions and maybe were told by another church to not ask so many questions and so they walked away. Or maybe it’s a college student who graduated from my ministry, went to college and found that the faith they were taught wasn’t really portable or durable. As a requirement for ordination, I served as a hospital chaplain. In that capacity, I was able to interact with people of all faiths and lack of faith in all states of life and death. I was the chaplain for the mother baby unit as well as the oncology wing. Some were miserable, others anchorless, some were even joyous-- but all were living with a good case of uncertainty.
A common thread that I see with a lot of these stories is that a series of expectations were not met.. Someone let these people down or some sort of tragedy surprised and shook the foundations of their faith. Or there was some sort of question that couldn’t be answered well enough for what they needed. None of these crises of faith made any of these people less than-- I know that I have struggled with belief--if anything, I think these questions help us to know God more meaningfully.
You know we are all here because of faith. We are all here because we believe in something we can’t see with our eyes or measure. We aren’t here because of certainty. But I believe all of us have a set capacity for the unknown. And I wonder if we have all been filled past the brim for our level of uncertainty.
And I think this is similar to what John the Baptist is struggling with. John the Baptist knew that Jesus was the Messiah and yet, he needs to ask-- are you going to fix this? John the Baptist sits in his cell, empty-- and Christ responds, in a sense with, “Beloved, do not feel ashamed of your emptiness.
Instead, see that it is the perfect preparation in providing a space for something Holy.”
And then I think about what we have all gone through in 2020. All of our certainty has been shaken. Our cultural touchstones have been moved or shifted or turned. We have drive-by college graduations and retirement parties. People are needing to wear masks at their weddings and funerals. And it’s an election year. Maybe your politician won and maybe they didn’t. Maybe you think that our community is about to get a whole lot better or maybe our community is about to get a whole lot worse.
Maybe we feel as if we have been emptied. “Beloved, do not feel ashamed of your emptiness.
Instead, see that it is the perfect preparation in providing a space for something Holy.”
There are a few things I want you to leave with today--
First, we should be expecting things to be better than they are. Isaiah shows us that the work of God is making things better than they already are-- God is in the work of making this world better.
Isaiah isn’t mincing words here:
make straight in the desert
a highway for our God.[b]
4
Every valley shall be raised up,
every mountain and hill made low;
the rough ground shall become level,
the rugged places a plain.
5
And the glory of the Lord will be revealed,
and all people will see it together.
For the mouth of the Lord has spoken.”
For the original hearers of this passage, they knew exactly what a valley felt like. They had suffered years of isolation and marginalization. They had been pushed to the side and left to feel inconsequential. These were the chosen people of God and yet they were living in ruins or living off of the kindness of strangers.
Throughout the Old Testament, there are a few recurring themes, but one of the main ones is that Israel wants to have its identity secured. That’s one of the main reasons Leviticus is filled with all of those rules and regulations-- to set them apart as a people. God is saying here in Isaiah that the people will again have their identity restored and this time it will come directly from God.
And in our passage from Matthew, Jesus responds in a way that shows us the heart of how God does the work prophesied in Isaiah. How does Jesus explain who he is-- he rattles off the healings and miracles that are being done through the manifest presence of God here on earth. He doesn’t reference prophecy after prophecy, no-- he shows how God came to earth and changed individual lives. People receive their agency, they regain their life, and good news is brought to people on the margin.
Church, we serve a God who is at work in the daily lives of this world. We don’t serve a distant God that is hoping for the best. Our God is not some sort of watchmaker that spun us into the cosmos and is waiting to see what we turn out-- no, we serve a God so invested and so bought in to who we are as reflections of God’s good nature that God came down and dwelt among us as Jesus.
And so as followers of Christ it makes sense that we have an expectation for things to be heading towards goodness. We should anticipate that the valleys should be raised up and that mighty hills should be made low. We should expect for the oppressions of this world to cease, this should be what we expect.
Second, our expectations don’t need to be met in order for God to be on God’s throne. Jesus talks here about all the good things that have happened because the Messiah has come to earth, and Isaiah talks about all of creation being brought to justice. And yet, things are not perfect. Israel remains in exile for several years and John doesn’t make it out of prison. In our culture, people are losing their homes in a time when others are experiencing financial boons. Our bodies are at risk of sickness and loved ones are having to stay distant in order to protect one another.
We all started 2020 on January 1 with high hopes, new resolutions and goals to grow. Our expectations have not been met. We have been emptied of our expectations.
I want us to look again at Matthew 11, verse 8. To me, this is one of the most encouraging and challenging passages of the whole New Testament. Jesus says, blessed is the one who does not fall away on account of me. This chapter is right in the middle of Jesus telling about all of the folks who will not accept the Gospel. This is the only blessing in a good amount of chapters. I know that for me, growing up in the faith was all about retention of belief. Making sure I believed and making sure I never had any doubt. This passage is such a salvation from that thinking. Maybe you came to church this morning with doubts. Maybe this past year has made everything you believed so hard to hold on to that you’ve let go of your faith. Jesus says to his friend John, I know that sitting in that jail cell in uncertainty makes things difficult. I know that you think I need to come and bust you out of jail. Blessed are those who don’t fall away because I have let down their expectations. Christ is in our questioning and uncertainty.
Does Jesus chastise John for being empty and honest with Christ? By voicing his questions and doubts? No, of course not. Because the God who showed his power through healing and making whole shows that God is still God by showing compassion.
Lastly, as we let go of our expectations, we are able to take hold of the better news God has for us. I pray you have heard that your questions and your expectations are okay. As the uncertainty of today and tomorrow wash over us day after day, we see that we have to let go of these expectations that things will go exactly as we planned.
I asked you to make sure you remembered one thing-- beloved, do not feel ashamed of your emptiness. Instead, see that it is the perfect preparation in providing a space for something Holy. I wonder if the hard things that we all came in to church carrying are there to prepare us for Advent. That maybe our doubts and uncertainties are not to be sanitized, but rather brought to God with humility and honesty.
What would it look like for us to acknowledge this past year, in all of it’s difficulties and uncertainties and not fall away on account of them? John wanted certainty and he was reminded of God’s goodness. Israel wanted immediate relief and they got a promise of a new tomorrow. I would love to be able to promise that we are going to leave Advent with a perfect world and total control over tomorrow, but I cannot lie to you.
Life is hard and the future uncertain. What I can promise is that in the uncertainty and in the difficulty, we travel with a companion, and that is Jesus. As we prepare our hearts through the season of Advent, Christ is already here among us. In our suffering and in our success, we have a partner in Jesus Christ. As we empty ourselves of expectations and worries for tomorrow, we prepare our hearts to recognize and be filled with the presence of Jesus Christ. May it be so, in the name of the Father and of the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
The main theme comes from Honest Advent by Scott Erickson
Background information and the main exegetical tool were the Interpretation Commentary Series for both Isaiah II and Matthew.