Expecting the Unexpected
First Congregational Church Ð Wauwatosa, Wisconsin
Second Sunday of Advent Ð December 5, 2004
Rev. Steven A. Peay, Ph.D.
[texts: Isaiah 11:1-10/Matthew 3:1-12]Expect the unexpected! This year that would certainly hold true in the sports world. Who would have thought that the Red Sox would come from behind to beat the mighty Yankees and end the Òcurse of the Bambino,Ó and an almost century long drought? Who expected the Packers to turn around their one and four season beginning and win six straight games Ð sometimes in the very last seconds of the game? Who would expect that God would come to us in the way God does Ð in the ordinary things of life, through Word and Sacrament and human touch? It just doesnÕt fit, but if we learn anything from Scripture and this season of the year it is that we should be expecting the unexpected.
When Isaiah spoke his prophecy, Israel had already suffered under a succession of evil rulers. Most of the nation had ended up in exile far from home and there seemed little hope for the country's restoration. In the midst of the people's despair Isaiah spoke a word of hope and offered a vision of a very different kingdom. He saw the great king David's line, now reduced to a stump, budding forth a new and even greater king. This wise and just monarch would walk in the way of God's covenant, unlike his predecessors. Not only would his words be God-directed, they would bring about Israel's restoration and re-establish its place of prominence among the nations as God's chosen. Justice and peace would reign because of this king's very presence.
Isaiah even sees this budding branch reversing the chaos caused by humanity's poor choices in the Garden of Eden. Creation is to be restored to its proper order and "the wolf shall live with the lamb, the leopard shall lie down with the kid, the calf and the lion and the fatling together . . . They will not hurt or destroy on all my holy mountain; for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea." The earth will be restored to the harmony its Creator intended, the disease of human alienation will be healed and all creatures will live in peace, "and a little child shall lead them."
It's an idyllic vision, isn't it? It's the stuff of Thomas More's Utopia, or perhaps Samuel Butler's Erewhon; the fruit of the fertile imagination of a Dan Brown, Steven Spielberg, J. K. Rowling or any other spinner of tales. After almost two thousand years of Christians trying to live it Ð and not often very successfully Ð it would seem this is only the stuff of fiction or fantasy and can never be realized; at least not without special effects. Well the answer is 'yes' and 'no.'
Yes, it is a vision. However, no, it's not fiction or fantasy. We humans are given to imagining "what-ifs." I believe that's part of the image of God woven into us at our creation, the ability to think and to dream. We can imagine a world different than the one in which we live. What is more, we can work to make that world become reality.
We can read a book or go to a movie or a play, or even watch television and escape for a bit, and we say, "Too bad our world isn't like that." We read Isaiah's words, though, and we have the same reaction, "too bad." We like the idea of wolves lying down with lambs, just look at all the paintings and the Christmas cards that use the theme. It just doesn't seem that we can get the vision to stand against the hard laws of nature that are so real, so much a part of our daily experience.
Isaiah, however, didn't live in a fantasy world and he wasn't calling his people to live an escapist vision. He opened his eyes to the wonder of a God who would be with us: Emmanuel. It was this God that John the Baptist announced. It was this God who would inspire Paul and all Christians thereafter to remind ourselves, to live in harmony, to "welcome one another . . . just as Christ has welcomed you." The God who is with us doesn't work in the realm of fantasy or fiction, for God is the Lord of Creation and author of all reality.
And there's my point; we can expect the unexpected and realize that the peaceable kingdom can be real, if we have the eyes to see it and the wills to make it happen. I came across something the author James Taylor wrote in his book, Last Chance that speaks to this. He says that not all families are happy, not all fathers are kind, even though we continue to follow JesusÕ example and call God Òour Father.Ó He says, too, ÒNor are all meals happy. Quarrels can be carried to the dinner table. Food can be an instrument of power, of division, of oppression. But somehow, when families gather for Christmas or Thanksgiving dinner, when church people gather in friendship for an anniversary or a potluck supper, we sense that this is how it should be, for everyone, everywhere. Then we act out that conviction symbolically when we share the bread and wine in the LordÕs Supper. In these occasions, we catch and we enact a glimpse of shalom [peace], the way God wants the world to be.Ó Perhaps what we need to do is to walk the way that leads us to bring that kingdom to fruition, to allow the unexpected to become real when GodÕs love and peace break into our lives?
All around us people are looking for hope in the face of a war that no one expected would last this long, a sagging economy and the constant threat of terrorist attack. It's been a long time since people have felt some of these desperate, fearful feelings. Isaiah's word of hope comes singing to us across the ages and reminds of the possibility that lies within each human person. John the Baptist's cry in the wilderness echoes from every corner: "the kingdom of heaven has come near."
There can be no question that this announcement calls us to expect the unexpected, because the kingdom doesnÕt come in the way anyone thought, or thinks, it will.
IsaiahÕs vision involved a king. Jesus never wanted to be a king, he rejected it. He even rejected the claim to messiahship. In fact, he only truly becomes the messiah, the anointed one, when the woman anoints him on his way to the cross. Here, indeed, was an unexpected messiah. Not one who comes with force, but one who rules with the wisdom of deep listening and self-giving love.
John the Baptist announced this coming kingdom and through the centuries he has been called the Òforerunner,Ó as Elijah was, but it doesnÕt fit. Elijah and John describe what God will do, not what Jesus does. Jesus never baptizes anyone. Jesus doesnÕt do any separation. In fact, Jesus is the one who is baptized with the Holy Spirit. Jesus himself announces the presence of GodÕs kingdom. Jesus teaches the way of life centered on God and not on self. So, Jesus is the one who receives what John prophesies, and in that moment of baptism God is revealed at work in the ÒSon of ManÓ and the unexpected wonder is that God continues to be revealed in the same way. The kingdom of God is near.
It's true, the kingdom of heaven, the "peaceable kingdom," is very near: it's inside every one of us. To bring that kingdom to bear, to make it truly present will require us overcoming the obstacles that stand in the way of its coming: unbelief, thoughtlessness, self-centeredness, and the actions that grow out of those attitudes. We have to keep working to reduce those obstacles and to bring the "peaceable kingdom." Contemporary spiritual writer, Joan Chittester, has said it quite nicely in her book, Simplify and Celebrate: Embracing the Soul of Christmas. She writes:
The Talmud says so poignantly: It is not your obligation to complete your work, but you are not at liberty to quit it. This week's scripture readings say much the same: We must go on and go on and go on in our attempts to make the world new, to make the vision new, and to make ourselves new.
"A shoot shall sprout from the stump of Jesse," Isaiah shouts. When it seems hopeless, new life will come. When it seems that things can not get worse, when everything we have counted on, when everything our society ever told us mattered fails: money and success and connections and achievement have proved to be nothing but emptiness, lies and idle hope, then we can do what must be done. Then we can live the just life, the kind life, the Christ life. Something will come out of nothing. What has died in us will bring new life.
Advent, in other words, is the time for realizing what matters. The word of Matthew is quite clear: we should not prepare for Christmas by running from sale to sale. Our task, like John's, is to bring new life by preparing our own worlds for Christ . . .
Today's Scriptures are unforgiving. There's simply no getting around them. Preparation for the coming of Christ is not about conspicuous consumption, or loving those who love us, or filling our lives with more and more things. Christmas, Isaiah and Matthew tell us clearly, is about our obligation to see that lions lie down with lambs, to see that there is "no harm or ruin on God's holy mountain."
To expect the unexpected we must ask ourselves: What one specific thing have I done this year to bring peace into the world? What can I do now, in preparation for Christmas, to make the world more like the Reign of God? In the coming weeks of hustle and bustle as we prepare for Christmas, keep that thought in mind: what am I doing to bring the Reign of God near? Expecting the unexpected means bringing the kingdom to bear in the here and now of our lives, it comes when and where we least expect it. It comes in the person that we canÕt imagine might be GodÕs messenger, or the act of kindness that we had no idea meant more than we ever thought it would, or even a kind word offered in a down time. Each prayer we offer, each act of kindness we do, each time we love unselfishly and unconditionally we expect the unexpected and bring the kingdom a little closer. We don't have to do it all; we just have to be who God intended us to be.
Quite simply, we have to believe in the reality of a God who is with us and live out our faith because the star that lights the way to the kingdom already shines in the hearts of God's people. Expecting the unexpected means coming to this table with a vision of the kingdom near at hand; coming ready to meet the Lord who comes to us, shares life with us through common items like bread and wine. Expecting the unexpected also involves our understanding that what we do at this table extends beyond it and that weÕre to look for God in the most ordinary situations, even the holiday-related stress inducers, and realize that God is there.
If the Red Sox can win the World Series after almost a century of disappointment and the Packers can win six straight games after a series of disappointing losses how can we not expect that the God who made the world will be revealed in the ordinary? How can we not look for the inbreaking of the peaceable kingdom in our own lives, our own homes, and our own church? So, receive the gift of the unexpected today in the bread and the cup and then take that nourishment to receive the gift of the unexpected in the lives we lead every day. Expect the unexpected Ð GodÕs been working this way from the beginning!