Outlet Malls

Charlotte Collins Reed

Christ Church Episcopal

December 11, 2016

3 Advent A

          My friend Bonnie is what I would call a power shopper.  She loves to shop and finding a great deal is competitive sport for her.  When the new outlet mall opened in Columbus, Bonnie was ecstatic.  She might have been one of the first 100 people to arrive on opening day.   Because of Bonnie’s extreme shopping skills, she has extensive knowledge about available products to decorate a home, repair anything, and fill a closet.  The possibilities are endless.  I admire that because I don’t have those skills.  When I go shopping, I like to know exactly where I am going, what I am looking for, and what I will spend.  The possibilities end with what is on the list I made before I left home.  Consequently, I have little knowledge about the options for home décor, home repair, or the vast options for filling a closet.   The way I figure it, when I die, if I wind up in the place that is not heaven, that place will be an outlet Mall.

          John the Baptist approaches looking for the Messiah about the way that I shop.  He knows exactly what he is looking for.  Last week, we heard him describe the one who is to come.  Last week, John said “I baptize you with water for repentance, but one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to carry his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and will gather his wheat into the granary; but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.”  This week, we hear that John’s prophetic activity has landed him in prison.  Later in Matthew’s gospel, we learn that John the Baptist is in prison because John the Baptist told Herod that Herod should not be sleeping with Herod’s brother’s wife.  No one ever won a popularity contest being a prophet!  This morning, John’s disciples have told the prophet about Jesus’ ministry.  So far in Matthew’s gospel, Jesus has called disciples, preached the Sermon on the Mount, made it clear that he has not come to abolish the law but to fulfill it, given the Lord’s prayer, and healed many people.  John has not heard one word about wheat and chaff, judgement for the Pharisees and Sadducees, broods of vipers or unquenchable fire.  John expected a little more hell fire and damnation out of Jesus, and there has been nary a lightning bolt.  John will soon have given his life to prepare the way for the One who is coming.  His question is urgent: Is Jesus really the one, or are we to wait for another?

            Jesus’ response is to quote from the very passage we heard from Isaiah this morning.  “Go and tell John what you see and hear: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have good news brought to them.”  My guess is that John, like most of us, wanted a nice clear answer: “Yes, I am the one who is to come,” or “No, we must wait for another.”  Instead, as is often the case, Jesus’ answer to an either/or question is “absolutely.”  Yes, Jesus is ushering in the time spoken of by the prophet Isaiah, when all brokenness will be made whole.  And yes, we must wait, and wait patiently, according to the reading from James, for that time when all injustice comes to an end and the whole creation is restored.  Jesus tells John, and us, to look so we can see and hear what is going on around us.  More is going on than we might notice, and what is going on points us to what is to come.  “Go and tell John what you see and hear: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have good news preached to them.”  John had a very clear idea of what the Messiah would do, and that very clear idea almost caused him to miss what the Messiah was actually doing.  We all probably have our own idea of what we are looking for in the Messiah.  We want a Messiah who will heal our loved one, end poverty, restore relationships, bring peace on earth. When Jesus doesn’t live up to our expectations, we wonder “Are you the one, or shall we wait for another?”  When we are consumed by our own version of what we are looking for in the Messiah, we may miss the Messiah who is working among us. 

            The world around us is full of people who have the same doubts about Jesus that John the Baptist has this morning.  But for many of them, the question is not even “Are you the one who is to come or shall we wait for another?”  Their question is “What good is Jesus if there is still all this suffering in the world?  What good is Jesus when Jesus’ people are full of judgment, or fight among themselves so much?”  For many people, followers of Jesus sound more like John the Baptist last week, warning people to flee the wrath to come.  If that’s the Messiah they are to look for, they will look for something else.  Advent calls us to look for the places that point to the coming of Jesus, the sorts of places Isaiah describes where new life is emerging, healing is happening, and people live in peace together, and hold those up for the world to see.  Advent calls us to open our eyes to places beyond our wildest imagination where the Christ Child is being born in our midst.  Advent calls us to be the answer to John the Baptist’s question for those around us who ask. Madeleine L’Engle, an Episcopal author who died about 9 years ago, once said “We draw people to Christ not by loudly discrediting what they believe, by telling them how wrong they are and how right we are, but by showing them a light that is so lovely that they want with all their hearts to know the source of it.”   Advent calls us to show that light.

                                                                                                            Amen.