Sermon 12/16/07
Come, Prince of Peace: Garden and Desert - Matthew 11:2-11, Isaiah 35:1-10
(view lectionary notes for this text)
What are you hoping to get for Christmas this year? Every year, even now that my siblings and I range from mid-thirties to mid-twenties, we must make Christmas lists for my mother. My oldest brother, who is very wary of consumerism, makes the funniest list, requesting this year a composter with worms and some ties, but only if they’re from a second-hand store. My youngest brother, Todd, on the other hand, makes a list piled with large items that he knows no one in our family will ever be able to afford to get him – a new string bass, or a purebred puppy, for example. What’s on your Christmas list? What are you hoping for this Christmas? When Christmas morning rolls around again in just nine short days, what are you expecting to happen?
In Jesus’ day, where our text from Matthew comes, and in Isaiah’s time, people were expecting a Messiah. They were expecting someone who would come and save them. They had a lot of different ideas about what this meant, being saved. Both in Isaiah’s time and in Jesus’ time, many people were looking for a King who would lead with sword and shield, a revolutionary leader who would literally fight against occupying forces. But Isaiah the prophet had something else in mind.
Isaiah imagines the coming of a messiah in vivid, colorful terms. “The wilderness and the dry land shall be glad,” he says, “the desert shall rejoice and blossom; like the crocus it shall blossom abundantly.” Isaiah is hopeful, anxious for God to save God’s people. And when Isaiah pictures this taking place, he pictures a complete change in the world order – the blind will see, the deaf will hear, the speechless will sing. No one shall go astray. No one will be harmed. People will be redeemed – saved. Lasting joy and gladness will come to the people. That’s what Isaiah expects when the Messiah, the Christ comes.
In Matthew’s gospel, we find that even John the Baptist wasn’t exactly sure what to expect in the Messiah. He thought Jesus was the one who was to come, but he wasn’t sure, because John too had expected a Messiah who would be more about judging people than about saving them. But Jesus echoes the words of Isaiah and sends a message to John: the blind see. The lame walk. The lepers are cleansed. The deaf hear. The dead are raised. The poor receive good news.” Whatever John was expecting, in Jesus the Messiah has come, and the coming Messiah meant people could and should expect a change, peace, justice, healing, salvation. The coming Messiah meant the lost were found by God.
In our texts, we find a lot of hope put in the first Christmas, a lot of hope put into the birth of this Christ child, when no one even knew when he was coming or who he would be. The people were expecting a lot – someone to save them. Someone to bring them to God, to bring God to them. What they hoped for had nothing to do with Christmas trees and wish lists and buying presents. But what they were expecting was that the world would be changed completely when God came to earth in human form, whatever shape that took.
Today, as we’ve celebrated together in music with this cantata, we’ve heard from many different people in the Christmas story that we know so well. We must listen with new ears. What were these people expecting? What was the hope they had wrapped up in this baby that was coming? Whatever they expected, what they found in the baby Jesus was something that was world-changing. For them, things would never be the same.
What are you expecting this Christmas? What do you hope for? I hope it is more than that you’ll get what’s on your list. I hope this Christmas you too are waiting for God to come and be closer to you than ever before. I hope you’re wishing that God will be with you, working in you and through you. I hope you’re wishing this Christmas for the Messiah to come again, and change the world completely, and change you completely.
What’s on your wish list this Christmas? On mine? Some new clothes. A gift card. A DVD. The Messiah, the Prince of Peace, God with Us. A new hope, a changed world. Amen.