Patient Expectations

Raul Garcia III

December 11, 2016

Third Sunday in Advent

Let us Pray:

May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing to you my Lord, my rock and my redeemer. Amen.

Good morning. I’m going to start off with a riddle and see if you can answer it. What is something everyone has and can’t have more of? The answer is time. We all have the same time. Doesn’t matter who you are, if you’re Oprah or President Obama, we all have the same time. Our Gospel lesson reminds us that Advent is also a season of impatience. We get so worried or worked up about things coming up before Xmas. Will we have enough gifts or food? What should we have for Xmas eve dinner? Will our gifts be adequate, appropriate and appreciated? We always have in the back of our mind that we have forgotten something. Will our minds drift off to those who will not have a home to celebrate Xmas, who will not have a happy time of celebration, like the poor, the grieving, and the discouraged?

The Gospel of Matthew John the baptist is in prison. I think John may be a little down on himself at this point. After all he was in prison.  Who wouldn’t be down on themselves. You are caged up like an animal. He wasn’t the fired up prophet we learned about last week in the Gospel reading. So John send out some of his followers to ask Jesus this Question, “Are you the one who is to come or should we expect someone else?”

In prison, I think John was having doubts that Jesus wasn't the Messiah? Was he wrong when he baptized Jesus? Was Jesus really and truly the one to come after John whom John proclaimed was more powerful than he?

John asking these questions brings a lot of unrest and disconnection in our world today. I think many Christians/Lutherans feel the same as John. Is Jesus the one...or should we look for another? The limits we place on ourselves have a big impact whether Christ makes a home in our hearts in this blessed Advent season. A couple months ago I sent out a challenge the day I preached about praying for 21 days straight or taking up another notch and making prayer a good habit in your life. How many of us stayed on task and prayed those 21 days and continue now or how many forgot about it when they left from here? You know what. To be honest. That’s okay if you forgot. You can always start again. That is the beauty of having a faith. We are not perfect at all. Maybe we made it ten days and stopped. That’s okay. Start again. I want to belong and serve a church where we can be true to ourselves. We can be honest and be the living Gospel of Jesus Christ. Each Sunday we gather, hear the scriptures, sing hymns, receive communion, and experience God in this sacred place. But do we reflect our faith in the decisions we make everyday? Does the simple fact that Jesus is our Lord have any impact on how we live out our responsibility as a spouse, parent, a child, a friend, an employee, a volunteer, or a citizen of this great country of ours. (Sermon by Fr. Almquist, Dec. 12 2010) Our vision and expectations go blurry.

Here is a great story that came out in the Washington Post about world renown violinist, Joshua Bell. He dressed up in ordinary clothes and played in the subway for 45 minutes. He played his 3.5 million dollar violin and played the same music he played three nights earlier in Boston in which people paid $100 a ticket to see him. Most people just rushed through their commute, past by Joshua Bell and paid no attention. Others would stop for a couple minutes and leave a tip.

The Washington Post wanted to see this as an experiment about our culture, whether we are capable of identifying beauty outside the contexts in which we anticipate encountering beauty? Can we recognize a genius performer, like Joshua Bell, if that individual appears somewhere other than a concert hall?

I think there can be a similar question for us to raise on this Third Sunday of Advent. Are we capable of identifying God’s activity outside the contexts of these walls in this sanctuary? If Sunday after Sunday there is no connection between what we do in church and what happens in our Monday through Friday world, is it possible something is missing?(Sermon by Fr. Almquist, Dec. 12 2010)

Like I said in the beginning we are given the same time as everyone else. We are given 86,400 seconds a day. What are you willing to sacrifice in your 86,400 seconds in your day? What fuels our heart? (Joshua Medcalf, Hamline University, 10/20/16)   

I was honored and privileged on Friday to be part of something so special. A couple members of our church, Tom and Rachel, got to officially adopt their two little ones. What a special time for that family. Simply amazing. Their act of love, selflessness, kindness, blessing is what this Gospel message is about and what this Advent season is about.

Advent calls us to make room in our hearts for Christ amongst the busyness of life. Advent makes it possible for Christ to come and iron out the wrinkles in our life and smooth the rough places. Advent teaches us to have patient expectations. In the hymn we are about to sing after this sermon, “All Earth is Hopeful.” The fourth verse goes like this, We first saw Jesus a baby in a crib. The same Lord Jesus today has come to live in our world; he is present, in the neighbors we see our Jesus is with us, and ever sets us free.  

So Come, Lord Jesus be our guest and let your gifts to us be blessed.

AMEN!