Our season of Lent begins this coming Wednesday, February 22nd.
But what does that mean?
The season of Lent is a time that we have set aside as a season of preparation. It is a time to remember and to reflect. We will soon celebrate Jesus’ resurrection at Easter but also, like any of life’s significant endeavors, in order to do something well, we must take the time to prepare.
Many of us recently watched the Super Bowl, but you can be sure that none of those on the field just woke up that morning and decided to walk onto the field. Despite the relative youth of many of those players, they have all spent much of their lives in preparation, in learning the game, refining their skill, daily building strength and stamina through rigorous exercise and brutal daily workouts, and finally competing regularly against those who are the best in the world at what they do. This week, professional baseball players will begin their preparations. On February 13th pitchers and catchers, and on February 16th position players will report for Spring Training so that when baseball season begins on March 30th, they will be back in the habit of working together on the field.
Easter is the biggest event of the church year and is a bookend to the Christmas story. For that reason, both emotionally and spiritually, we don’t want to show up unprepared. We don’t want to cram all our preparations into one hurried trip to Wal-Mart the night before. Instead, let us commit to a season or preparation so that we will arrive on Easter morning properly prepared, with our hearts renewed, our souls properly exercised, and fully open to the joy, wonder, excitement, and the calling of God.
Join us so that our team can prepare together during this season of anticipation.
In the blockbuster 1999 movie, The Matrix, Keanu Reeves, as the character Neo, is awakened from a pod and discovers that his entire life had been lived inside of a computer simulation. Over the course of the movie, Neo, and the audience, discover that he is the person known in their modern legend as “The One.” Although computers have taken over the universe, the computer program that makes the simulated world possible requires, as part of its vast program, an anomaly, a glitch, that is both necessary to making the whole thing work, and problematic to the machines that want to subjugate humanity. That glitch, that anomaly, is that one randomly selected person, known as the Prime Program, or The One, carries a special piece of program code that gives them superhuman abilities in the matrix. These abilities give that person the power to bend the rules of the matrix simulation, allowing them to ignore physics, gravity, and any other laws of nature.
In scripture, we also find a world that is waiting for the arrival of “the One.” In this case, we are dealing with the real world and with a spiritual world, and not a fictional computer simulation. But the movies have borrowed from this scriptural tradition and have created parallels that we see in both the theater and in the stories of the Old and New Testaments. What we find is that God, through his prophets, promised that one day he would send a messiah, a rescuer, and a redeemer, who would come to save Israel from their enemies and save the entire world from destruction, sin, and death.
But as the centuries passed, Israel asked the same question that the characters in the Matrix movie were asking. Is the story real? When will we see the One? And whenever they met someone who impressed them, they might even ask themselves if he might be “The One.” We begin this morning with Isaiah 35:1-10, as we hear God’s prophet tell of the things that the Messiah would do:
35:1The desert and the parched land will be glad;the wilderness will rejoice and blossom. Like the crocus, 2 it will burst into bloom; it will rejoice greatly and shout for joy. The glory of Lebanon will be given to it, the splendor of Carmel and Sharon; they will see the glory of the Lord, the splendor of our God.
3 Strengthen the feeble hands,steady the knees that give way; 4 say to those with fearful hearts, “Be strong, do not fear; your God will come, he will come with vengeance; with divine retribution he will come to save you.”
5 Then will the eyes of the blind be opened and the ears of the deaf unstopped. 6 Then will the lame leap like a deer, and the mute tongue shout for joy. Water will gush forth in the wilderness and streams in the desert. 7 The burning sand will become a pool, the thirsty ground bubbling springs. In the haunts where jackals once lay, grass and reeds and papyrus will grow.
8 And a highway will be there;it will be called the Way of Holiness; it will be for those who walk on that Way. The unclean will not journey on it; wicked fools will not go about on it. 9 No lion will be there, nor any ravenous beast; they will not be found there. But only the redeemed will walk there, and those the Lord has rescued will return. They will enter Zion with singing; everlasting joy will crown their heads. Gladness and joy will overtake them, and sorrow and sighing will flee away.
It was these words that were repeated, taught, and remembered, when people thought and dreamed about the coming of the messiah. And so, when John the Baptist sees that Jesus isn’t doing the things that he thought that he would do, he begins to wonder if Jesus is really “The One.” And so, John sends his disciples to ask Jesus that very question, “Are you the One.” Matthew 11:2-11 records Jesus’ reply.
2 When John, who was in prison, heard about the deeds of the Messiah, he sent his disciples 3 to ask him, “Are you the one who is to come, or should we expect someone else?”
4 Jesus replied, “Go back and report to John what you hear and see: 5 The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is proclaimed to the poor. 6 Blessed is anyone who does not stumble on account of me.”
7 As John’s disciples were leaving, Jesus began to speak to the crowd about John: “What did you go out into the wilderness to see? A reed swayed by the wind? 8 If not, what did you go out to see? A man dressed in fine clothes? No, those who wear fine clothes are in kings’ palaces. 9 Then what did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I tell you, and more than a prophet. 10 This is the one about whom it is written:
“‘I will send my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way before you.’
11 Truly I tell you, among those born of women there has not risen anyone greater than John the Baptist; yet whoever is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.
It was a fair question. It’s always been a fair question. We have been reading the promises of God in the writings of the prophets for thousands of years. Like many of Jesus’ own disciples, John thought that the Messiah should behave differently, and do things differently than Jesus was doing them. And Jesus’ reply was to echo Isaiah and say that the eyes of the blind were opened, the ears of the deaf unstopped, the lame are healed, the mute speak, the good news is proclaimed to the poor, and even the dead are raised.
But two thousand years later we are still asking the same question. Was Jesus really “The One”? If Jesus were really the Messiah, shouldn’t he have returned to do the rest of the things that Isaiah and the other prophets said that the Messiah would do? It’s a fair question because two thousand years is a long time. The people who had seen Jesus, even some of his disciples, were convinced that Jesus would return in their lifetimes. And then they were sure that he would return before the Apostle John died. And then they thought he would certainly return before the year 100, then the year 1000, then maybe it should be the year 2000. But the calendar keeps turning and we keep asking the question, “Is he really “The One”?” And that is exactly the question to which Jesus’ brother James was responding in James 5:7-11 when he said:
7 Be patient, then, brothers and sisters, until the Lord’s coming. See how the farmer waits for the land to yield its valuable crop, patiently waiting for the autumn and spring rains. 8 You too, be patient and stand firm, because the Lord’s coming is near. 9 Don’t grumble against one another, brothers and sisters, or you will be judged. The Judge is standing at the door!
10 Brothers and sisters, as an example of patience in the face of suffering, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord. 11 As you know, we count as blessed those who have persevered. You have heard of Job’s perseverance and have seen what the Lord finally brought about. The Lord is full of compassion and mercy.
As in many other things, patience is the key. Students of a foreign language do not learn to speak fluently overnight, nor do students learn to play a musical instrument well during their first lesson, or even during the first year. In Star Wars, Master Yoda repeatedly admonished Luke Skywalker to have patience, and that is something with which we all have struggled. Like all these things that I mentioned that make sense to us, James uses an agricultural illustration that made sense to his audience. When we plant our gardens, or when a farmer plants an entire field, we cannot harvest until the appropriate time has come. We wait for sunshine, warm nights, and the rains that water the earth because plants have needs that must be met just as we do, and they need time to grow to maturity. In the same way, James tells us that there will be an appropriate time, that Jesus will come, and that his coming is near.
Rather than grumble and fight, we must be patient with one another, love, nurture, and support one another, and persevere through whatever this life throws at us. Rather than impatiently questioning whether Jesus is “The One,” we should remember the perseverance of Job and many others that we know from scripture, people who patiently endured and persevered through their trials and through their lives so that we could look back and see what God accomplished through them.
As we wait for the return of “The One” let us be patient in our waiting, patient with one another in our struggling, and remember the examples of scripture of those who struggled like us, but who endured so that God could demonstrate what could be accomplished with his help.
It is the time of lists. We have all sorts of lists. We have chores that must be done, decorations to put out, cookies to bake, gifts to buy for the kids’ gift exchanges at school, gifts to buy for the gift exchange at Sunday school, or Kiwanis, Rotary, Lions Club, bridge club, train club (actually we don’t have one), open houses, bowling team, things to do before our visiting relatives arrive, packing that must be done before we leave to visit other relatives, last minute projects that need to be completed for school or for work, and of course a list of gifts to buy for family, friends, your letter carrier, newspaper person, lawn service, fitness coach, more gift exchanges, employees, pets, neighbors, and who knows what else.
But amid all the busyness of the season, and among the lists of things we have to do, and gifts we have to buy, where is Jesus?
Will coming to church on Christmas Eve or Christmas, be the only time that you remember to check Jesus off your list? Will you put a few dollars in the offering plate at church, or a few coins in the red kettle at the drug store, and check that off your list too?
As we spend time with family, friends, co-workers, and parties for clubs and other activities, how much time will you spend with Jesus? If we made a list of all the places you spend time this season, where will Jesus rate on that list? As we spend money, and buy gifts, where will our gifts to Jesus rate? Will our gifts to Jesus match what we spent on our spouse or our children? Will he be measured more closely to the tip we give to our letter carrier? Or will our gifts to Jesus rank closer to what we’re spending on gifts and outfits for our pets?
I’m not saying that you should, necessarily, give those gifts to Christ Church, but when the season is over, how will Jesus rank? How much time will you spend with him? What gifts will you bring him? How will you honor him? Will you feed the hungry? Clothe the naked? Comfort the troubled? Heal the wounded? Love the unloved?
Before we get too wrapped up in our busy-ness let us seriously consider…
There is a movie series which originated in 2013 with a film entitled, The Purge. The premise of that movie, and of the entire series of movies, is that once each year, for a period of twelve hours, no crimes are against the law and the use of all weapons, other than explosives, are permitted. As you might expect, this causes significant death, destruction, and mayhem and is used by the government as a covert form of population control that also boosts the economy. And, if you ever watched Star Trek, the Original Series, you can’t help but notice that the premise of the movie is exactly the same as an episode from the first season called “The Return of the Archons.”
But what if I told you that the purge was real?
I don’t mean that we need to worry about a day when all crimes are legal. What I mean is that there will be purge where there is a housecleaning of all humanity. A day that God cleans house and purges from the planet every person that doesn’t measure up.
But what does that mean? John the Baptist explains it in Matthew 3:1-12 as he prepares for the arrival of Jesus.
3:1 In those days John the Baptist came, preaching in the wilderness of Judea 2 and saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.” 3 This is he who was spoken of through the prophet Isaiah:
“A voice of one calling in the wilderness, ‘Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him.’”
4 John’s clothes were made of camel’s hair, and he had a leather belt around his waist. His food was locusts and wild honey. 5 People went out to him from Jerusalem and all Judea and the whole region of the Jordan. 6 Confessing their sins, they were baptized by him in the Jordan River.
7 But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to where he was baptizing, he said to them: “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? 8 Produce fruit in keeping with repentance. 9 And do not think you can say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham. 10 The ax is already at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.
11 “I baptize you with water for repentance. But after me comes one who is more powerful than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. 12 His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor, gathering his wheat into the barn and burning up the chaff with unquenchable fire.”
During this season of preparation, we are reminded that Jesus didn’t just come to love people and to save the world. Jesus’ coming is also a reminder that he will one day stand in judgement of all humanity. He will separate the wheat from the chaff, the useful from the useless, the fruitful from the fruitless. Posers and pretenders will be sifted out. Religious leaders who used the church to benefit themselves but who did nothing to grow the kingdom of God, will be sifted out. And anyone who doesn’t measure up will be burned in the fire like chaff.
John’s message is as much for us today as it was two thousand years ago.
Let us prepare the way for the Lord and make straight paths for him.
And the first, best, place for us to start, is to repent and make sure that we are straight paths. Let us do all that we can so that we are counted as wheat, and not chaff.
Pastor Partridge 