“Should We Seek Another?” Bradley Jersak

Excerpt From a Nativity Season Sermon:

As Christmas approaches, our carols lead us from “long-awaited” expectation into a feast of joy. We sing both COME, O COME and REJOICE, REJOICE! Emmanuel, God with us, shall come. Emmanuel does come to emancipate exiles from captivity in its every form.

Rejoice, Rejoice! for the Hope of our salvation, our Redeemer, has come, is coming, and will come.

Behold! the prophet sees the dry cracked clay of wilderness burst into blooms and blossoms. On the horizon, a silver ribbon appears, a stream of living water flowing our way through the desert, weaving its way toward us.

Roots of verdant plants find its springs and sprout green on its banks, fragrant blossoms and fresh fruit welcome every living creature to banquet at its shores. The stream deepens and widens, gathering pilgrims along the way, a highway for the oppressed, refugees returning home, helpers lead blind and deaf and lame and mute of body or soul ever forward to the King and his Kingdom called Zion.

Behold, as scales fall from our eyes, wax drips from our stopped ears, our tongues are loosed, our muscles are made new and our bones align, until the liberty dance begins.

Rejoice, for the restoration of all things has begun… IS happening.

The choir of misfits and miscreants sing. The blind see and sing, the deaf hear and sing, The mute and the muted shout and sing, the lame leap and sing, Those bowed low stand tall and sing. Widows and orphans now sing of a heavenly husband and everlasting father. Rejoice!

Slaves now sing of their freedom. The hungry, now filled, sing of the infinite feast. The thirsty, now satisfied, sing of the eternal Spring. Strangers, now home, sing of their belonging. Even fools find the key and harmonize. Rejoice!

You’re safe here. No jackals, no predators, no traps. Yes, the ways of the wicked are ruined, But the wicked themselves?

Redeemed—made right—rejoice. Lions and lambs reconciled—rejoice.

At last, the hyper vigilant can breathe. The traumatized can finally rest. And together, all sing, “Rejoice!”

“Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel.”

He will. And he has. We know he has. Do you doubt it?

Listen, Jesus says, “Bear witness, beloved friends, to what you have heard and seen with your own eyes and ears.”

Once-barren mothers are carrying babies, nursing them in our presence.

A young man, once shattered and disabled is home… walking, eating, and peeing on his own.

Addicts are being released.

The hungry are being fed. The poor are hearing good news.

Old trauma is being healed. Exiles are finding their way home.

Like Mary Magdalene outside the tomb, we are witnesses, who testify: “We have seen the Lord. God is with us.”

Just one question…

St. John the Forerunner wonders. “Should we seek another?” But that’s code. A humble way to ask his real question:

What about me?

I have done everything God asked. I was your prophet. The greatest of prophets (you said so). I was your forerunner. From the womb, no less, I leapt for joy in utero when we first met. And I was your baptizer. Best man to the bridegroom. Good Lord, I am even your bloody(ied) cousin. Quite literally now

So, I’m wondering…

What about me. I am still in prison. I will be murdered. On the whim of a conniving queen, by the sword of a false king. I will never see freedom again. And I will lose my head. That’s no prophecy. That’s a spoiler. So, Emmanuel,… what about me?

Jesus’ response is… worrisome.

“Blessed is the one who is not offended by me.”

Many who worship Christ the Lord have good reason to rejoice at the wonders of God. And every day we must also wonder,

Emmanuel…

What about [here, think of examples from your life who have recently died or have lost a loved one, received an ominous diagnosis, experience chronic illness or any thing else you might grieve—I invite readers to do the same, out loud].

What about the families of victims at Brown University and Bondi Beach?

We’ve witnessed so much beauty. And we are NOT looking for another. We have no plan B. But our patient waiting hurts sometimes.

We sing, “Rejoice, rejoice, Emmanuel shall come…” But then, what about them? What about us?

Jesus’ response to us is baffling.

“Blessed is the one who is not offended by me.”

One young man once said to Jesus, in my presence, bitterly, “Easy for you to say.” Then he saw Jesus, the face of God with him, crowned with thorns, become somber.

And from the Cross, he replied. “No. No it wasn’t.”

And the young man wept. And for a time, his weeping turned to joy. And Emmanuel’s presence and his words of life sustained him. For a time.

Now let’s listen carefully to these words of Jesus. Very literally.

Truly, I tell you, [I never lie] There has risen. Risen! Born of women. No one greater than John.

YET the least in the kingdom of the heavens, HE (singular) IS greater than John. Yet the least in the kingdom of the heavens, HE IS (singularly) greater than John.

Who is this he that is least? Who is this servant of all? Who is this, stooping to wash our feet? Who is this, ascending a Cross to give us his very life? Who emptied himself completely? Who endures all our sins and co-suffers all our sorrows, directly bearing all our wounds and offenses and scandals and shame? Who sits by our gurneys and bears our grief? Who weeps by our caskets, then enters our graves? Who descends into our hell to raise all of us up with himself?

Rejoice! This is Jesus the only Christ, the very Spring and Stream of Life Isaiah saw. Emmanuel. God with us.

So, listen, Jesus’ words of life are not platitudes, his life-giving miracles are not fantasies, our testimonies of his goodness are not denial.

And.

Jesus’ words through our life-draining ordeals And our life-ending tragedies are not trite. His grief for us is not feigned or performative.

He says, ‘Truly, I am not Emmanuel unless I am God with you as the least and the greatest, As the lowest and the highest, as the ever-crucified and ever-risen One.

THAT One has come, and we Rejoice! THAT One is yet to come, so we cry out in lament, SO COME ALREADY!

THIS One keeps coming, so we shout out, REJOICE! He is here! THIS One shall surely come! So, we sing out, REJOICE! REJOICE!

The I AM is making all things and all people new.

Amen.

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