WHAT DID YOU GO OUT TO SEE?

After John's messengers left, Jesus began to speak to the crowd abut John: "What did you go out into the desert to see? Luke 7:24

            I'd like to ask you a question. How many Christmas cards have you received thus far this year with a portrayal of John the Baptist on it?  Well, have you ever received a Christmas card with a picture of John the Baptist on it?

            In the literature we are using for the Wednesday evening Advent adult Bible study, James Howell, senior pastor of Myers Park United Methodist Church in Charlotte, asks this question: "How come one of the characters in the biblical stores of Advent and Christmas is rudely brushed aside during December?" That biblical character is of course John the Baptist. Read Luke 1 and 2, and there is the birth of John, deftly woven into the story of the birth of Jesus. But, have you ever attended a Christmas pageant with John the Baptist as one of the characters?

            He goes on to say that there is little wonder we prefer not to think about John during December. He's a bit unsavory, he's hairy, he's some kind of survivalist, living in the middle of nowhere on a bizarre diet, and he drones on with just one sermon, "Repent. Repent. Repent."

            Be that as it may, to a more pronounced degree than might be first supposed, the lives of John the Baptist and Jesus of Nazareth were intertwined. Luke was very sensitive to this connection. Recall how he wove a single tapestry out of the pregnancies of Elizabeth and Mary. Jesus was baptized by John, then went into the wilderness from whence John had come. Jesus commenced his public ministry upon John's being cast into prison. Jesus saw in John's execution the sign of the fate that would shortly befall him. Only the names of Jesus, Peter, and Paul appear with more frequency in the NT than the name of John the Baptist!

            That Jesus loved this right and forthright man is clear from an incident that Matthew and Luke report. John is in jail for having spoken truth to royalty. With all his engines down and contact with the world curtailed, this fiery replica of Elijah begins to doubt. He dispatches messengers who carry his question directly to the Master: "Are you the one who is to come, or are we to wait for another?" Upon hearing this, Jesus performed some miracles of healing. Then he gave his answer: "Go and tell John what you have seen and heard; the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, the poor have good news brought to them. And blessed is anyone who takes no offense at me."

            Then, to ennoble John in the eyes of those who had witnessed this exchange, Jesus said: "What did you go out into the wilderness to see? A reed shaken by the wind? A vacillating, time-serving, timid advocate of the status quo? Certainly not! What then did you go out to see? Someone dressed in soft robes? Someone aristocratic, or of regal rank, living a life of un-fluttered ease? Certainly not!  Such are to be found in king's palaces, not in a royal dungeon. YOU WENT OUT TO SEE A PROPHET AND THAT IS WHAT YOU SAW. Then, to add the ultimate commendation, Jesus said, "Of those who were born of women none is greater than John the Baptist."  WHAT DID YOU GO OUT TO SEE?

            Let me give you the bottom line first and work back: EXPECTATIONS DETERMINE PERCEPTIONS. What you seek is what you get. We will not always find that for which we seek, but we will never find that for which we do not seek, unless it is by sheer luck or a serendipitous discovery. In the main, expectations determine perceptions. THE NET DETERMINES THE CATCH. To put this as plainly as I can, you get what you're looking for.

            Go to the opera expecting to be bored, and you will. Make up your mind that you won't have a good time at the party, and you won't. Determine that the church is a haven for hypocrites, and it will be, for you! Be convinced that there is no harmony between religion and science, and there never will be. Read a newspaper for further evidence of social rot, and you'll find it. WHAT YOU SEEK IS WHAT YOU GET.

            This truth, suggested by Jesus' rhetorical question, holds for every human being anywhere. It is not a particularly religious insight. It is a fact of life.

            I would be grieved if you understood me to mean that evil lacks reality; that bigotry, hunger, greed, sickness, crime, and loneliness are mere projections of the mind. I am, after all, a Presbyterian pastor and not a Christian Science reader. My aim just now is to restore some balance. ANY SET OF CIRCUMSTANCES IS A MIX OF OUTER FACT AND INNER ATTITUDE. A SAINT CAN REJOICE IN A CELL, AND A KING CAN BE MISERABLE IN A CASTLE. WHAT DID YOU GO OUT TO SEE.

            If what we seek is what we get, what then should a Christian be looking for? Sermons on worship have been preached from this text. What you seek as you come to church has sharp bearing on what you'll get. The eloquence of the bread and the cup on Communion Sundays rests largely on your expectations. Calvin was fond of saying that what makes the bread and the wine the body and the blood of Christ is our faith. How, by the power of the Holy Spirit, we come to the sacrament is all important.  But I want to give the question broader application. What, in this Advent season, should we be looking for in the life of the world around us, out there on the job, in school, at home, around the church?

            I'd like to suggest that WE OUGHT TO BE LOOKING FOR SIGNS OF THE KINGDOM, THE COMING AGE. Signs of the kingdom that Jesus announced and initiated: the kingdom that was vindicated in his resurrection; the kingdom for whose coming we have been taught to pray by our Lord himself.

            Jesus was able to see signs of the kingdom in the smallest of things. A lump of leaven blessed his faith. A pinch of salt. A bird peeping from its nest. A lily nodding in the field. A lamp burning. Bread being broken and shared.

            I am convinced that all time can be divided between the age that is coming, which Jesus called the kingdom, and the age that is passing away, which he called this world. We know so well the signs of the age that is passing away. Much of our despair and sadness today comes from an over-exposure to the signs of an order that marked for death. I share with you five brief quotations:

1.         I dare not marry, the future is too uncertain.

2.         There is scarcely anything around us but ruin and despair.

3.         Nothing can save the British empire from shipwreck.

4.         In industry, commerce and agriculture there is no hope.

5.         I thank God I shall be spared from seeing the consummation of ruin that is gathering around us.

            The first was spoken by Wilburforce in 1801, the second by William Pitt in 1806, the third by Lord Shaftsbury in 1848, the fourth by Disraeli in 1849, and the last by the Duke of Wellington in 1852. So much for an excessive immersion in the signs of the age that is passing.

            But do we see the signs of the age to come? When I was working at the Interchurch Center in NYC up there on Morningside Heights, I learned of an action taken by a church there. There had been an uprising in the Attica prison in upstate New York, 360 miles north of the city, with brutal repression by the guards against the inmates. Some Christians in Manhattan wished to do something for the prisoners in that far off place. Most of the inmates there are from the New York City area. Their families had all kinds of problems getting up to see them.

            So, a small band of concerned people sought to establish a way by which families could be transported up and back. Then came the problem. Where to go when the bus arrived? The prison at Attica is not exactly the Beverly Hilton. It has no lobby where guests may receive their friends.  Dr. Lawrence Durgin, a pastor in the city, went up to a church in Attica and asked the official board whether it would be possible to use that church as a place of meeting. But Attica is so much a prison town, and negative feelings were still so strong, that even the officers of a Christian church could not find it in their hearts to say yes.

            A few days later, Dr. Durgin received a call from one of the Elders of that congregation. He said, in effect, do not be too harsh on the officers of my church, their wounds are still fresh and their pain is heavy. But how would you feel about bringing your people up and using our home as a meeting place? The home was opened. Buses and drivers were engaged. There was, shall we call it, a kind of church on wheels going up and coming back. Then slowly some of the visitors to Attica were so impressed by the love that they were receiving that they began to bring small gifts to the host family in gratitude-- a cake, a salad, a little present. THAT'S A SIGN OF THE AGE TO COME. THAT'S A SIGN OF THE KINGDOM JESUS TAUGHT US TO PRAY FOR.  IT WAS THESE KINDS OF SIGNS OF LOVE AND NEW RELATIONSHIPS AMONG PEOPLE THAT JOHN THE BAPTIST WAS LOOKING FOR IN THE ONE WHO WAS TO COME.

            Are you the one who is to come, or are we looking for another. So Jesus performed some healing miracles, and said, "Go and tell John what you have seen and heard: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised the poor have good news brought to them." I can only imagine John sitting back in that prison cell with the biggest smile on his face, thinking, "I knew it all the time. He is the one. We have found what we are looking for. In him, a new age is being born!"

            Tomorrow morning when you leave your home, what will you go out to see? The question is crucial, for what you seek is what you'll get.

Prayer

Eternal God, the hope of all who seek You, and the joy of all who find, grant us in this Advent season a seeking and a finding, that our hearts may trust and never doubt. Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.