Jim Street

"When John heard in prison what the Messiah was doing, he sent word by his disciples and said to him, 'Are you the one who is to come or are we to wait for another?'" (Mt. 11: 2-3)

We do not know why John asked sent his disciples to ask the question of Jesus.  Matthew does not tell us.  Indeed, Matthew doesn't even seem interested in knowing. 

However, that does not stop us from wondering and speculating.  As a teacher once told me: "We believe in the maxim 'where the Bible speaks we speak and where the Bible is silent we are silent.'  However, we also apparently believe in the maxim 'where the Bible speaks we are silent and where the Bible is silent we speak.'"

I know my own doubts and uncertainties.  And, as a pastor, I often hear others express theirs as well.  Sometimes life can be so hard that doubting is the best we can do. I read this text with those doubts rolling through the back of my mind.

I do not know whether John doubted or not.  I do not know whether uncertainty crept into his dank cell or not.   It may have been that John saw his destiny written on the prison wall and sent his disciples as a way to quell their doubts about the identity of Jesus.  Perhaps John was engaged in a bit of "succession planning."

Whether it was because of his own doubts or because of the questions of his disciples, John did send them to Jesus with that question: "Are you the one who is to come or should we wait for another?"

My guess is that it is very hard to see the inbreaking reign of God from within the walls of a damp prison or as you are perched precariously atop a three-legged stool and straining to peer through a tiny, barred-up window.

I recognize the dangers of going beyond the text.  Anything I say about John's motives in asking that question would be "arguing from silence."

However, I also recognize what happens to us when we are cut off from the world, imprisoned (if only for a time) in the darkness of doubt, shackled in the chains of despair, and fettered by fears.   What seemed so clearly the case in the carefree daylight is lost in the shadow of the terrifying moment.

"Are you the one who is to come or should we wait for another?"

John had heard what Jesus was doing.  (Note: Matthew says that John heard what the Messiah was doing!) But John heard about it in prison.

Perhaps from his own vantage "what Messiah was doing" was not what John thought the Messiah would or should be doing.  Given his wilderness sermons, John may have imagined something more...earth shattering.  After all, John had drawn terrifying word pictures of the ax being laid the roots and of days of wrath coming over the horizon.

Jesus did not say "I AM the ONE" to John's disciples.  Jesus appealed to the words of the prophets, to the images of Jubilee and to the songs of Israel: 

"Tell John what you hear and see: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised and the poor have good news brought to them." (vs. 4-5; NRSV)

Tell John that miracles abound but also tell him who the recipients of those graces are: the blind, the deaf, the dead, and the poor.  The overlooked, the outcast, the forgotten are being seen, brought close and remembered.

And all of them...these poor...are hearing good news.

God is at work-perhaps in unexpected ways -but working nonetheless.  Look closely and listen...you are locked for a time in your cell of despair but your experience is not the breadth and depth and height of God's working.  The kingdom is breaking through and things spoken of by prophets, indeed the words of John are coming to pass...the world is being turned upside down as the kingdom of God breaks through in Jesus.

We don't know what the disciples of John did after that.  We don't know whether they returned to John or not.  We don't know whether John was satisfied by the reply of Jesus.

However, I cannot help but wonder: Did it cross John's mind what Jesus did not say? Did it strike him that Jesus did not say, "and the prisoners are set free"?

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For resources related to the season of the church year or the Revised Common Lectionary go here.

For a series of questions for personal reflection/small group discussion on the RCL texts for the week go here.

I am often put off by some of the Christmas songs because they are so sentimental, so romantic and so not-my- experience.

Sometimes I feel as if I am going to blow if I hear one more song about holiday cheer, faces all aglow, happy shoppers on their way down glistening, snow covered city sidewalks.

I live in the Atlanta area.  The last time we had snow at Christmas was around the time the Magna Carta was being signed.  And as for happy faces all aglow....ha!...I say, "Ha!"

I see harried faces (even hairy faces!), distracted faces and most of them anything but "all aglow." 

I live in the suburbs.  You see tail lights all aglow.  You see strip malls.  You see enough concrete and black top to cover Rhode Island.  You see power cable, telephone lines and litter.

To many Christmas songs I say, "Bah!"

Unless....unless I hear those lyrics not as descriptions of what is but as yearnings of what could be.

Maybe there could be a day- even here in the 'burbs of HOTlanta"- when there is snow on the ground, happy people scurrying here and there with nothing more than a "Merry Christmas" on their breath.

Hearing those songs in that way may just rescue me from my humbuggery.

Reading the Isaiah texts in the Revised Common Lectionary is really what has rescued me from another season of singing, "Bah, bah, bah, bah, baaaah.." instead of "Fa la la la laaaa."

Listen to these words about the coming the Day of Lord...

"He shall judge between the nations and shall arbitrate for many peoples; they shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn more any more." (2:4)

Or read these words and just imagine...

"The wolf shall sleep with the lamb, the leopard shall lie down with the kid, the calf and the lion and the fatling together, and a little child shall lead them.  The cow and the bear shall graze together, their young shall lie down together, and the lion shall eat straw like the ox.  The nursing child shall play over the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand in the adder's den.  They will not hurt or destroy on my holy mountain, for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea." (11:6-9 NRSV)

I suspect there were those who first heard Isaiah's words with a "bah" and a "humbug."  They read the paper like everyone else; they watched the evening news.  They worked in the sweatshops and traversed the market places.

No more war?  No more studying war?  No more tragedies?  No more "nature red in tooth and claw."

Bah!

All those folks are gone.  However, the words of Isaiah still stand and give their hope.

Isaiah expresses a vision.  However...and this is important...Isaiah's vision is not simply the poetic expression of wishful thinking or overwrought romanticism.  Isaiah is not Mel Torme sitting at a piano in California in the heat of summer writing about "chestnuts roasting on an open fire."

Isaiah speaks to human yearning, yes.

But the word Isaiah speaks, the vision that Isaiah describes is not Isaiah's word and not Isaiah's vision.  His word and vision are not simply the yearnings of one man or the whole people. 

This is the word and the vision of the God who is faithful and who will do what God promises. 

Advent is the time of yearning...ours and God's! 

Advent is the time when we are reminded that our deepest longings, the ones we offer up to heaven, will be met (and then some) by the God who never leaves us nor forsakes us!

I started preaching 34 years ago just down the road from where I currently preach.   However, between the time I started and now, Gwinnett County, Georgia has changed.... Wait that should be  chaaaaannnnggged.

My agent, Irv, sent me this article.   I love the last line...

"America is changing...get used to it!"

This ain't your grandma's church.

Me: Hi.

My name is Jim.

And I'm a pragmaddict.

You: ("Hi Jim...")

Me: I've been a pragmaddict since childhood. I don't know about you but I found life pretty challenging as a child.  While I always tried to do the right thing, I had a hard time knowing sometimes what the "right thing" was.  I learned pretty quickly that you can never go wrong as long as you do what works in any given situation.

I can think of many instances where I said whatever needed saying, did whatever needed doing, believed whatever needed believing as long as it got me more of what I wanted or needed at the moment.

While they may not have intended it (or maybe they did!) my parents contributed to my pragmaddiction.  

I can remember my dad ranting about this college professor who often wrote a column in the newspaper.  My dad would say, "For such an educated man, he doesn't have the sense God gave a goat."   My dad knew that good sense was equivalent to common sense and that common sense was the sense just about everybody (except certain college professors) had.

That realization came home to me after I got my Ph.D.  My dad said, "Well you've got enough education now to be absolutely stupid." 

You might think he meant that harshly.  Maybe he did but I didn't take it that way.  I took it to mean that I shouldn't get so educated that I ended up sacrificing "the sense God gave a goat."

Even my sainted mother got in on the act.  She was fond of saying, "The proof is in the pudding."  I took that to mean that the truth of matters will always come out in...well...the pudding.  Or maybe that was the wash.  Whatever....the point was "garbage in/ garbage out."  What you put into the recipe yields the resultant dish. 

There seems to be no escaping this addiction to pragmatism.  Everywhere I turn I'm offered another hit:

"What's true is what works."

"You can't argue with success."

Even Dr. Phil is fond of asking: "How's that working for you?" 

Do what works.  When something works do more of it.  If something doesn't work, stop doing that.  

What is the definition of insanity?  To keep doing the same thing over and over expecting a different result?

See...it's hard not to take regular hits of practical advice...

We pragmaddicts live and die by the dictum: "The truth is what works."  Our addiction continues because, at least within the circle of our own self-interest, doing what works...works.

However, recently I've been trying to really challenge my pragmaddiction. 

For example, whenever I hear myself quoting Dr. Phil ("How's that working for you?") I talk back to me and say, "Why should whether things are working for me be the standard of what makes for the good?"

Or whenever I repeat the pragmaddicts dictum: "The truth (or good) is what works" I ask "works for whom?"

Or, I ask, "who gets to determine what 'working' means?"

Of course, you may be sitting there wondering what difference this makes.  After all, to other pragmaddicts, to live according to what works for yourself seems not like some philosophical idea...it seems like "reality." 

Only people who are "out of touch with reality" or who are "so heavenly minded that they are no earthly good" would argue against the idea that what is true or good is what works.

Well..here's my problem...Jesus, whom I call "Lord" came along announcing the coming of God's reign.  He described those who are receiving the kingdom as those who are poor in spirit, those who are gentle and non-violent, those who are unwilling to see the present world as the best of all possible worlds, those who spend their time working for justice and making peace.

He invites us to visualize a future that pretty much matches up to the Jewish concept of "Shalom"- utter peace and harmony, a condition of wholeness and health and holiness, a circumstance where love and mercy and compassion are the primary virtues.

He (and his followers) painted a picture  where those who would feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, clothe the naked, minister to the sick and visit the imprisoned would see themselves as actually doing good to Jesus himself.

He (and those who followed him) painted a future where people were reconciled to God and, as a result, finding themselves reconciled to one another and living peaceably with another.

He (and those who followed Him) even saw the day coming when "new creation" would be the order of the day and we would look forward eagerly and hopefully toward that time when God would plop right down in the midst of us and wipe away every tear from our eyes.

He (and those who followed Him) said we were all invited into that kingdom, that it was ours to receive and that we could begin to live now as if the whole enchilada was already present to us...that is, that we could live peaceably with our neighbors and our enemies, that we could bless those who hate us, and pray for those who persecute us.  

Now...not later...now.

In other words, we could live now as if the future was already a done deal.

Of course, the pragmaddicts out there (and the pragmaddict within) say(s):

"Peacemaking? 

How's that working for you?"

"Loving your enemies? 

 How's that going to pay off?"

"Blessing those who use you? 

Wonder what that will get you?"

"Living today as if God's tomorrow is already accomplished? 

"Say wha-?"

I have to say that sometimes the pragmaddiction seems to suggest that the choice is between living in reality as opposed to non-reality.   In other words, you can live in the land of "good= what works" or you can live in the land of dreams and fantasies.

But then I think, "Well, maybe we should ask 'works toward what end?'"  When I ask that it seems to me that everything Jesus claims works toward the ends of God's kingdom and that sometimes, if not most times, those ends are not the ends that most of us pragmaddicts are working toward.

I don't know I need to think more about it.

For now, I'll say this, "I have come to admit that I am powerless over pragmaddiction and I commit myself to a power greater than myself to tell me how to live."  

Thank you!

You: Thank you, Jim.

This past summer I conducted a Bible study on the Psalms for the good folks from North River Community Church and West Gwinnett Christian Church.  I'm no expert on the Psalms (I'm not expert on anything!) but I have found the Psalms to be of tremendous benefit in helping shape my prayers.  For the next several days, I thought I would share these thoughts on the Psalms with you.

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The Psalms teach us about the nature of God.

While all of scripture tells us things about the nature of God, I believe the Psalms teach us at least three things that figure heavily into our prayers.  The Psalms teach us (1) that God is righteous, (2) that God is faithful and (3) that God is free.

Because God is faithful, we can rest assured that God will "never leave us nor forsake us."  God has been faithful to us, God is faithful to us and God will be faithful to us.  Over and over the Psalmist speaks of the "loving kindness" of God, or of God's "covenant love".  Over and over the Psalmist recalls God's acts in the history of Israel, to testify to God's faithfulness. Because God is faithful, God can be "depended upon".

Because God is righteous, we can trust that God will do what is right.  God will act out of righteous judgment and do the right thing.  God can do nothing but the right thing because God is righteous.

However, God is also free.  Just as we can count on God to always do the right thing we can also count on God to act out of God's own freedom.  I believe that is why we often read the Pslamist crying out, "When, O Lord?" Or, "How long, O Lord?"  Or, "Where are You, Lord?"

The Psalmist knows that God is faithful and that God is righteous.  However, the Psalmist also knows that God is free.  The awareness of the freedom of God, to my mind, is what drives the Pslamist to  make promises or bargain with God.  The Psalmist is trying to get God to make a move.

I often put it this way: "Our problem is not in wondering whether God exists or whether God loves us or whether God will be faithful to us or whether God will do the right thing or not.  Our problem is the anxiety of wondering whether God will show up by Friday at 3."

We pray in light of the faithfulness of God, the righteousness of God and the freedom of God.  While we are willing to grant faithfulness and righteousness to God (after all that is in our interest!) we sometimes struggle with granting God the freedom that is due God. 

We want to depend upon God to do the right thing when we want God to do it.  "Lord, I trust that You are faithful and that You, in your infinite righteousness, will act justly but I also trust that You will do so by the end of the business day Tuesday, September 5th.  Amen."

It seems to me that if we are willing to grant God (what a funny phrase!) God's faithfulness and God's righteousness, that we ought to be willing to grant  God's freedom. 

After all, God is free.

The question is whether we are capable of such trust.