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Sermon Date:	December 16, 2007 (Redeemer, Sanford)
Sermon Text:	Matthew 11:2-11
Church Calendar:	3rd Sunday in Advent
Delivered By:	Rev. Brian Roberts

"Overpowering Doubt"

So… a small boy walks into a grocery store and asks the clerk, “Do you have any Advent?” The clerk says, “I don’t think so, what is it?” The boy says, “I don’t know, but I really want some.”

The clerk looks puzzled and asks, “If you don’t know what it is, how do you know that you want it so much.” “Well,” the boy responds, “My mom says we can’t have Christmas until we have Advent. So, I really want to get some Advent.”

Obviously, this little boy does not want to miss out on Christmas. Who can blame him? Who WANTS to miss Christmas?

In the Gospel lesson today, John the Baptist is afraid that HE is missing out on something. He’s not afraid of missing Christmas. But he is afraid of missing CHRIST!

Do you remember last week, John, the Baptist, calling us to “Prepare the way of the Lord?” which is what Advent is all about. There was no one more excited at the coming of Christ than John, the Baptist. John had a strong message. It was a message of transformation. It was a message that made things different in life. “Repent, for the Kingdom of heaven is at hand!” he said.

John’s message proclaimed a change in your heart. It proclaimed the possibility of a better life, because of something new in your soul.

But… what John did NOT proclaim was that, suddenly, the world around you would change. He did NOT proclaim that sin and evil would simply disappear in your own life or the lives of others. He did NOT promise that everything around you would be transformed into some kind of miraculously perfect life.

And for this reason, sometimes being a Christian is hard. Sometimes it looks like WE are missing out on something. Sometimes, things don’t seem to be working out very well at all, and we aren’t sure where Christ is in all of this.

Now, the Gospel lesson for this week fast-forwards us several months ahead from last week. John, the Baptist, at this point, has been arrested and imprisoned by King Herod. And at the same time, Jesus started and has been conducting His ministry, which has become increasingly popular among the people of Judea.

For John, the Baptist, it is a time of a lot of change. And John’s disciples are having a hard time understanding it all. John’s followers are growing jealous of Jesus and His disciples. John was once drawing thousands of people to hear his message of repentance, but now it is Jesus who is drawing the crowds. John is imprisoned, and Jesus is preaching freedom – but it is spiritual freedom.

“Is THIS the way it was supposed to happen? Shouldn’t the Messiah be trying to free John – John, who was Christ’s prophet, His advocate, His cousin?” Yes, Jesus and John, the Baptist are cousins, they’re family. But Jesus is consumed with what He is doing, and seems uninterested in what is happening to John, and unwilling to help.

Is this, Jesus, the right guy, after all – or is the Messiah still coming? You see, it wasn’t John, the Baptist, who had doubts about whether or not Jesus was the Messiah. It was some of John’s disciples. And this is the question they bring to John. So, John sends these confused and doubting disciples to see Jesus. He sends them to ask Jesus this question: “Are You the One Who was to come, or should we expect someone else?”

Now, let’s not dismiss these disciples of John, or this story too quickly. Because doubt is something that we experience frequently, isn’t it?

Doubt is not the same as unbelief. Doubt is uncertainty. It’s that murky area BETWEEN belief and unbelief where nothing is decided and nothing is committed. That’s why doubt is so damaging. It sidelines you. It holds you back.

I heard a story the other day of a man who recalled an incident when he was a very young child. “One day, as a four-year-old,” he said, “I decided I was, now, a big boy and could use the bathroom without anyone’s help.

“So I climbed the stairs to the bathroom, closed and locked the door behind me, and for the next few minutes felt very self-sufficient. Then it was time to leave. But, I couldn’t unlock the door. I tried with every ounce of my four-year-old strength, but I couldn’t do it. I panicked. And the thought went through my head, ‘I might spend the rest of my life in this bathroom.’

“My parents – and likely the whole neighborhood – heard my desperate screams. ‘Are you okay?’ my mother shouted through the door she couldn’t open from the other side. ‘Did you fall? Did you hit your head?’

‘I can’t unlock the door!’ I yelled. ‘I want out!’

“I wasn’t aware of it right then, but my dad had raced down the stairs, run to the garage and found the ladder. He leaned it against the side of the house just beneath the bathroom window. With adult strength, he pried it open, then climbed into my prison, walked past me, and with that same strength, turned the lock and opened the door. ‘Thanks, Dad,’ I said—and ran out to play.”

Very often that’s how we think the Christian life is supposed to work. When we get stuck in a tight place, we do all we can to free ourselves. When that doesn’t work, then we turn our attention to God. God hears our prayers and cries, comes to our rescue, unlocks the door of our problems, and then we run off to play.

Well, sometimes God DOES work in this manner. But most of the time the Christian life doesn’t work this way. And that starts to generate doubt.

I wonder… are any of us REALLY content with God?

Do we even like Him when he doesn’t open the door we want opened — when a marriage doesn’t heal, or when rebellious kids still act out, or when a friend betrays us?

We really start to question God – don’t we – when financial struggles go on and on with no end in sight, or when health worsens despite much prayer, when loneliness intensifies and depression deepens, when loved ones die.

And there we sit in the dark little room of our lives – and we wonder: Why doesn’t God climb through the small window, and unlock the door, and free me from my problems or sadness?

And that’s doubt. It immobilizes us. It parks us in murky misunderstanding, because we don’t know what God is doing. It can cause us to become angry and cynical. And therefore, it can stop us from moving forward in our relationship with God AND moving forward with meaningful lives.

Instead, we park ourselves in the little room of our problems and remain unhappy. This is what happened to John’s disciples. They couldn’t understand why John was left in prison, while Jesus went about His ministry. This Messiah… well, he wasn’t acting like they expected Him to act. Is this Jesus the Messiah or what?

But, what is Christ’s response to all of this? “Jesus replied, ‘Go back and report to John what you HEAR and SEE.’” Christ’s response is to conduct a days worth of ministry. His response is to let people “hear and see” what He is doing.

And in that ministry He teaches the people about the Good News of salvation through faith, and performs the miracles that the prophet Isaiah predicted. The people hear Him teach them to trust that He loves them. He teaches them to believe that He has all things in hand.

He teaches them that, even though they may not understand what God is doing, He will always be with them, filling them with strength and power.

You see when we feel locked in the dark room of our problems, sometimes Christ sees that it is better to come in and simply sit with us. Sometimes, He waits with us, while a different and better solution to our problems comes about.

We don’t always see it that way. “Get me out of here!” we scream. “God if you love me, unlock the door!”

But God DOES love us. He sent His only-begotten Son to suffer and die on a cross for us. Christ, Who was perfect, holy, and innocent of any wrong-doing was willing to die on a cross for guilty people – because He DID love us.

Through His holy death, guilty people are forgiven. We are forgiven. That makes us children of God. It also makes us children of purpose.

Nothing that happens to us now, is outside of God’s will and purpose. Even the bad things, for God says in Scriptures, “that in ALL THINGS God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose.”

And sometimes – many times – maybe even, most times God sees that there are blessings and purpose in making us wait for answers – even though we don’t understand.

But, that doesn’t mean we live without hope. You see, our source of peace in life, our ability to be content with our circumstances, our power to trust in Christ’s love, when it doesn’t make any sense, comes from God’s Word.

God’s Word: His Promises of love and forgiveness, His Promises of grace and power for living, His invitation to know and trust that His way and His plan for our lives brings genuine peace and hope.

What draws you to this little church? What draws you to Christ? Is it some preacher… me… who is willing to say whatever he needs to, as long as it keeps you coming?

Is it the promise of some material benefits, or the hope that there will be some process for a more successful shot at life, or some flashy opportunities?

Jesus said it this way to the people in the Gospel lesson, “What did you go out into the desert to see? A reed swayed by the wind? If not, what did you go out to see? A man dressed in fine clothes?”

No. What draws you to Christ? What draws you to this little church? It is the Word of God, because in the BIBLE Jesus comes to us. Through His Word, Christ touches your heart, and changes your life.

Even sitting in the dark room of our problems becomes easier to bear, when we know Christ is there, and that there is purpose in what is happening to us.

Through John, the Baptist, Jesus reminds us this morning that it is the power of His Word that overpowers our doubts. He urges us to believe and then experience the hope that the Word of God brings to empty lives.

Today we are so blessed to celebrate God’s Word at work in the life of this church, and the lives of YOU, God’s people. In just a few minutes, by the power of God’s Word, Christ will pour His grace and love, through the waters of Holy Baptism into the lives of James, and Katherine, and Tyler, and Megan, and Kailey.

In just a few minutes, James and Rhonda, and Carrie will declare the power of God’s Word to change lives, by their confirmation vows. And so will Cindy, as she re-affirms the power of God’s Word.

We all - in fact - do the same thing every week, when we gather to hear God speak to us in His Word and receive His blessings in Holy Communion.

In the face of life's sins and struggles, Jesus told John's disciples to "Go back and report to John what you hear and see."

Today, Jesus invites us to be renewed, strengthened, forgiven and encouraged - once again - in the same way. He invites us to hear His Word in Holy Scriptures, and see His love, which is lived out through us.

Amen.

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