Advent 3A2022
Matthew 11:2-11
A few months after I bought my house near downtown Phoenix, I excitedly poured over the University of Arizona extension office planting guide to discover what vegetables I could seed in what seasons. With the help of a friend, I learned how to use a pick axe and dug garden beds in long rows in my backyard. I already had chickens, so I constructed a pallet wall around the garden. My friend and I planted seeds and watered consistently and lo and behold, vegetables and herbs grew! Beans and peas, kale and chard, argula and bok choy, radishes and dill and cilantro. Most mornings then and still, I step into the backyard and gather vegetables for breakfast, delighted and in awe of the goodness of creation. But to my surprise, my friend who advised me in all things gardening had also surreptitiously planted other things: lemongrass, calendula, African daisy flake, devil’s claw, among several other not very edible plants. A bit perturbed, I asked him: Why did you plant these things I can’t eat? Why waste water and time tending plants that won’t lead to a harvest? And he responded with a chuckle: It isn’t all about you. You’re not the only living thing benefiting from the garden. Oh… right. The chickens, the birds, the neighborhood cats that wander into my yard, a plethora of pollinators and other insects all benefit from the plants in my yard.
I thought of the lesson I learned from my friend when I read the gospel lesson this morning. Envoys from among John the Baptist’s followers find Jesus and ask him, on behalf of John, if Jesus is the one who is to come, meaning, the messiah, or if they are to wait for another. Their inquiry might seem silly since it originates from the very one who proclaimed there would be a messiah coming whose sandals John was not worthy to carry. But remember, John spoke of a messiah who would baptize with the Holy Spirit and fire, whose winnowing fork would be in his hand, who would clear his threshing floor, gather wheat into the granary but burn the chaff with unquenchable fire. John was wrong about the kind of messiah who was coming. John, who called the Pharisees and Sadducees a brood of vipers and threatened condemnation, thought the messiah would be like him: harsh and judgmental and zealous. And it’s not just John. From the gospel narratives, we know that Peter and James and all the disciples expected Jesus to kick out the Romans, to unseat Cesar, to bring about God’s reign in political terms and of course through violence. When asked if he is the one who is to come, notice Jesus doesn’t say yes or no. Notice Jesus doesn’t recount tales of his glory. Notice Jesus does not provide data about how many people are following him. What does he say instead? He says: 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. Jesus tells John’s disciples what happens in God’s kingdom.
Maybe the reason John has a hard time discerning if Jesus is the messiah is because Jesus’ vision of the kingdom is different than John’s, because John has an axe to grind not shared by Jesus, because it’s not about John, not about what John thinks is important.
In the gospel of Matthew, Jesus is planting a garden of healing and liberation, new life and joyous love for those most vulnerable in his society. And John wonders what these plants are doing rooted next to calls for repentance and judgment and name-calling (“brood of vipers”). The kingdom of God, according to Jesus, is most visible in acts of healing and liberation, new life and joyous love, not the vision John the Baptist brings to his ministry.
I suspect John the Baptist isn’t the only one thrown off by Jesus’ response. It can come as a surprise to us, this message that it’s not about us, not about what I think, what I want, what I believe is important. God has a whole vision and mission not dependent on what we do or say or believe. Praise God! And when we allow ourselves to hear and see what God is doing in the world, when we begin to listen not just to the inside of our own heads and the echo chambers of our preferred news organizations and social media platforms but to what God is saying in scripture and through God’s people and in times of prayer, that’s when we begin to truly follow Jesus. God may be up to something we think is wrong or scandalous or just irrelevant. Okay. The garden Jesus is planting is not just for us. It’s for all creation, peoples and nations and creatures in need of healing and liberation, new life and joyous love. Our vision as humans is limited. We may not be able to see past our own little slice of the universe, but God sees it all. The garden Jesus is planting isn’t just for us but for those we ignore, those with whom we disagree, those with whom we are simply not familiar, those whose needs are difficult to see. The garden Jesus is planting is not just for us—but it is for us too. Just like those whose sight and hearing are restored, like those raised from the dead and hearing good news, we too receive the healing and liberation, new life and joyous love that Jesus is planting. So, we can trust that whatever God is doing in the world is good news for us too—even if it’s different than what we think God should be doing.
As this community of faith discerns a way forward, we might consider: what is God doing among us? What is God’s call for us? What is God’s mission and vision for Esperanza? God has a mission and vision for us, a way God is at work in this particular neighborhood. It might be different than what we think it is. But as we learn from John the Baptist, even when our vision is wrong, God stills goes about healing and liberation, new life and joyous love. And for that we can say: Thanks be to God! Amen.