Send It Back        Second Sunday in Advent        December 11, 2005

We all face challenges throughout life. How do you handle challenges? The story John the Baptist, and the gospel story of Jesus gives us a way that helps us handle any challenge that comes along. With God’s help, they both put the challenges back where they came from.

John the Baptist was not your typical preacher of today, or typical of anytime in history, for that matter. His appearance and message was about the opposite of Joel Olsteen, but he had an even bigger following. He lived out in the wilderness and wore camels hair clothing. I picture him as looking like a homeless person, someone who didn’t bathe, had never seen a dentist, and never wore deodorant. His listeners were beat down and destitute, and just hoping for a little of God’s light to come to them. He told people that the messiah, a new king would bring God’s light to the world. John said that God’s Messiah was coming soon to bring them the light that scatters all the darkness of injustice, sin and death. This was good news for the poor, but not for the rich and powerful.

At that time, there were powerful religious leaders from Jerusalem who were appointed by King Herod. King Herod ruled with people an iron fist. He robbed the poor, and killed anyone who threatened his power. He had built a great temple in Jerusalem, and picked his own preachers. They heard about this John the Baptist preaching out in the wilderness, and all the people that were listening to him., and his message that a God’s king was coming. They wanted to confront him.

The scene went something like this. "Just who do you think you are, anyway? King Herod wants to know?” John says, "I'm not the Messiah.” “So who are you? Elijah?” “No” John said." "A prophet?" "No." "Who then?" John says, "I just here to announce that God is sending someone who is really huge in comparison to me. My baptism is getting to clean up for his arrival with water. But when he comes, he will baptize them with fire. You came down here today to challenge me. God’s messiah will challenge everyone in the world, and he’s already around here. He’s going to bring God’s light on everyone.

For the moment, they left and John was safe. But in a short time, Herod would have John killed and have his head on a silver platter.

In a similar way, they would confront Jesus before Pilate, the Roman governor, who challenged Jesus just before they crucified him. With his hands on his hips, he circled around Jesus. He saw a pathetic creature with thorns on his head and trickles of blood running down his face. All around the room brawny soldiers with swords smirked at him, wondering when he would give them the word to execute him. Pilate thought he had Jesus on the spot. But in reality, Jesus had him on the spot. Jesus claimed his crown while dying on the cross, and God raised him to show us the light of the world.

John and Jesus and those who decide to stand beside them and stick with them are continually being challenged by the powers that be. Yet, all who are faithful have the promise of joy of victory through Jesus. Jesus defeated every evil for us by submitting himself to the cross. When God raised him up, all disciples saw a beacon of light that scattered the darkness. The light of Christ still shines on the darkness and the challenges of this world, and gives us the final victory.

Disciples have always faced challenges like John the Baptist. The apostle Paul gives us a great example. He was shipwrecked, imprisoned, people threw rocks at him, and he was sick for much of his life. Yet, he frequently wrote about the joy that God gave him when Jesus came into his life.

In First Thessalonians, Paul tells us to give thanks in all circumstances, and to rejoice always. But the word "rejoice" is a word that many people misunderstand. "Rejoice" does not mean that we are supposed to be happy all the time. When Jesus was on the cross, he wasn't happy. He was in agonizing pain. When Paul was sick in prison, he felt like he was going to die. But Jesus and Paul could still rejoice, and give thanks to God.

Here’s another great example. I read a story by Corrie Ten Boom and her sister Betsie. These two devout Christians were imprisoned by the Nazis during World War Two because the Nazis discovered that they were helping Jews to hide from them. Corrie and Betsie arrested and treated the same as the Jews they tried to save. They lost everything except their Bible, which they read daily. In the weeks that followed, the Nazis moved them from on prison to another. Finally, the Nazis finally took them to Ravensbruck, one of the worst death camps in all of Germany.

Corrie and her sister were crammed into barracks and forced to sleep on a straw platform with dozens of other women all crowded together. As the two of them laid down to go to sleep their first night there, they felt something on their legs, and realized that it was fleas. There were thousands of fleas swarming around them and biting them.

Corrie turned to her sister and in desperation said: "How can we ever live in such a place?" But Betsie looked at her sister and said: "God has shown us how. It was right there in the Bible this morning. Don't you remember?"

Betsie pulled out the Bible and said: "Here, read it for yourself. It was in First Thessalonians."

With the dim light that was coming in through the windows, Corrie opened the Bible and began to read: "It says: Rejoice always, pray constantly, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus."

And as Corrie read, Betsie interrupted her and said: "That's it. That is God's answer. Give thanks in all circumstances. That's what we can do. We can start right now and thank God for every single thing about this barracks."

Corrie just stared at her, and wondered if her sister was crazy to suggest such a thing. But Betsie said, "We should thank God that we got assigned to the same barracks, so that we can be together. We should thank God that we still have this Bible. And we should thank God for all these women who are here with us. And we should thank God for the fleas."

Corrie said, "Fleas! There's no way even God can make me grateful for a flea." But her sister said: "Give thanks in all circumstances. That's what the Bible says. It doesn't say, just give thanks in pleasant circumstances. Fleas are a part of this place where God has put us. And so we need to give thanks for them." And so lying there on the straw in that concentration camp barracks, those two women thanked God for the fleas.

Several weeks later, Corrie and Betsie realized that those fleas really were a blessing. You see, they began to notice that the guards harassed, beat and molested the women from just about all the other barracks. But the guards left the women from their barracks alone. Why? It was the fleas. The guards didn't want to get too close to those women because they knew they had fleas. Corrie and her sister gave thanks to God for the fleas.

Rejoicing means knowing that when the power of darkness comes to us, we have the light of Christ to scatter it. Jesus said "Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven." When people persecute you and hate you, you couldn’t be happy about that. But we can rejoice because we know that God’s light is with us in Jesus Christ.

Paul ends his letter with these words. "May the God of peace himself sanctify you entirely; and may your spirit and soul and body be kept sound and blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ." Giving thanks and rejoicing in the Lord keeps our spirits, our souls, and our bodies sanctified with the light of Christ. Amen.

Amen!