Blessed by Surprises

Isaiah 11: 1-10

Matthew 3:1-12

Have you ever noticed that we don’t have anything in our Holy Bible about Jesus’ awkward years?  We don’t read of pimples and a lanky body, of a squeaky voice and sassy back chat to his mom.  We don’t read of social awkwardness or coming into his own.  I have always longed for those stories.  Knowing that Jesus experienced the suffering of adolescence would have made my teenage years much more bearable.  But we know he was a teenager, because we know that Jesus was both human and divine, so we can bet he experienced all of the trials and tribulations of growing up.  Our gospel scripture for this second Sunday in Advent brings us right to Jesus’ baptism.  He wasn’t baptized as a baby; instead he was baptized not long before he began his adult ministry.  The Gospel of Matthew begins with the story of Jesus’ birth and then moves on to Jesus’ baptism as an adult, which means there is a whole lot of his life missing.  And I suspect maybe those stories aren’t there because they show more of Jesus’ human side.  I wonder if Jesus ever spiked his hair or snuck out of his room at night.  Did he ever wish he could be someone else or ask God if another person was available to save humankind?  You might be wondering yet again why we read this scripture in Advent.  Perhaps it feels funny to read of Jesus’ baptism as we prepare for his birth.  But given that this is the time of year where we celebrate that God came to us in human form, it makes sense to celebrate the holiness and humanness of Jesus.  The story of Jesus’ baptism is indeed human.  It is a story of blessing and a story of surprises. 

In the Gospel of Matthew we read of Jesus’ birth, of the visit of the wise men, of the family’s escape to Egypt, a description of Herod’s effort to kill all of the children in and around Bethlehem and the family’s return to Nazareth.  And then without much notice we skip Jesus’ wonder years and are dropped right in the middle of a wild scene where we encounter a bizarre preacher who greets us with, “Repent for the kingdom of heaven has come near!”  He is not known for his tact or gentle nature.  He is an unconventional character and we read that he likes to do things his own way.  This wild preacher is Jesus’ cousin John and most of us know him as John the Baptist.  We are told that he fled the comfort of the city, moved to the desert and opted for clothes of animal skins and meals of insects and wild honey.  John was accused of being possessed by a demon and he preached repentance, actually he preached repentance just about more than he did anything else.  Many in the community worried about John.  He was unpredictable and impulsive.  I bet he was the kind of guy that worried moms, the kind of cousin that held dinner conversations captive with his stories and one who could argue until everyone had gone to bed.  Despite his notoriety, he was from an important family; his father was a big shot priest in the city, so it was quite shocking and the source of much gossip when he fled to the desert, to the outskirts of town, the other side of the tracks.

I wonder if Mary and Joseph tried to limit Jesus’ contact with John.  They wanted to prevent him from going over the edge too- they wanted to prevent Jesus from following suit, from spiking his hair and wearing animal skins.  Maybe that is some of the text that is not included in our Holy Bible.  But Jesus looked up to his cousin and when he overheard the women in the neighborhood gossiping about the priest’s son who had gone to the desert to preach baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins he went to see it all for himself.

I am sure Jesus found him right away- he could probably hear him shouting at the crowds, “You brood of vipers!”  Jesus came upon the group who was asking John questions as they stood at the river running through the desert landscape, the Jordan River.  They were soldiers and tax collectors and they were calling his wild cousin…teacher.  Jesus heard, “Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”  Jesus hangs to the back, he watches and listens.  It was a radical scene.  His cousin’s words would get him killed.  For announcing God’s forgiveness was supposed to happen with the temple establishment in Jerusalem, with John’s dad, and Jesus’ uncle.  What would he say?  Jesus wondered if he should sneak away.  He could get into a lot of trouble being seen here- with this crowd gathered at the river.  But then…

We read, “I baptize you with water for repentance, but one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to carry his sandals.  He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.  His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and will gather his wheat into his granary; but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.”

Unquenchable fire, what is he talking about?  People were taking turns going into the river with John, every last one of them and then suddenly it was silent…, a silence to loud, it was ringing, everyone was looking at Jesus.  He couldn’t hide behind the crowd and so he went into the river too, he walked into the river to be baptized. 

It was such a human scene.  A motley crew gathered at a river, searching for life giving water in a dry desert of a world, the powerful- the Pharisees and Sadducees, the weak, the unclean, the sinners and tax collectors, yet all searching for forgiveness as sinful human beings.  Waiting to hear words of assurance from another human being…It was indeed the real stuff of being human, full of flaws and surprises, full of awkwardness and incompletes.

We might think that it was too human for the Holy Spirit to come- a radical, locust eating, dominant culture rejecting cousin, random people, at a river in the desert, and a guy from Nazareth who wasn’t sure he should be there.  Too human…  But, I wonder if in Jesus’ baptism God reminds us that we don’t need special clothes, perfect families, good weather and predictable ceremony to learn that we are God’s beloved.  We don’t need planned ritual or comfort to experience the power of the Holy Spirit.

We read, “And when Jesus had been baptized, just as he came up from the water, suddenly the heavens were opened to him and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him.  And a voice from heaven said, “This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.”

It’s a perfect Advent story.  One that reminds us that God loves to surprise us, to come to us in funny circumstances or in odd family gatherings.  God loves to surprise us, to come to us on days when we least expect it and with people we would never guess.  God loves to surprise us with blessings.  In Jesus baptism and in ours, God says, right in the midst of our raw humanness “I see you, each part of you with your motley crew, imperfect family, searching for forgiveness, waiting to hear words of assurance and I love you.  You are my beloved.”

Friends, as we await the birth of our Messiah, our Immanuel, God-with-us, we remember that God doesn’t need champagne and pressed tablecloths.  God doesn’t need a clean house or a perfectly cooked ham.  God doesn’t need a family that gets along smashingly.  God loves to surprise us and to come to us right in the real stuff of being human.  Just as God came to Jesus in his wild and all too human baptism, God says to you, to each of you, right where you are, “I love you, you are my beloved.”  And from what we know of our God, such a blessing is not that surprising at all.  Amen.