It is the saddest question in all of scripture.
John is sitting in prison. He is no fool—he knows what’s coming. He is going to receive a prophet’s reward—he knows it down to the very marrow in his bones into the innermost parts of his guts – his death is coming.
It’s the saddest question in all of scripture:
“Are you the one who is to come, or are we to wait for another?
Beloved while the rest of the world runs around distracted, we sit in the darkness pondering, waiting and expecting the light.
Part of our waiting and expectation in the darkness is pondering the sad questions that face us in this dark time.
My friend Carlos from California shared his story with me. Carlos was a schoolteacher who lived in his car. He couldn’t afford housing on his and his wife’s teachers’ salaries. To afford housing in Palo Alto, Carlos and his wife would have to live some 2-3 hours outside the Bay Area and commute daily. They could do that, but the problem was Carlos’s dad was quite ill, in a nursing home and needed his son to be close by to help advocate for him.
It wasn’t the first time for him of living in his car. He told me about his parents and him moving from their little apartment into their car and his story is etched in my heart forever: my dad made it into a game for me. He told me—Carlos! We’re going car camping for a few months as a family. It’ll be great fun! We’ll be all together in the car and we’ll play games every night. I was the happiest homeless kid ever because I had no idea we were homeless—we were simply camping and playing games.
I went home after hearing his story and I cried.
It’s the saddest question in scripture: “Are you the one who is to come, or are we to wait for another?
Our world is waiting.
Right here in our fine city, in the richest county in Minnesota families are waiting and living in cars or in shelters or hiding in nooks and crannies waiting for something to happen and they are hoping and praying that the wait might just end for them, and an answer might come.
Our elected officials have gone out on a limb. They put aside $6 million for affordable housing in our city. What this means is that people who quietly serve us in this community may very well find a stable place to live here.
It means that the wait might be over for some—that there may be a place for people to live safely.
Love God, love neighbor.
Deeply simple and yet, deeply challenging. Loving our neighbor is not a suggestion or a nice idea—it is a moral imperative. It is at the heart of our scripture today as Jesus answers John:
Go and tell what you hear and see: the poor have good news brought to them.
Part of Advent beloved means that we stir ourselves up with great power and might to do the work of loving our neighbor. There is a conspiracy at the heart of the Gospel today—an Advent Conspiracy. The Advent Conspiracy is this: how will we bring good news to the poor?
How are you going to answer John’s question: “Are you the one who is to come, or are we to wait for another?
Would if our Advent Conspiracy is that we conspire to be prophets, we conspire to help answer John’s despondent question with real Jesus hope. Would if we stirred ourselves up with great power and might to make affordable housing in Stillwater a reality? Would if we educated ourselves on the realities of housing in our community and started telling the truth to all the fearful lies about homeless people and affordable housing? Would if we went to every city council meeting in full force and started saying we’re going to provide housing for our neighbors because that’s what we do as people of faith?
Would if we said the wait is over. There is good news here and now.
Would if we decided that we were really gonna be the church— the body of Christ in the world this year right now.
Light will be born in us this Christmas to reveal peace on earth goodwill toward ALL.
Beloved, this is the Jesus movement. This is the Advent Conspiracy. This is what we need to stir up!
We have a real problem right here in our beautiful little town, in the most affluent county in Minnesota. And let me tell you—I’ve been to the dog fight that is city council meetings to discuss housing for people like my friend Carlos. It is pretty ugly, and people serve up the poor on platters repeatedly.
We have the opportunity beloved to respond to the question with the Jesus response—the Jesus answer. Today at our forum, Jenny Mason was here to tell us about the affordable housing movement. She provided us with information about affordable housing and letters to send to our public officials inviting us to be good news to the poor.
“Are you the one who is to come, or are we to wait for another?
What’s your answer?