“What are you getting for Christmas?” That’s the theme of this series of sermons. The scripture readings during these weeks leading up to Christmas describe four gifts that God offers us for Christmas. Last week John the Baptist mentioned the first one. Speaking of the person, whose birth we’ll celebrate at Christmas, John said, “He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.” That’s the first Christmas gift that Jesus came to bring us – the Holy Spirit to fill us – to guide, motivate, strengthen us, and give us peace. So that we’ll be able to overcome the obstacles we face and not be overwhelmed. So that we can lead purposeful lives -- lives in harmony with God. May you receive God’s Spirit for Christmas!

Today’s readings describe a second gift that God wants to give us for Christmas – the second gift that Christ was born to provide. This time it’s Jesus, Himself, who describes it, though the prophet Isaiah describes it too. The Gospel story has John the Baptist asking a question, he asks Jesus, “Are you the One who is to come, or are we to wait for another?” This is the background: Time had elapsed since John started his ministry of baptism at the Jordan River. He told people that someone would be coming soon to baptize them with the Holy Spirit. Then, one day, Jesus came along – to be baptized by John. John identified Jesus as the One he’d been predicting, and pointed Him out to others, saying, in so many words, “See that guy over there, he’s the Lamb of God. He’s the One I’ve been talking about.” Jesus went His way into the wilderness, and later traveled around the countryside preaching, teaching and doing marvelous things. Meanwhile, John the Baptist was arrested for offending the king of Judea. As John whiled away his time in prison he wondered if Jesus really were the One he’d hoped for, and so he sent some of his disciples to ask Him. As usual Jesus didn’t give a direct answer, but left it up to the individual to discern – based upon the inspiration of the God’s Spirit. That’s always how Jesus operated. He depended upon God to reveal the truth to people.

As an aside, that’s a concern I have with certain outspoken Christian leaders, these days. Some tend to try to take on the Spirit’s role -- trying to bully people into doing what they think is right. They take their pet peeves, assume that they’re God’s pet peeves too, and make efforts to coerce others into following suit. Take the issue of the week. Jerry Falwell wants all Christians to boycott Targets and other stores if they don’t explicitly refer to Christmas instead of the holidays. Now, I don’t much care for the generic expression, “Happy Holidays,” myself, but trying to coerce people who don’t believe to act as if they did is not Jesus’ way at all. I think this crowd has come up with a new heresy. I’ll dub it American Israelitism. They seem to think that America is the new chosen nation, and are trying to make it – little by little -- into a their own idea of a pure and godly society, into a Christian nation of their own shaping. As Falwell said, last week, “We’re kicking their butts and they’re not happy about it.” Could you imagine Jesus saying a thing like that even about the religious leaders of His time? Jesus never acted that way, but always left it up to God to move people by the Spirit to believe and do what they should. To do otherwise, although they claim to, doesn’t follow Jesus’ ways, but sooner or later will alienate people from the very One that they claim to represent.

Instead of telling him what he should think, Jesus answered John’s question this way: “Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have good news brought to them.” In short, Isaiah’s prophecy is fulfilled.

Now, I ask you, what do all the things that Jesus relayed to John have in common? Because, you see, it’s the second Christmas gift that God wants us to have. What do the blind, the lame, the deaf, lepers, the poor and the dead have in common? Sure, to say the least, they’re all challenged. They’re all afflicted or have some need, but what do they all lack with respect to their particular needs? Well, perhaps the reading from the Book of the Isaiah will help. The prophet expands upon the theme. He says that the desert will blossom, waters will break forth in the wilderness, burning sand will become a pool, plus, the blind will see, the deaf hear, the lame leap, and the speechless sing for joy. You see, what they all have in common is hopelessness with respect to their particular condition. The sheer impossibility of being able to do what they can’t engenders hopelessness relative to that particular condition.

The second Christmas gift that God wants to give us is hope. I find that hope is singularly lacking in our time. Real threats loom so large that people will try just about anything to avoid them or to escape them. Some circumstances in the world today seem impossible, and so people tend to feel hopeless about them. Minus any consensus of how to solve the problems, some people deal with their confusions and hopelessness by leaping – mind and spirit – into ideologies that help them to escape their hopelessness. It’s the latest scramble for the lifeboats, but that’s counterfeit hope based upon denial.

There’s a story about what seemed a hopeless case – back 100 years or so ago. Back then, psychological illness often mystified even the experts. And so there was what they used to call an asylum – outside Boston. And in that asylum there was girl – a girl whose behavior stymied the professionals. Most of the time she sat silent and staring, almost catatonic, but unexpectedly sometimes she’d attack the people around her. And so just for safety they put her into a cell in the basement of the asylum, where she stayed for month after month. One particular nurse – a few months from retirement – felt badly for Little Annie, as they called her. She’d sit outside her cell during her lunch breaks. The nurse tried to speak to her, day after day, without any response. She tried offering little Annie some of her food without any reaction, until one day she offered her a brownie. When she didn’t take it, the nurse left the brownie on the floor outside the cell. It was gone in the morning. And that led her to do the same every day thereafter, until after a few weeks, finally, little Annie started to respond, then to speak, then to converse, then to get better, until eventually she was returned to the general population of the asylum and then even given permission to go home. She decided, instead, to remain at the asylum to help others. And that was where she was introduced to Helen Keller – another, more famous, hopeless case. Annie is the one who became her nurse and teacher, and who retrieved her from the hopelessness of her circumstances.

That’s where this second Christmas gift – hope -- comes in mighty handy! Hope can work miracles. Now, hope is different from something that you want, like hoping to get a new car or hoping to win the lottery. Those wishes are all well and good, but hope is more than that. Hope is what people base and build their lives upon. It’s the ultimate reference point in the light of which people live. It’s what gives meaning to the details of life. That’s what God wants us to have -- the gift of hope. And that’s why Jesus came -- to bring hope to all humanity. You see God specializes in hopeless cases – as today’s readings clearly say. Elsewhere, in his Letter to the Ephesians, St. Paul waxes enthusiastic about hope. He writes, “with the eyes of your hearts enlightened, may you know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance among the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power for us who believe, according to the working of his great power.” That’s the hope God has for us – the harmony with God – that Jesus came to bring us. Hope is the proverbial light at the end of the tunnel of life in the light of which we live each present day. In the writings of the New Testament the word hope is by far most often used in conjunction with our ultimate destiny – it’s connected with going to live with God forever. That’s the basis of hope from a Christian point of view. It’s the assurance that we’ll be with God forever, and that reflects backwards into this life – knowing that God is always with us, here and now, no matter what. It gives us the strength – the power we need -- to do all that we need to do, and that can work miracles. And so whenever you feel discouraged, remember we’re going to be with God forever, and God is always with us. Be hopeful.