Once an actor loses sight of the script, the director' s control of the situation lessens, and the consequences can be disastrous. But then again, sometimes, a talented actor will run his own lines with brilliant results.

Robin Williams, for example, is a great ad-libber. Some of you probably remember Williams' first big role - that of the alien Mork on the show Mork and Mindy.

Williams would ad-lib so much that after a while the script would be blank in areas, and the director would write in, "Robin goes off here…."

Well, in that great cosmic drama that was being played out in the hills of Judea, there was a prophet named John with director-like ideas of how the role of messiah should be played.

We see in the earlier passages in Matthew how John described this Messiah that was coming after him….

"The ax is already laid at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire…"

"His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor, gathering the wheat into his barn, and burning up the chaff with unquenchable fire.

John was expecting Messiah to look a bit like he himself did - a fiery prophet carrying the judgment of God on his shoulders. And so he preached his message about the coming messiah - beginning and ending, as Art said last week, with "repent"

John, in other words, was expecting a cosmic smackdown - a confrontation between God's chosen messiah and the sinful systems and people surrounding him.

And indeed, the first word we hear Jesus speak after his temptation in the wilderness is that very word - "Repent.".

But later, after John is imprisoned for telling even King Herod to repent, he began to wonder about this would-be messiah. This messiah wasn't following the script that John thought was clearly laid out in the writing of the prophets.

He wasn't acting as one who came in judgment.

He was often doing the opposite.

His first sermon to the crowds in Jerusalem didn't begin with "repent" at all.

In fact it wasn't memorable for the fire and brimstone preaching, but for the eloquent words expressing the love that God has for the least, the smallest, the un-mighty.-

Instead of beginning his sermon with "YOU BROOD OF VIPERS", as John would expect, Jesus began with

"Blessed…."

Blessed are the poor, the meek, and those who mourn. You are the salt of the earth….you are the light of the world."

Was this the one who was to come?

OR….was there someone else, someone closer to John's expectation,

That would come?

If the sermon wasn't enough, this Messiah was doing things like healing people, raising the dead, causing the lame to walk, and even healing the servant of a gentile.

Who was this man? Was this really the hero of the story? Why did he not follow what was carefully laid out for him to do?

And so John sent his disciples to Jesus to ask the question -

Are you the one we've been waiting for,

Is there someone else coming?

Did I miss a cue somewhere?

And Jesus sent back the message - go and tell John what you have seen and heard:

The lame are walking, the blind are seeing, and blessed is he who does not fall away because of me."

Hang in there, John. Don't doubt. I AM the one - just let me ad-lib a bit.

For as John looked to Elijah and the prophets for the judgment of God coming on earth,

Jesus looked beyond Judgment to the day when a new heaven and a new earth would come into being.

While John ushered out the old way, and the old prophetic writings, Jesus picked up the words of the Prophet Isaiah….

I am doing a new thing, don't you see it?

I am making streams in the desert - places of refuge

And the eyes of the biind are being opened.

Jesus proclaimed the coming of the Kingdom of God - a day when, as Art said last week, the lion would lie down with the lamb. A day when the mercy of God filled heaven and earth - a day when judgment had restored the kingdoms of this world to Christ, and in his reign the earth found Sabbath.

We are in the third week of Advent….that season of waiting that is in reality

One of the most hectic times of year,

rather than the most reflective.

We are told that Advent is a time to prepare for Christ's coming, but many of us spend our time doing a different kind of preparation -

So much to do, so little time, because Christmas and all its expectations is just around the corner.

And while Christmas shouts out its message with red-and-green glitz, Advent whispers…

For four weeks, it quietly reminds us that there is something deeper at work than what we see around us.

It is a nudge in time to open our eyes, and our ears.

For those four weeks, we as a church are invited into a counter-cultural experience in which we are invited to see with the eyes of the spirit the deeper truths Christ's coming.

And in which we can proclaim, as Jesus did, that in spite of the perpetual expectations and disappointments of this season,

In spite of the script written for us by society,

That there is GOOD NEWS to be had.

That while Christ blesses the joyful encounters in this holiday season,

he also understands and even blesses those who mourn, those who are poor,

those who cannot see the joy through the tinsel…

For many,

Christmas holds a painful reminder of their poverty and loss, neither of which fit very well into the Christmas we as a society have created for ourselves.

And on this third Sunday, this Gaudete Sunday, in which we rejoice in the saving - the healing power of Christ in this world,

we are challenged to look deeper - for this Christ who is coming IS the one awaited - IS the messiah.

He does not come dallying to a script written by the prophets of this world,

He comes with power and might

And with meekness and love.

And for all of us,

with mercy.