Year A Third Sunday of Advent 12 December 2010
Isaiah 35: 1-10 Psalm 146: 5-10 OR Luke 1: 47-55 James 5: 7-10 Matthew 11: 2-11
I can remember someone saying that the expectant anticipation for a promised good thing is sometimes better than the actual event. I disagree though. After waiting a year or so, knowing that I needed to get a new car, and doing lots of research, and then waiting for the “right” time, I finally ordered my car from Melbourne. Every time I get in to drive my car, now a year and a half old, I’m still thanking God for my “new” car.
While anticipating an event there are definite points of excitement. When we confirm our reservations for that big holiday, we know that within that confirmation is the promise of a fantastic event. It is no longer a maybe or just “talk”, but instead it is a “promise”. Even though the event may be months away we have that excited buzz as though we were receiving the promise today.
Isaiah received the message about the coming promised Messiah and proclaims the message in our first reading;
Isaiah 35:4-6 “4 say to those with fearful hearts, “Be strong, do not fear; your God will come, he will come with vengeance; with divine retribution he will come to save you.” 5 Then will the eyes of the blind be opened and the ears of the deaf unstopped.
6 Then will the lame leap like a deer, and the mute tongue shout for joy. Water will gush forth in the wilderness and streams in the desert.”
There is a sense of excitement and joy in what we know God will do and there is encouragement to be strong as we wait.
When we read the Psalm, the song of Mary (Magnificat), we are swept up in the excitement and joy of what God has already done. This reading declares to the hearers the nature of God and his concern for the weak and poor. Apparently in Guatemala, in the 1980’s, the song of Mary was banned by the Government who feared that it may incite the oppressed to riot.
On the complete flip side to the possible rioting caused by knowing that God is on the side of the oppressed, we find the second reading, a letter from James, exhorting us to wait patiently for the coming of God and his kingdom. At a first glance this reading could well give its hearers the impression that the oppressed and those who care for them need to just sit back and wait – doing nothing. But this is not correct either.
James 5:7,8 “ 7 Be patient, then, brothers and sisters, until the Lord’s coming. See how the farmer waits for the land to yield its valuable crop, patiently waiting for the autumn and spring rains. 8 You too, be patient and stand firm, because the Lord’s coming is near.”
We live in a farming community but we might not be aware that the “patient” waiting on the growth of the crops is not a passive waiting, but rather it is active. The farmer will be actively involved in caring for that crop, constantly defending it from those that might destroy it and constantly nurturing its growth in the form of fertilizing etc.. In the same way we need to think about how we wait patiently for the coming of God.
Jesus, the promised Messiah came to save us, and he will come again. So we need to understand what we are meant to do as we “wait patiently”. For certain, we are not to sit back doing nothing. According to Matthew Henry’s commentary, “This Christian patience is not a mere yielding to necessity, as the moral patience taught by some philosophers was, but it is a humble acquiescence in the wisdom and will of God, with an eye to a future glorious recompense: Be patient to the coming of the Lord.”
Like the farmer who waits patiently for the things he has no control over, we have no control over when Jesus will come again, but as we patiently wait for that day we actively ready our lives and for his coming. As the farmer has responsibility to ready his crop, to defend it and nurture it, we too need have responsibility to ready, defend and nurture our faith.... both for ourselves and for those to whom God has put in our care.
The prophetic proclamation of the coming Messiah was repeated and confirmed at many times in the history of the Israelite nation. It is always necessary to test the prophecies, which is why John the Baptist, though he’d had word from God himself at the time of Jesus baptism, still asks his followers to find out if Jesus is the Messiah. He needed to have the matter confirmed from another source to settle the matter. Jesus answers his question by quoting the scriptural prophecy about signs that follow the coming of the Messiah. When the Messiah comes the blind will see and the deaf will hear. Jesus doesn’t testify on his own behalf, but the miracles and scriptures testify for him.
Our lives need to bear witness to the Gospel. We can tell people that Jesus saves us and that he will come again, but even Jesus didn’t rely only on his own say so. Jesus’ life and actions bore testimony to the truth. Do our lives, as well as our actions, bear testimony to the Good News that Jesus is alive and will come again?
“.......Water will gush forth in the wilderness and streams in the desert.” The Holy Spirit is the stream. Our lives are a wilderness – and often a desert. We want to have the life of God flowing through us and bearing witness, but lack the knowledge and strength. The Holy Spirit is the gift God gives to help us. When Jesus came and saved us by his death on the cross and resurrection, he didn’t leave it at that he also sent us the “stream in the desert” – the gift of God’s presence and power in a place that was once devoid of God.... in our lives. Take the gift and use it to defend and nurture your crop as you “wait patiently” for the coming of God. It is not known when Jesus will come again, but it is certain that he WILL come again.
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