2025 12 14
Advent 3 A
Isaiah 35:1-10
SONG OF MARY -Luke 1:46b-55 James 5:7-10 Matthew 11:2-11
How is
everyone going? At this busy time we can
tend to have nerves on edge and have people get on those nerves… so, we are
asked today, have we been doing any grumbling against one another? 😊
It is pretty hard, to not have any grumbling,
especially when we are working together to get things done and it is common for
families to annoy each other at Christmas time.
So, perhaps it is timely that we have this little warning from the
Letter of James. But James is actually
giving us a tool to help with that grumbling and it is about keeping things in
a proper perspective, and that perspective is about understanding that Jesus
is coming.
This season
is a joyful one for so many. I have a
friend who does a Christmas count down each year and probably the first one
will be the day after Christmas… perhaps another in June. Today is a day of Joy! We light the candle of Joy, and we wait for
Christmas. The word Christmas means –
Christ and Mass, which is the service of celebration of Christ. We approach this in joyful expectation. However, you might have noticed that this
season of Advent bares the colour, purple, just as in Lent, which we think of
as a solemn time.
Both Lent
and Advent are meant to be a solemn season of prayer and fasting. Both declare a joyful truth waiting at the
end. With the festivities of the
Christmas season, we seem to have lost the solemn aspect of Advent, yet there
could be great benefit in reclaiming that solemnity, as we properly understand
that we are in a time that is “now! but not yet” – Jesus has come
and saved us, but the fullness of God’s plan is still to come into being. Isaiah speaks of the time of EVERLASTING JOY. Jesus has come, and we have Joy in this, but we
are still living among a fallen world and our joy is not as complete as the
prophecy declares… Yet. And most
prophecy is like this; it was for the near future, the Messianic time, but the
full extent of the prophecy is completed when Jesus will come again. Right now, we understand that we are living
in a fallen world where there is still grief, and loss.
Most years
there will be a “Blue” service held somewhere.
This “Blue” service is to acknowledge the pain of those who’ve
experienced loss, and for whom Christmas holds little joy, but in contrast to
the joy of the season, they feel an acute sense that someone is missing in
their lives, and an acute sense that life is not the way it should be. It is somewhat ironic… hmm not quite the
correct word,… that we have this separate service, which acknowledges that
darkness of life, the pain and the grief, when actually, this is an authentic
part of what the season of Advent is about ….
Grief and loss and an acknowledgement that things are not the way that they
should be… something is missing…. This is the reality, it is truth – but keep
remembering the promises of God; Jesus is coming! And in this there is Joy.
Perhaps it
is because we have lost this declaration of grief and solidarity with those
who’ve experienced loss -those who grieve that the world is not the way it
ought to be, that we have so many who leave the church after experiencing their
own grief. They feel they don’t fit in
with the “Joyful faithful” who celebrate the goodness of God, and who, at least
on the surface, don’t seem to be grieved over anything. Advent truly is like a green shoot of hope that
grows – but it grows in the reality of the darkness.
There are
many psalms that lament and cry out to God ,“WHY?”, they – and we -don’t stop
and stay in that place of darkness. They
always end in faith in God and his love and goodness. We too, need to acknowledge the reality of
the dark – then we too move into faith, as we are reminded of God’s goodness
and love, and we hope in his promises – the promises passed on to us all from
the prophets. Today the prophetic voice
bids us to rejoice… Jesus is coming. Do
we believe it?
The prophecy
of Isaiah gives us images of stark contrast – The barren desert, will
blossom. An existence of dry death
becomes drenched with life. Isaiah
causes us to focus on the life and the blossoming, but we might superficially
read this and fail to notice that the life comes from a place of the opposite. The original readers or hearers of the
prophecy were a people of grief and loss. They were the people living in exile, deeply
grieving.
Each Advent,
while we recall and retell the coming of Jesus as the baby in Bethlehem, we also
are reminded that Jesus WILL come again.
In the midst of what we see and experience day to day, this can be hard
to even imagine, let alone trust in and hope for. When we look at what we are experiencing here
and now, the darkness – the grief and loss, doubt might come easier than faith. Somewhat like Peter when he was walking on
water and he took his eyes off Jesus and sank.
Does it
appear that John the Baptist was doubting in our readings today? John had a time where his ministry was
thriving. People came from near and far
to hear him speak and they responded by being baptised, repenting of their sin
and turning their hearts back to God. John
knew that God had called him, and he was walking in that calling – and then he
was thrown in jail. Now, from the dark
of that prison, John seems to have some doubts and so he sends messengers to
Jesus to check on things.
We are
warned through scripture to test the spirits and to be discerning, and we note
that Jesus didn’t scold John for checking if Jesus was the Messiah, but he
quotes Old Testament scriptures that proclaim what the Messiah would do; “the blind receive their sight, the lame
walk, those with a skin disease are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are
raised, and the poor have good news brought to them”. This was prophesied in Isaiah and also in
Psalm 146 – the alternative Psalm for today.
Where are we
at today? Are we feeling the darkness
but turning to the God of our salvation, knowing his love for us, or are we
feeling discouraged and tending to doubt? This is where we need acknowledge our darkness
to our friends who can intercede for us, and, or to God. In this way we can be brought back to the
message of hope. Then when we have been
encouraged, we need to be heralds of the message for those around us,
encouraging them. We need each other.
We are
living in a time of “now! and not yet”.
The saviour has come. It
has been an incredible first coming, that impacted the whole world, so just
imagine the impact when Jesus comes again!
The next time will be a time of completeness. A time of the reign of Christ, and Heaven on
Earth. A magnificent time. And the fact is; Jesus will come
again.
Today is
called Gaudete Sunday – the day of Joy.
Gaudete means to rejoice. The
message, in a nut-shell, is this; “Rejoice!
Though we may acutely sense loss, or even if we are in our darkest hour,
REJOICE! God is coming!”
Advent is
not about a time that is as rosey as our rose coloured candle, but it is a reminder
that our world is ALWAYS deeply in need of a saviour. We can look into our world with our physical
eyes – or even with spiritual eyes, and see a great darkness, but we have the
Holy Spirit calling us to prophetically declare in that darkness - “JOY” ! God is coming. Just like we wait for seeds to sprout in the
dark soil, and it seems to delay, we wait expectantly for Jesus to come. In the meantime, we know that Jesus is also
with us by His Holy Spirit and with our cooperation he impacts our world. Jesus is born in our world though us - our
prayer being like the prayer of Mary, who submitted to the will of God. It is not that we necessarily see JOY here
and now, but we will rejoice and prophetically proclaim into being that time of
EMMANUEL - God with us. He truly is! And
our dark world will be transformed just as a desert that blossoms and produces
streams of water. Jesus is Coming!
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