Wednesday musings toward Advent 3a, Dec. 12

Isaiah 35:1-10 “For waters shall break forth in the wilderness, and streams in the desert; the burning sand shall become a pool, and the thirsty ground springs of water; the haunt of jackals shall become a swamp, the grass shall become reeds and rushes. A highway shall be there, and it shall be called the Holy Way;  the unclean shall not travel on it, but it shall be for God's people; no traveler, not even fools, shall go astray.” (vs. 5-8) Ahh, more wondrous imagery to work with. Waters in the wilderness and streams in the desert. It doesn’t take much to realize just how much that must have meant to a desert people. Pretty much everyone has seen pictures of the desert, sands stretching as far as the eye can see, no shade, definitely no coffee shops in which to visit with friends. This was the beginning enunciation of a vision that would set hearts aflame, make minds wander and wonder at the possibility. Imagine, if you were a desert dweller on the sand dunes of the Sahara, the burning sand becoming a pool. If you were riding a camel, it would be hard to keep it from running there for a drink. If you were a bit more modern and driving a humvee, odds are you would head there anyway for a drink yourself. And with the concern these days about losing wetlands, imagine the grass becoming reeds and rushes, plants that will only grow when there are copious amounts of water. Those reeds and rushes can live through a drought; I have seen them around a dry slough, waiting for the rains of autumn to fill the slough and bring them back to life. And why all this? “A highway shall be there, and it shall be called the Holy Way;” I suppose we could talk about what springs up in modern times: first a roadway, then some businesses, then a highway, then motels, gas stations, restaurants, etc. What do we expect will line God’s Holy Way? Whatever it is, remember that “no traveler, not even fools, shall go astray.” And how is that to happen?

Psalm 146:5-10 [NRSV] “who keeps faith forever; who executes justice for the oppressed; who gives food to the hungry. ” (vs. 7) I have often wondered why those who put the bible in its present form made the sentence and verse breaks where they did. Sometimes it seems to work, sometimes not. Sometimes, as with the verse above, it seems to set aside some words that could be interpreted in what might not be the way the author intended. Granted, that means taking them out of context, but that said, I will go ahead and do it. I look at this today and see 3 questions that are becoming harder and harder to answer positively in our world. Keeping faith forever too often seems to mean keeping faith so long as you are in a position of power, or think it will get you there. Justice for the oppressed seems often put off, if not put down, by the very people whose expressed views would make justice an imperative. And feeding the hungry is too often left up to and ends up being done by many of those who seem to have the least ability to do so. All of these are happening in the world. Yet the psalmist speaks of the God of Jacob, “who keeps faith forever; who executes justice for the oppressed; who gives food to the hungry.” This is a God of peace, a God of freedom, a God who works still in this world but who needs people of faith to make his will and works evident. And it is being done by those who might least be able to if it were only up to human will: churches even in small towns operating a year-round food bank; churches coming together every year to celebrate Christmas not only with song but by bringing donations that will go to needy families and make their season bright; individuals working for peace sometimes within the framework of a movement of some sort, but often in making advances of their own through prayer and the kindness they show others. So the answer to the question is in the statement.  Who does these things? The Lord does. And how do we see them done? In the life and work of his people.

James 5:7-10 “You also must be patient. Strengthen your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is near.” (vs. 8) This verse comes directly after the example of the patience of the farmer, thus the “you also”. It is not simply a “be patient”, but rather is strengthened by the example before, just as it strengthens the verses following. The last part brings to my mind images of hearts that have been broken because they were not strong enough. We have all heard a reference to someone as being “heartbroken”, or possibly as a “heartbreaker.” The first is often because a loved one was lost; the second because the one referred to is one who brings about a certain feeling (love, lust, romance) that is not returned. James is speaking of the Lord as one who is certainly coming, and who will not be a “heartbreaker” and leave his people. Yet he says, “Strengthen your hearts.” I am not one who goes for the rapture stories of popular writers, but I can’t help but think of how those who have weak hearts physically might react to the coming of the Lord. If anything could bring on a heart attack, I think that would be it. Of course, it wouldn’t really matter then, would it? Yet still, there have been those who have believed in the second coming, believed it would be literally soon, even followed someone who said that he or she knew just when it would be, and when it did not happen I wonder how many hearts were sick with loss of the anticipated joy?

Matthew 11:2-11 “When John heard in prison what the Messiah was doing, he sent word by his disciples and said to him, "Are you the one who is to come, or are we to wait for another?"(vs. 2) Brian Stoffregen, a Lutheran pastor, has this quote in his contextual notes on this passage: Mary Donovan Turner, in a _Christian Century_ (December 6, 1995, p. 1173) (in an) article on this text begins with: “John sat in his prison cell staring at the four walls that kept him from freedom. He could no longer look upon the familiar landmarks of the country he loved. He was cut off from his friends. He was disconnected from his community and stranded in a limited world, a world filled with uncertainty. He remembered the days in the wilderness when every word he spoke exuded certainty and assurance.”

I believe that in times of stress, everyone has doubts. No matter that John had heard the wind, seen the dove, heard the words from the mouth of Jesus. When he was there in prison, his life on the line, most likely knowing he would not be able to speak as a prophet again, I think he began to doubt. Not one of those deep, questioning doubts that causes the gut to rumble and the mind to wander and the hands to shake, because John had faith that the message he had been bringing about the coming messiah was indeed true. But that little doubt that gnaws at the edges of the mind saying over and over, you may have made the right moves and said the right things, but is it happening? Is the one you thought was the fulfillment of all you believed really him, or is he to be another prophet, carrying the message of God to the people in wilderness and town, telling the people yet again to wait, to step back, to repent and be glad but to continue to prepare? And Jesus answered him the only way that would have truly reassured him, with the message of example, of how the prophecies were being fulfilled, of how the good news was replacing news of distant coming, of how the people were healed and salvation was near. And I can’t help but look at this line from the end of Jesus’ response to John: “And blessed is anyone who takes no offense at me.” It seems an innocuous statement, yet it is not a statement that no-one is offended by Jesus, rather more of a statement by suggestion that there are those who are offended by Jesus, by who he is and what he is doing, and the suggestion is that even knowing that would be reassuring to John as he lay there imprisoned.

Ray