Isaiah 35:1-10 The wilderness and the dry
land shall be glad, the desert shall rejoice and blossom; like the crocus 2it shall blossom
abundantly, and rejoice with joy and singing. The glory of Lebanon shall be
given to it, the majesty of Carmel and Sharon. They shall see the glory of the
Lord, the majesty of our God. 3Strengthen the
weak hands, and make firm the feeble knees. 4Say to those who
are of a fearful heart, “Be strong, do not fear! Here is your God. He will come
with vengeance, with terrible recompense. He will come and save you.”
5Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the
deaf unstopped; 6then the lame shall leap like a deer, and the
tongue of the speechless sing for joy. For waters shall break forth in the
wilderness, and streams in the desert; 7the 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. 8A 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. 9No lion shall be there, nor shall any ravenous beast come up on
it; they shall not be found there, but the redeemed shall walk there. 10And the ransomed of the Lord shall return, and come to Zion
with singing; everlasting joy shall be upon their heads; they shall obtain joy
and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.
Matthew 11:2-11 2When John heard in
prison what the Messiah was doing, he sent word by his disciples 3and said to him,
“Are you the one who is to come, or are we to wait for another?” 4Jesus answered
them, “Go and tell John what you hear and see: 5the blind receive
their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead
are raised, and the poor have good news brought to them. 6And blessed is
anyone who takes no offense at me.”
7As they went away, Jesus began to speak to the crowds about
John: “What did you go out into the wilderness to look at? A reed shaken by the
wind? 8What then did you go out to see? Someone dressed in
soft robes? Look, those who wear soft robes are in royal palaces. 9What then did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I tell you,
and more than a prophet. 10This is the one about whom it is written, ‘See, I
am sending my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way before you.’ 11Truly I tell you, among those born of women no one has arisen
greater than John the Baptist; yet the least in the kingdom of heaven is
greater than he.
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This week we are looking ahead to the third
Sunday in Advent. Where does the time
go? John the Baptist follows us into
this week, but he is much subdued and, even, contemplative. And we continue with Isaiah, who gives us
some stunning words of hope this week.
“Be strong, do not fear. Here is your God.” Yes, there are things to panic about. There were then, there are now, things to
panic about. Such as the stock
market.
That was mentioned at the roundtable. It surprised me, but the more I think about
it, the more I saw how fitting it is. Many
of us depend on the market for our long-term security. Anyone who has a retirement account can watch
their funds wax and wane as the market fluctuates. I know little about it, but I understand that
the stock markets are very sensitive to uncertainty or instability in the
larger society. Late in the evening on November
8, when the widespread expectation that Hillary Clinton would be our next
president was suddenly shattered, the market went into a freefall. I am told that this is actually not uncommon
on election night. The markets hate
uncertainty. The stock markets are a tangible
reaction to our fear of the unknown.
If we listen to Isaiah, we hear assurances
that no matter how dire things appear, we may look with hope to our God, who
will come with vengeance and recompense.
Our God will save us. I am sure
this does not mean that God will right the markets and bolster capitalism. We are to look for this salvation in other
places.
But here I am reminded of how we so often do
things backwards. We form opinions and search
for rationalizations. We identify our
wants and reformulate them as our needs.
We embrace solutions and reach for problems to attach them to. We are no more likely to fall trustingly into
the unknown than the market is to hum along industriously in the face of chaos
and panic.
At the end of the year many churches are
finalizing budgets and gathering pledges for the next year. It is a curious thing that many church
members will refuse to make a pledge without knowing what the budget is. They must know what the church needs before
they can decide what to give, they say. Are
we to assume that they will increase their pledge if it turns out the church
needs more than they expected? Quite
frankly, I have only seen the opposite: when individuals decide that the church
is spending profligately and respond by withholding their pledges.
It is equally curious that budget shortfalls
will lead to panic (as though the stock market is crashing), and we hear the
cry of alarm – “the church is failing!” Are
healthy bank accounts and endowments the sign of the true church? Do we hear such an outcry when the church
fails to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, and grow in discipleship?
Which brings me to the gospel. A more subdued John, from his prison cell
asks, “Are you the one who is to come, or are we to wait for another?” I give John credit for asking the question,
while noting with disappointment that he needs to ask. He doesn’t know, because John, like everyone
else, was looking for something different.
They were looking for what they wanted, for the solution they had
embraced. This solution, perhaps, shared
some qualities in common with our solutions.
There is certainty, we believe, in money in the bank. There is certainty, they may have believed,
in a messiah with an army. It hardly
seemed as though Jesus was able to bring the restoration they were hoping for.
But Jesus patiently points
out that he is bringing the very things that the prophet Isaiah described. God’s vengeance and recompense will give the
blind eyes to see, the deaf ears to hear, the mute voices to sing for joy. And the way will become clear. This is a new age, Isaiah is showing us and
Jesus is bringing us.
This all leaves me
wondering: in what is the church placing her hopes? Are we hoping for the wrong things?
Do we dare to step into the
desert trusting in the almighty God to bring life?
