ADVENT 3

May my words and my thoughts be acceptable to you, O Lord, my refuge and my redeemer. (Psalm 19:14)

SEASON: ADVENT 3
PROPER: A
PLACE: St. John's Parish, Kingsville
DATE: December 16,2001

TEXT: Isaiah 35:1-10 – “He will come and save you.” Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped; then 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; 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.

ISSUE: Isaiah has a vision of great hope for the people in exile. Their time of release shall come. There shall be a road, a Holy Way, leading them back to Zion through a blooming desert. The world and its people know many forms of being in exile today. The passage is hopeful, and calls a repentant people back to God.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
There is a very close relationship between the reading from Gospel of Matthew and the passage from Isaiah 35. In Matthew’s account, John the Baptist, who had called for repentance and change in preparation for a new age and messianic hope, was in jail. John had spoken against and embarrassed King Herod, so he was placed in prison to silence him. It is thought that Jesus himself had been a disciple of John the Baptist. In John’s absence, Jesus begins his own ministry developing his own followers, or disciples. It is clear that Jesus had a great deal of respect for John the Baptist. Jesus saw John as a profoundly significant prophet. Jesus saw John as the Elijah type personality that he was. He was not merely a man calling people to be sorry for their sins, but he called them to an abrupt change in their behavior. John was not luxurious or self-indulgent, dressed in soft robes, but a strong personality that challenged his people and the times to become people of God, reclaiming that holiness and the justice to which God had called them. John is anticipating the coming of a new age, and the possibility of a military-like messiah.
It was apparently clear as the story is told by Matthew that John saw the growing popularity of Jesus, and from the prison sends his own disciples to inquire as to whether or not Jesus is the messianic hope and leader of God’s people into a new age. “Are you the one, or shall we wait for another?” John’s disciples ask. Jesus responds, “Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raise, and the poor have good news brought to them. And blessed is anyone who takes no offense at me.” What Jesus is doing is quoting, almost exactly, in this response the messianic hope written in the 35th chapter of Isaiah.
What had Isaiah been talking about? Isaiah was addressing the Jewish people at a time when they were in exile from their homeland. Isaiah lays out the hope that the time will come soon when the people will know a glorious deliverance. The people will be saved from their oppressors and set free. It will be a miraculous time when, “Then the eyes of the blind are opened, the ears of the deaf unstopped; then the lame shall leap like a deer, and the tongue of the speechless sing for joy.” What’s more the desert leading back home will come into bloom. The burning sand will be cooled, and there shall be an oasis in the desert along the way, and the feeble grasses will be strong like reeds and rushes. Through the desert shall be a highway and no one shall be lost; even those too dumb to read roadmaps will not lose their way. There will be no lions or ravenous beasts to threaten them. The people shall, even those with feeble knees and weak hands will be strengthened and return home singing for joy.
What’s happening here in these passages for both Isaiah, and quoted by Jesus to John the Baptist? The passages are addressed to people who are in exile. In Isaiah’s instance, the Jewish people had been conquered and forced to leave their homeland, and then their homeland was destroyed. But the time of their exile was over, and they were being allowed to return home. They are given a very hopeful vision. Jesus is addressing a different time and situation. The people were not physically exiled so much as they were in a spiritual exile. Their land was conquered. The poor were badly oppressed. Widows without a son had no voice and were often robbed. The spirituality was based largely on law, and law full of loopholes and which favored the rich. Peasants were seen as outcasts from God. People who were sick, lame, deaf, dumb, blind, lepers were all outcasts, and were believed to be cursed by God. Life was extremely hard, taxation and tolls were everywhere and oppressive. There was an overall political, economic, and spiritual exile for the greater majority of people. The people perceived themselves to be in darkness and in a lifeless world. There was little hope. Isaiah and certainly Jesus could not believe that God would leave his people in a world of darkness, despair, and hopelessness. They anticipated a repentant world, a world that would be turned upside down so that the dark side would be turned towards the light of God.
Isaiah foresees a repentant, dramatically changed, world of opposites. Blind people who cannot see will see. Deaf people will hear. Voiceless people will have a voice. Vicious animals will become tame. Dry dangerous despairing deserts will turn to a garden paradise. The people in fear, alienation, and oppressed with sing for joy as their world return to the light of God. “The people walking in darkness will see a new light. Sorrow and sighing shall flee away in the presence of God.
Jesus picks up on that same theme when he speaks to John’s disciples. The blind see the presence of God among them. The lame walk, the paralyzed hopeless will begin to take steps again toward hope. The deaf, those who had not heard of God’s redeeming and forgiving love will hear of it. The dumb and powerless will have a voice again. The impure untouchable lepers will be made pure again. Even the untouchable cursed dead folk doomed to Sheol, the place of shadows, will be raised up into the light of God’s kingdom. All that is cursed will be turned upside down and know the blessing and honor that God gives to his people. There shall be a road, a Holy Way that leads to God’s love, and no one shall lose their way. And nothing no cruel vicious thing spirit or devil or vicious animal shall separate us from the love of God. When God comes to his world, it will be a repentant world, a changed world that is up side down and facing the light of hope and deliverance from the darkness.
It is imperative, good people, that we ourselves be repentant and ready to allow ourselves to be turned over in repentance so that we can fully appreciate the repentant hope and vision of Isaiah and participate in the Kingdom of our Lord. Can we participate in the vision and the hope, and allow Jesus to come again into our wilderness, our exile, and our times of despair and hopelessness?
Can we join in the visions and the hope that come from our Scriptures, from the prophets and the Lord Jesus? Is it possible to envision a world where Jewish people and Islamic people, and Christian folk can honor and respect their understandings of God’s covenants without suspicion, hate, and critical remarks? Is it possible to envision a world where Native Americans, African Americans, Asians can be respected with dignity and without derogatory remarks. We must look to the children of Afghanistan who have suffered so much war and destruction knowing the fear they must have, and knowing that such a large percentage of them have lost their parents with the hope that the day will come when each one is adopted in a home that will restore their hope for the future. When we look at nations where there are starving people, we have to hope that their deserts will bloom, and that there will be teachers who will enable them to find the agricultural savvy to feed themselves. We really need to hope and envision a time when the hotshots and the proud and the greedy will be repentant and turned over to become aware that God blesses, honors, the poor, the meek, the merciful, the caring, the servants, and those who themselves will hunger and thirst to seek justice for all. Maybe as Americans we may need to examine our own status and image in the world and in the sight of God. We may like everyone else face the fact that we, and our proud power and consumptive habits, may well need some repentance, living more simply so that the rest of the world may live and have its fair share as well.
In each of our own lives, before we can step into the Kingdom of God, that world which is overturned and facing the light, we need personally to be a people ready to make the appropriate changes that make us resonate with the Anointed Christ. We often need God and the Presence of Christ to take away our sense of vengeance. We need to reclaim our calling as servants as opposed to those who expect to be served. We by the grace of God need to understand that God’s grace comes to us not because we earn it, but because it is a freely given gift from God. Being turned over we become a new people, and the people we were meant to be.
“Are you the one who is to come?” asks John. New insights are given; the Word of God is being heard. The unclean are purified. The folks paralyzed in fear, despair, and hopelessness are walking again. May the Lord Jesus Christ turn each of us over that we may be in resonance with the coming of his Kingdom once again.