Isaiah 35:1-10
The wilderness and the dry land shall be glad, the desert shall rejoice and blossom; like the crocus it 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.
Strengthen the weak hands, and make firm the feeble knees. Say 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."
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.
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. No 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.
And 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.
Today is the third Sunday in Advent time – and we are still waiting.
We, as a species, are both very good at waiting – we’ve had a lot of practice over the centuries – and very bad at waiting. Whether it’s the Hebrew people in exile waiting for God’s promise to manifest itself in their return to their homeland, or children being impatient for Santa Claus to arrive, or all of us, everywhere, waiting for the promise of peace to become a reality in our sorely divided world, we’re not really good at waiting – just practiced. We’ve had days and years and centuries of being forced to wait – but we still don’t do it gracefully.
Many of us have waited so long that we have trouble still believing in the truth of the promises. This is true today and it was true centuries ago when the prophet Isaiah was reminding the people in exile to not give up on their hopes, and doing so in language so beautiful and stirring that even today our jaded selves can’t help but feel our hearts lifting.
Last week we read a promise to the creatures of the world that one day they would live side-by-side without fear or harm. The wolf and the lamb, the calf and the lion, sharing God’s goodness in harmony and peace. This week that promise is expanded to include not only the creatures of the world, but all creation:
But for the earth to be healed it will first be necessary for humans to be healed, and that promise is here as well:
So humankind too will be repaired, made whole again, and here, as with the beasts and the earth itself, there is a joyful extravagance in the promises made: the animals will not only co-exist in the world in safety, they will snuggle up side-by-side in affection; the earth will not only be green again but will bloom out in joy and singing; and as for humankind, the lame will not only walk but leap for joy and the speechless not only speak but sing in joyful praise.
The promise tells us that there is still hope for us all, but meanwhile we are still waiting and some days the waiting seems to never end – and that is why Advent comes around every year. As Kathryn Matthews reminds us: We Christians hear the promises not only mindful of our longing for healing and restoration but also mindful of what God is already doing in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. That's why we're celebrating the birth of the baby in the first place.
Just as the lame would dance and the blind see and the speechless sing in the promised day of joy that Isaiah describes, so the lame walked and the blind saw and the speechless praised God when Jesus walked the earth and healed them as a sign of God's promises coming to fulfillment.
Yes, we’re still waiting even while at the same time we paradoxically proclaim that all that Jesus promised us has already come to pass, because the reign of God arrived in all its fullness with the coming of Jesus. We make this claim because Jesus told us this is so. in Jesus, the promised time is always now – not yet-to-come but here and now.
So even as we wait, we have already arrived – we are loved, we are forgiven – not in some far off golden day, but in this time, in this space. We may need to grow in order to better fit into this “now,” to make it visible to ourselves and to others around us, but I believe the promises of Jesus.
Frederick Buechner, who you know I love to quote, rounds off this 3rd Advent Sunday in the perfect words: "Joy is home…God created us in joy and for joy, and in the long run not all the darkness there is in the world and in ourselves can separate us finally from that joy…We have God's joy in our blood.”
We, as a species, are both very good at waiting – we’ve had a lot of practice over the centuries – and very bad at waiting. Whether it’s the Hebrew people in exile waiting for God’s promise to manifest itself in their return to their homeland, or children being impatient for Santa Claus to arrive, or all of us, everywhere, waiting for the promise of peace to become a reality in our sorely divided world, we’re not really good at waiting – just practiced. We’ve had days and years and centuries of being forced to wait – but we still don’t do it gracefully.
Many of us have waited so long that we have trouble still believing in the truth of the promises. This is true today and it was true centuries ago when the prophet Isaiah was reminding the people in exile to not give up on their hopes, and doing so in language so beautiful and stirring that even today our jaded selves can’t help but feel our hearts lifting.
Last week we read a promise to the creatures of the world that one day they would live side-by-side without fear or harm. The wolf and the lamb, the calf and the lion, sharing God’s goodness in harmony and peace. This week that promise is expanded to include not only the creatures of the world, but all creation:
- The wilderness and the dry land shall be glad, the desert shall rejoice and blossom; like the crocus it shall blossom abundantly, and rejoice with joy and singing.
- 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.
But for the earth to be healed it will first be necessary for humans to be healed, and that promise is here as well:
- 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.
So humankind too will be repaired, made whole again, and here, as with the beasts and the earth itself, there is a joyful extravagance in the promises made: the animals will not only co-exist in the world in safety, they will snuggle up side-by-side in affection; the earth will not only be green again but will bloom out in joy and singing; and as for humankind, the lame will not only walk but leap for joy and the speechless not only speak but sing in joyful praise.
The promise tells us that there is still hope for us all, but meanwhile we are still waiting and some days the waiting seems to never end – and that is why Advent comes around every year. As Kathryn Matthews reminds us: We Christians hear the promises not only mindful of our longing for healing and restoration but also mindful of what God is already doing in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. That's why we're celebrating the birth of the baby in the first place.
Just as the lame would dance and the blind see and the speechless sing in the promised day of joy that Isaiah describes, so the lame walked and the blind saw and the speechless praised God when Jesus walked the earth and healed them as a sign of God's promises coming to fulfillment.
Yes, we’re still waiting even while at the same time we paradoxically proclaim that all that Jesus promised us has already come to pass, because the reign of God arrived in all its fullness with the coming of Jesus. We make this claim because Jesus told us this is so. in Jesus, the promised time is always now – not yet-to-come but here and now.
So even as we wait, we have already arrived – we are loved, we are forgiven – not in some far off golden day, but in this time, in this space. We may need to grow in order to better fit into this “now,” to make it visible to ourselves and to others around us, but I believe the promises of Jesus.
Frederick Buechner, who you know I love to quote, rounds off this 3rd Advent Sunday in the perfect words: "Joy is home…God created us in joy and for joy, and in the long run not all the darkness there is in the world and in ourselves can separate us finally from that joy…We have God's joy in our blood.”
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