Meditation
for the Third Sunday in Advent
Scriptures:
So
it seems that the scriptures for this Sunday are about hope. It was Augustine who changed the order of
things in that famous passage from I Corinthians about “faith, hope, and love.” The original states that these three virtues
are most needed “but the greatest of these is love.”
Augustine
states that the “greatest of these is hope.”
Faith, according to Augustine is the assertion that God “is.” Love, lifts up that God is good. But it is hope that boldly believes that God’s
will will be ultimately done.
The
people of Isaiah’s day need a resurrection of hope. So the prophet speaks of being anointed to
bring good news not to those who already possess it but to the oppressed, the
poor, and the brokenhearted. The people
who first hear these words are being told that they are finally being released
from the penalty box. To them “God’s
will” in days past has been in the form of punishment for not listening.
So
when they hear words about the good news of “release for captives,” they for
sure are listening again. God yearns to
give them an early Christmas present in the midst of some dark times. When it seemed to them that God was absent
they now hear that God has counted their tears and now wants those “who have
sown with tears to go out with shouts of joy.”
Christmas
comes at the darkest time of the year, according to the calendar, and for many
according to the calendar of the heart.
One of the dearest times for me when I was a working pastor was to
participate in a service called, “A Service of Hope and Healing.”
With
some meditative music resonating in the chapel, words of hope were read to
those gathered in the darkness of a Sunday night in December. Most of the people there were present because
someone dear to them was now gone.
Others were dealing with the threat of illness or the deep
disappointment of the death of a relationship.
My
task was not to take away the pain with some magic glowing words but to simply
tell them that God was present and did count their tears. God now wanted some healing for their parched
souls. As each struggling soul came forward to kneel I would anoint them with
oil and say their name as I offered the words, “May God’s healing grace be upon
your life.” Emmanuel means, “God with
us,” in the midst of our tears. In the
midst of defeat God’s will that seemed to be hidden behind forms of failure was
and is there.
The
very big God becomes small when we feel small.
So it is a slight of build young teenager who offers words of hope
because she is chosen to be the God-bearer.
A “lowly” servant girl who will have to survive the many rumors about “who
the father of the child really is,” is going to end up being the “queen of
heaven.” God comes down to the lowly of
state to offer hope in the midst of all the questions.
God
stands with God’s people in the midst of the many defeats that come in the living
of ordinary lives, but God will not be defeated ultimately. God’s will surfaces to offer hope in the
midst of despair.
So
the child who will one day use Isaiah’s words to announce that he too has come
to offer good news to the oppressed and the lowly will be born not in a palace
but in a stable. His first audience will
be shepherds who were not even allowed into the town because of their poor
reputation. His first journey will be to
escape the terror of a king who has no place for some upstart who lays claim to
“rule the world.”
So
for you today, hear the good news in the midst of the bad news. The darkness is real and deep but God comes
into the darkness to give us hope. “Those
who go out weeping, bearing the seed for sowing, shall come home with shouts of
joy.”
The
greatest of these is hope; God’s will is for those who are hurting to know that
God is coming to us again as Emmanuel; God with us in the midst of the
tears.
Thank
you Mary for saying, “Yes.” Thank you shepherds
for listening to the song of the stars.
Thank you Joseph for paying attention to dreams instead of reality.
And
for you who read this, may the hope of Christmas be yours.
Jody
Seymour
Advent
2017
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