Isaiah 11:1-10
Romans 15:4-13
Luke 3:1-18
“The weapons of divine justice are blunted
by the confession and sorrow of the offender.”
Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy II: Purgatory
The prophecy of Isaiah speaks of a ruler who
will restore justice to Israel, perhaps to the entire world, and the passage is
typical of the readings of the Advent season as we “prepare the way of
The Lord” – not only to celebrate the Incarnation at Christmas when “the
Word became flesh” but also to anticipate the coming of Messiah when
life as we know it
will be turned upside down.
It is a challenge and is often uncomfortable to look
more closely at these passages which, in their New Testament context, seem to speak specifically of the birth
of Jesus, especially when we get a vision of an ideal society which will come
about when this King takes His rightful place.
It is a sensitive subject for many because tradition
has long held these prophecies to “prove” Jesus is the Messiah; so the idea
that Isaiah may not be a direct and specific reference to Jesus
challenges what we have traditionally been taught for so long. It becomes uncomfortable for us when we are
challenged to think outside the box we’ve contained ourselves in and look more
closely at these passages and the full biblical context rather than to simply
take for granted what we’ve long assumed.
Yet no matter how we choose to look at them, Jesus is still the
long-awaited Messiah.
There is nothing to disprove Jesus as the Son of God, of
course, for Jesus Himself says, “If I am not doing the works of My Father,
then do not believe Me. But if I do
them, even though you do not believe Me, believe the works
so that you may know and understand that the Father is in Me and I am in the
Father” (John 10:37-38).
It is not hard for us to see that this ideal,
prophetic society simply does not exist – not here, not now, and not even
during the time of Jesus. So how do we approach such passages in a way
that celebrates a Divine Promise come to fruition in the Incarnation - because
it has! - and yet also gives us a Divine Vision of possibilities. In
other words, why must we wait for the literal return of Messiah to have a
spirit of justice and peace in our society? Why can we not have this now?
We can. Of
course it takes two to tango, as the saying goes. As nice as we may try to be – and we must
always try – others will not always cooperate.
Praying for our enemies becomes more and more difficult, and turning the
other cheek is a near impossibility – not because we cannot but because we will
not. And we will not because “We are “mad
as h*ll, and we’re not gonna take it anymore”!
We’re reached the limits of our patience, and we’ve run out of cheeks to
turn.
But “pride goes before destruction” as
it is written (Proverbs 16:18); and
when we are on our way down to our own destruction as we choose to live on the
world’s terms, make our own judgments, and return evil for evil as we determine
what is just, it is impossible to imagine Divine possibilities. It is hard to imagine what we can actually do
even when others will not cooperate. Even
within the ekklesia, the
congregation, there is often this dominant attitude to “get mine while the gettin’ is good” – missing entirely the point of
living well and faithfully - and ignoring altogether the possibility of a peaceful
and just and merciful society right here and right now.
Though the prescribed Gospel reading for this 2nd
Sunday of Advent is Matthew’s account
of John the Baptizer, I chose instead to read from Luke’s account because there is more detail in the conversation
St. John had with those who heeded his call to repentance. John didn’t just call them to stop doing unjust things; John
called them to fully repent –
to turn about and do exactly the opposite of what they had been doing. Essentially he called them to stop taking and start giving
– for this is the only way
to begin to undo the damage which had been done.
Even then there will not always be cooperation. Not everyone will go along, not everyone will
help, and those who choose to exploit our earnest repentance will make the
penitent life more challenging. This is,
however, the very point of the Church, the ekklesia, the congregation of the
faithful who choose to live according to Divine Law – that is, the Law of the
Eternal Kingdom! – and stop living according to a society that seems intent on
its own destruction. The people of the
ekklesia, the Church, must find and make justice, peace, and mercy together. Welcome those who seek after the same
righteousness – and show the door to those who won’t.
The account of the ekklesia in the Acts of the Apostles shows us what a
just society looks like, and also shows us what is entirely possible – even when
others do not cooperate. To these new
believers who accepted the Word of The Lord and the teachings of the apostles with
joy and gladness found themselves not just “personally saved” but called into
the greater Body in which such things as justice, mercy, and fellowship are not
only possible but very likely.
It will not always be easy. In fact, living in such a way is the “narrow
gate” (Matthew 7:13) through
which we must enter into this new life of Divine Possibilities. And let us not confuse refraining from evil
acts with actually doing acts of mercy and justice because the difference is
profound. Simply doing nothing is still
nothing. We are not being moral and
righteous people of the Covenant when we do nothing. Rather it is the “fruit we bear worthy of
repentance” (Luke 3:8) that
makes us whole and holy and righteous and just and merciful and hospitable and
invitational.
It is the Presence of the Holy Spirit and our desire
to reflect our Lord in our life together that not only begins to undo the
damage we’ve done by our actions and
our neglect; it soon comes to be that we move beyond repairing and begin
building upon goodness and mercy and justice, allowing the kind of community
envisioned by so many of the prophets who have announced that this ideal
society will exist one way or another, one day or another – with us or without
us.
Above all, we must free ourselves from the shackles of
a careless theology that insists Christians don’t have to do anything
– for if Christians choose to do nothing but continue to live on the world’s
terms and standards which shift from one generation to the next, then nothing
will happen. All will remain the same,
and we will continue to settle for whatever we can gain from this world on this
world’s terms.
So let this new life of Divine Possibility begin here
today. Let our prayers and our
repentance be the beginning of
something wonderful rather than merely the end
of evil. Let us stop worrying about what
others may do or whether others will cooperate, and begin acting as though the
entire Church is depending on us individually.
Because if we do this, it is
the beginning.
Only then will we begin to see and feel a
difference. And we will be blessed
beyond any standard of human measurement because we will have chosen to be the
blessing. And the Possibilities we have
only up to this point tried to imagine through the prophets will soon be our
reality in the Eternal Covenant. This is
the Promise and the Reality of the Body of Christ in the world today. It is the very Life Jesus calls us into –
today and forever. Amen.
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