[Mcgregorpage] McGregorPage #287, Advent 3, 12/16/07

[rmcgregoralbq at aol.com]

Advent 3, December 16, 2007

Isaiah 35:1 10
Luke 1:47 55
James 5:7 10
Matthew 11:2 11

The Desert Redeemer

Whatever it is that holds life hostage is about to be defeated.  Isaiah likens it to the transformation that water brings to a desert.  You have to live in the desert as I do to see, hear and smell the land turn to life -- cactus overnight sprout flowers delicate like that of a crocus; toads sing in chorus the joy of their redemption through the night; and the mesquite gives the cooled air a fragrance that glorifies God.  It is a redeemed desert through which a redeemed Israel will return home.  The Psalmist offers a partial list of lives previously held hostage:  the oppressed, the hungry, the prisoners, the blind, those who are bowed down, the strangers, the orphan and the widow.  Jesus uses a similar list to verify that the redeemer, the Messiah has arrived.  Luke shows us that Mary knows a liberation is about to happen.  She borrows the song of Deborah of old to sing her own testimony to God the redeemer.  So, why does James have to admonish the church to wait in patience?  Was the coming of the Messiah really just a desert shower?

It has long bothered me that after the dust settled from the emergence of the church, the religion looked like a Gentile version of its Jewish precursor, the faithful trying to lead a righteous life so that the Messiah would come or so that they would be included in the new kingdom when the Messiah did come.   The intense anticipation in first century Judaism became the intense anticipation of first century Christianity.  What happened to the consummation?  Had the Messiah not come?  Christians proclaim his having come.  Jews deny it.  But both emerge staring at the heavens still waiting.  Could it be that anticipation is the Good News, consummation in this life being over rated?  But what can anticipation mean without consummation?  Can a people anticipate the Messiah forever without his coming?  Wouldn't someone call the whole enterprise into question?

The rain did come in our desert.  The kingdom of God did bloom in the life of Jesus.  The chorus of the saved did fill the air at the sight of the risen Lord.  And the fragrance of the Holy Spirit has filled the church ever since.  The coming of the Messiah achieved the end that Isaiah foresaw and Mary extols.  Christ achieved the end that awaits the end.

"He has brought down the powerful from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly..." Mary proclaims.  In anticipation of this end the world devises ways to imitate it.  Democratic government is a tool for bringing down the powerful and lifting up the lowly.  We fight over the redistribution of wealth every day on Capitol Hill.  "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," Isaiah promises.  Consider the handicapped parking space and all the other ways we have become more considerate of our fellow pilgrims, how we have changed the road so that "no traveler, not even fools" are pushed away.   (I take Isaiah to use the word "fool" in a narrow sense, but I mean it in the sense that no traveler, not even one who faces more challenges than the rest, will be excluded.)  "Go and tell John what you hear and see," is the consummation John sought from his prison cell, a consummation of the heart.  It is the consummation that belongs to all who have been blessed with faith in Christ by the Holy Spirit.

Yes, the desert is real, but its redemption is just as real.  Yes, the end is accomplished, but the end has not arrived.  Take each phrase of the prophesies for this Sunday and consider how many ways our lives have already conformed to that end.  With the end then in sight, the end then assured, let us rejoice in the victory of God, and press on to the high calling of Christ. 


May these thoughts strengthen you. 
 
An Open Letter to Fellow Pastors 
>From Roland McGregor, United Methodist Pastor 
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