[Mcgregorpage] McGregorPage #639, Advent 3, 12/14/08

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Advent 3 – December 14, 2008

Isaiah 61:1-4, 8-11
Ps. 126
Luke 1:47-55
1 Thessalonians 5:16-24
John 1:6-8, 19-28


"Change Is in the Wind"

Elijah was supposed to come before the big change came.  We want change and fear it at the same time.  So, all Jerusalem went down to the Jordan to hear John and be baptized by him.  I get the impression that they went with both fear and hope.  We don't know any of John's preaching except the "fire and brimstone" part, but he was Zechariah's son, a priest's son.  He knew Isaiah as well as he knew Amos.  The Gospel of John remembers his quoting Isaiah, nothing about fleeing the wrath to come. Although he is known for his warning, we have a fragment of his promise: "I baptize with water. Among you stands one whom you do not know,  the one who is coming after me; I am not worthy to untie the thong of his sandal."  (John 1:26-27)

John preaches, but Mary sings.  She sings a song like that of Hannah.  She was from Nazareth, perhaps the home of Jewish separatists, Jewish purists.  If she had been a girl in our century, she would probably have been in a youth musical where she memorized the songs of Miriam, Deborah and Hannah long before she would have met the angel Gabriel.  She had a song ready for the occasion.  It may have sounded, even to her, like the celebration of a knight in shining armor come to save the damsel 
in distress, or the cavalry cresting the ridge bugle sounding just in time to save the circled wagons, the vindication of her life over that of her enemies.  However, this was a song in a new key.  This Joshua she was to conceive would not just invert the power structure but would also lead his people into the Promised Land.  Her song is not about a single victory, not even a decisive victory but about a new world, a world swept by the Spirit of God.  Turning the power structure on its head in itself is no better than City Lake turning over in the middle of July.  That is when the temperature of the water at the bottom of the lake rises and causes the water at the bottom to trade places with the top.  That is when the tap water in the town begins to smell like algae; no blessing, this inversion.  No blessing, the Communist revolution.  No blessing, the Red Guard.  Just because people are oppressed doesn't mean they will make righteous rulers if they turn the society upside down.  This is not just a song about an up-side-down world, but about a new world.  Isaiah reminds us that this is not just a national victory; this is a victory of all people:  "For as the earth brings forth its shoots, and as a garden causes what is sown in it to spring up, so the Lord GOD will cause righteousness and praise to spring up before all the nations."  (Isaiah 61:11)

Within a single human heart this change can be complete, but within the context of history it is frag
mentary.  However, if you look back over the two millennia of Christ, in spite of the ambiguities of history, one can see the promise of Isaiah in action:  "Their descendants shall be known among the nations, and their offspring among the peoples; all who see them shall acknowledge that they are a people whom the LORD has blessed."  (Isaiah 61:9)  Blessed within history, yes, but it is not yet the promised new world.  The wind of God, the Holy Spirit has many changes yet in store.  We live in the midst of change, awaiting the wind like winnowers of wheat.  "Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.  Do not quench the Spirit.  Do not despise the words of prophets, but test everything; hold fast to what is good;  abstain from every form of evil.  (1 Thessalonians 5:16-22) 


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