Advent Week 3

Psalm: Psalm 146:5-10 or Luke 1:47-55
Old Testament: Isaiah 35:1-10
Gospel: Matthew 11:2-11
Epistle: James 5:7-10

Welcome to week three of Advent! By now the holiday preparation are in full swing, or if they're not your trouble. Hopefully, you have some company coming to look forward to or you may be traveling yourself. Christmas times is partially about the joys of family and friends getting together and going to Christmas parties and dinner at the family's house. This aspect of the holiday time reminds me of one of the key aspects of Advent, and indeed the word's definition: arrival or coming. Advent is not just about God coming to earth in the incarnation, but also about humanity coming back to God. In our our reading today from Matthew, John, unable to go himself, sent his disciples to Jesus to ask if he was the Messiah. The question couldn't have been asked and the answer given without John's disciples coming to Jesus.

Moving away from the Lectionary, and looking at the Christmas story more broadly we see some great examples of faith and coming to the feet of Jesus. The first example on the night of Jesus' birth is obviously the shepherds. The responded to the message of the angels and said:

“Let us now go even unto Bethlehem, and see this thing that is come to pass, which the Lord hath made known unto us.”

Luke 2:15

Their immediate response was one of faith and worship.

Only Luke's account tells of the shepherds, and only Matthew tells of the wise men from the east. They had much farther to travel than the hills outside the village and may have been traveling for 2 years to see the newborn "King of the Jews." (Matt. 2:2) Matthew provides an interesting juxtaposition in his Gospel between the pagan wise men who went to extraordinary lengths to honor a Jewish king, and the actual Jewish ruler, Herod, who can't travel the short distance to Bethlehem. Herod didn't even know his own people's scriptures which prophesied that the messiah would be born in Bethlehem and was to preoccupied to deal with the matter himself. (Of course quickly after this Herod did decide this matter was important and killed all the boys in Bethlehem 2 years or younger.) The foreign wise men on the other hand were seekers of knowledge. The question Matthew presents to us then is will we be like the wise men or will be like Herod.

Real quickly, and returning to the Lectionary, the vision from Isaiah in verses 8-10 of the "Highway of Holiness" in the Eschaton is reminder to us that we are to continually be on a journey, coming closer and closer to the Father. But not only that, Isaiah offers us a glimpse of what the Kingdom of God will look like when Christ returns and our time of waiting is over.

I hope during this Advent season you have had time to reflect on the meaning of the season. As we wait in expectation for Christ's return let us also be diligent to come to him, through his Spirit.

Grace and peace.