Second Sunday of Advent (A)
Have you ever visited Washington, DC?
Whether we have or haven’t been there, the very name evokes a series of images and feelings in our minds. For some people, Washington means distant bureaucrats who haven’t a clue about how ordinary Americans live or the problems they face. For others, Washington is a symbol of corruption and partisan strife. For still others, it is a place where nothing of substance is ever accomplished, and where politicians are more interested in placing the blame than in repairing the game.
This is what may come to our minds immediately when we think of Washington, but it is not the whole story. The partisan strife and corruption and inaction do not, by themselves, explain the intensity of our gut reactions when we think of Washington. That is because Washington has another role in our minds and hearts. It is also the symbol and the repository of our hopes and dreams, of who we hope to be as a nation. There, the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution are enshrined. There, memorials to George Washington and Thomas Jefferson and Abraham Lincoln remind us of these men, what they said, and what they accomplished. There, every President since John Adams has lived and worked. There, every important issue this nation has ever faced has been debated and wrestled with in Congress and in the Supreme Court. There, Martin Luther King and Pope John Paul II preached. There, boiled down for us to its essence, we find expressed the very core of our sense of what it means to be American.
The real challenge, then, is not simply that strife and corruption exist. It’s that they exist – and have existed – in the very place that also enshrines our deepest civic values as Americans.
What do we do with such a contrast? Some people, noting that such problems have always existed in this country, simply shrug their shoulders and go back to sleep. Others search for some compromise between the values and the corruption. Still others feel moved to champion the values and seek to turn back or heal the corruption.
For the people of ancient Israel, Jerusalem functioned, as city and symbol, in the same way. On the one hand, Jerusalem was a symbol of the deepest nature and aspirations of the Israelites. There was the Temple, the sign and guarantee of God’s presence among His people, the place where God was worshipped. The Temple, a new Eden, where the re-creation and restoration of the world would begin. The Temple, the repository of the Torah, God’s own words to His People, words that spoke of mercy and justice for all, especially the most vulnerable. Jerusalem was also the home of the kings of Israel, descended from David and intended to be champions of God’s justice and mercy, especially for the powerless.
On the other hand, Jerusalem was the symbol and prime example of how far Israel was from its calling. Many of its kings and important people were more concerned about themselves and their pleasures than about the vulnerable or the poor. Priests in the Temple, too, were touched by corruption. Jerusalem seemed to be a magnet for the very things that God sought to undo and eliminate from Israel. Some people in Israel were also tempted to shrug their shoulders and go back to sleep. Others looked for some kind of compromise between their faith in God and the corruption they could see around them. Still others felt moved to champion God’s word and seek to turn back or heal the corruption.
Among these were the prophets. Prophets were people who had been given a profound experience of the holiness of God, a deep love for God’s word, and who could then see more clearly the contrast between what God called Israel to be and what Israel too often was. The prophets knew that God could not be satisfied with such a dichotomy. God would do something. Thus, the prophets were open to God’s word as it applied to the situation at hand as well as the future of Israel.
Our readings for the Second Sunday of Advent feature two prophets whose callings began in Jerusalem. Isaiah, from whom our first reading comes, and John the Baptist, featured in our Gospel reading. Isaiah is given a powerful experience of the utter holiness of God one day as he is serving as a priest in the Temple. From then on, Isaiah knows that God will act against the corruption of the leaders of Israel. But God’s judgment is not the final chapter. God will bring about a renewed Israel, even if the hope in God’s promises seemed as dead as a stump. Yet from that stump, the stump of Jesse, a bud will blossom. That which seems humanly impossible will happen. The poor will find justice and mercy. Strife will cease. Israel will become such a symbol of God’s presence that the pagans will come, be awed, and also believe in the God of Israel.
John the Baptist, as the son of Zechariah, was also a priest by birth. John is led into the wilderness by God, where he, too, encounters the holiness of God. John is told that God will act, but not in some distant future. God’s Messiah is coming soon, very soon, and John is to prepare the way. John, therefore, declares God’s judgment on the corruption he sees in the Israel of his own day, and calls on all to repent, now, for God’s Messiah is at hand. All God’s promises are coming true. Only the one who is humble and ready will be able to welcome the Messiah.
Some people, perhaps, may feel confused or put off by the juxtaposition of the “peaceable kingdom” in Isaiah’s vision and the warning of judgment and the call to repentance that John gives in the Gospel reading. Both prophets, however, would agree that both are necessary. The peaceable kingdom can only come from God’s own initiative. We can only be open to God’s initiative if we are willing to acknowledge our sins and need for grace, and to seek God with all our hearts.
We know this from practical experience. If we have a vision of becoming healthier, we know that we will never come anywhere near that vision until we are willing to admit our unhealthy habits and be willing to change them. It is the same when it comes to our faith in God. Advent is a time when we remember the promises of God that inspire and motivate us by their very beauty. Advent also reminds us of how far we remain from that beauty in our world. Seeing this, will we simply go back to sleep? Will we look for some compromise to help us get by for the moment? Or will be let ourselves see and feel the full extent, the height and depth of God’s promises to us, feel the pain of how far we remain from them, and feel the burning desire to have God close that gap for us and make us into people in whom all God’s promises are being realized?
Are we willing to let God make us into an Advent people?
May the visions of Advent open our hearts to the great love of God, who alone can cleanse, heal, and inspire us to attain these visions, and still more, in our lives!
P.S. – Just a quick update. My situation is changing. It appears as though Social Security Disability is no longer the way I will go. It is still too early to see or know what will happen. Please keep me in your prayers!