Advent 3 Readings:
Patience is not my strong suit. My mother maintains that I have always been an impatient person. So, it’s with much self-reflection that I read this week’s readings and realise that hope sometimes has a lot to do with waiting.
Not the wait-five-minutes-and-we’re-done type of waiting.
Nope.
It’s the kind of waiting that turns into an acheful longing; the kind of tenacious waiting that causes doubt even amidst the staunchest of believers.
It’s the most apparent thread in the three readings this week.
I could almost hear the acheful longing as John the Baptist asked whether his cousin Jesus was truly the Messiah they had been waiting for. By this time, he had spent years in ministry and, for all his faithfulness, he was thrown in prison awaiting a gruesome death (from which we get the saying “head on a silver platter” from).
John the Baptist, who was in prison, heard about all the things the Messiah was doing. So he sent his disciples to ask Jesus, “Are you the Messiah we’ve been expecting, or should we keep looking for someone else?” – Matthew 11:2-3
You could almost hear the desperation in his question and his bracing for potential disappointment… “Or should we keep looking for someone else?”
Isaiah – my favorite book in the Bible – talks about a coming restoration. It sounds great and we often use passages like these as pictures of when Jesus returns during His Second Coming. But we must remember the context – Isaiah was written when Babylon had annexed Judah and taken its people into exile.
Even the wilderness and desert will be glad in those
The wasteland will rejoice and blossom with spring crocuses.
Yes, there will be an abundance of flowers
and singing and joy!
The deserts will become as green as the mountains of Lebanon,
as lovely as Mount Carmel or the plain of Sharon.
There the Lord will display his glory,
the splendor of our God. – Isaiah 35:1-2
And then, he exhorts,
With this news, strengthen those who have tired hands,
and encourage those who have weak knees.
Say to those with fearful hearts,
“Be strong, and do not fear,
for your God is coming to destroy your enemies.
He is coming to save you.” – Isaiah 35:3-4
During this Advent season, there is another kind of waiting and longing (and I don’t mean time to open presents). While we await the celebration of Jesus birth during his first coming, Christians also remind ourselves of His Second Coming – when He returns at the conclusion of HiStory as we know it.
This longing for the Second Coming shouldn’t be about “fire insurance” – i.e. “get me the hell (literally) out of here!” This is best depicted in the book of Revelations – Christ’s Second Coming is a marriage. Finally, after the courtship, I get to spend the rest of my life with you… and I can’t wait! A favorite worship leader-songwriter I know, Dennis Jernigan, once put it this way, “When I can finally put sight to the voice I’ve embraced.”
When we hope, we are holding on to a desire to see something happen, even though we don’t see it yet. And, until we see it come to pass, we have to wait.
Sometimes, that means waiting tenaciously; being stubbornly convinced that it will come to pass.
We can do that because we trust not in circumstances, but in God Himself. He is the God of Hope, and we can rely in His grace and on His faithfulness.
“Dear brothers and sisters, be patient as you wait for the Lord’s return. Consider the farmers who patiently wait for the rains in the fall and in the spring. They eagerly look for the valuable harvest to ripen. You, too, must be patient. Take courage, for the coming of the Lord is near.” – James 5:7-8
WorshipfulLeigh 