Advent III

The Third Sunday of Advent

Isaiah 35: 1-6a, 10; Psalm 146; James 5:7-10; Matthew 11:2-11

Context is everything. It sets up a framework in which we reflect and give meaning to experience.

The desert and the parched land will exult;the steppe will rejoice and bloom.They will bloom with abundant flowers,and rejoice with joyful song.

Then will the eyes of the blind be opened,the ears of the deaf be cleared;then will the lame leap like a stag,then the tongue of the mute will sing.

What was the situation in which these words were first heard? What was the context?

These prophetic words were uttered to a defeated people in exile. Surrounded by the celebrated and lush gardens of victorious Babylon, Israel carries the memory of the destruction of their nation and temple; a defeat for their God. In this context they hear “rejoice with joyful song”. Captive Israel responds with Psalm 137, ‘how can we sing of God in a foreign land?’ What meaning can the promise of the blind seeing, the deaf hearing, the lame leaping, and the mute singing be for captives of war who are themselves wounded, maimed and intentionally blinded as was King Zedekiah.

Then there is John the Baptist. Earlier in Matthew’s Gospel he says, “One who is mightier than I is coming…” Pointing out Jesus in John’s Gospel, he proclaims, “Here is the Lamb of God, who takes away sin…”  John has the answers. He has the conviction. He has the clarity to know Jesus is the real thing. So why is he now asking, “Are you really the one who is to come or do we look for another?”

What has happened? Context.

John is in prison. He has been arrested and jailed as a political enemy. Have you ever been imprisoned? [Before you answer, I will warn you, it is a deceptive question.] Prison can put doubt in anyone’s heart.

And it was not prison alone that prompted John’s question to Jesus. It was something else. “When John heard in prison, what Jesus was doing, he sent his disciples with a question…”  What was Jesus doing that raised doubts in John? Jesus’ answer mirrors the prophet: “the blind regain their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised,and the poor have the good news proclaimed to them”.

Why would these acts raise questions in John’s mind? Did Jesus not somehow fit John’s idea of a saviour? Does Jesus fit our idea of a saviour?

What is our context?

Let us return to my deceptive question. Have you ever been imprisoned – or exiled? Is there a difference between exile and prison? I think not. In both experiences a person, against their will, is cut off from what is known and familiar, relationships and self-determination and hope. It is an experience filled with sadness and doubt, frustration, fear and helplessness. The perfect ground from which the yearning for a Saviour can grow and mature?

Like the people of Israel, what is our context as a church, as a nation?

Like John the Baptist, what are our individual contexts?

All of us in some way are imprisoned or exiled though we may not realize it or more honestly admit to it. The loveless marriage in which the couple goes through the motions of relationship. The experience of loneliness. Friends and family have died or moved away. Maybe we have had to move and there is no welcome or the catch all, everyone is “busy”. The person who as an impressionable child was called fat, useless, geek, fag, and lives life from behind and through those prison bars. The person who is ensnared in an addiction: food, hoarding, pornography, alcohol, drugs, playing video games, sex, shopping… I suppose anything can become an addiction, an exile, a prison. There is the person who has been made to fear due to abuse, hate, physical violence. The person who always needs to win and be better than others. Is that another way of experiencing a need to be loved?

We see prison and exile on a larger scale with the rise of anti-Semitism, continued racism, the real and metaphorical walls built against refugees and migrants, students who commit suicide, the inability to address mass shootings, the continued stigma against people with mental illnesses, disabilities and the homeless and people who live in poverty.

Without acknowledging that in some way we are all exiled or imprisoned, Advent and Christmas simply become, ‘the holidays’. Devoid of our acknowledgment of exile and helplessness; they are devoid of a need for a God who saves.

So what is your context?