THIRD SUNDAY IN ADVENT 2017
This week’s readings are
full of expectation, anticipation, and the sighting of buds and blooms of
nearness. Appropriate texts for this Sunday in Advent, I think. We’re zeroing
in on the figure of the Messiah. Last week we talked about the kind of waiting
required of us, that paradoxical “waiting that hastens the Day of the Lord.” This
week we look at waiting itself.
We live between God’s
acts in the past and what he will do in our future. Psa.126 captures this
perfectly. The first three verses celebrate the Lord’s past actions for his
people; the last three anticipate his actions in restoring their fortunes.
Isa.61 looks forward
to the coming of a Spirit-anointed one who will bring healing and justice. Lk.1,
Mary’s famous “Magnificat” looks forward to the great reversal of all things God
will enact in favor of the poor, hungry, and lowly. John 1 edges us closer to
the realization of all this with its sighting of the “Lamb of God.”
Waiting is not easy.
Nor do we do it well. Yet, these words of Dietrich Bonhoeffer remain true:
"Whoever does not know the austere blessedness of waiting—that is, of
hopefully doing without—will never experience the full blessing of fulfillment.
For the greatest, most profound, tenderest things in the world, we must wait.”
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