Still standing in line
Commentary
Object:
Inevitably it happens to any adult or any church leader toward the end of the year, or the time their driver's license expires. Despite the well-intended efforts to try to settle it through the mail, we end up in a long line at the local Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) office. Typically there is a little box with numbers one is supposed to take so they may be identified when the clerk calls for that number's turn in line. The wait can be very tedious. The workers and customers are both tired and anxious with each unique personal vehicle issue. If one is unfortunate enough to live in an area where there are frequent power outages, then the DMV computers can shut down and Lord knows what is next! It could be a long wait for the bureaucratic red tape machines to reboot themselves, or one may be asked to return the next day. Eventually the state is obligated to address the request for a license, be it for an automobile, motorcycle, camper trailer, or whatever road vehicle one needs licensed in that state. The license or plate color tab will eventually be given out. As the weather may or may not be good outside, the citizens are still standing in line. They are still loyal citizens. How does one speak to the spiritual dimension of one's life when the powers that be somehow have our lives on hold? This is the reason to have some sort of Advent-type theology. It does not have to happen in the winter. It could just as easily occur on a hot August Friday afternoon. Advent faith is always a good set of tools to have in one's spiritual toolkit. Today's texts are examples of such tools for the faith.
Isaiah 35:1-10
One way to work with this text is through the last phrase in verse 10, "Sorrow and sighing shall flee away" (v. 10b). Isaiah 35:1-2 addresses a community experiencing a drought and suggests this situation will be altered. The faithful believers will be healed (vv. 3-4); the community will return home safely and joyfully (vv. 8-10). The good news for the sorrowful and sighing is that God's new creation has not come to full completion. So any condition of waiting or having one's life put "on hold" is not the final word. God does restore and rehabilitate the fallen and the destroyed. This prophet argues contrary to modern populist "apocalyptic" views that God destroys the earth and rebuilds it. For example, mainline churches can be restored. Communities that have been taken over then abandoned by industrial and commercial interests can be renewed. Isaiah's theology is that God can bring comfort and assurance to a people who cry out. (Isaiah 40 elaborates on any themes of hope here in Isaiah 35.)
This text affirms God's sovereignty. God keeps God's promises. God will rehabilitate God's people. God strengthens weak hands and feeble knees and pays back evildoers with God's own vengeance (vv. 3-4). God opens eyes of the blind (v. 5) and opens a highway or road back home. The beast and creatures of destruction will be absent.
Applying verse 10 as a tool for preaching, does a given community of faith lack ministry resources or disciples who are committed to the mission of the church and does this community of faith have people who feel drained and tired? Isaiah 35 assures such communities that God is still at work in them. God has not pressed the "nuke button"! As one waits in a dreary line such as at the DMV, God's hand is at work behind the scenes. God wants "comfort" for God's people (Isaiah 40).
To communities who have been wounded with conflict, loss, or natural disasters, God will strengthen such people, and reversals are always possible with God. So the "sorrow and sighing shall [eventually] flee away." This may take time. But this is the season of Advent perspective on God's works -- that is, it takes time that the populist culture resists in favor of results in milliseconds! Christians are to approach such situations with a humble and repentant spirit as John the Baptist preaches in his ministry. As some people use this season to go on a spending spree, violating personal boundaries in the name of the "holiday spirit," Isaiah 35 addresses those who actually dread these holidays. There still might be an intrusion on their already uneasy feelings about the economy, family finances, and future of the job market. However, Isaiah 35 reminds people of faith of all times that humble faith and daily repentance [taking one's spiritual inventory] does indeed result in reversals of fortune, and there is new life in the land that looked corrupt in the past.
God points people to the highway to the Holy Way. So those who are sorrowful and sighing do have a roadmap to follow. But it is God's Holy Way, not necessarily the populist way to success and prosperity that is on television infomercials, sells books, or inflates a person's ego. Again, humility and repentance are the postures to take in Advent. Then sighing and sorrow will eventually fly away. Applied to the person at the DMV, they may not make it out of the office in time to beat the rush-hour traffic, but they will eventually be out of the office because government workers also want to get home to their families. God's intention is for all people to be home in the joy of their families and to be able to sing rather than sigh and be sorrowful. This is the good news of Advent -- no matter how long one has to stand in line. [Source: Walter Brueggemann, Isaiah 1-39 (Westminster John Knox, 1998)]
James 5:7-10
This text encourages people of faith to patiently endure injustice and wrongdoing in their lives. This is done by strengthening one's heart (v. 8) and not grumbling (v. 9). The metaphor of a farmer's patience once the crop is planted serves as one example (v. 7). Another example is that of the prophets of the Hebrew Bible (v. 10). If one wants to go further, James 5:11 cites Job as being patient (though many modern scholars still debate how "patient" Job really was -- probably "unrelenting" and "faithful" might be better terms). Such waiting results in a mature faith.
A larger interpretative lens one might use to preach this text is through the basic theme of the book of James found in James 1:22, "Be doers of the word and not merely hearers who deceive themselves… so faith without works is dead" (1:26). Practicing one's faith during the Advent season is indeed being patient, even when things look so wrong and unjust. Like a farmer's crops, the waiting time can be quite irritating. But the longer the wait, the more mature the crop is for the harvest. A helpful Psalm one might use to augment this text if the people of faith are going through a very difficult time of crisis is Psalm 27:14, "Wait for the Lord; be strong and let your heart take courage; wait for the Lord."
For the person standing in line at the DMV, James is a challenge to grow spiritually while seeing all of the antics, politicking, and loud voices in the room. James calls Christians of all times to actually practice the faith they confess on Sundays. Sometimes the hardest trials are not violent surges of attacking people or natural disasters, but the slow, tedious times of waiting and wondering "Will this ever end?" Advent faith sees such times "par for the course." This is another reason why the broader commercial culture resists remembering Advent values during the "Christmas season." [Source: Pheme Perkins, Interpretation, a Bible Commentary for Teaching and Preaching: First and Second Peter, James and Jude (Westminster John Knox, 1995)]
Matthew 11:2-11
How a person interprets Malachi 3:1-2 is a key to understanding this John the Baptist text in Matthew 11. The text in question reads: "See, I am sending my messenger to prepare the way before me, and the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple. The messenger of the covenant in whom you delight -- indeed, he is coming, says the Lord of hosts. 2But who can endure the day of his coming, and who can stand when he appears? For he is like a refiner's fire and like fullers' soap" (Malachi 3:1-2). John the Baptist, who is in jail after Herod arrested him, fully expects an Elijah sort of messianic figure who is capable of calling down fire from the sky to slay Israel's enemies as recorded in 2 Kings 1:1-18. Instead, God has chosen the model of the servant in Isaiah 29 and 53 as well as the humble king who rides on a donkey in Zechariah 9:9.
If there is to be an "Elijah" figure, John the Baptist himself fits such a portrayal with his words such as "but when he saw many Pharisees and Sadducees coming for baptism, he said to them, 'You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? 8Bear fruit worthy of repentance. 9Do not presume to say to yourselves, "We have Abraham as our ancestor"; for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham. 10Even now the axe is lying at the root of the trees; every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire' " (Matthew 3:7-10). Elijah has arrived in John!
With that said, Jesus essentially affirms John's ministry as the turning point of God's salvation history for the people of Israel. Jesus contrasts the royal clothing of Herod Antipas with that of his captive John the Baptist, who is indeed the messenger of Malachi 3:1. Jesus praises John's ministry; some scholars suggest that he is the final prophet of the older Hebrew Bible period.
Jesus' period of transformation will not mirror the past Hebrew Bible periods of violence and fire coming down from the sky. John's message of "repentance" is the key to the era of this new messiah who views who or what one places their faith in as more important than who a person is by physical birth. This messiah will not use violence or coercion to bring in the new kingdom of heaven. In Jesus' words in verse 15, "Let anyone who hears listen," he is appealing to the wisdom traditions of the Hebrew Bible rather than the apocalyptic literature. This is how the Matthew text is tied to Isaiah's message of reformation and rehabilitation.
John has waited in prison, possibly for an apocalyptic or more militaristic intrusive messianic figure. Matthew sees this as a reasonable guess, but not what God has in mind for Israel. Healing the blind, the lame, the lepers, and deaf people as well as raising the dead and feeding the poor are what this messiah is about for Matthew. This is a close description of Isaiah 29:18-19. In practical terms as it applies to Advent, the kingdom of heaven will take some time. But it is on its way! This continues to be the good news of Advent. Meanwhile, people of God may end up dying for their faith, as John the Baptist would in Matthew 14:1-12. This sort of text reminds people of all time that just because the Times Square ball drops down on New Year's Eve, this is not God's time table for the kingdom of heaven. [Source: Ben Witherington, Smyth & Helwys Bible Commentary: Matthew (Smyth & Helwys, 2006)]
Application
I grow weary of reminding people that "we are in Advent, not Christmas" during this time of year. Quite often, the Halloween decorations in the stores are quickly replaced by commercial Christmas decorations. Once more people may feel as if they are "made to feel guilty" for not buying gifts they cannot afford or are not deserved by the recipients. I try to reframe this Advent season into the reality that "waiting while injustice abounds and our lives are put on hold" often happens all year around. The Advent texts are spiritual tools to deal with waiting rooms in medical facilities, family members who make promises that they are slow to keep, and annoying people and situations that put our lives "on hold." Isaiah reminds us that God is good for God's promises, even if the immediate evidence shows a vast wilderness that borders on despair. God is capable of reversals. God does not abandon the people, even if they are waiting for their car to be repaired and the part has to be ordered from out of state or offshore.
For those of us who deal with people who like to pride themselves as being "spiritual but not religious," James 5 does not let them off the hook so easily! Life is unfair. People and organizations do not keep their time deadlines. Nobody likes to listen to a whiner! So to grow in one's spirituality regardless of whether they are committed to a community of worship or not, one is not to grumble. Patience is a virtue here. Finally, if anybody thinks their lives are difficult, simply turn on the Weather Channel to see which agricultural states in the American heartland are dealing with the latest flood, drought, fire, or tornado disaster. Such events do not check where a person has or does not have their church membership. This is simply a time when communities are called to rally together in the very traits that James 5:7-10 prescribes: patience, strong hearts, and a lack of grumbling. All of these are part of the Advent spiritual toolkit.
John the Baptist will not be around for the "Innocence Project" to take his DNA and hopefully spring him from jail. John will not be on 60 Minutes, describing what it felt like to be unjustly imprisoned. Still, Jesus hails him as one of those whom no one who has risen from a woman is greater than (Matthew 11:11). He is part of the kingdom of the Messiah, though he might not be experiencing many of its practical perks. The messianic age comes in all forms and does not have to conform with "this is how things were done in the past." One practical example might be a church that used to have a cherished midnight Christmas Eve service every year. However, due to costs, diminished attendance, and tight schedules, this service is cancelled. Instead, the big event of the church has become "decorating and de-decorating" the church sanctuary and Christmas tree. People pause for a time of soup and fellowship. They do hands-on work with Christians of all ages and generations. The slow in-breaking of the kingdom shows itself before and after the actual Christmas days around homemade soup and sharing personal stories while ladders, Christmas trees bulbs, and extension cords are lying around the sanctuary.
An Alternative Application
Having a loved one die during any holiday season might bring tears and sorrow while the rest of the society celebrates the season of the year. One, two, or three years later, the loss of the loved one lingers in the hearts and minds of the family. Advent faith is a reminder that the kingdom of heaven is arriving. The virtues in all three lessons can be applied to anybody who still mourns the loss of a loved one around a holiday season. Advent is about a certain spiritual maturity that accepts the pain of loss as well as welcoming in new and unexpected events in the life of the individual, family, and community of faith.
Isaiah 35:1-10
One way to work with this text is through the last phrase in verse 10, "Sorrow and sighing shall flee away" (v. 10b). Isaiah 35:1-2 addresses a community experiencing a drought and suggests this situation will be altered. The faithful believers will be healed (vv. 3-4); the community will return home safely and joyfully (vv. 8-10). The good news for the sorrowful and sighing is that God's new creation has not come to full completion. So any condition of waiting or having one's life put "on hold" is not the final word. God does restore and rehabilitate the fallen and the destroyed. This prophet argues contrary to modern populist "apocalyptic" views that God destroys the earth and rebuilds it. For example, mainline churches can be restored. Communities that have been taken over then abandoned by industrial and commercial interests can be renewed. Isaiah's theology is that God can bring comfort and assurance to a people who cry out. (Isaiah 40 elaborates on any themes of hope here in Isaiah 35.)
This text affirms God's sovereignty. God keeps God's promises. God will rehabilitate God's people. God strengthens weak hands and feeble knees and pays back evildoers with God's own vengeance (vv. 3-4). God opens eyes of the blind (v. 5) and opens a highway or road back home. The beast and creatures of destruction will be absent.
Applying verse 10 as a tool for preaching, does a given community of faith lack ministry resources or disciples who are committed to the mission of the church and does this community of faith have people who feel drained and tired? Isaiah 35 assures such communities that God is still at work in them. God has not pressed the "nuke button"! As one waits in a dreary line such as at the DMV, God's hand is at work behind the scenes. God wants "comfort" for God's people (Isaiah 40).
To communities who have been wounded with conflict, loss, or natural disasters, God will strengthen such people, and reversals are always possible with God. So the "sorrow and sighing shall [eventually] flee away." This may take time. But this is the season of Advent perspective on God's works -- that is, it takes time that the populist culture resists in favor of results in milliseconds! Christians are to approach such situations with a humble and repentant spirit as John the Baptist preaches in his ministry. As some people use this season to go on a spending spree, violating personal boundaries in the name of the "holiday spirit," Isaiah 35 addresses those who actually dread these holidays. There still might be an intrusion on their already uneasy feelings about the economy, family finances, and future of the job market. However, Isaiah 35 reminds people of faith of all times that humble faith and daily repentance [taking one's spiritual inventory] does indeed result in reversals of fortune, and there is new life in the land that looked corrupt in the past.
God points people to the highway to the Holy Way. So those who are sorrowful and sighing do have a roadmap to follow. But it is God's Holy Way, not necessarily the populist way to success and prosperity that is on television infomercials, sells books, or inflates a person's ego. Again, humility and repentance are the postures to take in Advent. Then sighing and sorrow will eventually fly away. Applied to the person at the DMV, they may not make it out of the office in time to beat the rush-hour traffic, but they will eventually be out of the office because government workers also want to get home to their families. God's intention is for all people to be home in the joy of their families and to be able to sing rather than sigh and be sorrowful. This is the good news of Advent -- no matter how long one has to stand in line. [Source: Walter Brueggemann, Isaiah 1-39 (Westminster John Knox, 1998)]
James 5:7-10
This text encourages people of faith to patiently endure injustice and wrongdoing in their lives. This is done by strengthening one's heart (v. 8) and not grumbling (v. 9). The metaphor of a farmer's patience once the crop is planted serves as one example (v. 7). Another example is that of the prophets of the Hebrew Bible (v. 10). If one wants to go further, James 5:11 cites Job as being patient (though many modern scholars still debate how "patient" Job really was -- probably "unrelenting" and "faithful" might be better terms). Such waiting results in a mature faith.
A larger interpretative lens one might use to preach this text is through the basic theme of the book of James found in James 1:22, "Be doers of the word and not merely hearers who deceive themselves… so faith without works is dead" (1:26). Practicing one's faith during the Advent season is indeed being patient, even when things look so wrong and unjust. Like a farmer's crops, the waiting time can be quite irritating. But the longer the wait, the more mature the crop is for the harvest. A helpful Psalm one might use to augment this text if the people of faith are going through a very difficult time of crisis is Psalm 27:14, "Wait for the Lord; be strong and let your heart take courage; wait for the Lord."
For the person standing in line at the DMV, James is a challenge to grow spiritually while seeing all of the antics, politicking, and loud voices in the room. James calls Christians of all times to actually practice the faith they confess on Sundays. Sometimes the hardest trials are not violent surges of attacking people or natural disasters, but the slow, tedious times of waiting and wondering "Will this ever end?" Advent faith sees such times "par for the course." This is another reason why the broader commercial culture resists remembering Advent values during the "Christmas season." [Source: Pheme Perkins, Interpretation, a Bible Commentary for Teaching and Preaching: First and Second Peter, James and Jude (Westminster John Knox, 1995)]
Matthew 11:2-11
How a person interprets Malachi 3:1-2 is a key to understanding this John the Baptist text in Matthew 11. The text in question reads: "See, I am sending my messenger to prepare the way before me, and the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple. The messenger of the covenant in whom you delight -- indeed, he is coming, says the Lord of hosts. 2But who can endure the day of his coming, and who can stand when he appears? For he is like a refiner's fire and like fullers' soap" (Malachi 3:1-2). John the Baptist, who is in jail after Herod arrested him, fully expects an Elijah sort of messianic figure who is capable of calling down fire from the sky to slay Israel's enemies as recorded in 2 Kings 1:1-18. Instead, God has chosen the model of the servant in Isaiah 29 and 53 as well as the humble king who rides on a donkey in Zechariah 9:9.
If there is to be an "Elijah" figure, John the Baptist himself fits such a portrayal with his words such as "but when he saw many Pharisees and Sadducees coming for baptism, he said to them, 'You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? 8Bear fruit worthy of repentance. 9Do not presume to say to yourselves, "We have Abraham as our ancestor"; for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham. 10Even now the axe is lying at the root of the trees; every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire' " (Matthew 3:7-10). Elijah has arrived in John!
With that said, Jesus essentially affirms John's ministry as the turning point of God's salvation history for the people of Israel. Jesus contrasts the royal clothing of Herod Antipas with that of his captive John the Baptist, who is indeed the messenger of Malachi 3:1. Jesus praises John's ministry; some scholars suggest that he is the final prophet of the older Hebrew Bible period.
Jesus' period of transformation will not mirror the past Hebrew Bible periods of violence and fire coming down from the sky. John's message of "repentance" is the key to the era of this new messiah who views who or what one places their faith in as more important than who a person is by physical birth. This messiah will not use violence or coercion to bring in the new kingdom of heaven. In Jesus' words in verse 15, "Let anyone who hears listen," he is appealing to the wisdom traditions of the Hebrew Bible rather than the apocalyptic literature. This is how the Matthew text is tied to Isaiah's message of reformation and rehabilitation.
John has waited in prison, possibly for an apocalyptic or more militaristic intrusive messianic figure. Matthew sees this as a reasonable guess, but not what God has in mind for Israel. Healing the blind, the lame, the lepers, and deaf people as well as raising the dead and feeding the poor are what this messiah is about for Matthew. This is a close description of Isaiah 29:18-19. In practical terms as it applies to Advent, the kingdom of heaven will take some time. But it is on its way! This continues to be the good news of Advent. Meanwhile, people of God may end up dying for their faith, as John the Baptist would in Matthew 14:1-12. This sort of text reminds people of all time that just because the Times Square ball drops down on New Year's Eve, this is not God's time table for the kingdom of heaven. [Source: Ben Witherington, Smyth & Helwys Bible Commentary: Matthew (Smyth & Helwys, 2006)]
Application
I grow weary of reminding people that "we are in Advent, not Christmas" during this time of year. Quite often, the Halloween decorations in the stores are quickly replaced by commercial Christmas decorations. Once more people may feel as if they are "made to feel guilty" for not buying gifts they cannot afford or are not deserved by the recipients. I try to reframe this Advent season into the reality that "waiting while injustice abounds and our lives are put on hold" often happens all year around. The Advent texts are spiritual tools to deal with waiting rooms in medical facilities, family members who make promises that they are slow to keep, and annoying people and situations that put our lives "on hold." Isaiah reminds us that God is good for God's promises, even if the immediate evidence shows a vast wilderness that borders on despair. God is capable of reversals. God does not abandon the people, even if they are waiting for their car to be repaired and the part has to be ordered from out of state or offshore.
For those of us who deal with people who like to pride themselves as being "spiritual but not religious," James 5 does not let them off the hook so easily! Life is unfair. People and organizations do not keep their time deadlines. Nobody likes to listen to a whiner! So to grow in one's spirituality regardless of whether they are committed to a community of worship or not, one is not to grumble. Patience is a virtue here. Finally, if anybody thinks their lives are difficult, simply turn on the Weather Channel to see which agricultural states in the American heartland are dealing with the latest flood, drought, fire, or tornado disaster. Such events do not check where a person has or does not have their church membership. This is simply a time when communities are called to rally together in the very traits that James 5:7-10 prescribes: patience, strong hearts, and a lack of grumbling. All of these are part of the Advent spiritual toolkit.
John the Baptist will not be around for the "Innocence Project" to take his DNA and hopefully spring him from jail. John will not be on 60 Minutes, describing what it felt like to be unjustly imprisoned. Still, Jesus hails him as one of those whom no one who has risen from a woman is greater than (Matthew 11:11). He is part of the kingdom of the Messiah, though he might not be experiencing many of its practical perks. The messianic age comes in all forms and does not have to conform with "this is how things were done in the past." One practical example might be a church that used to have a cherished midnight Christmas Eve service every year. However, due to costs, diminished attendance, and tight schedules, this service is cancelled. Instead, the big event of the church has become "decorating and de-decorating" the church sanctuary and Christmas tree. People pause for a time of soup and fellowship. They do hands-on work with Christians of all ages and generations. The slow in-breaking of the kingdom shows itself before and after the actual Christmas days around homemade soup and sharing personal stories while ladders, Christmas trees bulbs, and extension cords are lying around the sanctuary.
An Alternative Application
Having a loved one die during any holiday season might bring tears and sorrow while the rest of the society celebrates the season of the year. One, two, or three years later, the loss of the loved one lingers in the hearts and minds of the family. Advent faith is a reminder that the kingdom of heaven is arriving. The virtues in all three lessons can be applied to anybody who still mourns the loss of a loved one around a holiday season. Advent is about a certain spiritual maturity that accepts the pain of loss as well as welcoming in new and unexpected events in the life of the individual, family, and community of faith.
