Collect and Readings for Third Sunday of Advent – Isaiah 35.1-10, Psalm 146.4-10, Magnificat, James 5.7-10, Matthew 11.2-11
The Prayer for today
O Lord Jesus Christ, who at your first coming sent your messenger to prepare your way before you:
grant that the ministers and stewards of your mysteries may likewise so prepare and make ready your
way by turning the hearts of the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, that at your second coming to
judge the world we may be found an acceptable people in your sight; for you are alive and reign with
the Father in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
John the Baptist’s task had been to prepare people for the coming of the Messiah, and that placed him, with all the prophets before him, in the age before the coming of the kingdom. We recall how John had urged people to sort out their lives, stressing the possibility of judgement as the all-seeing God came among his people in person, and it is easy to see how John’s enthusiasm had polished his hopes into a specific shape. This is something we are all prone to do.
While it helped the urgency and focus of John’s message, the side effect was that when Jesus’ ministry started to look different from his expectation John began to wonder if he’d been mistaken. The frustration and suffering of his imprisonment must have added to the undermining negatives.
What Jesus does is hold up the Isaiah prophecy as a checklist. If these signs of the kingdom are indeed happening, then John can trust that the promised Saviour is indeed at work, even if the style of his ministry is different from what he had imagined. It’s all to do with our expectations. If we get into the way of fleshing these out completely through our imagination, we may find that we don’t recognise the real thing when we see it.
So, it is as well to stay flexible, holding on to what we know for certain and keeping our minds open to details. This is true for us when we try to imagine God, heaven, or the end of all things. They may look like paintings and frescoes of the Old Masters, and they may not. We mustn’t let our expectations become stunted or narrowed by a particular artist’s impression. That is what happened when people expected the astronauts to see God above the clouds and were disappointed. Our great expectations of God will be fulfilled far in excess of anything we might imagine and entirely in keeping with his nature.
Some things to reflect on:
· Look at the ‘checklist‘ of Isaiah 35:1-10. What kind of kingdom does this suggest, and how does it differ from what John the Baptist was preaching (Matthew 3:1-12)?
· How do we sometimes limit God by our narrow expectations?
God bless and stay safe and well.
Rev’d Fiona Robinson
