Second Sunday of Advent: Who Are You Waiting For?

Isaiah 11:1-10

Psalm 72:1-7, 18-19

Romans 15:4-13

Matthew 3:1-12

At the turn of the first millennium, the Roman province of Judea was a hotbed of political instability.  The crisis of Roman occupation gave rise to any number of would-be prophets, liberators and messiahs.  References to these are made within the biblical texts themselves.  For example, in  the Acts of  the Apostles is related how a certain “Theudas rose up, claiming to be somebody, and a number of men, about four hundred, joined him; but he was killed, and all who followed him were dispersed and disappeared”; and how “after him Judas the Galilean rose up at the time of the census and got people to follow him; he also perished, and all who followed him were scattered.” (Acts 5:36-37)  It is most likely this latter insurrection that is referred to in the Gospel of Luke when mention is made of the “Galilaeans, whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices.”  (Luke 13:1)  The earliest Christians were very aware of the context in which they lived, and all the synoptic gospels – Mark, Matthew and Luke – bear a similar warning spoken by Jesus himself: “Beware that you are not led astray; for many will come in my name and say, ‘I am he!’ and, ‘The time is near!’  Do not go after them.” (Luke 21:8) 

Perhaps the reason that so many such pseudo-messiahs arose and why many followed them was that this dynamic of expecting some sort of redeemer figure was so prevalent a motif in Jewish religious and political tradition, particularly when the Jewish people found themselves in crisis, at the mercy of foreign rulers or governments.  Writing in the kingdom of Judah, Isaiah’s words this morning are prompted by that kingdom’s own enforced vassaldom to the Assyrians, and the prophet looks forward to the “shoot that will come out from the stock of Jesse”, (Isaiah 11:1) and who will usher justice and peace.  Equally in the Gospel, John the Baptist looks forward to one who “will baptize…with the Holy Spirit and fire.  [Whose] winnowing fork is in his hand, and [who] will clear his threshing floor and will gather his wheat into the granary; but the chaff…will burn with unquenchable fire.” (Matthew 3:11-12)  And if we are honest, we all sort of want that – someone who will step in and right our wrongs, clean things up; indeed, any number of a political careers have been built on pseudo-messianic promises; while at the same time many have been led astray, disappointed and even destroyed by misplacing their trust in such promises.

During Advent, we Christians set time aside not just to prepare for Christmas, but perhaps also to re-think, reflect intentionally on what we want to say, what we mean to say, when we talk in the language of messiah, savior, redeemer.  In keeping with our theme of waiting this Advent, we want to ask the question, “Who are we waiting for?”  “Who exactly are we waiting for?”  It can be tempting to think of the Messiah as the one who, as I mentioned, arrives to fix all the messes and right all the injustices, who will make the “wicked” pay, and in an instant avenge the righteous (and by righteous, we usually mean ourselves), a messiah who will exonerate and justify our cause, our way of doing things.  Yet, what we see time and time again is that that sort of tactic never really works.  Indeed, it does not reconcile or bring lasting peace, but rather intensifies divisions and creates often long-standing resentments.  It always disappoints, because what we desire is to change our circumstances without having to change ourselves; and in Jesus – the one whom we call Messiah – in Jesus what we see is one who calls for our transformation first: “But I say to you that listen, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you…Do to others as you would have them do to you.” (Luke 6:27, 31)  He reminds us that God our Father “makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous”, (Matthew 5:45) and encourages us to “be merciful, just as [our] Father is merciful.” (Luke 6:36)  The Messiah we discover in Jesus in not one who comes from above to set all things right in one fell swoop, but one who demonstrates the over-reaching power of love and service; a Messiah who thinks it better to suffer injustice, than to create it. 

But, he is a Messiah also who is willing and able to place his own spirit in us, and includes us so that we can join in the holy work of bringing real justice and real peace, of effecting lasting reconciliation.  Before his death Jesus promised to send his own spirit upon his followers, and it is the coming of the Spirit at Pentecost which gave to the small, frightened band of disciples the power to go out into the world and begin the work of reconciling all things to God in justice and peace.  The Christian Messiah is one who does not coerce or subjugate, but instead woos us into relationship with him, with each other, and with the world; a messiah that treats not as children, pawns or servants, but as friends: “I do not call you servants any longer, because the servant does not know what the master is doing; but I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything that I have heard from my Father.” (John 15:15)  The Christian Messiah does not impose his will, but includes us into his will, and invites us to invite others: “Welcome one another therefore, just as Christ has welcomed you, for the glory of God.” (Romans 15:4)

This sort of Messiah is the only Messiah that can really redeem, because it is the only sort of Messiah who creates no victims, makes no one a subject.  His work may move more slowly, appear even as counter-intuitive, but it is the only work which widens the circle that can really make possible the renewal of all things.  Any other sort of redeemer even if “successful” by conventional standards is “successful” only for a time;  and most – as the followers of Theudas and of Judas the Galilean discovered – are not successful at all, their vision and aims being too short-sighted.

As we find our ourselves in a time of expectation, let us consider what we are looking forward to, who we are waiting for.  If we are too attached to conventional models of redemption, we may miss the Savior as he passes, we may miss the softeness of his approach, We may not hear his invitation, for it is gentle; we may not perceive his ways, for they are subtle.  Still, should we respond, then we will be joined to him and his will shall become our will, and he will transform us more surely than any fire or revolution.      

Who are you waiting for?  If you are passively waiting for someone who will come in and change things all at once, vindicate your ways, and establish a new reign from above, chances are you will be disappointed, if not altogether duped.  Rather, if you wish to be transformed according to the ways of reconciliation, the ways of real peace and real justice, if you are willing to become part of God’s reign rather than just its beneficiary, then indeed the “kingdom of heaven has come.” (Matthew 3:2)  The Messiah in whom we believe, in whom we trust, has placed in you his own spirit, and his mission is your mission.  In this sense he has already come and now perhaps he waits for you to give yourself over and be formed fully into his likeness, into what St Paul calls “the measure of the full stature of Christ”. (Ephesians 4:13b)