Monday in the Third Week of Advent
Bind up the testimony, seal the teaching among my disciples. I will wait for the Lord...I will hope in him.
In a time of national distress, the most difficult thing to do is wait. We want action, NOW! We want solutions, NOW! We want a plan, NOW! We want to feel secture, NOW! We want decisive leaders, NOW! We want our "happy ending", NOW!
The situation in Jerusalem during in the 8th century, BCE, was precarious at best. I'm sure the rumor mill was rampant throughout the marketplace, the Temple and the king's palace. What would be done to stave off certain invasion? How would the citizenry be protected? What sort of strategy would be devised? Everyone knew the long odds for national survival. Everyone knew an invasion was just around the corner. In the absence of solid answers, people simply asked more and more desperate questions.
What was Isaiah's strategy in the face of such uncertainty and unrest?
Wait and hope.
Doesn't sound like much of a strategy does it?
I suppose the wisdom of such a strategy depends upon what it is that one is waiting for and who it is that one placing one's hope upon. But for Isaiah, waiting and hoping are not attitudes of passivity. Waiting and hoping are not euphemisms for doing nothing. Waiting and hoping are ACTIVE stances of faithfulness.
To occupy oneself with the testimony of the ancestors in the faith and to engage in the transmission of the teaching of the faith are vital forms of resistance -- of subverting power that has become bloated with hubris. To be busy with such activities is not about being out of step or impractical or "other-worldly". To the contrary, such actions are ways in which the faithful live out a worldview that has a longer timeline than the rising and falling of mere empires.
During this Advent season, when it seems as though all the news of our day is rife with panic and anxiety, perhaps the Church could borrow a 2800 year old exhortation from Isaiah -- wait and hope. Waiting and hoping are not the stances of the fearful or powerless. Rather, waiting and hoping are ways of witnessing that we have heard the testimonies of the faithful across time. Waiting and hoping are the ways of witnessing to our children and our children's children that we have savored the teachings of the faith. Waiting and hoping are ways of witnessing that our confidence resides in the One who holds everything, including us, securely -- until time shall be no more...and beyond.
Bind up the testimony, seal the teaching among my disciples. I will wait for the Lord...I will hope in him.
In a time of national distress, the most difficult thing to do is wait. We want action, NOW! We want solutions, NOW! We want a plan, NOW! We want to feel secture, NOW! We want decisive leaders, NOW! We want our "happy ending", NOW!
The situation in Jerusalem during in the 8th century, BCE, was precarious at best. I'm sure the rumor mill was rampant throughout the marketplace, the Temple and the king's palace. What would be done to stave off certain invasion? How would the citizenry be protected? What sort of strategy would be devised? Everyone knew the long odds for national survival. Everyone knew an invasion was just around the corner. In the absence of solid answers, people simply asked more and more desperate questions.
What was Isaiah's strategy in the face of such uncertainty and unrest?
Wait and hope.
Doesn't sound like much of a strategy does it?
I suppose the wisdom of such a strategy depends upon what it is that one is waiting for and who it is that one placing one's hope upon. But for Isaiah, waiting and hoping are not attitudes of passivity. Waiting and hoping are not euphemisms for doing nothing. Waiting and hoping are ACTIVE stances of faithfulness.
To occupy oneself with the testimony of the ancestors in the faith and to engage in the transmission of the teaching of the faith are vital forms of resistance -- of subverting power that has become bloated with hubris. To be busy with such activities is not about being out of step or impractical or "other-worldly". To the contrary, such actions are ways in which the faithful live out a worldview that has a longer timeline than the rising and falling of mere empires.
During this Advent season, when it seems as though all the news of our day is rife with panic and anxiety, perhaps the Church could borrow a 2800 year old exhortation from Isaiah -- wait and hope. Waiting and hoping are not the stances of the fearful or powerless. Rather, waiting and hoping are ways of witnessing that we have heard the testimonies of the faithful across time. Waiting and hoping are the ways of witnessing to our children and our children's children that we have savored the teachings of the faith. Waiting and hoping are ways of witnessing that our confidence resides in the One who holds everything, including us, securely -- until time shall be no more...and beyond.
posted by FrGaryB | 3:38 PM
2 Comments:
paragraph 5 - Thank you.
Thanks, Gary.
Perhaps we need to hurry up and slow down some!
You also got me thinking about hope. As the church, we confess that human life can and will by the power of God’s Spirit become not ever wealthier or powerful but more richly human, less frightened, freer, more secure in the peace that comes from charity and friendship; this is what we mean by hope. We can have hope, Herb McCabe once said, because we know that God will bring life out of defeat and failure as he brought life out of the tomb of Jesus. It may take us until the grave to learn this, but it sure beats trying to make history come out just right in our favor.
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