Saturday, December 10, 2016
Advent III ~ Year A ~ December 11, 2016
Sermon for the Third Sunday
of Advent
Year A ~ December 11,
2016
Holy Trinity & St.
Anskar
The wolf shall live with the lamb,
the leopard shall lie down with the kid…
the leopard shall lie down with the kid…
The nursing child shall play over the hole of the asp,
and the weaned child shall put its hand on the adder's den.
+In
the Name of God, the Holy and Undivided Trinity
The messianic peace seems unnatural to us: the wolf and
the lamb, the lion and the calf, children playing with deadly snakes, and so
on. Arresting images, intentionally shocking, because it is so unnatural.
Theologically speaking, however, this peace is not unnatural but preternatural. That means that what we
think of as natural is really fallen nature or nature in its fallen
state — outside the Garden. The Messiah will restore Creation as it was
intended by God, and before human beings screwed it up.
Now, we don’t have to think
of the Garden of Eden as literal pre-history in a paleonotological sense in
order to accept the deep truth of the mythology. Somehow, the world is not as
God intends it to be, and there is nothing we can do about it. The world cannot
fix itself: it’s own inner processes — the ones we call “natural” — cannot
evolve into anything better. The messianic peace comes from outside the world and its natural
processes, the processes of its fallen nature. That is why the beloved images
of Isaiah are so striking to us. They portray the world as it ought to be, not
as we know it or even think it can be.
Above all, the healing of
the world’s deformities means the healing of the perfection of God’s image on
earth in the world:
Then the eyes of the blind
shall be opened,
and the ears of the deaf unstopped;
and the ears of the deaf unstopped;
then the lame shall leap
like a deer,
and the tongue of the speechless sing for joy.
and the tongue of the speechless sing for joy.
This is a promise of God’s intention for creation. These
are the signs of the Advent of the Messiah, which is why Jesus pointed to them
rather than testifying to Himself, when asked by John’s disciples whether or
not He was the Messiah. He didn’t say “yes I am the Messiah;” but “look at
what’s happening: judge for yourself whether the Messiah is among you.”
Vigilance, repentance,
expectation or gestation: these Advent themes present another paradox: we are
to watch, but also to work. To change our minds and forsake our sins means not
passive waiting, but working to bear fruits worthy of repentance: working to
build the highway in the wilderness for the coming Messiah. And although the
world cannot produce its own healing, by its own natural processes, our
expectation is, nevertheless, like the expectation of a pregnant woman. The new
creation will be born of the old. But not in an entirely “natural” way — the
expectant mother is a Virgin.
AMEN!
MARANATHA!
COME, LORD JESUS!
+
