Breath of the Spirit
RVC’s Weekly Spiritual Essay
December 12, 2004: THIRD SUNDAY OF ADVENT
Readings
Isaiah 35: 1-6, 10
James 5: 7-10
Matthew 11:2-11
A Protestant Scripture scholar tells an interesting story about something which happened while he and his family were on vacation in New England. They were touring a pre-Revolutionary War home, guided by a direct descendant of its builder. “As we were being led through the living room,” the man remembered, “I noticed a beautiful musket hanging over the fireplace. Being a gun collector, I reached up as I walked by and reverently touched its stock. I was startled when the guide yelled, ‘Don’t touch that gun!’
“I quickly assured her I intended no harm. ‘Oh,’ she replied, ‘I’m not worried you’re going to damage it. I don’t want you to get hurt. It’s loaded!’
“When I asked what a loaded gun was doing in reach of dozens of tourists, she explained, ‘I didn’t load it. My ancestor who built this house loaded it. He did it one night in front of his whole family. And when he hung it above the fireplace he promised, “This musket will fire the first shot for the independence of the colonies.”
“’He died before 1775?’ I asked.
“’No,’ the woman responded. ‘He lived into the 19th century.’
“’Then why didn’t he fire the gun?’
“’Well,’ she answered with a smile, ‘he just never thought Colonel Washington’s little skirmishes with the British would ever amount to very much.’”
No matter how much we plan for the future, it rarely unfolds exactly the way we plan. Sometimes it’s so different from what we project, we don’t even notice that what we’ve anticipated has actually happened.
In the case of today’s three readings, many of those who for centuries had been anticipating Yahweh breaking into their world, never noticed that Jesus embodied that event.
Perhaps they literally interpreted words like Isaiah’s oracle in today’s first reading. They actually thought the desert and parched land would actually “exult or bloom with abundant flowers and rejoice with joyful song.” If so, they certainly missed Yahweh’s presence when it finally sprang forth.
On the other hand, when John’s disciples ask Jesus, “Are you ‘He who is to come’ or do we look for another?” his reply seems to be grounded in a literal reading of that same Isaiah pericope. “The blind recover their sight,” he answers, “cripples walk, lepers are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised to life, and the poor have the good news preached to them.”
But then he quickly adds something which coincides with our reflection: “Blest is the person who finds no stumbling block in me.” No matter how Jesus’ ministry dovetailed with Isaiah’s vision, it still wasn’t a perfect match with John’s expectations.
Jesus’ statement helps us understand James’ remark in our second reading. “As your models,” he writes, “in suffering hardships and in patience, brothers and sisters, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord.”
Biblical prophecy experts often remind us that even though prophets speak in the Lord’s name, their words are rarely carried out in the exact way they’re proclaimed. Prophets are sent just to deliver the word. God and the believing community will determine how that word actually takes flesh.
Even Jesus can be a stumbling block to John, someone who’s not only a prophet, but the greatest person to have lived before Jesus. No matter what God-given word John proclaimed, it’s evident from today’s gospel pericope that he never thought he was preparing the way for a carpenter from Nazareth. Jesus wasn’t quite the person he was anticipating.
Why should we who are “born into the kingdom of God” be any different from our predecessors in the faith? We can’t experience God working in our lives without first crawling over the stumbling block of our own projections.
Given the right circumstances, even we might never fire that musket.