Advent 3B
December 17, 2023
Grace Lutheran Church
Lakeland, Florida
Isaiah 61:1-4, 8-11
Psalm 126
I Thessalonians 5: 16-24
John 1:6-8, 19-28
Grace to you and peace from God and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Please pray with me. May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable in your sight O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.
So, again, this Advent our theme is “Watch – Wait – Wonder – Worship.” And today is the third Sunday of Advent and the word is Wonder. Now, I’ve wondered about what wonder really means. On our Advent word calendar, some of the words around the third Sunday of Advent are “eager,” “hope,” even “silence.” I think that there is “wonder” and then there is “wonder.” Wonder seems to have a couple of different meanings. Perhaps on any given day it encompasses doubt or uncertainty or curiosity. Maybe like, “We have a picnic planned; I wonder if it is going to rain.” OR “I wonder what it’s like for my neighbor right now since her husband is so ill.”
Then there is also a meaning that is rather different from that. “Wonder” can also carry a sense of awe or marveling with it. When I sit at my kitchen table as the sun is setting out of my view, I sit in wonder at the colors and shapes of the clouds. When I stand in the midst of some striking beauty of nature, I may be overcome with a sense of wonder. I think this may be some of what the Virgin Mary felt when we read in the Scriptures, that she “treasured all these words and pondered them in her heart.”
So, yes, our word is “Wonder” and I wonder which of these two meanings is most fitting for you today. Neither is right or wrong. And I rather think that the people of God may have felt both simultaneously at times throughout history.
A few years ago in November, I made a trip back to Minneapolis to see my aunt, the last surviving sibling on my mother’s side of the family. And I wanted to go to the neighborhood where I had grown up.
Mom and Dad lived in Richfield, a suburb of Minneapolis not far from the airport. We eventually became accustomed to the take-offs and landings that took place with flight patterns right over the house. Sometimes they were so low, I think we might have actually been able to wave at the passengers. Eventually though the airplane noise became a real problem. When the airport made plans to add another runway, they were required to buy up all the houses in an area of at least 12 or 15 blocks – maybe more.
So, I headed to my old house. It was gone, nothing left. No house, no sidewalk, just the curb cut for the driveway. All 12 houses were gone except one. And only curb cuts remained.
In my mind’s eye, I saw things as they were when I was a child – friends outside playing, unlocked doors, waiting on the corner for the school bus to pick us up. The flower beds that were planted. Yes, that’s what I saw in my mind’s eye. A kind of wondering. Nothing like I saw that day in November.
The twelve tribes that had been the Israelites, separated into two Kingdoms – the Kingdom of Israel in the North and the Kingdom of Judah in the South. The northern kingdom fell to the Assyrians in 700 BC and hasn’t been heard of since that time. The Southern Kingdom was conquered by the Babylonians in 586 BC and the important and powerful people of Judah – were taken into exile in Babylonia.
They watched and waited not knowing if or when they would be permitted to go home. They told the stories of their homeland to the next generation who had never lived there. They remembered and longed for home. Their memories were filled with wonder and their thoughts were filled with wonder of a different sort – would we ever be able to go home? What will find when we get there? They wondered. After 70 years, they were permitted to return. Can you imagine the excitement and anticipation! Going home. But, none who were returning had ever lived there. They had only heard the stories, the vivid descriptions given by their elders.
The trip from Babylon to Jerusalem covered a distance of about 900 miles, and according to Biblical accounts, took about 14 weeks. They averaged about 10 miles a day. Long arduous journey. But they were going home. They would soon realize what they had hoped for and longed for for such a long time.
But they returned to a land that had been neglected for 70 years. They returned to a Temple, the magnificent Temple, that for the first time had been destroyed. They returned to houses not lived in for decades, to fields that hadn’t been tended. They returned home to find only curb cuts. They may have had a sense of wonder and of awe that they were finally back home. And they may have a sense of wonder and uncertainty – how can this land ever be fertile and beautiful again.
What they had longed for had not come. What they had waited for had not materialized. More work to do. More waiting. Disappointment. Maybe even despair.
In the midst of this the prophet – one who speaks the word of the Lord – the prophet Isaiah proclaims amazing things. He says I have been anointed to bring you good news – the one who is captive will be freed, the brokenhearted will have their heart bound up, the one who is imprisoned will be released, those who mourn will be comforted. They will have a beautiful garland instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning and a mantle of praise. What a gospel message! What good news!
The prophet was anointed by God to speak the good news of hope to people who sorely needed it. God could have spoken it aloud himself from heaven. God could have spoken it silently to each one in their minds. God have delivered this good news in any number of ways. but the God of the universe chose a human being to deliver God’s words.
One of the pieces of good news that the prophet delivers to them is that they will be oaks of righteousness displaying God’s glory. They will raise up that which had been devastated. They will rebuild ruined cities. All will see that God has greatly blessed his people.
When the captives returned to Jerusalem, realized something that they had been waiting for and hoping for and dreaming of for a long time. When they returned to Jerusalem, they realized that there were only curb cuts left where once there had a been a thriving neighborhood. They marveled at the fact that they had received deliverance from their enemies. And they heard the good news of the prophet – how things would be in time to come – and they questioned, maybe even doubted if the promises would ever be realized or is it just a pipedream.
I don’t know all of the things that you are wondering about. I do know some of the things that I am. I know some of the beauty and joy that you experience this season, even if only a fleeting moment. I know a bit of the curb cuts that you may be navigating around right now. Hear the words of the prophet – the Lord has anointed me to bring you good news – not like the emperor brings but the true good news of God. And this good news is for all who are brokenhearted, oppressed, mourning, weak. A savior is coming! And his name shall be called Emmanuel – God with Us. As the earth brings forth saplings and new shoots of growth and as a garden produces that which is planted, so it is that the Lord God will cause righteousness and praise to flourish before all humankind.
Looking around we may wonder if this really can be. We see such discord and violence, such oppression and need. We see very little of righteousness and praise. And that my friends is why we must watch carefully and wait eagerly for as the prophet proclaimed, the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all shall see it together for the mouth of the Lord has spoken it.
It is a wonder, isn’t it.
Thanks be to God. Amen.
