Tuesday of the Second Week of Advent
To open “A Christmas Sermon on Peace,” Dr. Martin Luther King proclaimed, “This Christmas sermon finds us a rather bewildered human race. We have neither peace within nor peace without. Everywhere paralyzing fears harrow people by day and haunt them by night.” Sadly, this statement, penned in 1967, resonates with our contemporary situation. These past weeks, both far and near, has shown us that we have not achieved “peace within or peace without.” It has bore witness to much bewilderment and fear. Fear that paralyzes. Fear that haunts. Whatever our interpretations or judgments of our situation, it seems rather clear that this Advent season confronts us with the reality of a dream not yet realized.
It is significant that Advent is a season of preparation. We are preparing for the great event of reconciliation. It is preparation for God’s reconciliation with a broken world. It is the hope that, in spite of our brokenness, we might be reconciled to each other. Today’s readings help us prepare for this moment, this event, this reality in the midst of our troubled and bewildered times.
The first passage, from the prophet Isaiah, speaks words of comfort for a suffering people. The end of their suffering is at hand. A voice cries out to “make straight in the wasteland a highway for God.” This highway, this path, will lead God’s people to a high country. In this high country, the glory of God will shine forth. “All people shall see it together.” God’s people will witness the Glory not simply as individuals but in unity, as a people together.
The second passage, from the Gospel of Matthew, speaks to the power of reconciliation. Christ instructs his disciples that God seeks the lost and rejoices once the lost is found. Admittedly, I have always read this passage in terms of the “lost sheep” and its reconciliation with God. Certainly, God seeks the lost and rejoices over their reconciliation with him. At the same time, this passage is about the flock’s reconciliation to each other. Through the reconciliation of the lost to the Shepherd, the lost is also reconciled to the flock. Through Christ, we are reconciled to each other. A divided people are brought to unity in Christ.
In the midst of troubled times, we prepare for the comfort and reconciliation of Christ. We prepare for the Glory we will witness together as a people, as a Body. We prepare for Shepherd who draws the divided into unity. We prepare for a God who became Incarnate, so that the Glory could be gazed upon by a unified and reconciled world.
Today let us ponder in our hearts how comfort from suffering and reconcile from division in preparation for the Glory of Christ.
Adam Sheridan