3rd Sunday of Advent

December 16, 2007


MapQuest


In my continuing struggle to enter into the 21st century I have at last discovered how to use Map quest.

It certainly makes travel easier when you can get such a detailed route to your destination.

Needless to say that has become invaluable as I continued to go into new and uncharted territory.

Today, we have an incredible prophecy by that magnificent prophet Isaiah.

In fact, today’s words of Isaiah are a spiritual map quest for each and every one of us.

Isaiah tells us that, as impossible as it may seem, the wilderness and the dry land shall be glad – there will be blossoms in the desert, there will be joy and singing.

In this wilderness there will be healing for the blind, the deaf and the lame, and that water shall break forth in the desert, and that there will be a Holy Highway there over which the redeemed shall come with joy and singing, and, in this wilderness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.

That sounds wistfully good, doesn’t it, but, quite honestly, Isaiah’s mapquest seems to be a distant dream in the world in which we live.

For, we do live in a wilderness where there is so much suffering, so much violence, so much injustice, and world in which there is so much sorrow and sadness.

We live our technologically modern lives in a world that is a fearful place and a world in which our lives can be uncertain.

It is a world in which it is very difficult to look beyond the surface.

Many years ago we were driving from Jerusalem to Jericho.

It was the second time we had made this particular journey.

It is a downhill drive literally through a wilderness and a desert.

Along the way you see the tents of the desert nomads, the Bedouins, and very rarely would you ever see vegetation, much less the beauty of a flower.

But, this particular journey was different.

For, the closer we got to Jericho, the hills began to show color, and to our astonishment, the hills were resplendent with beautiful flowers.

When we got to Jericho, what was once desolate was literally teeming with gorgeous plants.

The wilderness and the desert had literally bloomed and blossomed.

There had been an usual amount of rain that winter, and resplendent color was literally popping out of the ground.

So, how did that happen?

How in the world could dry, brown, desolate hills be so incredibly red, yellow, and green with flowers and vegetation.

Had something new happened – had some miracle of God occurred?

No, because, the seeds were there all along – they had always been there just beneath the surface of the ground - the flowers were just waiting for a chance to pop up and bloom.

That is precisely what Isaiah’s mapquest is all about.

It leads us through what we perceive to be dry, fearful, desolate places in our lives, when, all along, the beauty, the love, and the presence of God is there all along.

The problem is, we quit looking at the spiritual map of Isaiah and become lost as we wander off in our own directions.

We become so myopic of vision in this world, that we fail to see that God is there.

In today’s Gospel we have a rather shocking quotation from John the Baptizer.

John has found himself in prison for confronting King Herod with his sins, and John sends a message to Jesus saying: “Are you he who is to come or shall we look for another?”

John has got to be kidding.

John, of whom it was said, “you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High, for your will go before the Lord to prepare his ways, to give knowledge of salvation to his people in the forgiveness of their sins.

John, who was the voice crying in the wilderness to repent, John who had the courageous audacity to call the religious hoi polloi a brood of vipers.

John, who had the incredible privilege of baptizing the Son of God, John who saw the heavens open and the spirit descending upon Jesus like a dove – John who pointed to Jesus and said, “Behold the lamb of God.”

Here is John, who begins to succumb to fear and to doubt that Jesus, was in fact, the Son of God.

My brothers and sisters, I am so glad for John and his fears and his doubt, for, that is the story of each and every one of us.

We can get so overcome by what is happening, what we see, and what we hear, that we loose our sight of the blooming of the desert flowers.

Jesus did respond to John by sending this message: “Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind receive their sight and the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up and the poor have good news preached to them.”

Jesus is telling John to look beyond his prison cell and the open his eyes, to follow the spiritual mapquest, and to see the wonders of God that is literally right under his eyes.

Jesus is telling us the same thing.

Jesus said: “Those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty.

The water that I give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life.”

That is precisely what Isaiah was talking about which break forth in the wilderness.

We receive the living water of Christ in our baptism, and today, Juliet Rose will receive those living waters, and a spiritual mapquest will enter her life in order to lead her through this troubled world.

Isaiah also had some other things to say in our mapquest:

“Be strong, fear not, behold your God will come and save you.”

Jesus said: “Fear not, little flock, for it is your father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.”

And, in a manger in Bethlehem, on a cross on Calvary, and in an empty tomb on Easter morning, God his indelibly placed his kingdom squarely in our lives.

In this Holy season of Advent, we need to look beyond this visible world, and to get back on the path of peace, freedom, and joy, which Christ has given to us.

We need to see that yes, the eyes of those who are blind with prejudice and anger can receive their sight of love, those who are crippled by rejection can be healed by the love of God, those who feel that their lives are just dead end streets can live again and are able, in fact, walk the Holy Highway of God, with singing, joy and gladness.

Many years ago Brother Roger of Taize wrote:

“When desertions, doubts, discouragements, and the silences of God seem to cover everything, will you discern the desert flower?

In the desert of your heart, you are sent back to the one thing that matters: giving your life.

No one can discover a greater love.

And then your whole existence makes sense again.

Didn’t you know? In the desert of the heart there were unfailing resources welling up, a life within, an inner light.” (Brother Roger of Taize: And Your Deserts Shall Flower, page1)

Untitled Document