Sunday, December 8, 2019

Anticipation


Anticipation
Isaiah 40:1-5
            A company famous for condiments had a ketchup ad campaign that featured the song Anticipation by Carly Simon.  In one ad a man set a bottle of ketchup on the edge of the roof of a building with the bottle open and the neck hanging over the side.  Then he ran down the stairs with a hot dog on a bun and arrived just in time to catch the first drops.  Clever.  You got the idea that the ketchup was so rich, so thick—and so flavorful—that it was worth waiting for.  I guess you weren’t supposed to ask if the hot dog got cold while you were anticipating.
            “All good things come to those who wait,” we’re told; and maybe it’s true.  But are some of the things we want really worth the wait?  That, of course, is something every person must decide.  It’s an individual choice.  What’s worth waiting for?  What’s not worth the wait?  I can assure you, there’s not a ketchup in the world that I’d wait even a second for.  Yuck!
We know what a child goes through waiting for Christmas—or a birthday, or any other day when presents are received.  They say they can’t wait, even when they know they must.  The anticipation drives them—and us—nearly crazy.  We devise ways of making the time go faster.
Someone invented Advent calendars, I think, just for this reason.  Each day a tiny door is opened, or a figure is hung on the calendar.  It probably doesn’t make the time go faster, but it does give the child something to do.  He/she can see the time passing, even if it’s a slow passage. Some Advent calendars have an activity for the child to complete each day.  This occupies more time, and gives the child something useful to do as well.  Those of you with children who are so antsy you can’t stand it might give this kind of calendar a try.
            Isaiah knew the Israelites were anxious for the arrival of a figure who would end the long years of exile and lead them back to their homeland.  They anticipated a military hero who would free them from their captors and let them return in victory, with honor and dignity.  Isaiah used words and images that were usually reserved for royalty.
            “Prepare the way of the Lord,” he thundered, giving the people the image of a herald announcing the coming of a king.  He described a wilderness road, rutted and full of rocks, and perhaps so twisted that the ride would not only be bumpy but dizzying.  The herald announces:
            “Raise up the low places!  Flatten the hills!  Level the uneven ground and make the rough places smooth.  If you do this, the glory of the Lord will be seen by everyone.”  By what authority was Isaiah making this announcement?  The Lord himself had given the command.  The king was coming, and the work must begin immediately.
            We can imagine that people received the news with joy and great anticipation.  They had been waiting nearly seventy years.  Many of those who had begun the exile were no longer alive.  Many now present hadn’t been born when Babylon carried their families away.  Now salvation was coming.  They would be free!  Free to return, and the king would lead them over smooth, well-tended roads.  No crossing raging rivers for them.  No trackless wilderness.  Even if they must go through wild areas there would be a clear, easy path for them to follow.  Meanwhile they had work to do.  The preparation was up to them.
            John the Baptist, the new Isaiah, came to prepare the way of the Lord, to announce that the people’s cry had been heard, but they had work to do—the work of repentance, of changing their lives. 
We have the same work to do today.  God calls us to prepare the way for the Lord’s return—not for a short royal visit, but to rule the new creation. 
How will we spend the time of our anticipation?

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