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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