“Wilderness Encounter”
“Wilderness Encounter”
Third Sunday of Advent YEAR A, December 11, 2022
Isaiah 35:1-10 Psalm 146:5-10 Matthew 11:2-11
Andrew Kennaly, Sandpoint, Idaho
Matthew’s gospel is written to a Christian community who experiences struggle in uncertain times. The community of Christians finds itself isolated, not fitting in to the surrounding dominant cultures both inside and outside organized religion. They try to live a countercultural, alternative existence as they no longer fit in with the world or religion the same way they once did.
Here we are, almost 2,000 years later and in some ways the same dynamics are at work. The Season of Advent is similar for us as we navigate through society’s commercialization of Christmas, and accumulation of traditions, from reindeer to Christmas trees. As we look around, we see these have influence on the Church. Scriptures like the ones we read this morning take us into the wilderness, so to speak. In the wilderness we encounter what the soul needs in ways that only a wilderness encounter can provide.
So often the wilderness is equated with isolation and the fear that comes with risk of exposure. Most people don’t seek wilderness. There are no roads, no highways, and to go astray could be catastrophic.
No wonder Isaiah says things like, “a highway shall be there” or “no traveler, not even fools, shall go astray.” This is an image of transformed wilderness, not a fearful place, but a location of redemption. The wilderness herself participates in praise, and rather than seeing wilderness as opposed to God, instead, the desert rejoices and blossoms abundantly; rejoices with joy and singing. This kind of wilderness opens our soul and deepens faith because we discover consolation.
Today is the third Sunday of Advent. For many who observe this tradition, Advent is like a shorter version of Lent, focused on penitence with almost a sorrow built in. Purple is a color of royalty but also of repentance. But people caught on: Advent is not like Lent, not as heavy. Advent anticipates and prepares for Christ. So, some people designated the third Sunday specifically for joy. You don’t get that in Lent. Even the purple candles on this Sunday are rose colored, more of a pink, very uplifting. Some traditions don’t use purple at all, but favor blue during the entire season of Advent. Blue is the color that most renderings of Mother Mary shows as she is clothed as royalty. Blue is even more royal than purple. (I wore my blue stole today to honor Advent as a season of joy, it even has a manger on it because blue is a great color for Advent).
Hope, Love, Joy; these are the Advent themes we’ve shared so far. These are more than theory, but lived realities in Christ. How do we live in ways that claim this wisdom of God? How do we strengthen our hearts? How do we wait patiently on the Lord, who does all those wonderful things like justice, freedom, food, vision, restoration, hospitality, welcome, courage, opening blind eyes and unstopping ears so they hear? These are the qualities at the core of Jesus the Christ, the Messiah. But Jesus commits his life to show that these qualities are at the core of our life too. As the blueprint, what happens to Jesus happens to us.
Sister Joan Chittister is a Benedictine nun, an author, and a speaker. She parallels the themes of wilderness and reversals of this morning’s scriptures in her book, Illuminated Life. She talks about this core, about “Life's essential goodness…” and how “We so often think that those who refuse under any conditions to deny the essential goodness of life are mad. Look at the suffering. Look at the evil. Be real, we say. We are so often inclined to think that those who continue to see life where life seems to be empty and futile are, at best, foolish. Be sensible, we say. But we may be the ones who are mad. The truth is that contemplation, the ability to see behind the obvious to the soul of life, is the ultimate sanity. The contemplative sees life as it really is under all the struggle and pain: imbued with God, glowing with eternity, full of energy, and so overflowing with good that evil never totally triumphs. Contemplation keeps the inner eye focused on Goodness.” […] In the end, joy, praise and gratitude live in the hearts of those who live in God. It is not the joy of fools. The contemplative knows evil when it rears its head. […] The contemplative knows struggle when difficulties come. […] The contemplative recognizes the difference between chaff and grain. The contemplative knows that grain is for bread, but the contemplative also knows that chaff is for heat. The contemplative realizes that everything in life has for its purpose the kindling of the God-life within us. And so, the contemplative goes on with joy and resounds with praise and lives in [and with] gratitude. Always.” (Illuminated Life by Joan Chittister (Orbis), Shared on Bill Peterson’s blog, Still Faith-Full after all these years, 2019).
Again, contemplation is the ability to see behind the obvious to the soul of life. A contemplative sees life as it really is: imbued with God, glowing with eternity, full of energy, overflowing with good, wholeness of structures, and this seeing through the world is done with an awakened soul engaged through the eyes of the heart.
John the prophet is in prison, and he will soon be executed. He questions, sends his disciples for clarification because circumstance doesn’t match his expectations. Jesus says, “tell John what you see and hear: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have good news brought to them. And blessed is anyone who takes no offense at me.” This is how Jesus subverts the Empire as he wisely inaugurates life’s essential goodness, like God has been doing, is doing, and shall do, all along.
As we take our part in this larger biblical narrative, one of the things we can do as a spiritual discipline that helps this blessing flourish is especially fitting for this Advent and Christmas season. This involves the intention and action to take time to experience God in prayer; take time to contemplate. To set aside everything else, even our own thoughts, may feel like an immersion in wilderness; it may feel like dying.
With patience, wait upon the Lord, and then, look for ways to activate this. Learn to, as Richard Rohr says, “Be peace and do justice, but don’t expect perfection in yourself or the world. Perfectionism [he says] contributes to intolerance and judgmentalism and makes ordinary love largely impossible. Jesus was an absolute realist, patient with the ordinary, the broken, the weak, and those who failed. Following [Jesus] is a vocation to share the fate of God for the life of the World, and to love the way that God loves – which we cannot do by ourselves.” (Center for Action and Contemplation, daily emails, www.cac.org).
As we celebrate the birth of Jesus, we are called to action, to joyfully share a deeper wisdom with the world, to claim life’s essential goodness as we learn patience to include the ordinary, and discover joy as God’s people. May God’s goodness and humble love be lived and experienced as we contemplate, as we see with the eyes of our hearts to the soul of everything, as Christ is born, now, even as forever. Amen.