Sunday, December 15, 2013: Isaiah 35:1-10; Luke 1:46b-55; Matthew 11:2-11

The lectionary texts tell us that Advent is a time to look forward to Christ’s second coming rather than back to his first. Yet most churches prefer Christmas pageants to second coming pageants. Given all the doom and gloom that accompanies apocalypse, they may be concerned about scaring the kids.

But Christmas pageants can be scary too. In my childhood church, the star of the show was played by a doll. Bothered by the Word-made-plastic, we decided to install a live baby Jesus, played by Mary’s three-month-old baby brother, Trevor. That year, as if on cue, the choir sang, “No crying he makes,” and baby Jesus, with the sharp hay stabbing holes in his backside, let loose a bloodcurdling scream. Mary, who’d heard Trevor’s wailing at home, wheeled around and shouted at him to shut up. This didn’t go over well; you’re not supposed to yell at Jesus.

The next year we went back to baby dolls. But I preferred the screaming Jesus. If Jesus could get upset, then I could too, and not worry that Santa wouldn’t bring me what I wanted for Christmas. This is the good news about Jesus’ second coming. You get everything you could ever want. Isaiah 35 describes it as so good that “the desert shall rejoice and blossom; like the crocus it shall blossom abundantly, and rejoice with joy and singing.” That the desert sings is momentous—the desert stood for Israel’s barren wasteland of unbelief. But now, in Isaiah’s Advent preview, grace blossoms anew. Those whose lives collapsed and who sat head in hands, fearful, anxious, guilty, despairing, now have their loads lifted, their fears expunged, their despair overtaken by hope. What makes the difference? The Messiah makes the difference. He comes to his people—with a vengeance!