The words of Isaiah today speak well of the goodness, the kindness, the love of God for all of us. He is relating God's words to him as his prophet: "Speak tenderly ... proclaim ... that her (Jerusalem) service (servitude) is at an end." These are consoling words to a people waiting in exile. Then these same words were a comfort to the people waiting in exile. Then these same words were a comfort to the people of Judea some hundreds of years later as their wait continued during the oppression of the Roman armies. And today, the people of the near East are waiting, waiting for an end to oppression and hoping for a new and genuine peace. Perhaps, like the Jews of the Roman era in Jerusalem, perhaps today's people are waiting for another John the Baptist to be a voice that cries out that the Lord is coming with his peace.
How many times have you experienced an Advent time, as an adult? Each and everyone of these seasonal experiences spoke about times of waiting, waiting for the coming of the Lord .... We know that he has already come!
Perhaps the "waiting game" is not to be a time of our waiting for God to come again. Indeed the "waiting game" might be our waiting for ourselves, our true selves. We might be waiting for that Advent when we will truly open ourselves to God, to our understanding of the goodness that Isaiah pictures for us every year during Advent. We might be waiting for our hearts to recognize the one who might be calling our for us to honestly look at ourselves and the changes we might need to make in our lives.
Jesus came to answer those waiting for a Messiah. He came not with the fulfilling dreams of regal living that many expected. No, Jesus came bringing a new age for all who would follow him. He presented to his hearers and all would learn about him a new perception of God the Father. His message presented a faith that addresses a personal sanctification which would then be brought to others. He presented new ways of living and dealing with each other.
The answer that Jesus brought to those who were waiting was a shocker: people were instructed by this young preacher that they themselves had to make very difficult decisions. His message is put forward at the time when he encountered opposition to his message and he used a coin to demonstrate what his teaching meant: it isn't the flipping of a coin. Rather it is for those waiting to make a decision, to make a choice: are you going to serve God or are you going to serve others and their idols.
This is what the waiting is about even today. Our Church, using the writings of Scripture and other great saints and sinners, comes to us with a similar coin as we work through another season of waiting. The message on the coin is the same as it was when Jesus was teaching: heads or tails is not an option. The message is the same. Are you going to serve the Father or someone else.
As we wait, Advent offers us the way to "new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells," as St. Paul reminds us today. Advent is the seasons of waiting for us to "prepare the way of the Lord" and for us "to make straight his path."
