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December 3, 2024I love how so many of our scripture readings start during the season of Advent — we get phrases like the one we had today, “On that day.” I love it, because it shows us that we’re pointing towards something.
The Prophet Isaiah gives us this beautiful vision, this beautiful prophecy about the coming of the Messiah: about the Root and the Stump of Jesse, how he will judge with justice, how he will be a friend to the poor and the downtrodden. We also get the incredible vision of peace: the wolf and the lamb, the leopard and the goat, the calf, the young lion and the child. Enemies, in a sense, will become friends. It’s a great vision of what is hoped for.
Advent isn’t simply a time to prepare for Christmas. Certainly, that’s our proximate preparation. But this is a time, a season, meant for so much more. It’s meant to prepare us for the end of time, it’s meant to prepare us for the judgement. Ultimately, it’s meant to prepare us for heaven. The season of Advent, these four weeks, are meant to prepare us for what we long to see and what we desire to hear.
And if we’re preparing for something, that means it takes work. That’s the difference between passive waiting and active preparation. It’s the input that we must do. If we hope to see justice and lasting peace, if we hope to see the Kingdom of Heaven, it means that our work now must be implementing that vision.
