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The Lessons Appointed for Use on the Third Sunday of Year A RCL

Isaiah 35:1-10 James 5:7-10 :2-11 Psalm 146:4-9 or Canticle 15 [or Canticle 3]

The Collect

Stir up your power, O Lord, and with great might come among us; and, because we are sorely hindered by our sins, let your bountiful grace and mercy speedily help and deliver us; through our Lord, to whom, with you and the Holy Spirit, be honor and glory, now and for ever. Amen.

Old Testament

Isaiah 35:1-10 The wilderness and the dry land shall be glad, the desert shall rejoice and blossom; like the crocus it shall blossom abundantly, and rejoice with joy and singing.

The glory of Lebanon shall be given to it, the majesty of Carmel and Sharon. They shall see the glory of the LORD, the majesty of our God.

Strengthen the weak hands, and make firm the feeble knees. Say to those who are of a fearful heart, "Be strong, do not fear! Here is your God. He will come with vengeance, with terrible recompense. He will come and save you."

Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped; then the lame shall leap like a deer, and the tongue of the speechless sing for joy. For waters shall break forth in the wilderness, and streams in the desert; the burning sand shall become a pool, and the thirsty ground springs of water; the haunt of jackals shall become a swamp, the grass shall become reeds and rushes.

A highway shall be there, and it shall be called the Holy Way; the unclean shall not travel on it, but it shall be for God's people; no traveler, not even fools, shall go astray. No lion shall be there, nor shall any ravenous beast come up on it; they shall not be found there, but the redeemed shall walk there. And the ransomed of the LORD shall return, and come to Zion with singing; everlasting joy shall be upon their heads; they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.

The Response

Psalm 146:4-9 Lauda, anima mea

4 Happy are they who have the God of Jacob for their help! * whose hope is in the LORD their God; 5 Who made heaven and earth, the seas, and all that is in them; * who keeps his promise for ever; 6 Who gives justice to those who are oppressed, * and food to those who hunger. 7 The LORD sets the prisoners free; the LORD opens the eyes of the blind; * the LORD lifts up those who are bowed down; 8 The LORD loves the righteous; the LORD cares for the stranger; * he sustains the orphan and widow, but frustrates the way of the wicked. 9 The LORD shall reign for ever, * your God, O Zion, throughout all generations. Hallelujah! or

Canticle 15 Page 91, BCP

The Song of Mary

Luke 1:46-55

My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord, my spirit rejoices in God my Savior; * for he has looked with favor on his lowly servant. From this day all generations will call me blessed: * the Almighty has done great things for me, and holy is his Name. He has mercy on those who fear him * in every generation. He has shown the strength of his arm, * he has scattered the proud in their conceit. He has cast down the mighty from their thrones, * and has lifted up the lowly. He has filled the hungry with good things, * and the rich he has sent away empty. He has come to the help of his servant , * for he has remembered his promise of mercy, he made to our fathers, * to Abraham and his children for ever.

Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit: * as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be for ever. Amen.

The

James 5:7-10 Be patient, therefore, beloved, until the coming of the Lord. The farmer waits for the precious crop from the earth, being patient with it until it receives the early and the late rains. You also must be patient. Strengthen your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is near. Beloved, do not grumble against one another, so that you may not be judged. See, the Judge is standing at the doors! As an example of suffering and patience, beloved, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord. The

Matthew 11:2-11 When John heard in prison what the was doing, he sent word by his disciples and said to him, “Are you the one who is to come, or are we to wait for another?” Jesus answered them, “Go and tell John what you hear and see: 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.”

As they went away, Jesus began to speak to the crowds about John: “What did you go out into the wilderness to look at? A reed shaken by the wind? What then did you go out to see? Someone dressed in soft robes? Look, those who wear soft robes are in royal palaces. What then did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I tell you, and more than a prophet. This is the one about whom it is written,

‘See, I am sending my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way before you.’ “Truly I tell you, among those born of women no one has arisen greater than ; yet the least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.”

Optional parts of the readings are set off in square brackets.

The texts of the Old Testament, Epistle and Gospel lessons are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Church of Christ in the USA, and used by permission.

The Collects, Psalms and Canticles are from the Book of Common Prayer, 1979.

From The Lectionary Page: http://lectionarypage.net

Who do you believe Jesus to be? Is he the Messiah? The Son of

God? God incarnate? Is Jesus for you God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, of one Being with the

Father? Let’s ask some deeper questions. If Jesus is the Messiah, what does that mean? Is there a difference between Jesus’ titles the Son of

God and the Son of Man, and what do those titles mean? What exactly are we confessing when we say the Nicene Creed, and why is it important? Now, let’s go even deeper…. If Jesus is, if fact, God incarnate, why did God come to us in flesh? What was God’s purpose in doing so? If you are thinking in your head right now, “well, of course, it was the cross.” Then why do the focus so much on Jesus’ life and teachings? What does his life mean? What does his incarnation mean?

Thinking through who Jesus is and why Jesus came to us can be quite daunting. There are a lot of questions to think about. There is a lot of information to be learned. Sometimes, when we read , it might be easy to think that even Jesus’ contemporaries had it all figured out. Like, his disciples were sitting on the shores of the Sea of

Galilee getting the nets ready to fish one day and Peter turns to James and John and says, “Hey, guys, do you think that the one who is to come – the Messiah - is God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, of one Being with the Father?” No! Of course, not! Jesus’ contemporaries had a very fuzzy understanding of who the Messiah was going to be. And, for the most part, they got it all wrong. For Jesus’ contemporaries, they believed a few things to be true about the coming Messiah. First of all, they understood the term

“Messiah” to be, primarily, a political term, in addition to a religious one. Jesus’ contemporaries believed that the Messiah would be the heir of David, promised to Israel in 2 Samuel 7, where God promises to

David that his heir would sit on the throne of Israel forever, meaning that the coming Messiah would be king over all Israel. As king, Jesus’ contemporaries believed that the Messiah would free Israel from the oppressive forces of the Romans that had ruled over Israel since 61BC, and that Israel would be free to live in peace through the redemptive actions of the coming king. Some also believed that the Messiah would also come to cleanse the temple and the corrupt priesthood that was sold at a price by the Roman oppressors. So, in the eyes of some, the

Messiah would hold the title of King as well as the title of priest. And some Jews even believed that there would be two : a kingly

Messiah and a priestly Messiah. Without a doubt, however, Jesus would free Israel from oppression. This is who Israel expected their

Messiah to be. They waited with bated breath for the Messiah that would set them free. They ached with anticipation for the coming day of their salvation.

Our gospel reading today is a perfect example of confused expectations – limited expectations really – about who the Messiah – the Son of Man – would be. Our pericope for this morning opens with being reminded of the fact that John the Baptist was in prison, which we are told in . And the tells us that the reason why John was arrested was because John condemned Herod

Antipas’ marriage to his wife, , as illegal, because she had previously been married to ’ own brother, Philip. Herod

Antipas was the son of Herod the Great, the Idumean puppet king put in place by the Romans and whose symbol was a reed blowing in the wind. He was just almost as crazy as his father, but certainly served

Rome just a well as his father. It is no surprise, then, that John the

Baptist asks what he asks from his jail cell. John the Baptist sends his disciples to ask Jesus: “Are you the one who is to come, or are we to wait for another?” What John was really saying is this: “if you really are the Messiah, defeat Rome already. I don’t want to die in prison. If you really are the Messiah, then act! If you really are the Messiah, don’t let me die in prison. Free us from the Romans! Act!” No doubt

John looked forward eagerly to the day, not long now, when Jesus would confront Herod himself, topple him from his throne, become king in his place – and get his cousin out of prison, and give him a place of honor.

Jesus’ response to John defies John the Baptist’s expectations.

Jesus responds with these words, “Go and tell John what you hear and see: 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.” Jesus was working with a different script altogether. John wants

Jesus to bring down judgment on the Romans, but Jesus was doing something different. He was going around befriending tax collectors and sinners. He was healing the unclean untouchables who, in the opinion of many of the Jews at the time, had earned their illnesses and poverty because of their sin. You see, Jesus was so much more different than John was expecting. In fact, he was so much MORE than

John was expecting. Jesus, the Son of David, wasn’t going to bring about his kingdom on the back of a war horse. Jesus’ goal was not to relieve Israel from Roman oppression. Jesus, the Messiah, the Son of

David, the Son of God, did not come to set Israel free through military might. He came to set the entire world free from sin and death, and in order to do this, he healed and befriended the least in Israel’s society – the untouchables, the strangers, the sick, the friendless, the needy, those who were alone, the victims of hunger, fear, injustice, and oppression. Jesus came to give life to the lifeless. Jesus came to empower the lowly. Jesus came to heal that which is broken. You see,

Jesus believed – and Matthew wants us to get this clear – that Jesus really was “the one who was to come” – the Messiah – but Jesus defined his messiahship completely differently than anyone expected at the time. Jesus was so much more than a king or even a priest, Jesus came to give life to all people, especially those who are hurting the most.

Jesus didn’t topple the Kingdom of King Herod; rather, Jesus toppled the prevalent Messianic expectations about who Jesus came to be. Living with such humble expectations about who the Messiah is may require us to adjust our expectations about who the Messiah Jesus is – about why he came to us. So, my question to you today is this:

Who do you expect the Messiah to be in your own life? Do you have a picture of who you expect Jesus to be in your mind’s eye? How much of that picture of Jesus is formed by your culture? How much is that picture of Jesus formed by your expectations of who you think Jesus should be? How much is that picture of Jesus formed on the reality of who Jesus is? On this, the third Sunday of Advent, I hope that we can genuinely pray, “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel,” I hope we can pray that prayer, and I hope that we all have prepared our hearts for those moments in our lives when God shows up in the most unexpected places, doing the most unexpected things, with the most unexpected people. Amen.