Advent III - A

December 15, 2019

Matthew 11:2-11 New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)

Messengers from John the Baptist

2 When John heard in prison what the Messiah[a] was doing, he sent word by his[b] disciples 3 and said to him, “Are you the one who is to come, or are we to wait for another?” 4 Jesus answered them, “Go and tell John what you hear and see: 5 the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers[c] are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have good news brought to them. 6 And blessed is anyone who takes no offense at me.”

Jesus Praises John the Baptist

7 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? 8 What then did you go out to see? Someone[d] dressed in soft robes? Look, those who wear soft robes are in royal palaces. 9 What then did you go out to see? A prophet?[e] Yes, I tell you, and more than a prophet. 10 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.’

11 Truly I tell you, among those born of women no one has arisen greater than John the Baptist; yet the least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.

Footnotes:

1. Matthew 11:2 Or the Christ
2. Matthew 11:2 Other ancient authorities read two of his
3. Matthew 11:5 The terms leper and leprosy can refer to several diseases
4. Matthew 11:8 Or Why then did you go out? To see someone
5. Matthew 11:9 Other ancient authorities read Why then did you go out? To see a prophet?

Musings for Advent III - A

“Serving Notice”

*Luci Shaw in her book – The Green Earth: Poems of Creation – notes:

“’Don’t you get tired of noticing things?  The question was leveled like a small pebble from a sling.  The student in the lecture hall seemed to be irritated.  My hunch was that something in my poetry had unsettled her, and she was getting back at me during the question-and-answer time after the poetry reading.

By way of answering her, I quoted one of my favorite sayings from **Annie Dillard, embodied in a brief essay she wrote for Life magazine on, of all things, “The Meaning of Life”: 

We are here to abet creation and to witness it, to notice each thing, so each thing gets noticed…so that Creation need not play to an empty house.”  Dillard also says, in Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, “Beauty and grace are performed whether or not we sense them.  The least we can do is to try to be there.”

Serving Notice:

Jesus is ‘serving notice’ on John the Baptist – what is Christ asking us to notice?

In turn – John the Baptist is serving notice on the people…what is JB asking the people to notice?

Advent – we have been served notice –and witness to God’s gracious act in Christ Jesus…

Are we prepared to take notice – take a prophetic posture – serve notice to our hearts and the hearts of the people around us and give vivid witness of the coming of God in Christ Jesus?

*Luci Shaw was born in 1928 in London, England, and has lived in Canada, Australia and the U.S.A. A 1953 high honors graduate of Wheaton College in Illinois, she became co-founder and later president of Harold Shaw Publishers, and since 1988 has been a Writer in Residence at Regent College, Vancouver, Canada. For further information about Regent College, go to the Regent College website, www.regent-college.edu

**Annie Dillard (born April 30, 1945) is a Pulitzer Prize-winning American author, best known for her narrative prose in both fiction and non-fiction. She has published two novels, poetry, essays, prose, literary criticism, and a memoir.