“Then justice will dwell in the wilderness”
Advent and Lent, the two penitential seasons of the Church year, recall us to the themes of the wilderness, the wilderness within and the wilderness without. The Third Sunday in Advent has a paradoxical character to it. On the one hand, and predominantly so, we are recalled to the ministry of John the Baptist, a ministry in the wilderness of Judea as we gather from tonight’s second lesson, but equally a ministry from another kind of wilderness, the wilderness of a prison as this morning’s Eucharistic Gospel makes clear; John is the victim of the politics of power, the victim of truth that speaks to power and so showing us the power and truth of God. On the other hand, we are also reminded of the ministry of the Blessed Virgin Mary. This Sunday is sometimes known as Gaudate Sunday. A single rose coloured candle appears on our Advent wreath, a reminder of her active acquiescence to the will and power of God without which God does not come into the world.
Our first lesson from Isaiah captures for us the theme of righteousness and peace and the theme of the wilderness ministry of Israel, and, it seems to me, for the contemporary Christian Church. It reminds us of the hopes of ancient Israel in the wilderness of exile and persecution, a reminder for us in our world, too. In our second lesson, too, we are reminded of the wilderness ministry of John the Baptist even as Jesus in the Eucharistic Gospel for today underscores the prophetic importance of John’s ministry. “What went ye out for to see?” Jesus asks us three times about John the Baptist and about the phenomenon of people following him into the wilderness.
What is the point? It is about our looking for something. It is about the quest for righteousness and truth both of which can only be found in Christ Jesus. The reality of our quest means that we are in the wilderness but we are there seeking and looking for God’s Word and Will for us. We are in the wilderness actively seeking for what belongs to truth and righteousness and it all turns on John the Baptist and Mary and what they represent and signify. They represent and signify repentance and acquiescence, a turning away from the darkness of sin and unrighteousness and a turning towards the light of grace and glory. “Repent ye, for the kingdom of God is at hand.” This is the strong Advent message complemented by Mary’s fiat mihi, “be it unto me according to thy word.” The two go together as providing the conditions for the hopes proclaimed so beautifully by Isaiah, the hopes for peace and righteousness in the wilderness of our lives.
It is in looking to God’s Word coming to us as light that we find hope. Our hope is in the justice of God, in his will for our world and for our humanity. In looking to that word coming towards us in the Advent darkness, we find the hope of justice dwelling in the wilderness and are awaken to joy and salvation. It is found in the one who comes and in the preparations of repentance and acquiescence for his coming.
“Then justice will dwell in the wilderness”
Fr. David Curry
A Meditation for Evensong
Advent III, 2013