Advent 3, Cycle A
by Norman Beck
The primary theme of the texts for the Third Sunday of Advent for this year is that the Lord is coming and has come to relieve the suffering of those who are suffering political, economic, social, and religious oppression and those who are disadvantaged by a variety of afflictions.
Psalm 146:5-10
In this psalm the inadequacy of all human rulers is contrasted to the total adequacy of the Lord. It is the Lord, not any human figure, who is to be praised for all creation, for mercy and release from suffering for all who are weak, oppressed, and limited by afflictions.
Isaiah 35:1-10
In this text, which is in many ways the most outstanding of the four texts chosen for this occasion, the ancient Israelite poet’s imagination is given free rein. There are no restraints. Physical disadvantages and all of our usual limitations are removed. “Your God will come to save you!” in Matthew 11:2-11 is an echo of this and of other similar Israelite apocalyptic texts. The Matthean tradition affirms that when Jesus comes to act in God’s behalf the current physical restraints and limitations are cast away, the fullness of life is restored, and the gospel is proclaimed to the oppressed.
In order to highlight the beauty of this Isaiah 35 text, it would be appropriate to have two or more members of the congregation accompany the reading of this text with an interpretative dance coordinated to an expressive reading of the text. A free spirit in the reading and appropriate imagination on the part of the interpretative dancers will make this a memorable occasion. A second possibility would be that the Psalm would be memorized by someone and presented vividly in the storytelling mode that is becoming increasingly popular in the Church, as this recaptures in many ways the enthusiasm and exuberance of the ancient Israelite poets. We too can be inspired, just as were the psalmists and poets of the Isaiah tradition. Each of the worship services on these four Sundays of Advent should be a unique and memorable experience.
James 5:7-10
A glance at the Aktionsart (kind of action) of the Greek verbs in this text indicates that the writer of the Epistle of James was addressing a situation with much more urgency than is apparent in our typical translations into English. The “kind of action” is much more pronounced in the imperative verb forms in Greek than in the Greek indicative. We see, therefore, that the speaker/writer was urging the people of the community being addressed to “begin to be patient” (using the Greek aorist active imperative word makrothumesate) where the progressive active imperative word, had it been used, would have encouraged them to “continue to be patient.” The people of the community are urged to “begin to show some fortitude” (aorist active imperative steritzate) where the progressive active imperative, had it been chosen, would have encouraged them to “continue to hang in there.” When the negative command was used at the beginning of 5:9, the writer switched to the progressive active imperative me stenazete to admonish them to stop grumbling against each other; had the aorist active subjunctive form been used, it would have advised them not to start grumbling. If we prepare our own translations with an awareness of the Aktionsart factor of progressive forms for continuous or repeated action and aorist forms for simple action, the life-situation addressed in this text will be related much more closely to our life-situation today.
Matthew 11:2-11
Regardless of whether this text and its Lukan parallel represent incidents that occurred during the activities of the Jesus of history, the more significant consideration for us is “What is the principal theological message of this text?” “What is the gospel in this text that we can proclaim next Sunday?”
The gospel is most pronounced in the final verse of this text (and in the Luke 7:28 parallel), “Truly I say to you that there has not been raised up among those born from women anyone greater than John the Baptist. But the one who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he is!” The principal theological value of this text as an Advent text for us lies in the anticipation in Matthew 11:11 of an impending glorious, joyous future. This is the point of contact cited above to the beautiful Isaiah 35:1-10 text. With these two texts we look forward with a “Joy to the World” motif to the time when all disadvantages, limitations, and impediments will be removed from us. Within this limited world of time and space each of us is suffering impediments in many ways, but the gospel here is that God will remove our limitations in a new and better life both here and in the life to come, in spite of everything.
