Word to the Wise
Tuesday, December 15, 2009 - Tuesday in the Third Week of Advent
[Zephaniah 3:1-2, 9-13 and Matthew 21:28-32]But I will leave as a remnant in your midst a people humble and lowly, who shall take refuge in the name of the Lord: the remnant of Israel. They shall do no wrong and speak no lies; nor shall there be found in their mouths a deceitful tongue; they shall pasture and couch their flocks with none to disturb them. [Zephaniah]
Have you taken out the crib set yet? Most of them will include a figure of a shepherd and a sheep or two. They represent the poorest of the people, and, in fact had a bad reputation in Jesus' day. Yet Jesus represented himself on a number of occasions as a shepherd figure, which was usually reserved in the Old Testament for kings! So the shepherd is an important figure in that crib set. If you read the prophecy for today from Zephaniah as you put down that shepherd figure in the space available, you can have a visual and emotional experience of the hope that this prophecy offers to the "remnant of Israel" - those who remain faithful to the Lord in the midst of great infidelity and oppression. Advent is the season of Hope, par excellence. We need this season to help us get through the secular Christmas with all its social demands or reminders of problems such as illness, death, loss of job, economic loss, etc. The birth of Christ is God's promise to the faithful. A promise is hard to "gift wrap" but God found a wonderful "gift wrapping" in the child in the manger! AMEN