RBWords

     The scriptures in our lectionary during the season of Advent are like going to an exhibit of the art of a living artist who is also present at the exhibit.  We may go and look at his or her works and read the personal history before we meet the artist himself or herself!  It is that moment that can be very telling both about the artist and about ourselves.  From seeing the art, what did we expect to find in the artist?  What would be more important to us - the art or the artist?  What do we think of the art after meeting the artist in person?  What if the artist is deceased but one of his or her children is there.  Would we ask what the artist was "really like in person?"

 

     The images in the scripture today are consoling ones.  Isaiah offers a renewed strength for running and walking [that's more my style] to those who hope in the Lord.  Jesus offers a "lighter burden" in the search for wisdom.  Indeed he offers us a way to know God that only a son could tell us.  Perhaps this insight could help us to go back and look at the art in a new and more profound way.  The Pharisees offered a life spent only in study of the Torah [for men only].  Jesus offered himself - open to everyone. 

 

     At the end of the Advent "exhibit" we meet the artist as a child and recall that just earlier in this same passage from Matthew that God is revealed to "the merest children!"  Paying close attention to the art will help us understand what this child may reveal to us very soon.   AMEN