Word to the Wise
Monday, December 4, 2023 - 1st Week of Advent - Mon
[Isa 2:1-5 (or, in Year A, Isa 4:2-6) and Matt 8:5-11,261]They shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks; one nation shall not rise against another, nor shall they train for war again. [Isaiah] "Lord, I am not worthy to have you enter under my roof; only say the word and my servant will be healed." [Matthew]
Advent is a season of hope, which can be manifested in many ways. In Isaiah, the hope is for deliverance from the Assyrian empire which would come and seize the "Northern Kingdom" of Ephraim. That kingdom, the result of division caused by Solomon's successors, is part of what is now the State of Israel. The region seems constantly at war, as it is now. Isaiah's vision of peace remains a matter of hope.
The centurion was a Roman pagan army officer. He had obviously heard of Jesus' ministry of healing and came to Jesus in hope of healing for his valued servant. His faith in Jesus' word, based on his military command experience, would mean the realization of his hope. Jesus was amazed and compared the pagan Roman centurion's faith to the skepticism and rejection he [Jesus] was experiencing from his own Jewish people.
Hope tends to be "outcome oriented" - the virtue of the future, as it were. We hope for something to happen. The scriptures from Isaiah are a constant expression of the hope of the Jewish people for a messiah who would deliver them from foreign dominance. The gospel scriptures depict how that hope was realized in an unexpected "outcome" - the birth of Jesus and his life, death and resurrection.
What hope(s) do we have in this season of Advent? Isaiah prayed for peace and the centurion for healing. Their faith was the foundation for their hope. What hope does our faith give rise to? Can we unite our hope(s) to the person for whose birth this season is preparing us? Can we be alert to the neighbor whose hope is dim because of a loss of some kind? Can we give hope? AMEN