Week Three
December 18, 2021
A Roller-Coaster Season
Isaiah 66:7-11; Luke 13:31-35
The sound of an uproar from the city!...The sound of the Lord repaying his enemies what they have earned. Isaiah 66:6 (Common English Bible)
The Advent season is not for persons who want only “ups” in life. Take Lucy Van Pelt of Peanuts fame. She complained to Charlie Brown, “Why can’t my life be all ‘ups?’ If I want all ‘ups,’ why can’t I have them?...I don’t want any ‘downs!’ I just want ‘ups’ and ‘ups’ and ‘ups!’
In contrast to Lucy, we have Isaiah and Luke, two masters of sending our imaginations on fabulous ups and terrible downs. They juxtapose images worthy of a Salvador Dali painting.
Isaiah’s author tells of Jerusalem’s post-exilic rebirth being like a woman delivering before labor begins. The returnees are newborns drinking from Jerusalem’s milk-swollen breasts. But before and after those joyous and tender images are condemnations of God’s enemies. “The sound of an uproar from the city!...The sound of the LORD repaying his enemies what they have earned.” Downs with the ups.
In Luke, friendly sometimes-sparring partners warn Jesus that Herod wants him dead. Rather than saying, “Thank you,” and taking cover, Jesus tells them he is headed for Jerusalem, the place of danger for those who speak truth laced with justice and compassion. Jerusalem here is not the loving new mother but prophet-slayer. This time, it is Jesus who would play the loving mother. He longs to gather the city’s people as a hen gathers her chicks, but no one comes.
Advent is not a time of pure joy or terror. It is a mixture of warning (the downs), the demand for change (always a gut-jerking ride), and wild promises of a more joyous future (ups!). I would sure prefer Lucy’s world, but that is not where we live, especially during Advent.
Dr. Gary Peluso-Verdend
President Emeritus and
Executive Director of the Center for Religion in Public Life
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