Dai­ly Reflec­tion
Decem­ber 6, 2003

I love Advent.  It’s such a hap­py time in the church year.  And it’s my own church anniver­sary – when I con­vert­ed, more than twen­ty years ago now, it was the first week in advent.  Advent is such a cheer­ful time I think, wait­ing for God to pro­vide human­i­ty with a sav­ior.  What a hap­py birth we all wait for.

In the read­ing from Isa­iah God is promis­ing sal­va­tion to His peo­ple.  He is promis­ing them phys­i­cal sal­va­tion in terms of food and drink, but more than that He is promis­ing them that their prayers will be heard, and that their direc­tion will be made clear.  As  Advent pro­gress­es those promis­es become man­i­fest.  We are prepar­ing now, mak­ing straight a path­way, for God’s promis­es in Isa­iah to become flesh.  God is promis­ing not only food for phys­i­cal ben­e­fit, but direc­tion for Spir­i­tu­al ben­e­fit.  That is Jesus.

And in the Gospel read­ing Jesus, our sav­ior, goes beyond that.  He him­self is the answer to the promis­es from the first read­ing, but he then gives us each oth­er as well. Jesus is the way that is promised us.  He is the sav­ior who is promised us.  But here in Matthew, he sees so many peo­ple suf­fer­ing – peo­ple who are sick and in need of heal­ing, phys­i­cal and spir­i­tu­al. He sees peo­ple who are in need of guid­ance.  The best way for him to help them all is to have us help each oth­er.  He tells his friends to heal the sick.  He says that there are many in need, and few who are help­ing. There are lots who need help, and we can all be helping.

In Advent we should all be accept­ing the promis­es giv­en us in Isa­iah.  God has promised us direc­tion.  Jesus is giv­en us; like the dis­ci­ples who healed the sick, we can all be fol­low­ing in their footsteps.