Taking a Jew by the sleeve

Taking a Jew by the sleeve

Ten men from nations of every language will take a Jew by the sleeve and say; we want to go with you, since we have learnt that God is with you. (Zech. 8:23)

We are in Advent, the season which celebrates ‘the coming’ of the Messiah, the longed-for-one. Advent is heavy with quotations from Isaiah, a prophet whose constant theme was the fulfilment of the promises. Perhaps we can begin by remembering just how much we owe to the Jewish people who, in their faltering way, welcomed the ‘Son of Man.’ It reads like a fragile tale laced through with one, two or a small ‘remnant’ holding on to the hope. There was Abraham and the patriarchs, Moses and Elijah, the writers of the psalms, the prophets and the whole story narrows down to Zechariah and Elizabeth, Mary and Joseph. They were few but they held the treasure. There is a modern equivalent in the Muslims of Timbuktu who have preserved their scriptures for centuries in their desert city.

How much we owe to people who ‘keep the tradition’! They have left us a legacy. They endured alienation and exile in Egypt before discovering their new identity in a new land. They had a destiny but they do not seem to have been clear what it was. They kept discarding it and opting for more immediately attractive prophets and messages. Elijah had a hard time hammering them into fidelity. The psalmists put their moods into song. Sometimes the psalms expressed despair; other times elation. The underlying message was, ‘Sing a new song to the Lord … for he takes delight in his people’ (Psalm 149). The prophets moved further in focusing on a Messiah, ‘Oh that you would tear the heavens open and come down’ (Isaiah 64:1).

This intense hope and longing is the character of the weeks we are now entering, The same reading from Isaiah continues, ‘no one invoked your name or roused himself to catch hold of you.’ This is a time of ‘rousing.’ To ‘take a Jew by the sleeve’ is to identify with that longing in the Song of Songs, the psalms and the prophecies and to ache with the desire for the One who can fulfil all that we hope for.

But this cannot remain in a spiritual realm of private devotion. It has to be out in the market place where people are battling day by day to survive. How can they ‘rouse’ themselves when all their energy circles round finding a dollar here, a dollar there? We have beautiful words but they do not help unless they bring meaning to people who are struggling. When the heavens were thrown open and he did come, he went around healing people, reaching out to them and ‘carrying their wounds’ evn to the cross. (Isaiah 53).      

30 November 2014                 Advent Sunday 1 B

Isaiah 63:16-17, 64:1-8           1 Corinthians 1:3-9                 Mark 13;33-37