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
