Today is for the prophets. We hear first from the prophet of the old testament, from Isaiah. But we don't get the fire and brimstone preacher today, we get hope and promise.
Isaiah 35:1 The wilderness and the dry land shall be glad, the desert shall rejoice and blossom; like the crocus 2 it shall blossom abundantly, and rejoice with joy and singing. The glory of Lebanon shall be given to it, the majesty of Carmel and Sharon. They shall see the glory of the LORD, the majesty of our God.The Psalm today is one of praise and thanksgiving. And from John we hear Mary's prophetic song of God's triumph through the Son she carried in her womb. Even John the Baptist has reason to rejoice, locked in his prison cell. For he hears, in Isaiah's own words the fulfillment of the promise God made to his people long before.
God is coming, God is come, God has come. Mary sings of God's triumph while the child she carries is still unborn. Isaiah shows us the kingdom of heaven as if it has already come in his time. It is a day for promise but there's an edge to that promise:
James 5:10 As an example of suffering and patience, beloved, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord.In the midst of all this joy and excitement there is this reminder of what a prophet's life is usually like. In the midst of the glory and joy of God's triumph here, now, and throughout eternity, we are reminded that God's triumph doesn't mean an easy road for those who herald it.
When John heard the good news he was locked away in prison, soon to be executed. The young churches to whom James wrote faced hardship and persecution. Mary sings a song of praise and triumph but goes home to face the scorn of her neighbors and friends and then gives birth in a rude stable with no one but her betrothed to help her. And Isaiah, legend has it, was sawed in two. It is a dangerous and frightening thing to live for God. God pushes those who give themselves to God to the edge. In the biblical tradition God literally drives them out into the wilderness. He pushes them beyond the bounds of safety and into the thin places where they may meet God, but where there is also danger and uncertainty.
God is far from "safe." Those who lived closest, those who listened to Her voice in the utter stillness, found and find this out. To be a prophet was, and is, to live at all times at the edge. And yet without that danger, without a willingness to go into the thin places, to trust ourselves to this most dangerous and good God there would be no Good News."Aslan a man? Certainly not. I tell you he is the King of the wood and the son of the great Emperor-beyond-the Sea. Don't you know who is the King of Beasts? Aslan is a lion-- the Lion, the great Lion."
"Ooh!" said Susan. "I'd thought he was a man. Is he--quite safe? I shall feel rather nervous about meeting a lion."
"That you will, dearie, and make no mistake," said Mrs. Beaver, "if there's anyone who can appear before Aslan without their knees knocking, they're either braver than most or else just silly."
"Then he isn't safe?" said Lucy.
"Safe?" said Mr. Beaver. "Don't you hear what Mrs. Beaver tells you? Who said anything about being safe? 'Course he isn't safe. But he's good. He's the King, I tell you." - The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe
The good news of God is no safer than God's self. It is wild, and unconstrained. It is love without the safety of logic and reason. It drives us out of the safe order of our lives and into the chaos of God, into the crazy promise of a love already, now, not yet. It immerses us in the wild joy of the Magnificat, that says while the seed is still in the ground that the harvest is plentiful.
Prophets are rarely welcome. They usually make us uncomfortable, and when they don't we aren't really listening. In Isaiah's time, in John the Baptist's time, in our time. The prophet listens to God's demand that we rise up from our couches and our banquet halls and our carefully guarded cities and we bring about God's kingdom. Because our God has already won, God won before creation had even begun, God is still winning. The Kingdom has come, will come, is coming; and we have work to do in it. Frightening work, that will drive us into our own wilderness, to meet a God who is not entirely safe.
It is an uncomfortable and dangerous thing to be a prophet. Often prophetic words are met with anger, resistance, or outright violence. What a prophet must say is not easy, and neither is the response required of God's people. God asks much from us. God asks us to say "yes" as Mary said yes. God is asking us to build the Kingdom, here, now, and into the future.
Are we brave enough to say yes?