By Regina Shands Stoltzfus, assistant professor of peace, justice and conflict studies
Scripture: Isaiah 40:1-11 (NRSV)
On December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a Montgomery, Alabama public bus. Defying the law, she would not move to the back of the bus so that a white man could take her seat. Parks was part of a vast network of people in Montgomery poised to defy the unjust laws of segregation. More than simply being tired of a long day of working as a seamstress, Parks and others were tired of the denial of their dignity. According to plan, Parks was arrested, and on December 5, the strike against the bus system was mobilized. 381 days later, the boycott ended when the buses were integrated.
The holy waiting time of Advent invites us to live in the tension of “what is” and “what will be.” It is a time to wait and watch, but not necessarily a time to be passive. The people of Montgomery actively watched and waited, acted and prayed, for 381 long days. And the day did come when public transportation in that city was not segregated by race.
The prophet Isaiah, in today’s text, speaks of a wild and unsettled time to come that completely overturns the status quo, and unsettles the comfortable. Highways and mountains are disrupted and flowers blow away on the wind. Yet, what seems like utter chaos is the setting right of unjust systems.
Isaiah also offers a word of comfort. When we are afraid, we may resist making moves to change the situation. The prophets remind us that God loves us enough to move mountains, and invites us to join in.
Scripture: Isaiah 40:1-11 (NRSV)
Comfort, O comfort my people, says your God. 2Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and cry to her that she has served her term, that her penalty is paid, that she has received from the Lord’s hand double for all her sins.
3A voice cries out: “In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God. 4Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill be made low; the uneven ground shall become level, and the rough places a plain. 5Then the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all people shall see it together, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.” 6A voice says, “Cry out!” And I said, “What shall I cry?” All people are grass, their constancy is like the flower of the field. 7The grass withers, the flower fades, when the breath of the Lord blows upon it; surely the people are grass. 8The grass withers, the flower fades; but the word of our God will stand forever.
9Get you up to a high mountain, O Zion, herald of good tidings; lift up your voice with strength, O Jerusalem, herald of good tidings, lift it up, do not fear; say to the cities of Judah, “Here is your God!” 10See, the Lord God comes with might, and his arm rules for him; his reward is with him, and his recompense before him. 11He will feed his flock like a shepherd; he will gather the lambs in his arms, and carry them in his bosom, and gently lead the mother sheep.