The Prophet of Advent: 4th Wednesday-B

Read Isaiah 52:13-53:12

We have no trouble telling the prosperous
of our times - for they have no trouble
showing us:
- their beach homes,
the ski chalets,
the apartment in the city;
- the Hummer with a DVD player
in the headrest of every seat,
and the shiny spinning rims;
- the clothes, the planes, the 'toys'.

And so, it is easy for us (and the rest
of the world) to overlook the ones
whose faces are aged and lined early
in life by hours, days, weeks, months,
and years of caring for the autistic child,
the parkinsoned mother, the alzheimered
father.

And when the press makes a big deal
out of the breakup of (fill in the name
of your favorite celebrity couple),
there is no space for the story of the
couple who have spent the last 40
years serving the homeless and hungry
down at the inner city (of any city!)

And when 'breaking news' tells us of
the politicians latest vote to give more
to the rich, we turn away from those
who are filthy because they have no
running water in their apartments;
from those who are despised because
of their accent or color; from those who
have been crushed by the poverty the
world claims exists only in their
unwillingness to work.

It's easy to tell the prosperous, the
favored, the valued in our society;
so why does the prophet tell us that
the servant, the marred, the rejected,
'those' people! will be exalted by God?

Doesn't he read the papers, or watch TV?

Prayer

What a perversion of your dreams, of your
hopes, of your love for the world, Advent
God, that we exalt all the wrong people and
overlook the ones you are bending down to
lift up. Amen.

(c) 2005 Thom M. Shuman