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I’ve been thinking about Isaiah these past few days, as have many Christians. It is hard to escape Isaiah during Advent. Luke quotes Isaiah 40: 3-5 in his description of John’s mission of baptism (Lk. 3: 4-6; also Matthew 3: 3), preparing the way for Christ. The libretto of Handel’s Messiah begins, Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, a reference to Isaiah 40:1. In all, verses from Isaiah account for 15 of the 53 biblical references in Messiah. That God had given Isaiah a vision of Jesus 700 years in advance seems quite clear to the Christian community. Isaiah’s description of God’s servant (see principally Isa. 52:13-53:12) is referenced nearly three dozen times by all four gospel writers, Luke in Acts, Paul in his letters to the Romans and Corinthians, the letter to Hebrews, letters by Peter and John, and John’s Revelation.

Yet visions are often conflicting and therefore difficult to understand. Isaiah’s visions run the gamut. Luke’s gospel records an event in which Jesus reads an Isaiah prophesy of good news to the poor, release of captives, sight to the blind and the year of the Lord’s favor, proclaiming it to be fulfilled in that instant (Lk. 4:16-21, Isa. 61:1-2a). How then was it to be good news to the poor that the servant leader Jesus would be mocked, rejected, tortured, condemned and killed as Isaiah envisioned in Chapter 53? Whence is the glory of Zion envisioned by Isaiah’s Chapter 60? I get confused.

When that happens it helps me to turn to Jeremiah who lived through the destruction of Jerusalem and exile about a century after Isaiah. His vision was pretty clear. “The days are surely coming, says the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah…I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts…they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, says the LORD; for I will forgive their iniquity, and remember their sin no more.” (Jer. 31: 31-34) It seems to me God sent God’s Son to do just that…and perhaps a lot more.

Jesus said to his disciple Thomas, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you know me, you will know my Father also.” (Jn. 14: 6-7a).

The Oxford Dictionary defines ‘advent’ as the arrival of a notable person or thing; in Christian theology the coming or second coming of Christ. The Advent season we celebrate is the historical first coming of the Christ, and we do so in the manner of human social behavior through common worship, gatherings of friends and families, and of course, lots of shopping and gift giving. How about this Advent season, bereft of social custom, including the common re-enactment of the first coming of the Christ child? If you are my age, you may be experiencing this Advent season alone, as your children and grandchildren fear their presence may endanger your health. I wonder….

The hymns ring in my ears of memory. “Oh Come, O come, Emmanuel, and ransom captive Israel, that mourns in lonely exile here until the Son of God appear.” Or, “Come thou Redeemer of the earth And manifest thy virgin birth…” These lyrics trace from the 12th and 4th centuries respectively, the melodies from the 19th and 16th. We revisit that history with joy in our hearts and a yearning to reach out to others in love to mimic God’s loving gift to humankind. Our custom is to step out of our normal selves to be St. Nicolas in nonjudgmental love. Yet this year there is no stepping out. This year we experience Advent stripped of its gloss. I wonder….

What am I anticipating this Christmas? What am I waiting for? I know that the Christ child came upon us. I have read and heard the testimony countless times. I have studied the historical anticipation of Messiah. Without the secular gloss, is Advent primarily a reflection warming the heart as we participate in this annual ritual? Perhaps….

My mind turns to the other advent, the second coming, with which the early Christians, including St. Paul, were preoccupied. Paul thought it was imminent, to arrive like a thief in the night. The waiting was pregnant with anticipation. In Chapter 8 of his letter to the Romans, Paul described the whole of creation groaning as in labor pains, waiting for adoption by God, the redemption of their bodies. Theologian Karl Barth interpreted this passage, writing that we also groan, waiting for our adoption. “The new man, the inheritor of the world of the Father, has been born. But I, the temporal and corporal man of this world, am not the new man. My final possibility is to groan– and to await the promise.” Yes, in faith and hope. For with the Lord, one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like one day (2 Pet. 3:8).

In the meantime, here we are in a strange and for many, a lonely, fearful Advent season of want. I am thinking that Advent is not a season of waiting. Christ came that we may have life, and have it abundantly (Jn. 10:10). Maybe Advent is more an annual ritual reminding us of our daily duty to reach out to others in love. Perhaps then, this is primarily a time for doing, without the traditional gloss of the season.