To cap off our waiting, enjoy a calming and creative re-telling of the season’s story.

You will see a lot of expectant eyes in the next 24 hours or so. Of course, there will be the expectant eyes of children as they open their gifts after waiting for what has seemed like an eternity. There will also be the expectant eyes looking to the safe arrival home of loved ones. As well, there will be the expectant eyes which anticipate receiving a symbol of a lover’s life-time commitment.

There are also expectant eyes in today’s final reading for Advent (Luke 2:25-33). They are the eyes of Simeon who is described in a compact character reference as “righteous and devout” and “waiting for the consolation of Israel” (2:25). Simeon’s eyes are looking with hopeful expectation to the coming of God’s reign. He has been promised by way of revelation that he will not see death before he has seen the Lord’s Messiah (2:26).

We are not told how long Simeon has been waiting. But when the day finally comes, God, through the direction of the Holy Spirit, arranges for a temple court rendezvous between Simeon, the infant Jesus, and his parents. And once again in Luke’s account of the events surrounding the birth of Jesus, a song fills the air.

It is a song that praises God for doing as he promised. It is a song that celebrates the child in Simeon’s arms as the salvation of God, the visible proof of God’s concern for his people (2:30-31). It is a song that heralds the inclusion of those outside of Israel (“the Gentiles”) in God’s salvation and glory to Israel because the promises of God will come through the Promised One of Israel. The arrival of Jesus, the Lord’s Messiah, is the advent of a new era of divine consolation.

Simeon’s expectant eyes have been engulfed in the advent of God’s reign; the dominion of darkness has been pierced by the light of salvation. Now that salvation has dawned with the coming of Jesus, Simeon the slave is ready to be released by his master (2:29).

The waiting will soon be over for us too. Advent ends in just a few hours and Christmas begins. Do we have expectant eyes? Can we see the light of God’s salvation in Christ Jesus? Peer through the darkness and see the visible proof of God’s concern for you. Such a vision will leave you like Mary and Joseph — staring in amazement and marvel.

This is not what I expected to write about. I expected to write about mothers and babies and waiting and birth. But “last days” and mountains and farm tools and war were not what I was expecting. And at first read, I’m hard pressed to understand this passage (Isaiah 2:1-5) in light of advent.

This is what Isaiah son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem:

In the last days the mountain of the Lord’s temple will be established as chief among the mountains; it will be raised above the hills, and all nations will stream to it. Many peoples will come and say, “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob. He will teach us his ways, so that we may walk in his paths.” The law will go out from Zion, the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. He will judge between the nations and will settle disputes for many peoples. They will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they train for war anymore. Come, O house of Jacob, let us walk in the light of the Lord.

But I sit with the poetry for a while, and I wash my thoughts in the words of the prophet, and I see … something.

It’s a beautiful picture, really.

A picture of a people of peace. The kingdom of God, royal and raised up and so wonderful that everyone wants to be a part of it. They are running toward it like streams of flowing water, so intent and purposeful in their desire to join this movement that they are flowing up the mountain.

And this kingdom is not maintained by power or force, but by the King himself. His love is what keeps the peace. And the people, full of that love and united by that love, leave the wars and the dissension and the struggle behind, and they live as they were created to live. In justice and grace and harmony.

It sounds … heavenly.

And it began with a mother and a pregnancy and waiting and a birth.

In today’s reading of Matthew 4:14-16, Matthew does in this short little section what he has a habit of doing in his gospel. He pulls a text from the OT and offers it to us as evidence that Jesus is the fulfillment of the hopes of the nation. This is already his seventh reference to a prophetic oracle and we’re only in the fourth chapter.

Matthew is not proof texting; gathering bits and pieces of scripture without regard to their context and manipulating them to serve his agenda. The resurrected Jesus opened the minds of his disciples to understand the scriptures (Luke 24) and we’re privileged in this gospel to hear one of them seek to open our minds. Matthew writes to a Jewish audience and he expects his readers to be fluent in the prophetic literature of the OT.  The context of this text fully supports his use of it.

If you and I were as familiar with Isaiah 9 as we are with Acts 2, we would hear more said in this little quote than is contained in the words themselves. The whole context of the words would be brought to our minds. In the previous two chapters in Isaiah, the people of God have come under his judgment brought upon them via the nation Assyria who then ruled the world. As testimony to the depth of Israel’s faithlessness, when the judgment comes they turn not to God but to the dust of the earth seeking to contact the dead for the answers to life. The nation of Isaiah’s day sits in darkness, a great spiritual darkness and all seems lost. That’s how Isaiah 8 ends; Matthew’s quote comes from the first few lines of chapter 9.

Israel in Jesus’ day too sits in darkness. Our text does not focus on the darkness among the pagans; it is Galilee who sits in darkness – the people of God. The nation designed to be the light of the world lives in the land of the shadow of death. Israel is at a great crossroads. God’s hand of rescue and discipline is upon them. To whom will they turn? Will they embrace the light or will they persist in darkness and find themselves under the judgment of God via the pagan empire of their day.

Isaiah 9 speaks profound words of encouragement. God has not abandoned his people to the darkness, a great light dawns. The enlightened Jewish reader would recognise that these few words which Matthew quotes are only the beginning of a great oracle of hope. Victory is pictured on the horizon as the scene unfolds. The words of the prophet remind his readers of the days of Gideon. And how will this victory arrive?

Isaiah 9:6-7 A child is born, the government would be on his shoulders, he will reign on David’s throne and over his kingdom forever. (Matthew’s gospel will insist on these truths.) No wonder Matthew’s next move is to have us hear Jesus’ words, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near.”

Today’s reading (Luke 2:8-20) always takes me back to A Charlie Brown Christmas Special. It’s the scene where Linus tells Charlie Brown what Christmas is all about by reciting Luke 2:8-14 with its memorable opening sentence: “And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night” (KJV).

Shepherds actually frame today’s reading, being mentioned in 2:8 and 2:20. They and the angels are a unique Lukan contribution to the account of the birth of Jesus. Their stories come immediately after Jesus’ birth to show how the news is received with joy and praise.

It is often noted that shepherds in 1st century Palestine were part of a despised occupation that was also, for various alleged reasons, considered ceremonially unclean. This is a surprising contrast to the positive image of God in the Old Testament as the shepherd and protector of his people (Gen. 48:15; Psa. 80:1; Isa. 40:11) and should raise questions about our frequent negative assessment of shepherds. It would also be surprising that the Jewish sacrificial system and temple would so heavily depend on the work of individuals who were viewed as being unclean.

Nevertheless, shepherds in 1st century Palestine were among the marginalized and outcast of society but not because they were viewed as being ceremonially unclean. Small plots of land and heavy taxes meant that many could not provide for their families and were forced off their land to work for others. If Caesar Augustus and Quirinius represented power and prestige (2:1-2), the shepherd-peasants were the humble and the hungry (1:52). But it is lowly shepherds, not rulers on thrones, who first receive the news of the birth of the promised Messiah! It is peasants, not religious or secular rulers, who receive a divine visitation (2:13-14)!

The heavenly host, along with the angel of the Lord (Gabriel?), are the other main characters in today’s reading. They announce that the Messiah’s birth in an unpretentious manger brings peace throughout the earth. It is a direct challenge to the powerful propaganda in praise of the peace that Augustus had brought to the Roman Empire but which ignored the violence with which that “peace” had been achieved and was maintained.

Shepherds and angels — can you think of two more disparate groups? But the shepherds alert us to the truth that God is not about announcing his arrival to the prominent and the powerful. The angelic announcement alerts us to the truth that because a Saviour has been born who is Christ, the Lord (2:11) status and values must be re-examined. The way that the arrival of Jesus is announced to the world makes a powerful point about status. It confronts our constant seeking for position and prominence at both the personal and the corporate level. It is a sobering word to Christians, churches, and institutions.

So, while this account of shepherds and angels may take us back to sentimental Christmas specials of our childhood, a sober reading shakes us of our stupor. Linus was right; the shepherds and the angels really are what Christmas is all about.