THIRD SUNDAY OF ADVENT 2025

THE REV. E. WAYNE ROLLINS

​It is said that “without a vision, the people perish.” Today’s first lesson is all about a vision. It’s not a memory, but an invitation to dare to believe in something better than what is past or even what is present reality. 

Scholars tend to place today’s lesson from Isaiah as something an editor misplaced from the time of Second Isaiah, who speaks to Judah in exile. The prophet invites those moved far from their homeland to imagine not just the restoration of what they might have heard from some who remember years past, but to create in their own minds what life might be like when God restores them to their promised land. 

We can spend a lot of time fleshing out the lyrical words of the prophet; indeed, many composers have set these words to some glorious and thoughtful music. It would be very easy to play recordings of some of those pieces and bask in their beauty. But that could fall under what Dietrich Bonhoeffer called “cheap grace.” We have a much more difficult task before us, one that the whole concept of Advent calls us to when we don’t escape to memories of fawning over newborn babies. 

I want you to imagine the people of Immanuel Highlands being removed from their home. I want you to imagine feeling lost and forgotten in a strange place, where everything familiar is no more, and all that is left are fading memories of what once was. 
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I want to invite you to imagine that instead of desperately trying to continue what once was, you gain a vision of what might and can be as you live into the promises of the God who led you through the waters of baptism, your own Red Sea, back into a life that the same God promised our ancestors would be ours “when we get there.” 

That’s where Judah is when Isaiah speaks to them. We are part of those of whom Jesus speaks when he says “the least in the kingdom will be greater than John.” To imagine all this, we have to put ourselves in the place of those who question Jesus in today’s Gospel, and also try to see ourselves in his answer. 

To paraphrase, what do others see and hear when they consider Immanuel Highlands? Not as a place with a geographic location and precise GPS coordinates, but as a people called to be, in Jesus’ words, greater than John the Baptist. 

If someone asks that tried and true question, “What in God’s name is going on at the corner of Riverview and West 17th Streets,” how would we answer? Depending on which corner you stand, there are at least four possibilities. But then, we’d need to know more about our neighbors to provide three of those. And, we have to remember the important words in that question are “in God’s name.” 

We might say something about donations to community organizations, or support to Friendship House and Emmanuel Dining Room. We might mention liturgies on Sunday mornings and Wednesday afternoons. We could say something about Kind Mind Kids or a building open to community groups like AlAnon and Indivisible Delaware.

How might we describe encounters with the Risen Christ, or transformational experiences that redefine our very lives? In other words, how can we describe what we, who regularly gather here, hope to see and hear?

Can we talk about difficult times made easier by being part of this community of the faithful? Might we describe somehow finding meaningful life even when seemingly surrounded by desolation and worry? How about tongues suddenly finding words of praise when life’s events steal the words we so desperately need to hear?

The answers to these questions will help us find the vision we seek and need in order to find the promised life that lies before us. They are the answers to questions posed by a strange person standing in the many Jordan Rivers of our own time, a living prophecy shared by Isaiah and so many others that help reorient us not just toward our own vision, but into the very loving gaze of Almighty God.

These visions come as a sign of our salvation, the assurance of our redemption begun when the creative Word of God became flesh, embodying all the words of the law and the prophets and the glorious Psalms that lead to this moment of clear sight.

Without a vision the people perish. But when God’s vision helps us see the way forward, the light of eternal Love shines to reveal our path. It also shows us the way to a life that never ends. Go and tell what that means.

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