Advent is about hopeful waiting.  When I was a kid in Catholic school, during Advent the whole school would be gathered in the cafeteria on Monday mornings to light the candles on the wreath and sing O Come Emmanuel.  Hopeful expectation mounted each week; one more candle was lit and we were that much closer to Christmas. Christmas for me then was a combination of what to expect under the tree, the carols, the lights and the story of Jesus’ birth.  Expectation and wonder.

"My way is hidden from the LORD, and my right is disregarded by my God,” say the exiled Hebrew people. After years of exile with loss, shame and suffering, the Hebrew people wondered whether God knew or cared about their fate. They felt forsaken. Their expectations were drying out.

But the Prophet Isaiah wants to renew and reignite their expectations and wonder. He points to the saving and caring power of God. The Prophet chides the people providing them with multiple examples of God’s power and care. Don’t they remember? Although the experience of their exile is grim leading to discouragement, the prophet encourages the people to look at the bigger picture and remember their story with their God who has not forgotten during difficult times in the past and has shown them his saving care. They may feel exhausted and defeated but God does not weary.  If great and surprising things have happen before, how could they cease to hope, how could they despair in God’s continued care? If God’s share of the burden is boundless, can they not hope that even this horrendous situation can also be overcome by God?

Yet waiting is hard, tiresome, boring, wearing. The wondrous gift is that hoping in the Lord is actually a way to strength. Those who hope in God will never be disappointed; they will find nourishment and replenishment. “They that hope in the LORD will renew their strength, they will soar as with eagles' wings…”

 "Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened,” Jesus says in today’s Gospel passage, “and I will give you rest…”    As the Lord who renews our strength, he invites us to take on his yoke, his rule which is sweet and light, which nourishes and does not create more burdens. We also live in an exile and in accepting Jesus’ offer to take on his yoke, his rule we are participating in the hope that he brings. He offers us “rest.”  I believe that his is an offer to trust in God’s saving power for us also. I believe that Jesus is saying: Look trust in me and what I have to offer you. Look at the ways that God’s care has been in your life.  Be at peace. In that hope there is strength, rest and replenishment. We can not only find rest but also run and not grow weary and walk and not grow faint.

“Come to me,” Jesus says….Certainly this is the gift that strengthens and is never exhausted!