Isaiah 40:1-11 December 7, 2008
08-12-07
What’s with all this “coming” already? Christ has come! Christ is here! Christ comes to each open heart!
Yet, Christ prayed—we pray—“Thy Kingdom come, on earth as it is in heaven.” We remain far from the bold proclamation of the angels, “Peace on Earth.” With Christ having come, why are we so far from realizing fully the Kingdom of God and peace on earth?
When you look at the title of the sermon it may suggest that the offer is rejected and unwanted. There are no takers here, so let the gift be returned to sender.
This assumption would not be ungrounded. The offer has been made, the possibility provided, yet here we stand far from the reality of that possibility. Can we even begin to imagine it much less achieve it? In this regard we are not unlike the audience of Isaiah 40. The message is captivity is finished, release has come. Go home. History suggests, though, few captives had the inclination to leave Babylon and return to the promised land. Freedom is difficult to enter into. Peace is an unknown commodity. So, the prophet is admonished to “speak tenderly,” or “to the heart,” that is, to be convincing and compelling in order to get the people to go home.
Can you imagine the scene as it is suggested in this passage? After a long exile in captivity, the way is open to go home and few get up and go. In the country where I grew up there was a phrase which described hesitation in the face of opportunity—“Don’t stand there like a calf looking at a new gate.”
Yet, this is precisely the response the people made to the provision of forgiveness and grace of God. It is largely the response we make to receive and propagate the peace which Christ came to provide. Do we not wish to receive peace? Or is it that we are not prepared to receive peace; that we do not know how to let peace enter in? I would suggest that this is the problem. We very much want peace, albeit a personal peace and perhaps at someone else’s expense. What we are missing is the readiness of receiving all Christ came to provide.
We echo the sentiment and meaning of the carol, “It Came Upon a Midnight Clear.”
Hymn Addresses Social Unrest
One of the first Christmas hymns written by an American writer and published in the Christian Register in 1849, "It Came Upon the Midnight Clear" emphasizes the social implications of the angels' message: achieving peace and good will toward our fellowmen in the midst of social difficulty.
The writing of this text occurred at a time in American history when there was much unrest, including the foreboding of the tensions between the North and Southern States, social upheaval due to industrial revolution, and the time of the "Forty-niner" gold rush.
The hymn text was considered to have addressed these difficulties, urging folks to listen once again to the angels singing. The final stanza is a verse of hopeful optimism: "When peace shall over all the earth its ancient splendors fling, and the whole world gives back the song, which now the angels sing."
So, what I am suggesting is the same point. Christ came to provide peace—the angels sang and celebrated the possibility. But, when will we return to the sender of our peace a song of peace with the purpose of Christ realized fully? How can we prepare the way, how can we in our wilderness cry a discernable and compelling cry? What shall we cry?
We look to Isaiah for guidance. Isaiah attempted to base his compelling cry on the character of God. How could people be shown the character of God and not respond? What could possibly be more compelling than that? Isaiah speaks tenderly, compellingly, of the goodness of God.
The Hebrew word for 'beauty' in verse 6 is hesed, which has the connotation of 'covenant faithfulness and love,'" Elizabeth Achtemeier writes. While God is persistent, faithful, and dependable, our response is inconsistent, fleeting, and undependable, no matter what we promise or intend: "we do have our moments of dedication," she observes, "[B]ut our faithfulness is like the flower of the field, beautiful at the moment but rapidly failing when trouble and distraction come upon us." The prophet reassures us of God's "anyway" love for us: we sin, but we can count on God's faithfulness anyway, on the Word of God that "will stand forever (v. 8).
God’s character is depicted as a Shepherd. One who tends, cares for and nurtures the wellbeing of the flock; the guard and protector of the flock. The image of gathering is mentioned which suggests the waywardness to which we, the people of God are prone. Carrying is an image of closeness and consolation which is a response to our weakness and infirmities. The shepherd , Isaiah says, is one who gently leads. I am reminded of a poem by Longfellow which I have shared with patients throughout the years which is a reflection of this being tenderly led, “(we are led) to rest so gently, that we go scarce knowing if we wish to go or stay, Being too full of sleep to understand how far the unknown transcends what we know.”
In short, realizing God, first in character and comfort, we then are prepared to recognize and realize the fuller purpose of God’s coming among us.
The call is for a personal and growing awareness of the character of God, to receive fully and walk in—or be carried in—the gentleness and compassion of God. Then, we can begin to cry with a compelling cry the message of this compassion for all of God’s people. When we know the “God of all comfort who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God,”(II Cor 1:4) we will have and make a compelling cry within the wilderness of our world. Then and only then will we move toward peace within ourselves and with others. Then we will be effecting the purpose of God for the coming of Christ to our world, peace on earth. Then the whole world will be able, as the closing words of “It Came Upon a Midnight Clear” “send back the song which now the angels sing…Peace on the earth, goodwill to men, from heaven’s all gracious King”
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