Advent 2B 2017 Newland
We are called to be people of hope, people who trust in the
love and mercy of God, in all our life, in this world and the world to come.
The Book of the Prophet Isaiah has 66 chapters. The first 39
chapters tell of the last days of the southern kingdom of Judah. Then Jerusalem
was captured, the Temple destroyed, and the leaders of the people taken into
exile in Babylon 586 years before Christ. Two generations later Babylon fell to
the Persians, who allowed Jews to return to Jerusalem. Gradually they did so
and the last 27 chapters of Isaiah tell God’s word to the returning exiles.
The Jews who returned had heard from their parents and
grandparents of the land of milk and honey, the beauty of the Temple, the joy
of living in Judah. Our children and grandchildren occasionally ask us about
the past, and we all tend to describe the good parts. Going back to places
where we lived as children is always a shock. The houses and the rooms are much
smaller than we remember them. So we can imagine some of the returning exiles’
reactions, particularly from the reluctant spouses. “What have you gotten us
into? This is not like grandmother described it. This “homecoming” idea is a
big mistake. We’re being punished like our grandparents were. We should have
stayed in Babylon.” They forgot that
their ancestors in the desert said the same things about Egypt.
To this dispirited group, the word of the Lord comes by
Isaiah, “Comfort, O comfort my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to
Jerusalem, and cry to her that she has served her term, that her penalty is paid,
that she has received from the LORD's hand double for all her sins.”
The penalty has been paid. By his death on the cross Jesus
paid the penalty for the sins of the whole world, and for our sins, our
individual sins and the sins that come because we live in a world filled with
sin and evil and pain and injustice and hopelessness. We can live in hope because on Easter Day
Jesus rose from the dead. Because he lives, we live, and we live in hope. The
Holy Spirit of God came at Pentecost to in-spirit us in God’s hope.
The exiles had followed the route our father Abraham had
taken. From southern Iraq they went up the river across Syria and then down the
valleys past the Sea of Galilee and down the mountain road to Jerusalem. It
took several months on a rough road. The returning exiles knew first-hand about
the wilderness and the desert, the valleys and the mountains, the uneven ground
and the rough places. They understood
the call of the Lord, “In the wilderness prepare the way of the LORD, make
straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be lifted up,
and every mountain and hill be made low; the uneven ground shall become level,
and the rough places a plain. Then the glory of the LORD shall be revealed, and
all people shall see it together, for the mouth of the LORD has spoken.” The
exiles understood the call to hope.
We all know about physical, emotional, and spiritual valleys
and mountains, uneven ground and rough places. And we know how the Lord has
brought us through them into the place where we are now. For some of us it was easier
than for others, but we’re in this together, to help each other, to hope
together.
Deciding to leave the familiar in Babylon to return to
Judea was not easy. Families were divided. Some left; others stayed. During the
500 years of Europe’s Dark Ages Babylon was the center of Jewish learning, and
Jews were only forced out after the founding of Israel in 1948. The returning
exiles knew from experience about the pain of broken personal relationships.
We know about pain and loss and the loneliness that invites
us to lose hope. We know how “people are grass, their constancy is like the
flower of the field. The grass withers, the flower fades . . . surely the
people are grass.”
To
the exiles, and to us, Isaiah comes with a word of hope, the word of the Lord.
“The grass withers, the flower fades; but the word of our God will stand
forever.” Our hope is in God’s promise. We are called to take the long view,
the view from the mountain top, to trust in the love and power of God who “comes
with might,” feeds “his flock like a shepherd,” who gathers us his precious lambs
in his arms, and carries us next to his heart, and gently leads.
St. Peter reminds us that we live in God’s time, and
encourages us to patience. “With the Lord
one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like one day. The
Lord is not slow about his promise, as some think of slowness, but is patient
with you, not wanting any to perish, but all to come to repentance.”
John the Baptist called the people of Jesus time to
repentance, and John continues to call us to repentance. We are exiles in a
sin-filled world who are on the road – the sometimes rough road – to God’s
kingdom. We are sinners saved by God’s grace in Jesus. And while we are on the
road we are called to hope, to hope for our final redemption, to look in hope
for God at work in the world and in us.
December can be a dark month, a time of despair and loss
and pain and hopelessness. But Advent is
a time of hope, hope in Jesus’ final triumph, hope in our redemption, hope both
in the last day and hope every day. In the busy days let us hope for the
guiding of God’s Holy Spirit. In the sad moments let us look in hope for God’s
love and power. In the happy times let us hope for the fullness of God’s love
and joy in our lives, in the lives of those we love and those we have trouble
loving, and in those whom we do not know with whom we share life in the world
redeemed by Jesus death and resurrection. Amen.
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