December 3, 2020

For the next four weeks we will be exploring the appointed Old Testament readings in the season of Advent.

Isaiah 64:1-9

64 O that you would tear open the heavens and come down,
    so that the mountains would quake at your presence—
^2 [a] as when fire kindles brushwood
    and the fire causes water to boil—
to make your name known to your adversaries,
    so that the nations might tremble at your presence!
³ When you did awesome deeds that we did not expect,
    you came down, the mountains quaked at your presence.
⁴ From ages past no one has heard,
    no ear has perceived,
no eye has seen any God besides you,
    who works for those who wait for him.
⁵ You meet those who gladly do right,
    those who remember you in your ways.
But you were angry, and we sinned;
    because you hid yourself we transgressed.^[b]
6 We have all become like one who is unclean,
    and all our righteous deeds are like a filthy cloth.
We all fade like a leaf,
    and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away.
⁷ There is no one who calls on your name,
    or attempts to take hold of you;
for you have hidden your face from us,
    and have delivered^[c] us into the hand of our iniquity.
⁸ Yet, O Lord, you are our Father;
    we are the clay, and you are our potter;
    we are all the work of your hand.
⁹ Do not be exceedingly angry, O Lord,
    and do not remember iniquity forever.
    Now consider, we are all your people.

One of my earliest memories is getting lost in a shopping mall. I was there with my great Aunt Irene and she stopped to look at something and I kept going and got separated from her. I was in this great big atrium with escalators all around and a Santa photo line in the middle. I was young and I got scared.

Then all of a sudden through all the chaos and noise, I heard her voice say my name. “Cassie, stay put I’ll be right there, I see you.”

In moments of chaos and noise that seem out of control, especially in 2020 God sees you.

In the Isaiah story we hear today the Israelites are much like me in the shopping mall, they need help from a God they cannot see. They are hoping that God will come to their rescue providing what they need but just knowing they are God’s chosen people isn’t enough for them in their time of crisis so Isaiah their prophet prays and asks for an announcement of God’s presence in ways that both the children of Israel and God’s enemies, who they viewed as their own enemies might understand. They cried out for quaking mountains, burning brushwood, and boiling water.

Nowadays we would think this was a ridiculous request to make of our God, but for the Israelites this isn’t an unusual request- God has been performing miraculous deeds for them as long as they can remember. God constantly comes to their aid, giving them what they need. They think that God is mad at them for sinning and that’s why God is not doing what they are asking for, but really God is just asking them to wait. And they are going to be waiting a long time- for something that they don’t even know is what they want or need yet.

And yet during the waiting and their suffering, they are not alone God sees them and God hopes that they will have the grace, patience and endurance to wait for what is to come. God’s hope is the hope of a Parent, who always hopes against hope that the children will see the error of their ways and return home. In this season, it isn’t just that we have hope that Jesus will come but it is also that God has hope in us God’s chosen people.