Advent 1 – 2011
Isaiah 64: 1 – 9 / Psalm 80: 1 – 7, 17 – 19
Waiting for God
Advent is about waiting.
It’s the time during these four weeks before Christmas in which we set
in our hearts an anxious expectation for the coming of the Lord Jesus. We put ourselves into those 400 years of
“silence” between the old and new testaments.
But I am convinced that we do not understand Advent. I am convinced that
we do not celebrate Advent at all, because we do not wait.
The Christmas Creep has infected us, and our symptoms are
getting worse every year. The orgy of consumer driven Black Friday sales begin
earlier and earlier each year. Thanksgiving
dinner is barely cleared from the table before we’re off the stores. We’ve hardly
finished saying “Thank you, Lord for all that we have been given,” before we’re
out the door to buy more stuff.
And there are more reports of violence every year as
impatient shoppers trample and shove and shoot and pepper-spay those around
them in their maniacal drive to be the first to purchase that oh-so-essential
Christmas item. There is no waiting. There
is only pushing and shoving.
There is no waiting.
“What do we want?”
“Christmas!”
“When do we want it?”
“NOW!”
We rush into Christmas without any waiting around for Advent,
there’s no time for waiting. This is a holiday frenzy. There’s Christmas in the waters and we’re
like sharks that can’t stop moving or we’ll die. We’re thrashing around for
that “Christmas Spirit” of celebration and joy and we must keep moving. We
decorate, and we bake, and we shop, and we carol, and we wrap, and we wassail,
and we share holiday greetings, and we insist that we are keeping the Christ in
Christmas but if there is no waiting, there is no Advent. And if there is no
Advent – there can be no (real) Christmas.
Advent is about waiting.
The author of our text for today (whether the prophet Isaiah
living in the 8th century B.C. or another (Trito-Isaiah) living in Jerusalem after the
Babylonian exile…) was waiting for God.
He was desperately waiting for God to do something that would prove
himself to the nations of the world. He
begged. He pleaded with God. “Tear open
the sky and show yourself. Shake the
mountains and burn the world, just let us know that you’re there.”
He’d been waiting and waiting for some evidence of the
divine presence. But there had been no response.
I get annoyed by Christians who claim to find God
“miraculously” intervening for them on a daily basis. When they talk about God saving a parking
spot for them or supernaturally helping them to find their lost car keys or
whatever, I get annoyed. Maybe it’s
because I’m jealous, because what I find in my life – and in the witness of
scripture is that there are periods of time when God seems very evident and
there are peculiar displays of God’s handiwork
- but – between those miraculous interventions are long periods where
God seems silent or even absent.
For some, it seems, there is no waiting for God. He’s on-demand, delivering minor miracles
when you need them.
But the prophet says that it is the one who waits for God
that will see God. (Isaiah 66: 4)
But this waiting for God isn’t just a sitting around,
twiddling our thumbs. The next verse
qualifies and describes that waiting. The one who waits for God is also the one
who delights in doing righteousness. The
one who rejoices in doing the will of God. The one who makes peace. The one who serves others. This is how we wait for God.
I know that I get a bit cantankerous during the
advent/Christmas season. But I also recognize
that there is great joy in Christmas.
But that joy doesn’t come to us all at once without waiting.
Someone has said that “the Christian faith is a thing of
unspeakable joy.” And if I may paraphrase him a bit… ‘Christmas is a time of
unspeakable joy.”
“But” he continued, “it does not begin with joy but rather
in despair. And it is no use trying to
reach the joy without first going through the despair.”
[i]
And that’s why Advent comes before Christmas. We must begin by waiting. We begin by waiting
for God.
And as we wait we examine ourselves as the prophet did. Are we ready for God?
The hullaballoo of Christmas can distract us from this
question, and even worse the lights and sales and Christmas specials on
television can drown out the answer.
We are not ready for God. The prophet
says that we all have become like one who is unclean. Our attempts to be good, our trying to do
good, our righteousness is corrupt. Our “Christmas spirit” is contaminated.
(Isaiah 66: 6 – 7)
How can we be saved? (Isaiah 66: 5)
And there is the point of despair. “How can we be saved?” If we don’t start there, we won’t find the
way.
If we don’t begin by waiting we won’t discover that unspeakable joy.
And so we wait for God.
But now, O LORD,
You are our father.
We are the clay, and you our potter,
all of us are the work of your hand.
Do not be angry beyond measure, O LORD,
nor remember iniquity forever.
Look at us. We are all your children.
(Isaiah 66: 8 – 9)
And we are waiting.
Please remember The Salvation Army during this time of the year. This is our biggest fundraising season. The Salvation Army of Fairmont, Minnesota needs to raise $23,000 in our kettles. If you haven't contributed in one of the buckets or mailed a donation,
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[i] I found
this quote attributed on C.S. Lewis online, but I have been unable to source
it. Every instance I found quoted it
without a source. It sounds like Lewis,
but he may not have actually said it. Does anyone know? If it turns out it wasn’t Lewis, I
still
believe it to be true.
