Leaping
Isaiah 35:1-10; Matthew 11:2-11
December 12, 2010
Veterans of Christmas Eve services listening to all the Scriptures telling the Story often hear the several passages from the Old Testament book of the Prophet Isaiah and believe that it is one of the Gospels. After all, the four Gospels cite Isaiah over 40 times and the idea of Christ as the Suffering Servant comes right from the Prophet. Nevertheless, the lilt of Isaiah’s majestic and poetic voice captures our imaginations and makes our hearts leap, just the way the Good News does in the midst of the worst of times.
In the bleak midwinter of Advent, the darkness ensuing relentlessly around us as we wait for the expected unexpected, we have forgotten how to leap, not only as individuals, but even more so as the Church of Jesus Christ in this particular location. We are content to sit and wait, although sitting and waiting does not usually get us that excited.
Now I know many of us no longer physically leap much of anywhere, look at this morning here in this church where we have just witnessed lots of leaping. Our hearts can still leap at what is about to happen, and our minds can take a leap of faith to venture something risky for the sake of love and for the love of other people.
The political reality of that original Advent world was that of being under the rule of a foreign and not friendly power, a situation that some of us here have experienced, but for most of us it is an incomprehensible nightmare to be oppressed and not free.
The world surrounding Isaiah - and there were probably three Isaiahs whose collected writings make up the book of the prophet - was just as oppressive. Israel was constantly being attacked and intimidated first by the Assyrian Empire and later by the Babylonians. Eventually it was no longer a matter of intimidation but actual violence and killing and destruction of a people, a country and a culture. The Babylonians tried to kill their God too, but couldn’t. Isaiah 35 is written in the midst of captivity as strangers in a strange land, but he finds it impossible to repress what he has heard God is going to do. The Hebrew people were beaten down, no longer knew where they were going, but now there is Good News - they are going to be free. Cyrus the Great of Persia - an Iranian! The irony of God! - was the new conquering hero, a gracious ruler known for his tolerance and acceptance of all peoples and faiths. What’s good about freedom if you don’t know what to do with it, if you no longer remember how to be free to imagine a new world?
Isaiah receives the Word of the Lord that reminds the Israelites and us about what it can mean to be free. The wilderness and the dry land shall be glad and rejoice; the desert will bloom because God is coming again to take us home. We shall see the glory of the Lord and the majesty of our God, and are given the strength to strengthen our weak hands and feeble knees, and to those who are afraid - Isaiah calls out to us be strong and fear not, because look, your God is coming! This is Advent which means “Coming” – has everyone here given up on God coming?
Then the Gospel world explodes upon us: “the eyes of the blind shall be opened and the ears of the deaf unstopped; then shall the lame person leap like a deer (‘hart’) and the tongue of the dumb sing for joy. For waters shall break forth in the wilderness and streams in the desert.” Seeing as you have never seen before, hearing sounds you have never heard, leaping tall buildings in a single bound, singing for the simple sake of joy.
To which most of you have now mumbled under your breath or twitched in your brain, “Bah! Humbug!” A world in recession with nations being economically bailed out at a frightening pace; natural disasters increasing and producing unnatural suffering and death whether it is in Haiti or Pakistan; hostilities and terrorism reproducing, drugs and alcohol overwhelming cultures, and it’s getting colder and hotter and wetter and drier all the time. I’ve heard you.
But what are we here for in this Advent season? To slump down in the pews or to leap up in joy and participate in the New World God holds out for us? Nothing happens during Advent, because it’s all about waiting for the expected unexpected. We expect December 25th to show up on our calendars, yet we are waiting for something else and while we feel it, we can’t put words to it. Don’t worry, the Spirit will give us words and ideas and directions. We, this church in this place, are bound to leap up and stop slumping down. “And a highway shall be there,” Isaiah keeps going, “and it shall be called the Holy Way.... And the ransomed of the Lord shall return, and come to Zion with singing; everlasting joy shall be upon their heads; they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighting shall flee away.”
Nobody leaps without joy, no church can sing without joy. The best part is that when you make a leap of faith with joy, you never come down in the same place.
Preached by Robert Kitchen
Knox-Metropolitan United Church
Regina, Saskatchewan