Advent...A Season of Hope

They say that survival is part physical, but mostly mental. First, you must imagine yourself surviving. What will life be like? What will you do when you get home? Make a picture in your mind. Once you have survived, what will you do? See? Smell? Taste? Feel? Hear? You must create an alternative reality. You must find hope. Our Old Testament Lesson, this morning, begins a several week look at Advent in Isaiah. Today we will be reading Isaiah 2.1-5. Hear the Word of the Lord.

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Did you see the story in the news this week about the cruise ship that sank in the Antarctic waters?

Can you even begin to imagine being aboard that cruise liner as it began navigating the iceberg infested waters of Antarctica like a crumb floating atop a glass of ice-water? The jolt from the ship striking a submerged iceberg hard enough to put a massive hole in the hull must have rattled the passengers’ bones as well. The sound of the bilge pumps working overtime…the sensation of rocking and sinking…the urgency of getting all 91 passengers fitted with life jackets, into life boats, and evacuated the ship must have been just a little stressful! We made it off the boat, but now we find ourselves afloat, not in a luxury liner with all the amenities of home and shelter from the elements, but rather aboard small rowboats with only bare necessities and no protection from the Antarctic weather. How do you survive? You keep hope. Aboard those tiny dinghies, the passengers found hope. It took the shape of another cruise liner on the horizon. They saw hope, and they kept their eyes fixed on their hope. And O the joy of finally being rescued…finally being plucked out of the grip of an otherwise sure death.

This morning we celebrate “Advent: a season of hope.” If survival requires a vivid, hope-giving, mental image, then the prophet Isaiah is presenting it here. His oracle tells of a day when the Lord’s house will be built upon the tallest mountain. When the mountain will be a crowded highway filled with people from every nation coming up to worship the Lord. All the people coming up will be sharing the mountain with the Word of the Lord that is streaming down the mountain to nourish and instruct all the peoples of the earth. God will be a wise and just judge, not a mighty warrior or a divine executioner. And because of God’s mercy and wisdom, because of God’s word that flows down the mountain, the people of the earth will begin learning the ways of the Lord instead of the warring ways their world taught them. They will put away their swords. They will melt down their weapons that once brought death and destruction to the face of the earth. They will forge from them instruments of life and health and growth.

I suspect this is the kind of image that might just give a people hope. A small, war-torn, oppressed nation like Israel would have heard this and broke out in song: What a day that will be, when our Jesus we shall see, when we look upon His face, the one who saved us by his grace. When he takes us by the hand and leads us to the Promised Land, what a day, glorious day that will be! Is that hope or what?

Israel had hope that one day the Messiah would come, that the Messiah would make all things right, that the Messiah would restore the world, and that all would be as it ought to be. But here is the rub for us, as it was for many Jews of His day: Jesus has come, but there is no high mountain; people are not streaming upward to worship; it seems the Word of the Lord falls on deaf ears; our world is as violent and evil as ever.

Enter Advent. Yes, the season of Advent is directly aimed at preparing our lives for the coming of Christ, a lowly baby in a manger, at Christmas. It is also aimed, however at making preparations for the coming of Christ, a majestic king upon his throne, at the second coming. Advent serves us as both a beginning and an end. It is the beginning of our yearly journey through the life of Christ as we echo the words of John the Baptist, the voice calling out in the wilderness, “Prepare a way for the Lord.” It is also the end of our yearly journey through the life of Christ as we echo the words of John the Revelator calling, “Look! He is coming on the clouds every eye will see him!” Advent reminds us that the Kingdom of God is already here. It was inaugurated by Christ in his first coming. Advent also reminds us that the Kingdom of God is not yet here. It will only be fulfilled by Christ in his second coming. There is hope for our world yet!

So often, we read the pages of Holy Scripture and have a hard time identifying with context. We are so far removed from biblical times that it is nearly impossible for us to see ourselves in the text. They were nomadic; we are settled. They were agrarian; we are industrial. They spent days walking from one town to the next, we hop in the car and drive across the state and back in a few hours. The cultural differences are so vast it sometimes seems impossible to bridge the wide divide between their world and ours, but Advent is a season where the ground is leveled. Many of the issues Israel faced, are still faced today by the church. All the same things that ailed Israel’s word, still ail ours.

Thou times and culture have changed, two things remain the same. We live in an evil world. Sin abounds. God is ignored. The poor are oppressed. The widows and orphans are neglected. People build false gods made in their own image. Violent wars are waged. Their world was full of evil. So too is ours. Their hope was Christ, so too is ours. I have often wondered why Christ has come and yet the world seems largely unchanged. The lesson of hope we must embrace this advent, is not so much the image of hope itself that is given to us, but rather what we must do with that image…how that image must change the way we live.

The image is vividly painted in verses 2-4, but the lesson is found in verse 5. “Come, descendants of Jacob, let us walk in the light of the Lord!” What is the light they are to walk in? The light is that which was revealed in the image of hope. Israel was given a picture of hope. Though it was not reality at that moment, Isaiah tells the people to live as if it were reality. They were to live in world shown to them, not the world they saw around them,

Imagine those stranded cruisers bobbing in the Antarctic seas. They were shipwrecked. They were lost, but they had hope in the form of another ship on the horizon. How did they survive? They did not survive because they saw the other ship and said, “It is to difficult.” “There is no way they can see us.” “They will not get here in time.” “It is a good idea, but look around, that is not where we’re at.” No, they survived because they saw the shipped. They had hope; they kept warm thinking about being warm on that ship. They lived every minute on those lifeboats as if they were aboard the big ship. They probably even did everything within their power to make sure their hope became reality.

Our hope is Christ. In Christ, God revealed his kingdom. In Christ, we have an image of hope. The question this Advent is, what will we do with that image of hope. Will we discard it or will we embrace it? Will we stream up the mountain to worship? Will we flow out into the world with the Good News of Christ? Will we continue building swords and spears or will begin melting them down and transforming them into plows and pruning shears. I often wonder why Christ came and yet the world is largely unchanged. But then I wonder why we expect the world to change when we continue living in, endorsing, promoting, and perpetuating the ways of the world instead embracing and living according to our hope in Christ Jesus. This advent, let us covenant together and with God to let the ways of the world die within us. Let us covenant together to embrace Christ, our hope, and begin living in his kingdom, following his way, and partnering with his mission. As we pray “O Come, O Come Emmanuel.” Let us also proclaim together, “O Come, let us walk in the light of the Lord!” To the glory of God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.