The Scripture Readings this week are:
- Isaiah 40:1-11
- Isaiah 61:1-11
The Sermon title is Rebirth!
Early Thoughts: How do we celebrate the coming of the Prince of Peace when his birthplace is a spot of violence and injustice? Where do we see the possibility of Peace in a world that is so heavily broken? Is the God of Peace and Justice active in the world? Is God sleeping, distracted, inattentive? What is the promise?
Most of those questions are not unique to 2023. Most of them, or variations on them, could have been asked in many Advent seasons over the centuries. But still we ask them, still we look for peace, still we trust (or try to trust) in the promise.
Chapter 40 marks a turning point in the book of Isaiah. Scholars will tell us that chapters 1-39 are the work of one man, with chapter 40 we move into the life and work of another person -- either also named Isaiah or a disciple of the original. The earlier chapters are more about warning the people that bad times are coming. With chapter 40 we move toward the promise of return from exile and rebirth of the nation. [This is of course a generalization --- the early chapters of Isaiah also have promises and visions of a new world, they also include the promise that God is active to renew the world.] This new section of the book begins with explicit words of comfort for a broken people.
To people in exile God offers words of reassurance. God tells them that the penalty has been paid and that the road home is being prepared. What words of comfort and reassurance do we need to hear today? What highway is being laid through the wilderness of the world leading to the promised land, the promised time of peace? If the herald were to mount up to the city walls or the high mountain (Maybe the top of the Kleskun hills??) to announce Good News what would we hear today in 2023?
We would hear the old promise of the God who comes into the world. We would hear of the God who is reshaping and reforming God's people. We would hear about the God who continues to gather God's people into their arms. We would be reminded of the God who is in control -- despite the evidence to the contrary God is somehow in control.
Later in the book we come across chapter 61, possibly the work of a third person in the school of Isaiah. Here we are reminded of the vision of what the Reign of God, the Reign of the Prince of Peace, will be like. We are reminded that the reign of peace only comes with social justice. Indeed, that which we sometimes call peace is not true peace because so often it comes at the expense of full inclusive justice for all. For true peace to reign we need true justice to be a reality.
We need the world to be reborn.
Advent is a time of getting ready for a world to be reborn. Advent is a time of reminding ourselves of the God who offers both correction and comfort. Advent is a time when we plan for the birth of a baby who will transform the world. Advent is a time to remind ourselves of the promise -- and peace is a part of that promise.
It can be hard to look at the world, to read the news, to listen to the radio and believe that peace is anything other than a pipe dream. But rebirth and renewal is possible. God is still at work. Peace and Justice are the long term plan. It will happen.
Thanks be to God.
--Gord
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