Remembering in Darkness

Isaiah 64:1-9 Rev. Tyler Amundson November 27, 2011

One time when I was out hunting with my father, we were driving in a very familiar part of the country. It is a space where the roads aren’t extremely clear, but you can see the tire tracks and find your way fairly easily. As we were driving along a cloud came in like a fog and made it almost impossible to see 10 feet in front of us. Very quickly the familiar piece of country became dark and difficult to pass. My father and I quickly got turned around and didn’t know exactly where we were. We were lost in one the most familiar places to us. We had to remember in the darkness of that cloud, where we were going. Soon the fog cleared and we easily found our way out, but I remember it clearly due to feeling so lost in a familiar place.

As I was driving down the street yesterday I saw a billboard that said, “”Do you know where you are going?” - God.” While many times these are loaded questions from churches with specific intentions, this question is great for the season of Advent that we are entering. “Where are you going?” As a church we are entering the Advent season. Today is the first Sunday of Advent and we begin preparing for the coming of Christmas, the coming of Christ to earth. Today let’s talk about where we are all going as we enter this advent season.

December is the darkest month of the year in the northern hemisphere. It is the time of year we are tilted the farthest from the sun and it is the time when the days are shortest. This means it is dark, it is cold, and the natural world itself can feel isolating. On top of this we add the craziness of the season that our culture puts on this time of year. We have Thanksgiving and Christmas all within a month of each other. Not to mention Black Friday shopping, Christmas decorating, all the holiday activities and I am sure you can make a list as long as your arm about all the things we do during this season.

This season is an incredibly busy, dark, and stressful time. It is a bit of a downer to express this during a season we usually consider to be a time of cheer. However, this is the reality many people face. This is a dark, busy and hectic time of year. A time when many people are struggling with remembering loss, missing their loved ones, struggling to make ends meet, or wishing they were closer to home.

The scripture text today comes from Isaiah. It is a difficult and dark text. Listen as I read, it is described as a great lament, or cry out to God. It is about crying out in the darkness for God to come and change the world.

Isaiah 64:1-9

O that you would tear open the heavens and come down,

so that the mountains would quake at your presence—

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!

When you did awesome deeds that we did not expect,

you came down, the mountains quaked at your presence.

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.

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.

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.

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 us into the hand of our iniquity.

Yet, O Lord, you are our Father;

we are the clay, and you are our potter;

we are all the work of your hand.

Do not be exceedingly angry, O Lord,

and do not remember iniquity for ever.

Now consider, we are all your people.

This is a dark text that invites us to struggle with our image of God. It speaks of the struggles of how we see God, the Holy, in times of difficulty and struggle. It is a lament in times of darkness to question if God has abandoned us in the times of greatest need. The writer of the text calls for violence to liberate them from their time of darkness. A message that feels uncomfortable as we understand the Christian message to call for a God of love and justice. [1]

Yet even in this struggle the writer of this text hints toward a better way, by asking God to not be violent, but to shape us in God’s own image to be a potter and to join us in our journey through life. This text takes us from darkness and violence to the possibility of light.

Isaiah is one of the text you often here during Advent. It is a text that asks for God to be present. For Christians, God was made present in the coming of Christ and the texts are used to speak of this coming. The Gospel writers themselves quote Isaiah and use it to speak of Christ’s life and work on earth. It is important to also remember the roots of this text in the Hebrew culture. These roots help us to understand the passion and emotion behind these texts.

Scholars can break Isaiah up into three books for sure, maybe more. This text from today comes from third Isaiah. For those of us who are thinking, “There is only one book of Isaiah in my Bible.” I’m glad you know that. The truth is we only have one book in the Bible called Isaiah. However, scholars have begun to recognize the different literary sections of the book as different books. Each of these books has its own message.

For today as we focus on third Isaiah and darkness it is important that we understand the historical background that we derive from this period. We do know that second Isaiah speaks to the challenges facing people as they returned from exile back to their homeland and that third Isaiah describes the time after that return when others decide to return. Bishop John Shelby Spong, from his new book Re-Claiming the Bible for a Non-Religious World has a well phrased description of the social dynamics facing the people in third Isaiah. This book I am quoting is a great book that covers basic Biblical introduction for each of the books of the Bible. Here is what Spong has to say about third Isaiah’s historical-cultural context.

“The time that III Isaiah describes appears to be the last years of the sixth century, somewhere around 515-510 BCE. An intense battle for survival often brings out the worst qualities of human beings. “Every person for himself or herself” is the rule of the day. There was thus bitter enmity between rival groups in Judah at this time. Those who had migrated back to what they thought of as the holy land a generation earlier resented the latecomers, who made the lives of all the resettlers even more difficult. Corruption was ever-present and a low level of community cooperation existed. People were self-interested and vindictive. They saw no future. Feeling the sense of impending doom and even their own potential destruction, they saw little need to work together. The contrast with the situation described in the writings of II Isaiah some twenty-five years earlier was enormous.” [2]

The challenges of third Isaiah are a part of all of human existence. It is easy for us to turn inward and focus on making sure just those near to us have the things they need. To neglect and punish those who have appeared to come late to the game or haven’t paid their dues. It is easy during this time of advent for us to focus only on the stress and plans that are only ours, to forget that this is a season when we are asked to remember Christ, a tiny child who came near and taught us that by living generously and lovingly we make the world more like the Kingdom of God.

Advent is the season of anticipation of the coming of the Christ, the coming of the God represented in a child. As we anticipate this season we need to remember we have been taught to honor those outcast and down. As we prepare for the coming of Christ let us remember to focus our energy not only on preparing for our own season, but on helping others.

We bring light to this season by reaching out and helping one another during this season. This is how we step out of the natural darkness of the season.

Today I have a movie for you called Change for a Dollar. [3] It is about 10 minutes and I think it highlights how light can shine in the darkness. How we can make simple movements to share in the world and make a big difference.

(Show Movie)

“Do you know where you are going?” in this time of Advent. We are walking together towards the light of small child being born into this world to help us imagine a Kingdom of God.

This Isaiah text gives us a glimpse that we must let God guide us to reach out and help others. Even in little ways...these in God’s hands will make a bigger difference than we can possibly imagine. Like the dollar today, a little help can go a long way.

As we enter this season let us all seek ways to search for the light, to reach outside ourselves and make change in our world. As we anticipate a small child that changed our world forever, may we too imagine making a difference in small ways that change the world for another. Always remember even those we don’t expect can make the biggest difference.

[1] Giere, S. (2008, November 30). Commentary on the first reading. Retrieved from http://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?lect_date=11/30/2008

[2] Spong, J. (2011). Reclaiming the Bible for a Non-Religious World. HarperOne.

[3] Wright, S. (Producer). (2010). Change for a Dollar. [Web Video]. Retrieved from http://youtu.be/9DXL9vIUbWg