There is always this tension in Advent when, on one side, everything around us invites us to get busy and excited as we prepare for the Christmas celebrations and, on the other side, we find ourselves at church in this quiet, contemplative, and even rather gloomy mood. Advent in the church is traditionally understood as a season for waiting, and you probably know that very well: In Advent, we await for Christ’s coming, we anticipate the coming of Christ on Christmas Day. What we don’t always realize though is that, if we await for Christ’s coming, it also means quite obviously that Christ is not there yet, and so Advent is also a season where we experience God’s absence. It is a season of waiting, certainly, and it is also a season of longing, and even a season of lamenting. As we progress in our liturgical time, we will head towards more and more light, but it’s indeed in the darkness that we start today with this passage of Isaiah where the prophet expresses his distress and his pain at the sight of his people who have both forsaken God and be forsaken by God. (As a reminder, Isaiah writes at the time of the Exile and the captivity in Babylon). So let’s look at it.
Our passage today opens quite dramatically with the prophet pleading that God would show himself, “(…) tear open the heavens and come down, so that the mountains would quake“. We may smile at the images as they may appear a bit dramatic or naive, mountains trembling, fire and boiling waters, but I think it is pretty accurate if it is meant to describe what we feel at times when we have the urgency for God’s presence. In the midst of genocides and wars, violence and famine, or even in our personal trials and losses, it is quite naturally that we wish God would intervene in power and action, putting a stop to whatever is going on, reversing time if possible. We ask: Why is it that God does not show up, or Why is it that God allow such things? These are questions that are still on our minds 2500 years after Isaiah wrote his prophecies. Sometimes, though, we interpret questioning God as a lack of faith, a sign of distrust, but to me I think that if we don’t do it anymore, it could actually be a sign that we have grown indifferent to suffering and even to God’s absence. Basically, if we don’t question God, it could mean that we don’t expect God to do anything anymore. I recently read a book by a theologian who, like a modern Isaiah, laments the fact that in our churches today we don’t really expect God to act anymore, to show up and to use the church for God’s purposes, to bring hope, healing and comfort to the world. We may feel sad about it, but we say “It is what it is“. While we may quite enjoy God or enjoy going to church, we don’t expect God to overturn History anymore.
Well, this is certainly not where Isaiah stands. As Isaiah laments God’s absence and God’s indifference, he also confesses that it is not the God he believes in, the God who has showed up in Israel’s history. Indeed, Isaiah’s faith is based on the way God has acted in the past: When [God] did (…) awesome deeds that we did not expect. We must notice that there is a strong connection in the Bible between the Exodus, the slavery in Egypt, and the Exile, the captivity in Babylon. During their time in Babylon, the prophets of the Hebrews remembered and reminded the people how God had acted in the past to deliver them from Pharaoh and led them to the promised land. To them, there was the same expectation: What God had done in the past, God could do it again and deliver God’s people from the King of Babylon and lead them back to Jerusalem. And so the lamenting of the prophet can at first be seen as a lack of confidence, but in fact it is an act of faith, of faithfulness, and honesty: The times are dark, indeed, but there is this sense that God can overcome any darkness – and here we are, right in the message of Christmas: “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.“(John 1, that we read on Christmas day).In Advent, we stand in this in between, both acknowledging that indeed in this world and in this life, things can be very dark and we also have this conviction that God can act, in history, in our story, and beyond time. We hold both to be true.
Now the question for the prophet, and maybe for us as well, is the following: Why are the times so dark? There is a double response to that. The first and obvious response for the prophet is that the times are dark because God is hiding and God is hiding because of the sins of the people. There was this stern belief in Isaiah’s time that the victory of the King of Babylon over Israel was enabled by God to punish the people. Now we may don’t like the word punishment today, but we may think about it in terms of consequence instead. The Hebrews had fallen because they had grown too powerful first, that is too self confident. Because they had increased in number and in wealth in the promised land, they had started to think that they didn’t need God anymore. They had become self indulgent, unfair and have exploited their people for the love of money. So God is going to desolardize from them. God does not caution their doing and does not want to be associated with their sins. Because the people have rejected God, God rejects the people. You know that we often say that God is everywhere every time, but in the Bible there is often this idea that there are times and places where people cannot find God because God has deserted. This is certainly what Isaiah is talking about. He says: “You have hidden your face from us“. I think it can be our experience as well: We cannot just wish God to be there and God will show up. It’s not like we would be able to feel God’s presence if only we would really try (we often hear that as well), it means that God can truly be absent at our level of reality (not absolutely of course), and the prophet says that it happens because of our sins – not necessarily our personal sins but the sins of the people as a whole. People have separated themselves from God and as they sin, they also separate other people from God. When we torture or bomb people, or just when we are mean to them, we certainly lead them in a place where they are likely to experience God’s absence. And so, what makes things even worse, and that’s why we said there was a double response to the question “Why are the times so dark?“, is that, as God is absent, people despair even more and sin even more. This is a vicious circle: God leaves the people when they sin, and as God departs, people feel authorized to sin even more. Isaiah says: “(…) because you hid yourself, we transgressed“.
So how do we break the circle? Well, I think this is what Isaiah is doing, calling on on God’s presence, remembering and reminding God and God’s people of the covenant. They belong with one another and to one another. The prophet stands in the gap that separates God and God’s people. We often says that Isaiah made prophecies about Christ, but it’s even more in his person that Isaiah anticipates what Christ will do for the people: Interceding for the people, reconciling God with the people. Isaiah stands in a place where, if he fully acknowledges God’s absence, he also refuses to accept a world without God. I think it may be what Jesus talks about when he asks his disciples to stay awake. They should never give in and accept the world as it is, they should continue to look for God, hope for God, ask God to show up.
So what does it say to us in this time of Advent?
– First of all, weshouldn’t underestimate the importance of prayer. I know we sometimes hear that “Thoughts and prayers” are not enough when tragedy strikes, but “Thoughts and prayers” are not only and mainly about sending “Good vibes” to the people. They are a lamenting on the people’s pain and on the world’s sin and a longing for God to act. The one who prays feels the pain and the sin of others and connects this pain and awareness of sin to the God who can heal and forgive those who come close to God. The one who prays remind the people of God and, in a way, reminds God of the people. This is holy work. We have to pray intentionally and energetically!
– Secondly, we understand that if our sins can separate us from God and separate others from God, we can also provide space to restore the relationship. Indeed we cannot just wish for God to show up and to act but as Kara Eidson explains in today’s study (we’ll talk about that in our session after the service) we can provide a space of love and safety where people will more easily experience God’s presence, find forgiveness and healing. In the midst of all the suffering we experience or witness, what do we do, on a daily basis, to make others feel safe and feel loved?