Advent Two: How Will We Know?

I listen to more news than is good for me. I pay special attention to American politics because I come from an American family. A basic theme in political conversation is the way that candidates try to convince you that their opponent is out to destroy everything you hold dear.

I think of a close friend who is a democrat. She is convinced that a vote for Trump is a step closer to the end of the republic. She may be right; I find Trump’s words and actions deeply troubling. I am reminded of an evangelical leader who said that he could only support a candidate of good character – “someone my daughter could bring home to meet her parents.” I get my friend’s concern.

I think of another friend during the last election who was terrified of the possibility that the democratic candidate would win the race for governor. She was convinced that he would deliberately tank the economy so as to create the conditions in which he could bring in a communist government. I don’t believe she was right, but I get the fear. I can see how economic policies that might sound good can lead to major problems and undesired consequences.

How can we know which candidate we should support? I won’t answer that question exactly, but it leads us to a more important question: How can we know who will save us? How can we know who to turn to in the uncertainties of life? Which means also, what do we do now? We face economic dangers in our world today. We face political dangers, with war in various parts of the globe. We look for a Saviour. How do we know who to trust? What do we do now?

Isaiah 40

The people of Israel heard the words of Isaiah 40 as a promise of peace and restoration when it seems they had lost everything. Listen to the flow of the passage we read:

Comfort my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to them and let them know that they have been punished enough and the penalty is paid.

A voice announces the building of a highway for God to come to his people. All obstacles shall be removed, and God will come!

A voice tells me to announce the frailty of human existence and to remind us of the eternal power of God.

Announce the good news to God’s people: God is here! God comes and rules the earth. His rule will be gentle and nurturing and life-giving.

The promises sound a lot like many politicians. They will end our suffering. They will end the carbon tax and we will be suddenly wealthy. They will increase the carbon tax and we will be environmentally healthy. They will fix the health care system, or they will declare war on poverty, or they will secure our borders, or … the promises are endless.

But we know that really, when one party succeeds another, there will be changes, but they won’t be the promised utopia. We know that life will continue much has it has been. We also know that one of the first items on the agenda will be a paying of political scores. My sister was one of the under secretaries to the surgeon general in her state many years ago. When a new governor was elected, she knew she would lose her job – so she jumped before she was pushed. Such scenarios are common; we expect them.

Isaiah announces a different kind of ruler, one who is not concerned to settle scores, but who will “feed his flock like a shepherd and … gently lead those who are with young.” A gentle, nurturing, and life-giving ruler.

This was all good news to Israel-Judah. They had been carried off into exile, and now their time of exile from the land God had promised them was ending. We know from our vantage point that the restoration was never really complete, and we can assume that some part of that restoration waits for the final consummation in the second coming of Christ. But these were the first steps home, as God came across the desert on this great highway to take them home.

Mark 1

As we turn to the time of Christ, Mark 1 quotes these verses from Isaiah to describe John the Baptist’s ministry. The quotation suggests that, just as Judah was waiting for political freedom in Isaiah’s day, the people were still waiting in Jesus’ day. They had a period of freedom when the Persians allowed them to go back to their land in the time of Ezra and Nehemiah, then they were taken over by the successors of Alexander the Great, known as the Seleucids. Jews today are celebrating Hannukah, in which they remember the Maccabees, who brought them freedom from Antiochus Epiphanes.

Then the Romans came, and Judah was now a Roman Province. Again the people looked for release from their oppression, and again the words from Isaiah 40 rang in their ears. John the Baptist preached a familiar message, the message of the prophets: “Repent, God is here! Turn from your sins and embrace God’s ways.”

John pointed to Jesus, who would bring God’s Spirit to the people. As Acts 2 and Pentecost show us, the people would have interpreted the presence of the Spirit of God as a sign that God was restoring the kingdom of David to them, making them politically free. As you know, Jesus spent much of his ministry setting that misunderstanding aside and preparing his disciples for his kingdom of peace and justice.

What Do We Do Now?

So, what do we do now? We’re still waiting, and we hear voices on every side, clamoring for our vote, begging for our money, trying to get us to buy into their claim to be the new Messiah. How do we know who to listen to? What should we do?

I have been reading the books of the Old Testament that describe their occupation of what we call “the Promised Land”. It is difficult reading, because in it, God accommodates to a system of tribal conflict reminiscent of Afghanistan. God appears to participate in the conflict rather than bringing it to an end. The narrative leaves the impression that God approves of fighting against your enemy, fighting to the bitter end.

Isaiah 40 and Mark 1 point us in a different direction. They promise a ruler who is gentle and nurturing, and they suggest that the obstacles to this ruler are dealt with by admitting our weakness and helplessness in the face of violence – in short, by repenting of our pride and desire to rule ourselves. How we reconcile these two contrasting visions is a topic for another time, but we know that Jesus calls us to the peaceable vision. To the peaceable kingdom. Which brings us back to the question, how do we know who to trust?

A consistent theme throughout the prophets is the call to justice and peace based on a primary allegiance to God alone. As voices around us promise salvation in all its different forms, we listen for the voice of justice and peace, and we listen for the place given to Jesus Christ.

The Relationship Factor

This piece of guidance has potential danger. We know that the “anti-Christ” (as John likes to call) will appear as an “angel of light”, as one claiming to have the power of God. I am deeply suspicious when public figures use their platform to speak as though God is speaking; it seems to me like using political or social power to force people against their will.

God speaking to us comes as an invitation, not as a forced agreement in which we have no choice. Both Isaiah and Mark announce the good news that God is here and invite their hearers to join in the parade. The last verse of our passage in Isaiah sounds the note of gentleness and peace, in sharp contrast to the way that secular voices speak in our society.

Justice and Peace

So, I am suspicious when I hear someone use a public platform to try to force people into the kingdom, and at the same time I base salvation precisely on being part of God’s kingdom. What do we do with this tension?

We listen for a gentle, nurturing, and life-giving voice. We listen for the invitation to justice and peace. We listen for God’s presence, not for overwhelming power. God is all-powerful, but God comes to us in a baby. God is the Creator of all, but God comes to us in the creation of life in a first-time mother. It is the presence of justice and peace in the voices we hear that marks the presence of God, not the note of strength seeking to destroy those we think are our enemies.

If you hear someone threatening to destroy your enemies, be suspicious. It may be the voice of one who is against Christ, rather than the voice of Christ. God calls us to repentance – yes! God judges rebellion – yes! In the end, God will destroy all that is evil – yes! But this is the Advent Season, a time of waiting during which God invites us to embrace God’s justice and God’s peace.

Conclusion

As we reach the end of our sermon and the service this morning, I return to the scenarios I began with – political disagreements filled with fear, which in our world often turn to violence. I think of war in Ukraine and in Israel-Palestine at this time.

Focus for a moment on the latter, but what I have to say applies to war in general. If you approach the conflict from the perspective of Israelis, they have everything to fear. Hitler’s effort to eradicate them is still within living memory – six million people killed in what we call “the holocaust”. When a group of people, Hamas, who say that Israel should not exist, attacks them, one understands why they fight back.

But if you approach the conflict from the perspective of the Palestinians, their anger and violence is equally understandable. I have a college friend whose Palestinian Christian family left their homes in 1948 when Israeli soldiers told them to. They were assured they could return when the soldiers were done, but they never did return. They lost their homes and belongings to the new Israeli state. Alongside the daily humiliations Palestinians experience, the memory of lost homes and land humiliates them. One understands why they wish to fight.

There is no end to such conflict. Each fresh attack brings only further reprisals. Even the efforts of those outside to bring an end to the conflict rely on political and economic pressure. Supporters of Palestine seem deaf to the stories of sexual violence used by Hamas in their attack on October 7, and supporters of Israel seem deaf to the pain the residents of Gaza are experiencing as we meet this morning.

Both Isaiah and Mark remind us of the need for us all to repent of our addiction to violence and power. They remind us that God is already here, coming in weakness, absorbing our pain and anger into himself on the cross, refusing to return violence for violence, continuing to love and nurture even when spurned and crucified.

How shall we know who to listen to? What shall we do? The path ahead is dark, and I cannot tell you what you should do. I ask you to listen with me to the voices that speak for justice and for peace, to those who are willing to receive the bitterness and pain of the world into themselves without fighting back, to the Prince of Peace born in a stable, dying on a cross, reigning forever in glory. I am reminded of the words of an old Christmas Carol:

Sing lullaby, Lullaby baby, now reclining, Sing lullaby 

Hush, do not wake the Infant King

Angels are watching, stars are shining Over the place where he is lying. Sing lullaby.

Sing lullaby, Lullaby baby, now a-sleeping, Sing lullaby

Hush, do not wake the Infant King

Soon will come sorrow with the morning, Soon will come bitter grief and weeping. Sing lullaby.

Sing lullaby, Lullaby baby, now a-dozing, Sing lullaby

Hush, do not wake the Infant King. Soon comes the cross, the nails, the piercing

Then in the grave at last reposing. Sing lullaby.

Sing lullaby, Lullaby, is the babe a-waking? Sing lullaby

Hush, do not stir the Infant King, Dreaming of Easter, gladsome morning

Conquering Death, its bondage breaking. Sing lullaby.

 

Focus

How will we know when God is truly with us? We see many signs of trouble and feel many fears for the future. In our trouble and fear, we wait for God to come and make things right. And we wonder how we will know when he comes.

Thinking Ahead

What are you most afraid of in the future? How will we recognize God when he comes?

Going Deeper

1) Politicians promise us they will fix what’s wrong. What can they actually fix?

2) What other sources of salvation clamour for our attention in today’s world?

3) What can they actually do?

4) How will we know Jesus when he speaks in the clamour of our present age?

5) We are waiting for Jesus. How do we wait? What do we do?

Steinbach Mennonite Church

10 December 2023

Second Advent

Scriptures: Isaiah 40:1–11 and Mark 1:1–8