November 27, 2022 Sermon
First Sunday of Advent - Color is PURPLE.
Sermon title: "A Season of Hope"
Scripture: Isaiah 2:1-5
Isaiah 2:1-5
The Future House of God
1The word that Isaiah son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem. 2In days to come the mountain of the Lord's house shall be established as the highest of the mountains, and shall be raised above the hills; all the nations shall stream to it. 3Many peoples shall come and say, "Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths." For out of Zion shall go forth instruction, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. 4He shall judge between the nations, and shall arbitrate for many peoples; they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.
Judgment Pronounced on Arrogance
5O house of Jacob, come, let us walk in the light of the Lord!
We are in the Season of Advent now, meaning that Christmas is coming soon. "Advent" means the coming of something. We also get the word "adventure" from this word. I think the coming of the Christ Child could certainly be considered an adventure, if not for us, then for God! And he came into a world of turmoil, maybe even worse than the world is now. Or maybe things ARE worse now. Not only do we have climate change wreaking havoc, but we also have a power-hungry Russian dictator named Vladimir Putin who is trying to bomb and kill his way into former Russian glory of centuries past. And he has even hinted that he might use nuclear weapons. So how is this "A Season of Hope", which is the sermon title?
The book of Hebrews says something about faith looking forward to things that are as yet unseen. Well, I believe that was what Isaiah was doing in the Scripture lesson we read this morning. He lived at a time (around 700 B.C.) when his country Israel always had to worry about Assyria attacking. And yet he had the audacity to look forward to a time when we won't "learn war anymore". I love that passage about turning spears into pruning hooks and swords into plowshares. He even said, "Nation shall not lift up sword against nation" in a future he dared to envision. Well, we aren't there yet, are we? Isaiah was 700 years BEFORE Christ, and here, 2000 years AFTER Christ, we are still learning war and experiencing war. Was Isaiah crazy? No, he simply dared to dream, much as the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. dared to dream. I am reminded of that black spiritual, "Down by the Riverside", which has in one of its verses..."ain't gonna study war no more, ain't gonna study war no more...." All of those impulses come from HOPE, and every year at this time we proclaim a Season of Hope, even if the evidence all around us suggests that there IS none. You and I, just like Isaiah before us and Martin Luther King, Jr. before us and whoever wrote "Down by the Riverside" before us must continue to HOPE. We do not have the luxury of despair. Also, listen to what it says in the first chapter of John's Gospel: Verse 5 says, "The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it." Believe that. Isaiah believed it, and so did Doctor King.
Isaiah is a great hero of mine! He was not only a man of God or a prophet. He was also well-connected to the political power structure. He was sort of like a secretary of state, but with a religious connection! Kings of Judah listened to him, sometimes, and he was an astute political observer of what was happening. I mentioned a moment ago that the kingdom of Assyria was always a threat during Isaiah's time. But one time, when Jerusalem and the surrounding countryside were surrounded by Assyrian forces, Isaiah said that Jerusalem would be spared, and Jerusalem WAS! Why? The person of faith would see the hand of God in that saving activity, and Isaiah definitely did. In practical terms, we can only surmise what happened. The Assyrian leader at that time, Sennacherib, was worried - possibly - that some rival back home might be trying to overthrow him. That is a possibility, because the Assyrians had no set rule of succession, and while Sennacherib was away and getting ready to plunder Jerusalem, perhaps somebody back home in Nineveh was plotting to overthrow him. So, perhaps Sennacherib high-tailed it back to Assyria, because hanging on to his throne was much more important to him than plundering Jerusalem.
In any case, Jerusalem was saved for the moment, and Isaiah had said that the Lord would save Jerusalem, and he was right! This was 700 years before Jesus, and 1900 years AFTER Jesus lived the poet Lord Byron. He wrote this poem that I love, and I want to share it with you now. {{Read "The Destruction of Sennacherib" by Lord Byron (George Gordon) The Assyrian came down like the wolf on the fold, And his cohorts were gleaming in purple and gold; And the sheen of their spears was like stars on the sea, When the blue wave rolls nightly on deep Galilee. Like the leaves of the forest when Summer is green, That host with their banners at sunset were seen: Like the leaves of the forest when Autumn hath blown, That host on the morrow lay withered and strown. For the Angel of Death spread his wings on the blast, And breathed in the face of the foe as he passed; And the eyes of the sleepers waxed deadly and chill, And their hearts but once heaved, and for ever grew still! And there lay the steed with his nostril all wide, But through it there rolled not the breath of his pride; And the foam of his gasping lay white on the turf, And cold as the spray of the rock-beating surf. And there lay the rider distorted and pale, With the dew on his brow, and the rust on his mail: And the tents were all silent, the banners alone, The lances unlifted, the trumpet unblown. And the widows of Ashur are loud in their wail, And the idols are broke in the temple of Baal; And the might of the Gentile, unsmote by the sword, Hath melted like snow in the glance of the Lord!}}
Did Lord Byron play fast and loose with the facts? Quite possibly! But the historical fact is that Jerusalem did NOT fall to the Assyrians then, and their leader Sennacherib was eventually assassinated by one of his own sons! Isaiah predicted that Jerusalem would be saved, and he was right! Was it his religious faith that sustained him or his practical knowledge of the political scene? Does it matter? The Lord was with him then, regardless of how you try to define the situation. By the way, this encounter between the army of Assyria and the forces of Jerusalem can be read about in II Kings............ Isaiah had HOPE and he had faith, and both his hope and his faith were confirmed by what happened. We aren't always so lucky or blessed to have our prayers answered in our lifetime, but at least on one occasion for Isaiah, it happened.
"A Season of Hope". That is what Advent is, even if the night seems so very dark. When Jesus was born, it was not the best of times. The tyrant he had to worry about - or at least his parents - was King Herod, who was so jealous he tried to kill all the little baby boys under two, if we believe the Scripture. Rome was always in control. Jesus never lived in what we think of as our birthright: a free society. And yet God came into that world at that time. And because God did that, we have hope.
Look at the recent midterm elections. Not only did democracy survive, it prevailed. So, there is a reason to hope. And virtually all those who said our election system was flawed either lost or snuck away without saying anything. (I know: gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake in Arizona, who LOST, isn't going away quietly, but she will, or she'll run again next time. But she LOST.) I just read some opinion by a lawyer or former lawyer who said one of the things he is thankful for this Thanksgiving season is LAWSUITS, because there are CONSEQUENCES to claiming an election was stolen in a court of law when you know it wasn't - and those consequences usually involve having to pay a substantial amount if you were in the wrong and KNEW you were in the wrong. So be thankful for our election system and our laws. Both worked, and the violence some were expecting never materialized. That was 2022 and coming up next is 2024. It was Thomas Jefferson who said that the price of liberty is eternal vigilance. So, we need to be vigilant in the next election, too. But let's not get ahead of ourselves. As Jesus said, let each day's troubles be sufficient unto themselves, or something like that - and let tomorrow take care of itself. Friends, we have reason to hope, because - like Isaiah - we witnessed something good in our lifetimes. And for the stuff that did not go well, trust God to set things right in God's good time. The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., said in his "I Have a Dream" speech that he might not get there with us - he didn't. But he also said that the arc of history bends toward justice. That justice may be after you and I have lived, but it will happen. Dr, King did not live to see it happen, and Isaiah did not live to see swords turned into plowshares and spears into pruning hooks. But that doesn't mean such things won't happen. Have hope! This is the Season for Hope. If God be for us, who can be against us, said the Apostle Paul. If God could come to that backwater town of Bethlehem, a most unlikely place and at a most unlikely and ungodly time, God can do anything. So, rejoice and be hopeful! Amen.
Pastor Skip
