"Visions of the Good Life"
Isaiah 2:1-5
[First Sunday of Advent 2013]
Here's a promise we can count on!
It's the word Isaiah saw:
One day coming, God's own mountain
Will be highest of them all.
All the nations will be yearning
For God's teaching, and returning,
They'll find guidance in God's law.
On that day of celebration,
All will listen to the Lord.
God will judge between the nations
Till all justice is restored.
Out of weapons made for harming
They will fashion tools for farming
And they'll put aside the sword.
One great day, the prophet told us,
God will triumph! It is true.
Lord, we trust this word of promise
As we hear your word anew.
When we're lost among the mountains
Of the world's ways that confound us,
Show the path that leads to you. [1]
That’s the hymn “Here’s a Promise We Can Count On” written by Carolyn Winfrey Gillette. It was inspired by our Isaiah text today. I love the closing words of this hymn, “Lord, we trust this word of promise / As we hear your word anew / When we’re lost among the mountains / Of the world’s ways that confound us / Show the path that leads to you.”
In our text today, there is a word of promise, showing indeed a path that leads to God. Isaiah is announcing God’s surprising plan of grace and glory for his rebellious people..and indeed, for the entire world. We should remember God had promised that through his descendants the world would be blessed [2]. God had promised David that his throne would lead the world into salvation [3]. But by Isaiah’s time, the descendants of Abraham and many members of the dynasty of David no longer trusted the promises of God, aligning themselves with the promises — and fears — of a false world where regional powers warred for Judah’s affection and loyalty. The question forced upon Judah by this threat was one of trust — in what will God’s people trust for salvation — in human strategies of self-rescue, or in the prophetic promises of divine grace? [4]
Like the false promises of Isaiah’s day, the wider culture’s concept of Christmas time is a season when we are encouraged to focus on a false world - a world where the promise of peace and “goodwill towards men” comes in the form of consumer catalogs and Black Friday discounts. It comes in the form of relentless ads bombarding us into a false nostalgia for childhood wonders which often come in the form of the latest gadget, the latest toy, the latest “must-have” stuff. We witness in television and Youtube spectacles the sad stories of people literally fighting one another in their local Walmart stores for the cheapest deals. As one Christian commentator puts its: “our culture is celebrating a giddy, overhyped pseudo-Christmas while we are attempting the more serious task of observing a holy Advent, but the reason the cultural messages are so powerful is that our human yearning is so real, and so profound.” [5]
My goodness, that is so true — our human yearning is so real and so profound. Which is why we need so badly this vision of God’s grace and glory from the Isaiah text on our first Sunday of Advent. You see, what Isaiah offers us is a vision of the true. He takes us to a mountain and shows us what our hearts are actually tuned for. Not the consumerist vision of the good life which seem to prevail in our culture at this time of year! Our hearts are tuned for the Word and will of the Lord God, creator of heaven and earth. Our hearts are tuned to the ultimate expression of the Word of God, the incarnate Lord Jesus Christ —> the object of our truest affection and loyalty as we anticipate the promise of his appearing in the Advent season. [6]
In Isaiah’s text, the language of vv. 2-4 tell us that all these great things shall happen in the future: “In the days to come…the LORD’s house shall be established…many peoples shall come…He shall judge…they shall beat their swords into plowshares…nation shall not lift up sword against nation…” Then in verse 5…we get the “thus” which comes to us now because of these great, future promises. Thus, Isaiah tells us, “let us walk in the light of the LORD!”
And we need this reminder of vs. 5: “O house of Jacob, come, let us walk in the light of the LORD!” We need the reminder that our focus on God’s promise cannot be just an exercise in self-serving anticipation [7]. This Advent season is not just a feel good session of navel-gazing self-consideration. My friends, we’re a called people!
We’re called to walk in the light…NOW.
We’re called to prepare and be ready…NOW.
We’re called to be a blessing to the world…NOW.
We’re called to not get caught looking so far ahead that you miss your neighbor near you…NOW. You’re called to not get caught looking so far ahead that you, for example, miss the homeless needs in your own county (by the way, don’t forget to sign up for Family Promise).
So we need to keep one eye on this future vision of Isaiah - to the day ahead when all people will look to the will and Word of the Lord —when we will fully experience God’s presence.
And we need to keep our other eye on the presence of God in the world already — we need to look for examples of the incarnation among us NOW - the cold, the hungry, the sick and the imprisoned. So that we can know the kingdom that is here, that is at hand, even while we work for what is yet to be [9].
And as we do the good work that the Lord has for us — as we walk in the light of the LORD — we can say together the hymnal words of Carolyn Winfrey Gillette — “Lord, we trust this word of promise / As we hear your word anew / When we’re lost among the mountains / Of the world’s ways that confound us / Show the path that leads to you.”
Let’s pray.
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[1] This is the hymn “Here’s a Promise We Can Count On” written by Carolyn Winfrey Gillette and meant to be sung to the tune “Infant Holy, Infant Lowly.” The hymn was accessed on 30 Nov 2013 at the following link: http://www.carolynshymns.com/heres_a_promise_we_can_count_on.html
[2] Genesis 12:1-3
[3] 2 Samuel 7:12-16; Psalm 89:19-37
[4] This paragraph inspired by and drawn from the textual notes of the ESV Study Bible, particularly in the discussion on “Purpose, Occasion, and Background” in the introductory notes to Isaiah.
[5] This paragraph is inspired by, and some parts are directly quoted from, Feasting on the Word: Year A, Volume 1 and the excellent “Pastoral Perspective” written by Stacey Simpson Duke.
[6] Ibid.
[7] A thought and phrase inspired by Walter Brueggemann’s textual reflection on Isaiah 2:1-5 in Texts for Preaching: A Lectionary Commentary Based on the NRSV-Year A, p. 2.
[8] Cf. the companion text of Advent 1A - Matthew 24:36-44 - a text about being prepared.
[9] These two “gazing” thoughts, about where our eyes should be, were inspired by Episode 39 of the podcast “Pulpit Fiction.” It can be accessed here: http://www.pulpitfiction.us/2/post/2013/11/ep-39-a1-jesus-sauce-or-advent-1a.html
