Advent with Handel’s Messiah First Sunday November 30, 2008
Isaiah 40:1-5
Last Christmas, Linda Ruth gave me a book from The Voice Project called “The Voice from on High.” It is a translation and exploration of scripture from Handel’s Messiah. It’s inspired me to look at a selection of scripture from the Messiah as our Advent series this year.
Two years ago we bought tickets to the Messiah for Pam’s parents as Christmas gifts. I ended up taking them. Pam’s mom was so grateful that this old rock-and- roller would sit through hours of opera music to take them. Don’t tell her, but I loved every minute of it – portions moved me deeply, even to the point of tears. Pam’s dad, on the other hand, slept through a great portion!
I’ve put an insert in the bulletin that details places you can experience Messiah in Toronto this season.
When Handel wrote Messiah he had gone from riches to rags. For 30 years he had entertained Lords and Ladies with his operas. But those days seemed long past. Creditors were at his door. He was depressed. He could not sleep and he was plagued by rheumatism. He feared he would finish out his days in a London debtors prison. But, two letters arrived that summer of 1741 that would changed everything. The first letter was an invitation from the Duke of Devonshire inviting him to the Irish Capital, Dublin, to produce a series of benefit concerts "For the relief of the prisoners in the several gaols (jails), and for the support of Mercer’s Hospital in Stephen Street, and of the Charitable Infirmary on the Inn’s Quay."
Shortly thereafter a second letter arrived from a wealthy but somewhat eccentric English Land owner named Charles Jennens. He quickly opened the letter. Jennens had written some lyrics for him in the past. To his amazement the letter was a compilation of Old Testament and New Testament scripture passages. George read the words again and again. He was greatly moved and felt impressed to put them to music. Handel locked himself in his study and within 7 days he had completed Part I -- the Christmas section or the oratorio. He presses on to Part II that focused on the Redemption and 9 days later that was finished. Then, in less than a week he completed Part III - The Resurrection and Future Reign of Christ portion.
The first presentation of Messiah was a charitable benefit. When Handel died, now wealthy from his success, he left the score of Messiah to a puplic Hospital where it supported the care of the poor and the sick. Charles Burney, 18th century music historian, remarked that Handel’s Messiah "fed the hungry, clothed the naked, and fostered the orphan."
Although the first part of Messiah specks of the Birth of Jesus, it was originally performed at lent and Easter.
The Oratorio begins with Isaiah 40 it takes the first three “songs” with lyrics:
Isaiah 40
Comfort for God’s People
1 Comfort, comfort my people,
says your God.
2 Speak tenderly to Jerusalem,
and proclaim to her
that her hard service has been completed,
that her sin has been paid for,
that she has received from the LORD’s hand
double for all her sins.
3 A voice of one calling:
"In the wilderness prepare
the way for the LORD;
make straight in the desert
a highway for our God.
4 Every valley shall be raised up,
every mountain and hill made low;
the rough ground shall become level,
the rugged places a plain.
5 And the glory of the LORD will be revealed,
and all people will see it together.
For the mouth of the LORD has spoken."
In Isaiah 40:1-2 Isaiah stops prophesying to his own time, and begins to prophesy to the next generations. He is standing in the court of the Judean palace in Jerusalem, everything looks fine and he is not prophesying the destruction of Jerusalem and exile of her people. He is prophesying the return of the exiles and the rebuilding of the city! He is saying “comfort” to people who were feeling pretty comfortable – they don’t need it now, but they will. It may speak to us as we wait for the economic Tsunami that we know is coming, but we haven’t actually felt yet.
Isaiah 40
1 Comfort, comfort my people,
says your God.
2 Speak tenderly to Jerusalem,
and proclaim to her
that her hard service has been completed,
that her sin has been paid for,
that she has received from the LORD’s hand
double for all her sins.
100 years after it was penned, the Jewish people in exile must have leaned heavily on Isaiah 40.
500 years after it was penned, in Jesus’ day the people still leaned heavily on it – the Babylonian exile had ended, but only in that the people had returned – The nation had never regained the strength it had at it’s height, and the presence of God was never seen as it was in Moses’ or David’s day. Now the Romans had come and they felt like they were exiled in their own country.
Today, 2,000 years later, we are still in exile. The Babylonian exile was only a picture of the greater exile of all of humanity
It starts with the first people – they turned from God and were exiled from paradise, and worse, exiled from the presence of God.
Isaiah’s Prophesy was fulfilled in Cyrus brining the Jews back to Palestine, but it is fulfilled more so by the Son of God himself coming to earth, becoming a man, and leading us out of exile back to God. We no longer walk with God in the garden but, Jesus sends the comforter so that God lives within us by his Spirit!
The promise is that the time of punishment is over. For Isaiah’s first audience, it means a return to the Promised Land. For Christians, we understand that the reason that our wrongdoing doesn’t just go away – it needs to be taken away. We know that it is Jesus who takes our sin and its punishment away.
Romans 3:22-26
We are made right with God by placing our faith in Jesus Christ. And this is true for everyone who believes, no matter who we are.
For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard. Yet God, with undeserved kindness, declares that we are righteous. He did this through Christ Jesus when he freed us from the penalty for our sins. For God presented Jesus as the sacrifice for sin. People are made right with God when they believe that Jesus sacrificed his life, shedding his blood. This sacrifice shows that God was being fair when he held back and did not punish those who sinned in times past, for he was looking ahead and including them in what he would do in this present time. God did this to demonstrate his righteousness, for he himself is fair and just, and he declares sinners to be right in his sight when they believe in Jesus.
The reason the exile is over is that Jesus takes away the cause.
The voice changes, a new character enters the prophesy:
A voice of one calling:
"In the wilderness prepare
the way for the LORD;
make straight in the desert
a highway for our God.
Isaiah’s Audience will make there way across the wilderness from Babylon to Israel, but we cannot read this without thinking about John the Baptist going before Jesus and crying out in the wilderness: “Look! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!
We repeat Isaiah’s words and John’s words every year at this time as we prepare to celebrate the coming of Jesus into our world:
Rose Marie Berger writes, “Advent is sometimes called the “little Lent.” It is a time of joyful penitence, for washing off the sweat and grime of our human endeavours and making ourselves holy and presentable for the Incarnate One.”
Don’t see these next 4 weeks as only a time to shop for all your loved ones, bake cookies, etc.
But prepare your hearts for the coming king; the one who will
“raise up Every valley,
make low every mountain and hill;
level the rough ground,
and make the rugged places a plain.”
This promise is not just about flattening out the wilderness. It is about flattening out humanity. Our exile is not just from God it is from each other as well. We make divisions of Nationality and Ethnicity, Gender and economic standing.
Mary Mother of Jesus got it: she sang when John and Jesus greeted each other in uetero:
"My soul glorifies the Lord
and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,
for he has been mindful
of the humble state of his servant.
From now on all generations will call me blessed,
for the Mighty One has done great things for me—
holy is his name.
His mercy extends to those who fear him,
from generation to generation.
He has performed mighty deeds with his arm;
he has scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts.
He has brought down rulers from their thrones
but has lifted up the humble.
He has filled the hungry with good things
but has sent the rich away empty.
He has helped his servant Israel,
remembering to be merciful
to Abraham and his descendants forever,
just as he promised our ancestors." – Luke 1:46-55
The Apostle Paul got it when he writes to the Galatians:
So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, neither male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. – Galatians 3:26-28
Martin Luther King Jr. got it in his “I Have a Dream” speech:
I say to you today, my friends, that in spite of the difficulties and frustrations of the moment, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.
I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal."
I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slaveowners will be able to sit down together at a table of brotherhood.
I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a desert state, sweltering with the heat of injustice and oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.
I have a dream that my four children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.
…
I have a dream today.
I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together.
The way that we bring comfort to God’s people, the way that we embrace the end of our exile, the way that we proclaim the coming king and prepare our hearts to receive his presence is to live in His kingdom that welcomes all nationalities, welcomes rich a poor, welcomes men and women on the same level, is by banishing all those divisions in our own hearts, raising up the lowly, and humbling the haughty.
Then the Glory of the lord will be revealed
And all people will see it together!
