Waiting. No one likes to do it. Coffee addicts don’t like having to wait for their morning cup to brew. Kids don’t like having to wait for their birthday to come. And no one likes waiting at the hospital emergency room. That’s the worst isn’t it? The fact that you’re at the ER means that there’s a problem, and you want that problem fixed right away. But in 2013 the average wait time at Alberta hospital emergency rooms was nine hours! That’s a long time to wait with a shooting pain in your stomach, or when you’ve broken your leg. That nine-hour wait is going to be even more miserable if it’s during the night. Good luck getting any sleep in a plastic chair surrounded by other sick people.
But you know, a nine-hour wait is better than a 17.5 million-hour wait. That’s about how many hours there are in 2,000 years—the length of time Christians have been waiting for Christ’s return. And here we are again, at the beginning of another church year ready to celebrate Advent and to encourage one another: “Jesus is coming!” But when? Hasn’t the wait been long and hard enough? Old Testament believers felt the same way as they awaited the Messiah’s first coming. How did they handle the wait? That’s what we want to find out over the next four Sundays of Advent with a sermon series entitled: “Waiting with the Old Testament Church.” Today we’re going to learn about the importance of waiting with prayer.
All of our texts are going to come from the book of Isaiah. Isaiah was a prophet who worked in Jerusalem about 700 years before Christ’s birth. In Isaiah’s day the Assyrians had overrun most of Israel and Judah and had even laid siege to the great city of Jerusalem. As Isaiah watched the destruction, he opened his mouth in an anguished prayer. “Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down, that the mountains would tremble before you! 2 As when fire sets twigs ablaze and causes water to boil, come down to make your name known to your enemies and cause the nations to quake before you! 3 For when you did awesome things that we did not expect, you came down, and the mountains trembled before you” (Isaiah 64:1-3).
Isaiah wanted to know why God seemed so distant from his chosen people. Why didn’t God hurry and come to their rescue? Isaiah knew that God was no wimp. He could smash to pieces any enemy as easily as we can smash a clay jar. So Isaiah wanted the Lord to tear open the heavens and make a grand entrance, like a football team ripping through a banner as part of their pre-game hype. Isaiah wanted to see God’s power in action as the Israelites of old had seen it when God made Mt. Sinai shake. Just think of that scene for a minute. Mountains seem so immovable and permanent. It would take an enormous power to shake them. I wasn’t there at Mt. Sinai of course, but I’ve been to the Frank Slide here in Alberta. That’s where, in 1903, 90 million tons of limestone slid down Turtle Mountain obliterating the eastern edge of a mining town below. The Frank Slide is still an eerie place to drive through as boulders twice the height of your car line the highway on either side. Imagining those boulders tumbling down towards you makes you step on the gas to clear that area quickly just in case the rest of Turtle Mountain is about to shake loose!
Although the quaking Mt. Sinai didn’t come cascading down on the Israelites, the sight of the mountain shaking in God’s presence made them terrified of God’s awesome power. God would use that awesome power to benefit his people when he made the walls of Jericho tremble and then topple enabling the Israelites to take that city. Since God had used his power like that in the past, Isaiah wondered why God wasn’t causing the Assyrians to quake in their boots now. Why did God seem so distant from his people? And so Isaiah’s prayer was “Hurry!” Hurry and come down here to obliterate all the evil in the world. That’s an Advent prayer we have no problem offering is it? And in fact it is perhaps what we’ve been praying in light of world events these last couple of weeks.
But you know what they say: “Be careful what you wish for!” Isaiah had hardly gotten that part of the prayer out of his mouth when he realized that he had asked for something awful. In begging God to come down and deal with all that was wrong with the world, Isaiah was asking God to come down and deal with him. And so after asking God to hurry, Isaiah prayed, “Halt!” Listen to what Isaiah confessed: “You come to the help of those who gladly do right, who remember your ways. But when we continued to sin against them, you were angry. How then can we be saved? 6 All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away. 7 No one calls on your name or strives to lay hold of you; for you have hidden your face from us and made us waste away because of our sins” (Isaiah 64:5-7).
Like the drug dealer who calls the cops to report a break-in at his house forgetting that when the cops get there they’ll find the marijuana grow operation in his basement, so Isaiah had seemingly forgotten that when he called on God to come down and deal with the ungodly that this was an invitation for God to scrutinize the prophet himself! Isaiah was correct when he said that God was happy to help those who gladly do what is right. But when was the last time you gladly did what was right? How about those chores last night? Did your parents have to keep after you to get them done, which you did, but only after some grumbling? Or how about that friend who asked for a favor. Did you say, “No problem—happy to help!” even as you silently calculated how that act of service was going to cost you fifteen minutes and maybe even fifteen bucks? When you chided yourself for thinking that way and got on with helping your friend, isn’t it true that in the end you were happy that you helped? But here’s the thing, you were happy to have helped because it made you feel good!
It’s no wonder Isaiah said that all of our (not their) righteous acts (not bad moments) are like filthy rags. It’s not just our sins that stink, so do all the supposed “good” things that we do! Giving money for missions, serving on church committees, being an attentive spouse and an obedient child, and sending encouragement cards are all meant as acts of righteousness, but they’re better off being flushed down the toilet and sent to the septic tank than being displayed before God. Why? Because everything we do is stained with the sin of pride and self-righteousness.
Do you still want God to hurry and come down to this world to deal with everything that’s wrong with it? No. Because the fact is, I am what’s wrong with this world and so are you. To drive this point home Isaiah said that our sins shrivel us up like a dead leaf. Where do dead leaves end up? They either end up in the compost heap where they rot, or they get thrown into a fire. Take your pick; the Bible says that we deserve both for of our sins.
Perhaps this is why Isaiah went on to describe himself and us as clay. Clay isn’t very pretty is it? It doesn’t smell especially good either. But then listen to how Isaiah finishes his thought. “Yet, O LORD, you are our Father. We are the clay, you are the potter; we are all the work of your hand. 9 Do not be angry beyond measure, O LORD; do not remember our sins forever…” (Isaiah 64:8, 9a).
Yes, we are nothing but clay, but the good news is that God has picked us up in his hands to mold us into something beautiful. But since our sins have sucked any goodness out of us making us like dry clay that would only crumble in God’s hands, he first makes us pliable with the water of baptism. At baptism God breathed new life into us so that he can mold and fashion us into his likeness. That explains why Christians often feel as if they’re being worked over by God. We are! In his love the heavenly Potter trims bits and pieces of unwanted “clay” from us shaping us into something useful. Then he puts us through fiery trials so that, as happens with dull clay baked in a kiln, we become something beautiful.
Isaiah had begun his prayer by asking God to hurry and tear open the heavens to make his presence known. But then the prophet halted when he realized what he had just asked God to do: judge sinners, of whom Isaiah was one. And so Isaiah added this important request to his prayer: help! God answered both of Isaiah’s requests, though it would take 700 years to do so. In around 26 AD, somewhere above the Jordan River the heavens were torn open when the Holy Spirit descended on Jesus in the form of a dove. God the Father’s voice also boomed, declaring Jesus to be his beloved Son. Jesus’ baptism marked him as our savior from sin—the help that God had promised to send.
There would be another dramatic tearing and shaking, this time at Jesus’ death. Then the temple curtain was torn in two, signifying that the way to God is now open to sinners whose trust is in Jesus. Rocks also split and tombs were opened out of which dead believers came out alive! It’s probably not the kind of help that Isaiah imagined, but as he himself confessed in our text: “…you did awesome things that we did not expect…Since ancient times no one has heard, no ear has perceived, no eye has seen any God besides you, who acts on behalf of those who wait for him” (Isaiah 64:3b, 4).
Yes, like Isaiah we wish God would hurry because waiting for Jesus often feels as intolerable as waiting for the doctor in the ER. But although the wait for Jesus might be longer, the result will be better. ER doctors can never fix all your problems, but Jesus can and will. He’s already fixed your problem of sin. And so even as the Old Testament church did we will continue to wait patiently for the Lord—waiting for the day when we see heaven opened, and see Jesus come to remove all sickness and sadness. Keep waiting patiently as you prayerfully hold on to his love through the Word and Sacraments. Amen.
SERMON NOTES
What season of the church year have we now entered? What is the focus of this part of the church year?
Summarize the first part of Isaiah’s prayer.
Why was the second part of Isaiah’s prayer “Halt!”?
Isaiah compared us to clay in God’s hands. How is that a good thing? And how is it also a warning that life won’t always be pleasant?
Isaiah prayed for God to tear through the heavens and come down. How and when did God answer Isaiah’s prayer? How will that truth help you as you wait for Jesus’ return?
