A wonderful little song came out in the 60's, I think the Kingston Trio sang it... It’s called The Merry Minuet.
They're rioting in Africa, they're starving in Spain
There's hurricanes in Florida, and Texas needs rain.
The whole world is festering with unhappy souls;
The French hate the Germans, and the Germans hate the Poles
Italians hate Yugoslavs, South Africans hate the Dutch;
and I don't like anybody very much.
I won’t sing the whole song, but it ends up with a telling little couplet:
They're rioting in Africa, there's strife in Iran.
What nature doesn't do to us will be done by our fellow man.
It wouldn’t take much to update this song, would it. They’re rioting in France, of all places. They’re starving in Ethiopia. I don’t have to tell you about hurricanes and floods, do I. The worst flood in Slovenia’s history just hit this month. There’s not a lot we can do about natural disasters, what used to be called “acts of God.” Particularly in third world countries, where politics, economics and - in some cases - culture keep communities from adopting safer building techniques or preserving the land’s own ability to absorb and heal from nature’s periodic violent outbursts.
But no matter what we do - or don’t do - to prepare for droughts and floods, man’s inhumanity to man remains a stubbornly intractable problem. Every time we are tempted to think we’ve made progress since the days children were hanged for stealing a loaf of bread, or when prisoners of war were sold on the block to enrich the armies, something pops up in the news to remind us that, to paraphrase Pogo, human beings still present the greatest danger we face. From the Janjaweeed restarting ethnic cleansing in Darfur to the bombing of churches in Pakistan, there’s really no evidence of lasting progress toward universal brotherhood.
When we cry out - as we do - for God to step in, to intervene, we have a particular vision of justice and peace in mind, don’t we. We remember Isaiah’s beautiful promises, and look forward to
"The days when the nations 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 anymore." [Is. 2:4]
But I often wonder, when people say, “Where is God at times like this?” if they know what they’re asking for. “Alas for you who desire the day of the LORD! Why do you want the day of the LORD? It is darkness, not light,” [Amos 5:18] said the prophet Amos. One of the few positive signs is the help given to Slovenia by Ukraine, which is already stretched to the breaking point defending itself against Russia. When people can find time amid their own troubles to help a neighbor, that is a sign of the presence of God.
In case this seems dreadfully pessimistic and defeatist, let me assure you that I am neither. God is in charge, and remembering that God’s team always wins - eventually - can bring blessings, and tragedy can turn into adventure. As Christians, as God’s agents of grace, we operate like medics on a battlefield. The job never seems to end, it may even seem naive and foolish. But our God keeps his promises, even if he seems to take rather longer than we would like. And that keeps us on course. As the Psalmist says, “Some trust in chariots, and some in horses: but we will remember the name of the LORD our God.” [Ps 20:7]
But why not now? Why does God continue to let evil triumph?
This is a cry that has echoed down throughout the ages, from the lament of the Israelite slaves in Egypt to the words of the prophet Habbakuk: “O LORD, how long shall I cry for help, and you will not listen? Or cry to you "Violence!" and you will not save? Why do you make me see wrongdoing and look at trouble? Destruction and violence are before me; strife and contention arise. So the law becomes slack and justice never prevails. The wicked surround the righteous-- therefore judgment comes forth perverted. [Hab 1:2-4] And Scripture even closes with the words, Come, Lord Jesus!” [Rev 22:20b]
We’ve been waiting a long time, haven’t we, for God to show up and make things right. How much would have been different if God had come sooner! How much evil has been done because people thought God doesn’t care, God isn’t watching, God is dead.... And every Christmas we review the promises and celebrate the coming of the Christ child and wonder, “How long, O Lord?” Some of us may even wonder if we are fools, to hold fast to the hope. Maybe we should do as our liberal cousins do and mythologize the whole thing, talking about the “Christ event” as a metaphor for a commitment to peace and love and generosity, rather than a shattering of the old order to make room for the living presence of God himself. It’s been 2000 years. Why doesn’t God do something? What is he waiting for? God, are you really there?
Isaiah’s prayer is from a people who long for God, yet cannot see or hear him, people for whom God is absent. Do you know what that feels like? Have you ever prayed, only to feel as though you were talking to yourself? Have you ever stood beside a sick bed and prayed for healing, but felt like God was far away? Have you ever stood helpless and silent at a time of tragedy? Have you ever been so battered by the chaos and evil of the world we live in that you prayed, “God, tear open the heavens and come down”?
That is Isaiah’s song. Just a few short chapters earlier we read the ringing phrases telling of the coming king, “Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you.” [Is 60:1] But the light is dimmed, isn’t it, except for the Christmas tree lights.... The tawdry tinsel of the season infects us, too, and we struggle to make time for Jesus while at the same time juggling a million different expectations. This Jesus whose birth Isaiah foretold has come, and we still are crying out for rescue.
What Isaiah is asking for, though, is what his people have already seen, and should already know about. He calls God to send earthquakes and fire and whirlwinds - the kinds of things God had done in the past, on all the occasions when he rescued Israel from their many enemies. In fact, just before today's passage, he recounts back to God some of their history together, reminding God that the people always backslid whenever God was out of sight, that they seemed to need to be shaken up in order to come to their senses and start worshiping and living in a God-honoring sort of way.
Isaiah acknowledges that God has every reason to turn his back on the people. Yes, he says, things are in a terrible state, but that’s because when we can’t see you we backslide. “...because you hid yourself, we transgressed... for you have hidden your face from us, and have delivered us into the hand of our iniquity.” [Is 64:5,7]
But will that really do any good? In this last spate of earthquakes, and floods, and fires, and whirlwinds, who has fallen on their knees and repented, save those who already know God? We worry about global warming and complain about the slow response by state and federal agencies instead. Is it possible that God is speaking to us through these events?
We know that even if God is sending these signs to waken us to the coming judgment, telling our friends and neighbors to repent is not going to be well received. We Presbyterians are not big on standing on street corners preaching the end of the world.
We - and Isaiah - know that the people who follow God do still hear from him. “You meet those who gladly do right, those who remember you in your ways.” [Is 64:5] Part of me wishes that God were always present, visible, clear as day, standing beside us. But that's not the way it is. Sometimes there is the blinding flash of light, the unmistakable voice, but in my experience God speaks most often through whispers, not shouts. God is found in the shadows, rather than blinding light. And sometimes the whispers are very low whispers, and sometimes the shadows are very dark.
Sometimes, when you’re the only one who catches a glimpse or hears the answer, you wonder if what you saw and heard was really God. If you recover from an illness, or find the perfect job, and you tell your friends that God answered your prayers, how will they respond? With strange glances or a swift change of subject? You may believe that God has restored you to health, or found you that job, but hey. Maybe it was just that you live right. Not everybody sees God the way you do. It would be nice if there were a voice, a nice, clear, possibly bass voice, saying from the heavens, “This is God. I did it.” Then they’d take you seriously.
And besides, that way you wouldn’t feel like a fool if you got sick again or the job didn’t work out. Because God doesn’t tip his hand very often. He doesn’t take out full-page ads or go in for flashing neon. On the contrary. One of my favorite preachers, Fred Craddock, confessed, “My problem with God has been God’s timidity, God’s quiet-ness."
But things are really in a pretty bad way down here, we’re breaking records for natural disasters, could they be acts of God after all? And terrorism looks like it’s going to be around for a long, long time, so - why not now? “O that you would tear open the heavens and come down!” God surely hasn’t forgotten us, has he?
Isaiah finishes his prayer with a plea: "Yet, O LORD, you are our Father; we are the clay, and you are our potter; we are all the work of your hand. Do not be exceedingly angry, O LORD, and do not remember iniquity forever. Now consider, we are all your people." [Is 64:8-9]
God knows what we’re like, and how desperately we need his active intervention in order to get things right. So - why not now?
And what do we make of the floods and fires and whirlwinds and earthquakes? Not to mention the wars and rumors of wars. Mark and Matthew both tell us that these things must come, but they are just “the beginning of birth pangs.” They are signs, yes - but not of the end of the age. They are signs of the absolutely, unalterable sovereignty of God. They are signs that with all our prized technology and progress, God still rules. People can only ignore God for a little while. Because he will come, and when we least expect him.
"...In those days, after that suffering, the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light... and the stars will be falling from heaven, and the powers in the heavens will be shaken... Then they will see 'the Son of Man coming in clouds' with great power and glory. ... And what I say to you I say to all: Keep awake." [Mk 13:24-26,37]
But it’s hard, isn’t it, when God’s voice is so small and the world’s clamor is so loud... It’s all too easy to miss the cues. We are, in many ways, like those sad teenagers who, having listened to rock music through headphones with the volume so high that their hearing is damaged, are now no longer able to hear any subtleties of sound. If they’re not facing the right way, the speaker has to shout to be heard. And that’s us, too. If we’re not facing the right way, we’ll miss God’s message.
So even as we sigh over the evening news, and wonder when the time will come, the wars and earthquakes and floods do call us back to alertness, even if most of our neighbors are deaf to the alarms.
And every Advent we gather together to remember that the first promise, Isaiah’s promise, came true, at a time and in a place where no one expected it - but the few who had kept watch...
And we know that even as God came then, in the baby Jesus, so he is still Immanuel, God with us. And when the time is just right, and all things have been prepared for the day, the other promises will also come true.
