Sermon - November 28, 2004 - Advent I - “A Boundless Hope”
THE PROBLEM: Proclamation I - Isaiah 8:18-22
18 Here am I, and the children the LORD has given me. We are signs and symbols in Israel from the LORD Almighty, who dwells on Mount Zion. 19 When men tell you to consult mediums and spiritists, who whisper and mutter, should not a people inquire of their God? Why consult the dead on behalf of the living? 20 To the law and to the testimony! If they do not speak according to this word, they have no light of dawn. 21 Distressed and hungry, they will roam through the land; when they are famished, they will become enraged and, looking upward, will curse their king and their God. 22 Then they will look toward the earth and see only distress and darkness and fearful gloom, and they will be thrust into utter darkness.
It seems like there are a lot of things going on all the time that suggest despair.
War suggests despair. Poverty suggests despair. Loneliness and broken relationships suggest despair. And from one way of looking at it, despair is a fitting response to a world gone mad.
Despair is a plot device in a lot of movies and tv that we watch. The story has progressed, we’ve gotten to know and care about the characters. They’ve come to a tense standoff.
The battle is about to rage or has already been raging for some time. Despair is that part in a well-
written movie where try as you might, you can’t see a way for the good guys to get out of the mess they’re in.
Despair says, “Hope is lost”. Despair says, “Hope is for fools!” Despair says “That great big world out there needs to be shut out!”
Despair can have a fresh, contemporary feel to it - there seems to be no end to the new ways people suffer in our world - new wars, new diseases, new injustice - but the truth is, despair has always been a companion on the human journey.
Despair can have a unique and individualized feel to it...no one has been you through these precise circumstances before. But even though we’re sure, at our lowest times, that noone can know how dark it is down here, we have a world full of fellow travellers. Fellow sufferers.
So we’re in good company. Out first reading today just touched on a big theme in the Old Testament. The OT can be summarized as the story of the growing, relentless suffering of humanity. Suffering at the hands of oppressors.
Suffering at the hands of people of bad character. Suffering at the hands of self. Groping around in darkness, the people of the Old Testament, as Isaiah says, “ look(ed) toward the earth and (saw) only
distress and darkness and fearful gloom....”
So we are not alone in our despair. When another teen is shot in our community we are not alone; when another child is aborted in our neighbourhood he or she is not alone; when the rent is due and despite our best efforts and long hours of work we’re late again and have received that final notice to move on, we are not alone.
In fact, our suffering and the resulting despair is something that unites us to the rest of humanity
past, present and future. It’s not a pleasant solidarity but it is a real solidarity. A grief that can remind us that we are all connected.
And the problem with despair is that it is real. Despair is a fitting response to a life without hope.
As a teen raised with zero knowledge of God, I reached the point where I knew that life was
meaningless and empty and devoid of purpose.
And people I talked to could never offer a better definition of life. They just said, “O, stop being
so negative”. But they didn’t agree.
Until I met some freaky people who would have none of that way of thinking. Now, they didn’t try to convince me that I was wrong to think that way. I thank God they didn’t. But what they did do is point me, in my despair, to a solution to the problem of despair. The same hope that our brothers and sisters in OT times found. These freaky people were followers of Jesus. And they pointed me to the solution to despair.
THE PROMISE: Proclamation II - Isaiah 9:1-7
1 Nevertheless, there will be no more gloom for those who were in distress. In the past he humbled the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, but in the future he will honor Galilee of the Gentiles, by the way of the sea, along the Jordan- 2 The people
walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of the shadow of death [1] a light has dawned. 3 You have enlarged the nation and increased their joy; they rejoice before you as people rejoice at the harvest, as men rejoice when dividing the plunder. 4 For as in the day of Midian’s defeat, you have shattered the yoke that burdens them, the bar across their shoulders, the rod of their oppressor. 5 Every warrior’s boot used in battle and every garment rolled in blood will be
destined for burning, will be fuel for the fire. 6 For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, [2] Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. 7 Of the increase of his government and peace there will be no end. He will reign on David’s throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever. The zeal of the LORD Almighty will accomplish this.
The answer to despair, you’d think, would be a change in circumstance. It would be an end to war. And end to loneliness. And end to injustice. Fix all the wrongs in the world, and there wouldn’t be any more depression, hopelessness or desperation. Create the perfect world where everyone is equal, and there’d be no more envy or imbalance.
The communists tried that. Remember Stalin. Remember Mao Tse Tung? Pol Pot? Remember the beauty they created and the ideal society that resulted? I guess not, eh.
We’ve tried a lot of things to create a better society. Our laws try to do that. And then laws
created to right wrongs end up creating their own wrongs.
But this passage that has just been read makes a bold and pretty bizarre statement. The people walking in darkness have seen a great light. A light has dawned. A solution to despair has been found. And the solution is...a person. A child. A baby boy who incarnates, brings to life the mighty love of God.
And this child eventually takes on a government, if we read the scripture carefully. What government? That of God’s Kingdom. But his style is different than the human rulers before and up to this day who’s hands are stained in the blood of wars fought for territory, for pride, for security.
This passage is a promise because it was spoken to a people who were still immersed in despair. It was a statement way out in left field. The promise was that a person would come who would rule as a counsellor, and a wonderful one at that.
God, and mighty God at that. A loving Father, and an everlasting one. A prince. Peace’s prince.
Let’s go back a sec. The first description of this mighty God and loving Father is...counsellor. A
listener? He will be the One who listens? What kind of ruler listens? Listen to the hearts of His subjects? Hears the burdened and oppressed cry of those walking in the midst of darkness.
Who is this surprising person? Who’s voice resonates with the tones of a loving Father? Who reigns with such power as the mighty God. Again, who that is high and lofty One who is completely Other than us and who nevertheless stoops to hear my cry? To listen deeply to your heart’s cry? And apparently He does more than stoop to listen.
No. Much more. Unto us. Unto you and you and you a child is given. Unto the wounded and broken and despairing who walk in the valley of the shadow of death a Son is given.
THE FULFILMENT: Proclamation III - Luke 1:26-37Luke 1: 26 In the sixth month, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, 27to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. 28The angel went to her and said, "Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you." 29 Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. 30But the angel said to her, "Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favor with God. 31You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus. 32He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, 33and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end." 34"How will this be," Mary asked the angel, "since I am a virgin?" 5The angel answered, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will
overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called 3] the Son of God. 36Even Elizabeth your relative is going to have a child in her old age, and she who was said to be barren is in her sixth month. 37For nothing is impossible with God." 8"I am the
Lord’s servant," Mary answered. "May it be to me as you have said." Then the angel left her.
Nothing is impossible with God. The problem was very real. The despair was everywhere. Into this situation of hopelessness a promise was spoken. A most unusual promise that seemed to be all wrapped up in one person - a child given as a personal solution to the problem.
And now, the promise is fulfilled...in a most unusual way. A virgin, untouched by a man. A young girl who somehow found favour with God. A young woman never given to another was told the answer to your deepest needs would be given through her body.
There is a Greek word that carries with its meaning a sense of profound respect and reverence. It is Theotokos. This young maiden was to be the mother of God.
The mother of God. One w ho was created by God, knit together in her mother’s womb by God’s mighty creative power and love. This one who the angel pronounced was to be most blessed among women would give human flesh to...God. God’s remedy to the despair in the world, to the poison that seemed to fill the very air we breath, was to become the incarnated solution.
He was to enter your world. He was to enter your pain. He was to live a humiliated life. A subject
of a cruel and repressive government. A victim of injustice. A true friend to false friends. A true
lover of the human soul yet despised by the very ones he came to save. A humiliated life.
There is a word for all of this, you know. The whole story of the Bible can be summed up in one word. And the solution to every despair can also be described with a one-syllable word that we use often and understand rarely.
It is grace. It is unearned favour. It is limitless, loving acceptance of an undeserving person. It is
boundless. It is boundless grace.
And that is what Advent is about. Today we have begun to observe Advent. Advent is the hope of the arrival of God’s boundless grace all wrapped up in one wonderful life. One life given for the suffering of the world. One life given to take back that which has been robbed. One life given to redeem us and restore us.
And there is an offer on the table. It is the offer to transform a life of limitless despair to a life of
unlimited joy and purpose. That is the offering of the Christ child to you this season. It is the
offer to fill your suffering with His presence. It is the offering to become a part of a people of boundless hope. That’s what the church is. Because we have responded and we keep responding to the limitless grace of God all wrapped up in one person who lived a perfect life of love.
It is the desire of every living person to be loved and to love. To be known and to know others. To belong. To matter to another. The message of Advent...please listen very closely...the message
of Advent is that YOU matter to another. Your life and your problems and your suffering and your despair was what motivated God to come in the flesh.
His desire to know you and be known by you...for God shares our desire to love and be loved, to know and be known...his desire to rescue you from your very real despair is why human history is divided in half by the coming of the Christ. There was a time before the Christ has entered the world.
And there was a time when our Lord entered the world. In your life there was or is a time when Christ has not entered your life. And perhaps, if He hasn’t already, there will be a time for Him to enter into your life.
Whether or not you have said to Jesus Christ yet, God presents you an offer. It is the offer to enter into or continue in his boundless grace. The past forgiven. Wounds healing. Hope nudging out despair. Joy replacing sadness. This is Advent. The beginning of the season of rejoicing. Will you let yourself be searched for by God. Will you let yourself be found today by God.
For nothing is impossible with God.
