Sunday, December 17, 2017

Advent 3 - Ridiculously Hopeful - Isaiah 55:1-13

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer. Amen.

“The mountains and hills shall burst into song, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.” When I read this passage earlier this week, I have to admit that an image popped into my head of cartoon Rockies singing and animated pine trees lifting up their branches and waving them around, like some kind of wacky old-school Bugs Bunny cartoon. I had to laugh, because if you take this imagery literally, it’s pretty ridiculous. Singing mountains and clapping trees? It’s so absurd we have to smile.

The absurdity, or ridiculousness, of this passage begins even earlier, though, and in a more serious context. This part of Isaiah was written for God’s people in exile, who had been taken from their homes, and who were living in poverty and despair in a foreign land. And along comes Isaiah, saying to them, “you that have no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money!” Isaiah tells people who are starving, both literally and spiritually, because they’ve been cut off from their Temple and from God, to come and buy what they need to be filled. Isaiah calls them to do what is impossible for them. His call to them is ridiculous.

Actually, it’s a bit obscene––encouraging starving people with no money to come and buy food. It’s a bit like opening a Lambourghini store in a city hit by a recession. Or like telling people who are addicted to drugs that they just need to have more self-discipline. Or like telling someone who’s been paralyzed by a car accident that they just need to get up and walk it off. It’s rubbing salt in the wound, so to speak. It’s cruel. And yet Isaiah is doing it. Isaiah tells the people to buy food. And more than that, even though they are in captivity in another country, and even though God’s home among them has been destroyed, he tells them that God has glorified them. In the midst of their utter humiliation, they are to delight. In the midst of their despair, they are to hope.

It’s ridiculous. Obscene. And yet they do. The people of Israel continue to delight in God, even though to the outside world they have nothing to delight in. They continue to hope, even though their situation is hopeless. They turn to God, even though to the world around them it looked as if God has abandoned or even betrayed them. Even today, despite everything that has happened to them, the Jewish people continue to celebrate the light of God in the world and God’s protection of them during this time of Chanukah.

But we do this too, don’t we? We, too, engage in this ridiculous behaviour of finding joy in the midst of tragedy. We, too, remain hopeful in the face of loss. We celebrate Christmas and the coming of Christ into the world in the midst of suffering and grief and a world on the brink of chaos. We look to new life after death.

It is ridiculous, and even obscene, to give thanks to God for this day when we are simply incapable of stopping loss and death, when we can do nothing to stop the day from coming to an end. It is ridiculous. Unless... unless... unless the cause of our joy and hope and celebrations lies outside of us. It is ridiculous for us to hope, unless our hope comes from God and not from ourselves.

This is what Isaiah is trying to tell us. Isaiah is trying to point out to his listeners that yes, it is ridiculous to buy food when we have no money, and to celebrate the glory of God when we are in humiliation. It is ridiculous because we can never do these things of our own accord. We cannot provide ourselves with food, and we cannot give ourselves glory. Rather, it is God who does these things for us. God, whose ways and thoughts are higher than ours, can bring into being a world that is more than we can even imagine. And it is God in whom we hope, and who gives us that very hope, and that is why it is not ridiculous, after all.

We can hope in God, because God’s word to us, God’s promises to us of new life, God’s promises to Israel that they would return from exile and be led back in peace, that they would never again be cut off from God, these promises are more than just words. God’s words to us are efficacious. They do what they say. Isaiah explains it by saying, “For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there until they have watered the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and succeed in the thing for which I sent it.” 

Think about that for a minute––just as rain and snow become bread to eat, through the process of watering the soil and nourishing the kernel which becomes the plant which puts forth grain which is harvested and milled and baked into life-giving bread, so does the Word of God become life and joy for us, through the process of strengthening us and lifting our spirits and showing us the newness of all things. The Word of God calms our anxious minds, and brings peace to our hearts, and joy and hope in our sorrows. It is a mystery, to be sure, just as mysterious as why hydrogen and oxygen that make up water should be used by a plant’s DNA to ensure its growth into grain. But it is a reality. God’s word does what it proclaims. Just as in Genesis, when God said, “Light, be!” and Light was––so God says, Joy! Hope! Life! and there is joy, and hope, and life within us. It is ridiculous enough to make you smile.

And yet it is real. You all being here, after the loss of Gretchen, seeking comfort from God and worshiping and praising God for all things, is ridiculous, and yet real. The Christian proclamation that the world would be saved from oppression and healed and liberated through the birth of a tiny baby two thousand years ago is ridiculous, and yet real. Our belief that death is not the end of us, and that we continue to live in God is ridiculous, and yet real. Our hope that God will lead us in joy and peace, that the mountains will burst into song and that the trees will clap their hands, is ridiculous, and yet real.


To celebrate Christmas this year, in this place, with joy and with hopefulness is ridiculous. Yet, clearly, we find ourselves doing it. Not because we are delusional, or in denial, but because God moves us to. God’s speaks God’s Word and it comes to pass. God proclaims joy, and joy happens. God proclaims peace, and peace happens. God proclaims new life, and new life happens. It is ridiculous, and it is our hope. And so, today and in the days to come, may God’s Word spoken to you send you out in joy and lead you back in peace. May God’s Word strengthen you and fill you. May God’s Word be light in your darkness, and give you hope. Thanks be to God. Amen.

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