Year A, Advent 3, Isaiah 35.1-10, Matthew 11:2-11 Rejoice

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus the Christ.  Amen

How can we sing the Lord’s song, while we are captive in a foreign land?

How can we leap for joy, while our legs are still in shackles?

And what good news is there that could lighten the load of our suffering and oppression.

Two weeks ago Isaiah sang a song of peace.

Last week it was of righteousness that Isaiah wrote, of reconciling all creation.

And today Isaiah’s vision is of rejoicing and healing.

Isaiah goes back and forth.

Much of his message is one of judgment and stern warning about the disaster that was looming on the horizon.

The earliest writings of Isaiah come from about the year 600 BC, just prior to the destruction of the Kingdom of Judah and the deportation of the people into exile in Babylon.

But remarkably, even while the impending disaster is still on the horizon, he sings these songs of hope and rejoicing.

5Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped; 6 then the lame shall leap like a deer, and the tongue of the speechless sing for joy.  .   .

10And the ransomed of the LORD shall return, and come to Zion with singing; everlasting joy shall be upon their heads; they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.

It’s a mixed message that Isaiah brings.

Imagine, for example, that Isaiah is speaking to a group of young recruits prior to being sent off to war.

As these soldiers hear the words, “Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped; then the lame shall leap like a deer, and the tongue of the speechless sing for joy” there are two messages:

1.       They will be blinded, lose their hearing, be wounded and lame, and be left speechless for the ordeal; and

2.       There will be an end to their suffering, and at that time, in spite of being blind, deaf, lame, and speechless they shall rejoice.

Or to put it differently, it’s like promising a young soldier heading off to Iraq or Afghanistan that they need not worry because the Veteran’s Administration runs hospitals all across the country they can be fitted with prosthesis when they get home.

In the years that followed, Judah was conquered and its people taken into captivity in Babylon for a generation.

Then Persia conquered Babylon, and allowed the people to return to Israel to rebuild the nation.

In Ezra we hear the story of the return from Exile and the mixed emotions surrounding that:

And all the people responded with a great shout when they praised the Lord, because the foundation of the house of the Lord was laid. 12 But many of the priests and Levites and heads of families, old people who had seen the first house on its foundations, wept with a loud voice when they saw this house, though many shouted aloud for joy, 13 so that the people could not distinguish the sound of the joyful shout from the sound of the people's weeping, for the people shouted so loudly that the sound was heard far away.

Ezra 3:11b-13

They could not distinguish between the laughter and the weeping.

Again, it’s this mixed message that runs throughout Isaiah.

It’s like hearing that we will be healed, prior to knowing that we were even sick.

Our response is “Wait, what?”

To celebrate the coming of a Savior, is also to admit the reality that we need saving.

We live in interesting, troubling times.  Much like Judah during the time of Isaiah.  Or at least it seems like it.

On the one hand, we are enjoying a long period of economic growth and prosperity.  This began following the “Great Recession” of 2008 and continues to this day.

And yet even in the midst of our prosperity there are those who are sounding warnings, who speak like Amos did when he said “Alas, for those who are at ease in Zion. . .”

Some of those warnings come regarding the environment.

Greta Thunberg, the sixteen year old environmentalist activist, was named Time Magazine’s “person of the year”. 

The message that we hear from climatologists around the globe is that if we don’t act now, and decisively, there will be hell to pay in the future.

In the political arena, we hear voices of warning coming from all sides.

Trump’s campaign slogan “Make America Great Again” resonated with those people who were deeply concerned that our country had gone astray and was not so great anymore.

On the other side of the aisle, the Democratic candidates are working diligently at casting a vision for our country, their own version of what it would be to “make America greater than it’s ever been.”

The common thread weaved through the messages of both the right and the left, is that “all is not well”.  That in spite of the prosperity, all is not well.

Economically there is a disconnect.  On the one hand, the stock market is at an all time high.  On the other hand, wages of many Americans, especially in the lower economic brackets, are stagnant or even declining. 

Others would warn us about the sustainability of our healthcare system.  We have an incredible health care system, but the cost is an ever increasing issue.

Others would warn us about the overreach of government into our lives.

Still others would warn us about our country losing its status as the leader of the free world.

And all these warnings, warnings from every end of the social/political spectrum, come at a time of prosperity.

For all the warnings, life is good.  Or to put it in a Norwegian sort of way, it could be a whole lot worse.

But going back to the promises of Isaiah, that eventually there will be a time of great rejoicing, and the words of Jesus answering John the Baptist’s question, there is reason to hope and rejoice, but that will come to us after a period of great suffering.

During Advent, the whole point is that we look forward in anticipation of the birth of our Savior, and his coming again – but it is always with an acknowledgment that we NEED a savior.

On a personal level, we believe that the Savior has come and is coming to forgive our sins.

Good news.  Our sins are forgiven.  Rejoice.  Dance. Leap for joy.

But to get to that point of rejoicing, we must first deal with the reality of our sin and repent.

There is no point in celebrating the birth of a savior if we do not acknowledge our need of a savior.

That’s the two edge sword of the Gospel.

Likewise, when Jesus comes to us proclaiming that the Kingdom of God is at hand, we rejoice, but, only in as much as we also confess that the Kingdom in which we live is NOT the Kingdom of God.

In the Lord’s prayer we pray:  “Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”

Every time we pray that prayer we implicitly admit, confess, that the Kingdom has not yet come and God’s will is not being done.

And so we wait for a savior.

We long for Jesus.

And we wonder when, and how this world will be redeemed as has been promised.

The message of the Gospel is that it will be redeemed, and it will get better, much better, but that there will be times of suffering and great ordeals before that happens.

What we hope for is that we will be sustained by the love of God through those difficult times and be able to wake one day to the redemption that is coming.

And so we light the candle of hope.

And we look forward to the day of rejoicing.

And we trust Jesus.

Amen

Year A, Proper 18, Ezekiel 33.7-11 “For why will you die, O House of Israel?”

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.  Amen

Harvey, Irma, Joses, and Katia

Storms.

Hurricanes.  Epic hurricanes. 

Harvey drenched the Houston area with more rain than has ever been recorded in our country from a single event in modern history.

Irma that is striking Florida today is the strongest hurricane ever recorded in the Atlantic.

While we are still reeling in the aftermath of Harvey, Irma, Joses, and Katia follow close behind.

All three of them are expected to make landfall this weekend.

Irma in Florida.

Katia in Mexico.

Joses will hit the islands in the Caribbean already hit by Irma, before heading northeast into the Atlantic, luckily sparing Florida.

Meanwhile, at home, our forests are burning.

Sandpoint recorded the worst air quality in the nation this last week, the result of the intense forest fires in the Northwest.

If only there was some way to get some of the moisture from the Gulf States here, we could solve two problems simultaneously.

Well, that’s wishful thinking.

Back to reality.

One of the things about hurricanes is that there are always warnings.

We know when they are coming.

We have a pretty good idea where they are headed.

We have time to prepare.

My sister and brother-in-law live in Florida, and one of the things that struck me when I visited them a few years back is that they had brackets installed on their home so that whenever a hurricane struck they were prepared to cover all their windows with metal panels.

Be prepared.

Head the warnings.

Friday night I was amazed as I watched CNN’s coverage at how some are ignoring the warnings to get out of the storm’s way, choosing rather to just hunker down and ride it out.

Now for some, this makes sense.

My sister Karen lives northeast of Tampa Bay, and my brother Tim lives up toward Daytona Beach, and both are likely far enough north that the storm will likely be more of a nuisance than a threat by the time it reaches them.

But on CNN they were interviewing people in the Florida Keys where the storm will hit hardest that had resolved to stay put.

Why?

One replied that they had considered leaving but didn’t know where they could go with their two daughters, AND FIVE DOGS, so they are staying put.

Some of these people who do not heed the warnings will die.  That’s the tragedy.

I have a friend who was talking about the aid that our government will offer to the flood victims from Hurricane Harvey.

His point was that we should help them rebuild.  Yes.

But with one condition:  that they relocate to higher ground.

But we won’t.

Houston will be rebuilt where it is, just like New Orleans was rebuilt.  Never mind that much of New Orleans is below sea level.  Rebuild anyway.

Scientist warn us that climate change is occurring and as the world warms up, the oceans will rise because water expands as it gets warmer, and the warmer water will result in hurricanes intensifying, and in the end, the remarkable storms that we are now seeing will become common place.

But we like ocean front property.

So we build on the beaches anyway.

The thing is, we are far enough away from the gulf that when we hear of one hurricane after another, we can’t help but wonder why people don’t move, don’t they understand that hurricane after hurricane will come.  Don’t they realize that no matter how often they rebuild, it is only a matter of time before one strikes again?

Of course, when they hear of the devastation caused by forest fires, the lives and homes lost, they can’t help but wonder why we want to rebuild our homes in the middle of the forest.  Forest fires happen.  Lightning strikes and tinder dry forests erupt in flames. 

And when the forest becomes a raging inferno standing out in your yard with a garden hose is not going to stop the fire. 

The warnings were there.  Yet time and time again we simply choose to ignore them.

Ezekiel was appointed by God to be a sentinel, a watchman to warn God’s people about what was to come.

Throughout the ages, through God’s Word and the messengers he has sent to us, we have received warning upon warning.

“ turn back, turn back from your evil ways; for why will you die, O house of Israel?”

Those were the words God gave to Israel.

Yet they didn’t listen.

We hear a word of warning and we don’t listen.

Are scientists the sentinels that God has sent to us today to warn us about the effect of our actions upon the world we live in?

Some believe so.

But many more respond in one of two ways:

First we simply deny that what they say is true.  “It’s all just a conspiracy,” we say. 

Or, even if we believe them, we either don’t believe there is anything we can do to avert the disaster, or worse, knowing what we can do, we simply refuse to change our way of life.

If what scientists are telling us about climate change is true, and that our actions are causing it, then the hope is that we can do something to avert the disaster.

The purpose of the warning is not to condemn, but to offer a way out. 

In Ezekiel the prophet writes:

“Our transgressions and our sins weigh upon us, and we waste away because of them; how then can we live?” Say to them, As I live, says the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from their ways and live; turn back, turn back from your evil ways; for why will you die, O house of Israel?

In Ephesians 4:25-27 Paul warns us:

“So then, putting away falsehood, let all of us speak the truth to our neighbors, for we are members of one another. Be angry but do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and do not make room for the devil.”

Do not let the sun go down on your anger.

What Paul is warning us about is that if we fail to resolve our differences in a timely fashion we will “make room for the devil”.

Jesus offers us a way of reconciliation in the Gospel lesson for today.

We have received a warning, and offered a way out.

There will be things that make us angry, but we need not let them destroy us, either individually, or as the body of Christ.

One of the questions is when we hear words of warning do we hear them as words of judgment or hope?

When the Bible warns us that our divisions will destroy the Church, the hope is that if we practice forgiveness, our unity may be restored.

This is so simple, really.  With every warning, there is both a judgment and hope.

The warnings that God gives us, are not a condemnation, but a diagnosis.  God tells us what is wrong—and what we can do about it.

The issue for us is will we listen?

And will we act?

Sometimes, though, we simply run from any notion of responsibility.  We play the victim.

Even our theology reinforces this notion.

“We are in bondage to sin and cannot free ourselves.”

Well, to a certain extent this is true.

But the other side to that story is that we are to live responsibly.

Our actions have consequences.  If you want to avoid bad consequences, avoid the bad decisions that bring about those consequences.

“Turn back, turn back, from your evil ways.”

In Romans Paul writes:

Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore, love is the fulfilling of the law.

Love is a choice.

This is the thing:

There are situations in life that will make us angry.

There are situations in life that will please us.

Of that, we have no control.

But we do have a choice about how we respond to the good and the bad in life.

We can wallow around in our anger and let it consume us.

Or we can choose to love, and to forgive, and be reconciled to one another.

The choice is between that which will kill us, or that which will give us life.

“turn back, turn back from your evil ways; for why will you die, O house of Israel?”

Why will you die, O house of Israel, when God has shown us how to live?

Amen