Here we
are in Advent—the season of emergence, arrival, revelation.
A time like the shout of a messenger
arriving at an execution at the last moment carrying papers signed by a judge
and shouting “innocent, innocent!”
But this season is also like driving
your car to a new place for the first time.
The
drive back always feels quicker—because you are no longer looking so carefully,
you don’t pay as close attention.
In fact,
by the 100th drive there, it feels like the car drives itself.
So too
Advent—we’ve driven this road a long time—Christians have observed and
practiced Advent in some form for at least 1,650 years--and by now we often see
our destination as Christmas, so we don’t notice the budding blessings of Advent
--we don’t rest in the
strengthening power of Peace,
--We don’t lean into the bracing and crisp wind of
Hope,
--we aren’t buoyed up by the enduring buoyancy of Joy,
--we don’t revel in the moving and empowering radiance
of Love
We skip over the precious gifts of Hope, Peace, Joy, and Love.
We don’t let Advent interrogate our lives to help us
find its treasures.
But this morning at least, let’s ask, “Where can you find peace?”
Prayer
Where can you find peace?
Isaiah
reminds us that one of the places to find peace is in The astonishing
The unexpected
The startling.
Find peace in 39 chapters of
condemnation / cut clean through by the prophet’s clarion call:
“Comfort O Comfort.”
In scripture answering scripture—this
response to the Book of Lamentation’s description of the city Jerusalem, “How
lonely sits the city, for there was no one to comfort her… no one to comfort
Jerusalem.”
To this Isaiah answers, “Comfort, O comfort”
Peace cast over the walls of Babylon,
catching the ears of God’s people kidnapped for 40 years, echoing, “Comfort, O Comfort my people.”
For a generation God’s people
punished—cast out and exiled…
they were judged for not loving their
neighbors but instead
-living off of them,
-selling the poor for a pair of sandals,
-following false prophets and false gods…
Prophets who shouted PEACE PEACE
where there was no peace, and leaders who put trust in earthly things, when
their help was to come from above.
For a generation—and now a commuted
sentence,
an acknowledgement that this
estrangement from their God has gone on too long, punishment replaced by peace
condemnation with comfort.
“Comfort, O comfort my people, says your God.”
Where can you find peace?
There is
wandering wasteland and an impossible desert journey between Babylon and
home—it shall be bridged with an expansive road, safe and easy to follow.
Valleys
are places of ambush and hills can be an obstacle too far
—all that leveled out, smoothed so that you may make the journey, that we can
meet
—God and the people.
God and ALL
the people—God’s glory revealed!
Where can you find
peace?
There
can be a strangeness to peace—when we recognize our faults it is worth stepping
back in order to take stock.
When we recognize the faults of our
society, it is worth stepping back, assess where we are and where we ought to
be
—It is better to get lost in the desert, than to be lost in the safety of the
city, and not even notice.
John out there with the sinners who
know they are lost—in need of repentance, that is much safer than those
hypocrites who confess that they are all right
—that there is nothing to see here, John.
They won’t meet him when he comes—when the one for whom we wait arrives,
when the Prince of Peace arrives, they’ll not be in the desert with him.
Where can you find
peace?
“Cry out to my people.”
“What
should I say? We’re dyin’ out here, man. Didn’t you see it, a whole generation wiped
out—what words could I say to them to give them peace?
I mean, just look at them
—look at them, God! What can you do with a people like this? They’re like
grass, if the Word of God showed up, they’d blow away.”
“Yes, grass withers, flowers fade—but it isn’t about them, it isn’t about you—it is about the Word
of God, within there is a peace that
surpasses all understanding—my word will stand forever.”
Where can you find
peace?
Jerusalem—City of Peace, pulled apart
by every nation and religion and faction
—Jerusalem, where the Christian keepers of
Christ’s tomb fight with each other so often that the only person trusted with
the key to the front door is a Muslim.
Jerusalem where any ill spoken word can cause
carnage,
a thoughtless act echoes on and multiplies.
Jerusalem you lonely city
—in some strange
reality beyond my petty imagination—you lift up your voice and fill the world
with good news
—in some Godly reality
which I can not see—there is no fear.
God, a
mighty warrior comes—warriors and war always seems to come to you, don’t they dear
Jerusalem.
The
great soldier steps in to slay enemies—or so we hope, each faction confident they are in the right and that God
are ours, and ours alone
—God you step in, fearsome to behold—and
feed Your flock…
God gathers the lambs, carries them, leads us on as a
mother sheep.
Where can you find
peace?
This
week, embrace the unexpected, God might be doing something liberating
with it.
Ask
yourself what obstacles are being removed from your path?
Where
are you in the wrong, and in need to make amends, or at least need to step
back?
Look to scripture
to that solid foundation in which much peace is found.
Pray for
peace in Jerusalem, that God’s will
—scooping his lambs up and carrying them in his bosom
—might come closer to reality.
Amen.
