Advent 2020: Tear Down the Heavens
December 10 | 2nd sunday of advent |Year B
Comfort my People
Updated & expanded for 2023
Isaiah 40:1-11 | Psalm 85:1-2,8-13 | 2 Peter 3:8-15a| Mark 1:1-8
Featured:
Isaiah 40:1-11
AIM commentary
Stu Strachan Jr.
Ancient lens
What’s the historical context?
Longing created by exile
While crises seem innumerable in the OT, none could compare to the crisis of exile. Babylon, in 587 BC, destroys the city of Jerusalem and the temple, and carries many of its citizens away from the promised land of Judah into Mesopotamia and the biggest empire of the time, Babylon. The first 39 chapters of Isaiah prophecy this judgment, but for it to actually take place must have been an absolute shock.
The people of God were living in exile, away from their ancestral homes and their place of worship. It must have felt like the end of the world. Waiting and waiting to return to their ancestral homes. Waiting and waiting to once again worship in their own temple, where the very presence of God lived. Waiting and waiting for a homecoming. As Lamentations attests, “They heard how I was groaning, with no one to comfort me.” (Lam. 1:2,9,17,21).
Preparing the way
And then Chapter 40 arrives and everything changes.
Another prophecy comes. “Good News” is given. The idea here is of a herald bringing this new word of hope to God’s people: Comfort, Comfort my people, says your God.” (vs.1)
This is a story about homecoming for a people who have spent years in exile. Isaiah had prophesied destruction for a disobedient Judah, but now “her hard service has been completed…her sin has been paid for.”
We are mostly aware of the next passage because of the NT connection to John the Baptist:
A voice of one calling:
In the wilderness prepare
the way for the Lord;
make straight in the desert
a highway for our God. (vs.3)
What exactly is this “way”, or “highway” that Isaiah speaks of? In his Westminster Bible Companion Commentary on Isaiah, Walter Brueggemann argues that “highways were built in that ancient world primarily for processional events, when rulers and gods could parade in victory.” (p.18) In this text, Yahweh is the victor over Babylon and its false gods. The “way” is made easy by God, it will not be an arduous journey home. (See J. Alec Motyer, Tyndale Commentary Series)
A Longing for God’s Presence
Next the oracle shares a metaphor (vs.6-8) on the transience of life. At first this may seem a strange place to describe human mortality, but it connects to the promises of Yahweh, which, unlike individuals or even empires, will never fail. People will die, Empires will fall, but God’s word, and His promises, never will.
In the final verses (vs.9-11) of our text, “good news” is proclaimed. Homecoming, with God at the center, is coming to Judah. Brueggemann continues…“The prophet-herald is to announce “gospel” to the cities of Judah. The “good news” is summarized: “Behold your God.” Or we might say, Look, here is your God.” The gospel makes the God of Israel visible and effective in a setting from which Yahweh had seemed to be expelled.” In other words, from an ancient perspective, a people being destroyed would assume their god had also been defeated. But, even with God’s people in exile, “The Sovereign Lord comes with power.” (v. 10) The longing for God’s presence, for the Lord to “tear down the heavens,” is taking place.
Jesus lens
How do we point to Jesus?
Freeing Captives
There are a number of key elements in this text that connect to Jesus’ earthly ministry, beginning perhaps with the reference in Isaiah 40 to John the Baptist’s ministry in each of the gospel accounts. While the original context clearly dealt with the release of God’s people from exile, each of the four gospel writers believed its application extended to Jesus’ ministry as well.
In other words, just as Yahweh proclaims “good news” of the captives being freed, so too does Jesus’ ministry entail a freeing of captives, albeit on a different scale altogether. Preachers may want to connect the highway metaphor in Isaiah 40:3 to Jesus’ procession through Jerusalem on Palm Sunday.
Jesus, as Immanuel, God with us, is also the great comforter. When we meditate on the reality of the incarnation, the fact that God himself experienced the pain, the highs and lows of what it means to be a human being, there is often a peace that we experience. I (Stu) will never forget, in a particularly difficult season of life, reflecting on the fact that God himself experienced rejection, pain, isolation and loneliness. It was enough to bring me to tears.
Modern lens
How does this impact us today?
A Different kind of Exile
How do we, in this season, connect to the losses of the Babylonian Captivity? In the U.S. context, the majority of us have never known what it is like to be defeated in battle and be driven out of our homes. Perhaps some of our readers have.
At the very least, most of us can relate to feelings of displacement. Or at the very least, feelings of isolation and a lack of belonging. Loneliness has become an epidemic in a long list of countries. Many of us, especially coming out of the COVID pandemic, are not quite sure how to reconnect with our neighbors and our communities. As the world seems more and more divided, we’re afraid of being judged for our faith or our political views. Perhaps we aren’t quite sure how to connect like we used to. And so, without trying to draw a 1-1 correlation, I think there is a part of us that can relate to the pain of exile.
The God who Comforts
But there is good news. We have a savior who was born into a world similar to our own: a world of broken relationships and fragmented communities. He is the one who was promised to enter into our messy lives and make something beautiful out of them.
Every valley shall be raised up,
every mountain and hill made low;
the rough ground shall become level,
the rugged places a plain.
And the glory of the Lord will be revealed,
and all people will see it together.
May we see the glory of the Lord this Advent Season,
Amen.
Sermon resources
Key Quote
When life caves in, you do not need reasons – you need comfort. You do not need some answers – you need someone. Jesus does not come to us with an explanation – He comes to us with His presence.
Bob Benson
Key Illustration
The Messy Middle
In his classic work Transitions, author and professor William Bridges shares an excellent anecdote about life in crisis: it can happen at any time and in a myriad of ways. It also demonstrates the “messy middle” of life. We all have a certain trajectory, but oftentimes that trajectory is disrupted, and the ensuing crisis requires a “taking stock” and a re-thinking of life as we know it:
I became interested in the subject of transition around 1970 when I was going through some difficult inner and outer changes. Although I gave up my teaching career because of those changes, I found myself teaching a seminar called “Being in Transition.” (Rule number one: When you’re in transition, you find yourself coming back in new ways to old activities.)
The twenty-five adults who showed up tor that course were in various states of confusion and crisis, and I was a bit at sea myself. I had, after all, left my career and moved my family to the country…I had imagined, I think, that the seminar would attract mostly other exurbanites and that together we could puzzle out this difficult transition. A few of these new country folk were in the class, but the mix was far richer than that…
There was a young woman who was living on her own for the first time. She was appalled to find that the rest of us, her elders, didn’t have our lives in better shape. “Its OK to be messing around when you’re twenty-three,” she said, “but I plan to get it all together by the time I’m your age.” (We all nodded sheepishly and admitted we had planned it that way, too.)
William Bridges, Transitions: Making Sense of Life’s Changes, Lifelong Books.
Comment:
In the context of Isaiah 40, this illustration can connect well to the crisis of displacement (exile), and the reality that crisis can come at any time, even for adults! While each of us may expect to have our lives “together” as adults, oftentimes crises happen nevertheless, forcing us to discern a path forward that is true to ourselves. Thankfully, at the end of the day, there is good news for those who seek God in the midst of crisis, that God will be with us, and that a new day will eventually dawn.
Discussion Questions
- In what areas do you or your community long to experience God’s presence?
- Isaiah describes in this text the value of “waiting on the Lord” in a difficult season. Have you ever experienced a similar season of waiting? What did God teach you in that season?
- Waiting is a major theme in Advent. How do you understand the value of waiting during this season?
- Isaiah 64 takes place in the context of exile. What does exile look like to us in our own homes/countries/communities? Even if we live in a relatively free society, are there places where the light of the gospel still needs to shine?
- Advent is a season where the church intentionally draws closer to God. Where do you sense God might be drawing you in this time?
Liturgical resources
Call to Worship
Leader: As it is written in the prophet Isaiah, “See, I am sending my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way;
People: the voice of one crying out in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight,’”
Leader: John the baptizer appeared in the wilderness, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.
People: He proclaimed, “The one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to stoop down and untie the thong of his sandals.
Leader: I have baptized you with water; but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”
Adapted from Mark 1:2-4, 7-8
—Stuart Strachan Jr. (NRSV, adapted for liturgical use)
Prayer of Confession
Gracious and Heavenly Father,
In your word, you call us to be comforted first and foremost by You.
But often, if we are honest, we look for comfort in different places.
We look for comfort in our busyness, in our work, in a glass of wine.
But we know, deep down, that true comfort comes from you. Help us to turn first to you in our deepest need. And may we find your powerful, peaceful presence in that place.
Amen.
Stuart Strachan Jr.
Assurance of Pardon
Now return to the Lord with joy and gladness.
Sing a song of redemption!
Let sorrow and sighing be no more.
In Jesus Christ we are forgiven. Thanks be to God.
Isaiah 35:10
benediction
May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.
Romans 15:13
The Flight of the Prisoners, by James Jacques Joseph Tissot, 1836-1902,
The flight of the Judeans from Jerusalem after its destruction by Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon.
More Quotes: Advent 2
More Illustrations: Advent 2
Stu Strachan Jr.
Stuart Strachan Jr. is an ordained Presbyterian Pastor as well as the founder and lead curator of the Pastor’s Workshop. His primary passion is equipping the saints for the ministry of the church (Ephesians 4). He loves preaching, teaching, and helping churches cast vision for what it means to follow Jesus in the 21st Century. He has served churches in a variety of capacities in California, Colorado, Pennsylvania, and Washington.
Stu is married to Colleen, who currently serves as a spiritual formation lead at Compassion International in Colorado Springs. Stu and Colleen have two children (Jack and Emma) whom they love deeply.
In his free time, Stu enjoys gardening, golf, reading a good book, and watching baseball.