December 1998 Issue

Where I grew up the church I attended did not have an Advent wreath nor did it seriously follow the liturgical seasons. I was in college when I experienced my first Advent season in a congregation. I quickly learned that Advent had to do with the coming of the Savior to earth and that the wreath with the five candles marked the four Sundays in Advent before Christmas Day on which the Christ candle was lit.

I remember asking someone, "Why is one of the four outer candles pink instead of purple (the color of Advent back then)?" "The pink candle represents joy and is emphasized on the third Sunday in Advent," was the answer I received.

The coming of the Lord is occasion for great rejoicing, for great joy! What happens?

The coming of the Lord shall affect nature itself:

What a marvelous picture Isaiah paints with his imagery. When the Lord comes to save (v. 4) it will be not only the people, but nature itself shall be (note the emphatic use of "shall" in the verses above) transformed and healed.

Even John the Baptist and his disciples were not sure what to think of Jesus' ministry. John always seemed to be a rather straightforward person, so he has his disciples ask Jesus directly, "Are you he who is to come, or shall we look for another?"

When the Lord GOD comes to save, then expect certain results: People are ministered to, healed, and nature itself experiences great restoration when the Lord comes.

Though it is generally agreed that Isaiah 35 is probably deutero-Isaiah, I find it significant that this chapter of hope and salvation is placed in the midst of oracles of woe and destruction against both Judah and her enemies.

One of the main themes in the Christian faith has been the expression of hope and joy of the sure salvation of God for God's people. As Christians we express this hope and joy in the midst of incredible suffering, sorrow, and pain. Why? Because we believe that the suffering, death, and resurrection of our Lord have already broken the back of Evil and Death. We live in faith that the deliverance begun by Christ shall be brought to fruition when he returns in power and glory.

Behold your God will come with vengeance,
with the recompense of God.
He will come and save you. (v. 4 RSV)

It is striking how Isaiah ministered to a discouraged group of believers. Even in the midst of their despair, Isaiah, or a disciple of Isaiah, could proclaim boldly that the Lord GOD is a Mighty God who shall surely redeem and restore. They pictured it in terms of restoring the kingdom of David in the capital city of Jerusalem (Zion). In our time we experience and witness suffering on a global scale, and it boggles our minds. It ranges from global wars to individual sufferings. It includes physical, mental, and spiritual torment experienced by our human sisters and brothers. Some of the problems we face do not have a very good prognosis. Indeed, the very heavens have been shaken (Lk 21:26) by our ability to pollute, to "nuke," to deal in drugs, to deal in weapons, to commit crimes, to abuse, and to harass. But the parallel still stands. We, too, by faith proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord who has already come and who shall return to complete what God has begun.

We must be cautious in the manner and timing of our proclamation of hope and joy. It is important to take seriously where individuals, families, and congregations are in their own journeys of faith and experience of pain and suffering. To stay true to our message we are not going to belittle the suffering of humanity by approaching it with a "Pollyanna" style of denial. Indeed, the theology of the cross emphatically guards against our cheapening the gospel by belittling the degree of human sin, pain, and suffering.

Yet, we must not forget that we, as Christians, possess Good News! It is hope for the hopeless, for nothing is hopeless in

God's eyes. It is joy, because we know, through faith, that the healing (Shalom) of our Lord has decisively broken into the history of creation and the human race! Even with tact the gospel is a bold message to proclaim! We have already been warned how it can be experienced as foolish and scandalous (1 Cor 1:23). And that warning came long before our present era.

I believe that part of the challenge here is for us to proclaim the joy and the hope that we have in the Messiah are not to allow our own lack of faith to hinder us too much. The message is one of hope and joy in the midst of suffering. It challenges our own discouragement and invites us to confront our own despair with the Good News. Sometimes I get the sense that we preachers inadvertently become vague on the issue of the hope and joy that we have in our Lord. The hope and joy that Christians have in the Lord is based upon faith and not empirical reality. From a rational, "scientific" point of view it seems silly. No one particularly relishes the risk of looking silly.

In summary, we witness the Lord proclaiming deliverance to a beaten and discouraged people: First the nation of Judah and secondly to the "nation" of humanity. The first is written in terms of their known oppressors. The second is in terms of humanity's evil, and suffering. We are called to rejoice, because the deliverance is guaranteed by God from God. We are invited to proclaim this Good News to our neighbors within the context of their—and our—suffering and alienation. We are invited to risk looking foolish in this process.

Daniel E. Hale