First Sunday in Advent
November 30, 2008
The Rev. Charles Henrickson
“Oh That You Would Rend the Heavens and Come Down” (Isaiah 64:1-9)
The Old Testament Reading for today, from Isaiah 64, is an intense prayer,
begging God to intervene on behalf of his people. As such, it is a fitting
prayer also for God’s New Testament people, the church. And so, on this First
Sunday in Advent, as we enter this season of waiting for the Lord’s coming, we
cry out with Isaiah, “Oh That You Would Rend the Heavens and Come Down.”
What is the situation for which Isaiah writes? With prophetic foresight,
Isaiah looks ahead to the time when God’s people will be off in exile in
Babylon. These would be dark days for the people of God. Judah had been
overrun by the Babylonians. Her citizens were hauled off and taken captive to
a strange land. Even the Davidic king was taken captive and made a prisoner in
Babylon. Jerusalem, the city of God, was destroyed. The temple, the house of
God, was burned and leveled. These were dark days indeed. In the verses just
before our text, the prophet laments: “Our adversaries have trampled down your
sanctuary. We have become like those over whom you have never ruled, like
those who are not called by your name.”
It was like God’s enemies were triumphing, like God’s people--that there was
nothing special about them anymore--like God himself had forgotten his promises
to bless them and to give them a future and a hope. Isn’t this a picture of
the church today? The church, at least in America, is at a low point these
days. Demoralized, dispirited, and defeated--that’s the state of the church in
our culture. The enemies of God have carried the day. Abortion, the murder of
innocent children, has been legal now for 35 years, with no end in sight. In
fact, our country just elected a pro-abortion President and Congress.
Homosexuality, an abomination in the sight of God, is out of the closet, out in
the open, and pressing forward with their agenda. Living together outside of
marriage, and thus outside of God’s good order--this too is widely condoned,
even more so.
The societal structures that used to identify sin as sin have broken down, the
culture has eroded, and the church is seen as the irrelevant weirdos. The
church’s message of Law and Gospel is not resonating, in part, because the
culture has brainwashed itself into thinking that God’s Law no longer applies.
Where there is no sin anymore, why would anyone need a Savior? If the Law is
neutered, then the Gospel becomes irrelevant--and the Gospel is precisely what
the church has to offer. So these are dark days for the church. The church is
ridiculed, ignored, and disrespected. It’s like we’re exiles in our own land.
The pagans have taken over.
Therefore we can identify with Isaiah, when he cries out to God:
Oh that you would rend the heavens and come down,
that the mountains might quake at your presence--
as when fire kindles brushwood
and the fire causes water to boil--
to make your name known to your adversaries,
and that the nations might tremble at your presence!
How long will God allow this low point to last? When will he intervene and
act? Strike down your enemies, O God! Vindicate your holy name! Deliver your
holy people!
Then Isaiah pauses to reflect:
When you did awesome things that we did not look for,
you came down, the mountains quaked at your presence.
>From of old no one has heard
or perceived by the ear,
no eye has seen a God besides you,
who acts for those who wait for him.
You meet him who joyfully works righteousness,
those who remember you in your ways.
God has acted on behalf of his people before. He will act again. Wait. Wait
and trust and remember. The Lord has always been true to his promises before.
He has not suddenly changed his character. God will keep his word. He will
vindicate his name and deliver his people. He will overthrow his enemies. God
will indeed act in judgment and salvation. But this calls for God’s people to
wait, in faith.
Yes, dear people of God, the Lord will come and act on behalf of us, his
church. He will deliver us out of this mess. He will right the wrong, he will
overthrow the evildoers. The day is coming, the Last Day, the Day of the Lord,
when he will “rend the heavens and come down.” It will be a day of fire and
quaking; the earth will be moved, and fire will rain down upon this wicked
world, ripe for judgment.
But for now, we wait. And that’s a good thing. For if God were to come down
in fiery judgment right now, where would that leave us? We too are ripe for
judgment! Yes, we ourselves, God’s own people, have earned and incurred God’s
wrath. The prospect of God’s judgment and our own guilt leads us to
repentance. This time of waiting right now, this is a time of repentance. God
is granting us time to recognize and mourn our sins.
Isaiah saw the low state of God’s people as a case of God chastising them,
disciplining them, bringing them low, in order to bring them to repentance.
Therefore he confesses the sins of the people:
Behold, you were angry, and we sinned;
in our sins we have been a long time, and shall we be saved?
We have all become like one who is unclean,
and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment.
We all fade like a leaf,
and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away.
There is no one who calls upon your name,
who rouses himself to take hold of you;
for you have hidden your face from us,
and have made us melt in the hand of our iniquities.
My friends, this is our prayer of confession, too. We have sinned, and in our
sins we have been a long time. Unclean and polluted have been our souls and
our deeds, as we have let ourselves be influenced and infected by the opinions
and attitudes of the world. Fading, late-autumn leaves, dried up and sapped of
vitality--this is what happens when we do not draw our strength and life from
the Lord through his Word. Apathetic and listless--lifeless, weak, living way
below what the church ought to be. How few even bother to come to church
anymore, treating as a light and casual thing the Lord’s holy day and his holy
house, despising by their indifference preaching and God’s Word. How few
actively and gladly hear God’s Word and learn it--yes, want to learn it. How
deeply the words of the prophet strike home today: “There is no one who calls
upon your name, who rouses himself to take hold of you.”
Advent is a season of repentance. God is giving you this time to repent, to
confess your sins, to turn from them and change your ways. God is calling you
to turn to him and seek his mercy and forgiveness. All of us, your pastor
included, have things for which we need to repent. Taking God’s grace for
granted. Not letting God’s Word have its way with us. Letting the world make
inroads into our soul. Lord, have mercy! Forgive us! Restore your people!
But now, O LORD, you are our Father;
we are the clay, and you are our potter;
we are all the work of your hand.
Be not so terribly angry, O LORD,
and remember not iniquity forever.
Behold, please look, we are all your people.
Dear ones, hear now God’s answer to your prayer. The Lord is not coming down
in judgment on you. Instead, he comes down in mercy. “Behold, your king is
coming to you; righteous and having salvation.” Behold, he comes as a little
child, weak and innocent, meek and lowly, lying in a manger. Behold, he comes
as a peaceful king, humble, blessed and blessing, riding on a borrowed colt.
Behold this king, mocked and flogged, disrespected and despised, ridiculed and
reviled, nailed to a criminal’s cross. Here then is God’s answer: A Savior
for our sins, Jesus Christ, who takes the judgment, the terrible anger, that we
deserve and brings us salvation, deliverance, in its place. God beholds us in
mercy, he looks upon us in grace, for the sake of his Son, who came down from
heaven and won our salvation, rending death in the process and quaking the
gates of hell.
Yes, the day of judgment is coming. Christ our returning king will indeed rend
the heavens and come down, in glory, in judgment, to vindicate God’s name, to
destroy God’s enemies, and to deliver God’s people. We wait for that day. We
long for that day. We wait in faith and in hope. God has not forgotten his
promises.
The day of judgment is coming. But now is the day of mercy. This is Advent, a
time for repentance and forgiveness, a time for confession and absolution, a
time for beholding and taking hold of your coming Savior. “Hosanna! Blessed
is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Blessed is the coming kingdom of our
father David! Hosanna in the highest!”
Charles Henrickson
4749 Melissa Jo Ln
St. Louis, MO 63128
(314) 845-8811 (home)
(314) 779-8108 (cell)
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
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