Lighting Our Candles for Hope ~ Isaiah 11:1-10 ~ Second Sunday of Advent

I’ve said on more than one occasion that the sciences were never my strong suit in school.  In fact, my only near-death experience happened in a high school chemistry lab…

So I wasn’t thrilled to get to college, and learn that every student had to take two semesters’ worth of science courses…

Thankfully, they offered a year-long course for people like me who’d identify a beaker as one of the Muppets…

They called it Fundamentals of the Universe…  The purpose of the course was to teach us the basic scientific laws that govern all that exists in the universe. 

Now I’m no biologist, but there are more than just a few scientific anomalies in the words of the prophet Isaiah:

·         Cut down trees don’t come back to life

·         Wolves do not lie down with lambs or leopards with goats

·         Lions and bears don’t graze

·         Children don’t play with poisonous snakes

Nature can be beautiful—but it can also be cruel.  That’s reality. 

Take a look at the world and the times we’re living in right now, there are realities that we’d definitely not call “nice.”

·         Our society’s getting more and more secular

·         It’s getting harder and harder for families make ends meet

·         The lack of good-paying jobs is making this a depressed community

·         We’re all getting older, and age deteriorates our bodies and minds

·         Death separates us from those we love…

·         We all make mistakes—and sometimes, those mistakes have lasting consequences. 

As we endure these heartbreaking realities, they have tremendous power to shape our expectations for the future.  Without even thinking, we make some dreadful assumptions about what the future will be:

·         That this country is going to destroy itself

·         That our church and Christianity will one day cease to exist

·         The mistakes of my past determine my future

·         Life can never again be good since things will never again be the way they used to be. 

This is one of the greatest dangers facing Christians—and Christianity in general.  The worse things get, the more we believe that God is totally removed from our existence, holding back from us what we need, leaving us to flounder.  We become so consumed by what is bad and what is wrong that God pretty much ceases to exist. 

That’s a problem—for if we are completely fixated on what is tragic and terrible, we won’t see Christ in the world.  We will not be ready when he comes.

Someday soon, Christ will destroy all the tragic realities of our human existence.  All will see him in his glory; all creation will live together in justice, peace, and love.  But we’re not there yet.  Today, our Savior comes in the most humble of ways.  He is born to an unwed teenage mother in a Roman-occupied world.  He lives among the least and the lost of the people.  He abides amid the tragic realities of our existence.  He dies; despised, rejected and alone.  He’s born with us; he lives among us, he dies like us. 

This is good news—because the power that can make the lion lie down with the lamb has come upon the world today.

Christ comes as a shoot growing forth from a stump—as new life rising out of the ashes of death.

We light the candles of Advent so that our eyes may be opened to the reality of God blooming all around us—and not with fireworks or fanfare, but softly, quietly, and humbly…  We light our lamps to behold Christ coming into the hurt and messiness of life to begin the work of resurrection. 

Just consider our church…  Given the present realities of our time, our church shouldn’t be getting ready to celebrate a 200th anniversary.  We should be preparing to close up our doors.  But that’s not what’s happening.  We’re baptizing.  We’re raising up new leaders in all our ministries.  We’re serving our community with ministries that recently did not exist.  We’re beginning a small group Bible study in the spring.  And we’re praying for God to inspire us, equip us, and lead us to be even more of a blessing to the world than we’ve ever been. 

We can dwell on the fact that life will never again be as it was in former days—OR, we can live by faith in the promises of God.  We can rejoice that the sins of our past are washed away with forgiveness.  We can receive saving grace in Word and water, wine and bread.  We can pray with confidence that God hears our prayers.  We can trust Jesus to show us the power of his resurrection in the most awful of circumstances.  We can reach out in love to the neighbors who truly need our prayers, our love, our gifts, and our testimony of God’s love, believing that the power of God will be at work within us to make a difference.

If our minds and our souls become fixated on the power of death wreaking havoc on the world, we will become dead as people of God.  There is no greater tragedy for a child of God than to live as a prisoner to fear while God is in the world to establish victory over the objects of your fear. 

Sometimes, sin and death will literally cut us down.  But Jesus will never leave you for dead.

The power to make the lion lie down with the lamb will be coming upon you, to liberate you from the realities of sin and death—and to deliver you into the reality of God.  So turn your eyes from the tragic and hopeless.  Stop looking for new life in worldly treasures. 

God’s reality meets your reality.  Lift up your heads and be on the lookout for newness and life.

Only God knows exactly what the future holds.  But if you are struggling to believe these promises; if your reality is so dire that you see no hope, take it to the Lord in prayer—and rest assured that your Lord will take it from there.