|
The Rev. Frank
Logue Comforting Us Like a
Shepherd In our readings for this Second Sunday of Advent, we pick up two stories after a long break. This taking up a story after a period of time has passed occurs both in our Gospel reading and in the reading from the Prophet Isaiah. The Gospel reading for this morning was the opening eight verses of the Gospel of Mark. And after a brief preamble, in which the evangelist writes, “The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God” letting us know what sort of story we are going to hear, we get a quote from the Prophet Isaiah. Isaiah foretold of one who would come to make straight the paths before the coming of the Lord. Then so there will be no mistake about who this text refers to, Mark introduces the wild and wooly prophet of the New Testament, who he calls John the Baptizer. This is how Mark bridges the distance of roughly five centuries. For the Old Testament’s concern as it is closing is the rebuilding of the Temple in Jerusalem, which happened 515 years before John the Baptist began calling out for repentance on the banks of the Jordan. Mark reduces that time gap of half a millennium by following the words of the Prophet Isaiah with the words of John the Baptist. In doing so, Mark reveals that the love of story of God and the creation continues unabated. As it was foretold long ago, so now God’s story takes up anew with the Good News of Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of God. This gap between the Old and New Testaments is one more familiar to us. Even if you did not know how long a gap was involved, you probably already knew that there was a break between the two testaments. We encountered a similar break in Isaiah 40, though this one was less obvious. The earliest Christian writers whose works were revered, but not included in the Bible are usually called as a group, the Church Fathers, they wrote in the first five centuries of Christianity. These early commentators on scripture agree with modern scholars that there is a considerable gap of time between Isaiah 39 and Isaiah 40. In chapters 1-39, the prophet warns that if the people do not repent and return to the Lord then Jerusalem will fall to its enemies. History shows that this very thing happened. In 587 b.c., the Babylonian army defeated Israel and took the bulk of the populace, including all of the leadership, into captivity in Babylon. The Jewish people remained in this Babylonian Captivity from 587-539 b.c., or a period of 48 years. Isaiah chapter 39 was written of the impending doom coming to Israel. For example, in chapter 39, verse 6, the prophet wrote, Days are coming when all that is in your house, and that which your ancestors have stored up until this day, shall be carried to Babylon; nothing shall be left says the Lord. This prophecy did nothing to make Isaiah popular. You see the People of Israel had assumed that as God’s people, God would protect them from any real harm. Surely God would not let Jerusalem and its Temple fall into the hands of the enemy. Yet the prophets warned that the people were to repent. Repent means to turn away from sin, to turn back to God. The prophets warned that unless Israel acted like the People of God they were, that God’s protection would not hold. Then Jerusalem did fall to the Babylonians, bringing a great social and political tragedy, but no less importantly a theological tragedy, for how do we know if God loves and cares for us when we see all we care about crumbling around us. When your dreams lie smashed at your feet, where is God. Isaiah 40 comes into the crushing reality of defeat with a very different word from God. The prophet cries out, “Comfort, O comfort my people, says your God.” The Jewish people now here the soothing voice of the prophet, that God’s comfort is coming to them. This is perhaps why preachers are counseled to afflict the comforted and to comfort the afflicted. For this is the pattern we find in the prophets. When the people get complacent with their faith, no longer living out the beliefs they profess, the prophets afflict them with a call for repentance. But when the people are in distress and feel afflicted, the prophets bring words of comfort from God. This is not a case of telling people what they want to hear, but telling people what they must hear in order to get back on the path. So in the midst of the distress created by their defeat in battle and deportation to a foreign land, God sends the prophet to call out, “Comfort, O comfort my people.” Then we get the words which connect this passage in Isaiah 40 to the opening of Mark’s Gospel for the prophet writes, A voice cries out: “In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill be made low; the uneven ground shall become level, and the rough places a plain. Then the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all people shall see it together, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.” Prepare the way for the Lord. This was Isaiah’s message and it is John’s message as the New Testament opens more than five centuries after Isaiah. Isaiah goes on with a not too comforting message reminding us of how transitory human life is from God’s perspective. He writes, All people are grass, their constancy is like the flower of the field. The grass withers, the flower fades, when the breath of the Lord blows upon it; surely the people are grass. Having set up the question of what then is permanent? What then shall we count on? The prophet answers that it is God’s Word which never fails. He writes, “The grass withers, the flower fades; but the word of our God will stand forever.” It is this Word of God which endures. Isaiah, having reminded the people of how temporary they are then reminds them of the everlasting nature of God’s word. Why do this? Because it is God’s Word which the people ignored and then found themselves in captivity. And it is now this Word which has the power to reinvigorate them and get Israel ready for a return to acknowledging that they are God’s people and living into that knowledge. The prophet now describes the comfort God gives with a beautiful image writing, He will feed his flock like a shepherd; he will gather the lambs in his arms, and carry them in his bosom, and gently lead the mother sheep. These are the words we sang in our hymn before the Gospel reading, “Like a shepherd he leads his flock and gathers the lambs in his arms.” These were written as words of comfort to a people who had come to wonder if God cared for them. They were not so much worried whether God existed, for in experiencing judgment, they more likely came to the conclusion that there is a God and God does not love me. Then they get the words of comfort, and God being their shepherd. If in singing this song in the past you have wondered in what way God is a shepherd, how is it that God leads us? The answer comes from reading that image of God as a shepherd in context, for it comes on the heals of proclaiming God’s Word as the enduring Truth on which we can depend. God leads us and guides us with the words of scripture. Ignore the words of the Bible and you are ignoring the guidance of a loving shepherd. The words of the Bible are the very place where our comfort rest. The words of the Bible are the very place where our shepherd guides us. The words of the Bible are what will stand when all else falls. Both our reading from Isaiah and our reading from the Gospel of Mark take up the story of God’s love for all creation after a long pause. And both take up the story by proclaiming God’s word. Now we begin our second week of Advent, our second week of preparing for both the joy of our Christmas celebration and the joy of Jesus’ return in glory at the end of the ages. As we move into this second week, we are asked to look at what it means to take up God’s story after a long time. It means digging in to God’s Word. I challenge you to dig into the Bible for yourself. Though I am happy to point out things you might not have noticed in you reading, the Bible is not a book for experts. The Bible is God’s Word for God’s people and amateurs are expected. We don’t have to bring vast knowledge to reading the Bible. We only have to bring ourselves. If you are not already doing so, I encourage you to begin an Advent Wreath service every night. It only takes about five minutes and will help you instill the expectancy of the season into your home life. The materials you need are available in our entry hall after church. I also encourage all who are not doing so to find a pattern of reading the Bible that works for you. Victoria and I first read through the Bible together using The One Year Bible. It offers readings from the Old and New Testaments each day and has you completing the entire Bible in a year, reading about 15-20 minutes each day. Or you can pick up Forward Day by Day which has brief devotionals and then gives the text to read each day to read through the Bible in two years. No matter how you do it, find a way to blow the dust off your Bible and crack the spine. It contains words of life, water for a barren land. It is those words which will endure. For those who are already reading their Bibles, recall that as you do so, it is your shepherd who leads and guides you through that word. Be attentive to the things brought to mind in your reading. For it is those odd thoughts that come up as you read that can be the guidance of your shepherd. Pay attention to how God is speaking to you in what you read, and then see how the rest of your life begins to bring up the very things you first thought of while reading your Bible. It is amazing how God can use any time you spend in reading the Bible to show you the things you need to see. “Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God.” And you can do this by returning to God’s Word. Amen. |
|
|
