Jesus Brings New Life
Sermon
Sermons on the First Readings
Series III, Cycle B
Object:
The end of World War II and the onset of the Cold War, which saw the super powers of the United States and the Soviet Union at odds, brought a dark night to eastern Europe, which almost overnight seemed to come under the control of the Soviets and their ideology of Communism. The Iron Curtain, as it came to be known, seemed impenetrable. In 1980, however, at the Lenin Shipyard in Gdansk, Poland, some brave workers, seeking rights and freedom, provided the catalyst to bring this dark night to an end.
The Independent Self-Governing Trade Union -- or, as it was better known, "Solidarity" -- formed in the summer of 1980. Initially organized to protest the government's raising of meat prices, the union, under the leadership of Lech Walesa, quickly became a broad anti-Communist movement and was a sign and symbol for workers and oppressed people throughout eastern Europe. Under Walesa's direction, members of Solidarity boldly and fearlessly participated in numerous strikes, marches, and other nonviolent resistance actions seeking justice. The government attempted to destroy the union when it was clear that national and international sympathy for the movement was increasing. In December 1981, General Wojciech Jaruzelski, First Secretary of the Communist Party in Poland, ordered a massive military operation and imposed martial law. Solidarity leaders were arrested and the organization was driven underground where it remained until 1989. Yet, the indomitable spirit of Walesa, his lieutenants, and thousands of workers could not be broken.
Eventually, the Polish government, weakened by its inability to crush the union, was forced to initiate a series of round-table discussions with Walesa and his people. By the end of August 1989, a Solidarity-led government was formed and in December Walesa was elected president.
The Solidarity movement in Poland ended the dark night of Communism in one nation, but it initiated a more regional movement that culminated in the dissolution of the Iron Curtain and the end of Communist rule in the Soviet Union. Solidarity's example was in various ways repeated by opposition groups throughout eastern Europe. Men and women of great faith and courage, inspired by what they observed from Solidarity, pushed for human liberty in their own nations. The map of eastern Europe, as we view it today, reflects the victory of liberty and human justice over totalitarianism and human oppression. It was a new day for eastern Europe; it was necessary to rejoice.
The Solidarity movement and the consequent end of Communist oppression in eastern Europe provide an important example of how darkness is defeated and a new day of liberty arises. It also demonstrates clearly how the timeless nature of scripture, as we hear today, continues to echo and be relevant in our lives. As a Christian community throughout the world begins a new year through the celebration of the season of Advent, we need to understand and believe in the possibility of new beginnings for all, confident that God will assist us in our everyday efforts to build his kingdom in our world.
The season of Advent, which inaugurates a new liturgical year in our church, encourages us to prepare for the coming of Christ in two different ways. While the world, especially the secular world, concentrates on the coming of Jesus in time, namely the incarnation, the church also asks us to reflect upon the return of Christ at the end of time. On this first Sunday of Advent, it is this latter theme that is emphasized. The second coming or parousia is not an event that most people think about in their daily lives. Tucked neatly in the back of our brains, the knowledge that Jesus will come once again to our world is an idea that is distant at best or distasteful at worst. Who wants to contemplate the end of the world and the coming of Christ to reclaim all for God? Yet, as Isaiah reminds us in our first lesson today, the second coming will provide a new beginning for the world, both collectively and individually. It is a time when all will be made new in Christ. It is not a time from which to run, but an event that we should seek and embrace.
Today's reading from the prophet Isaiah comes from the latter third of this longest book in the Bible. Isaiah prophesied to the Hebrews before, during, and after the infamous Babylonian exile, that fifty-year period when the majority of the Jews were away from their homeland and, in their minds possibly, forgotten by God. Having returned to their homeland, the prophet encourages the people to reflect upon the new beginnings God has provided them by reminding them of the past and instructing them of what the future will hold.
Probably somewhat bewildered from the series of events in the life of the Hebrew community, Isaiah speaks of the future and God's return to the world. He writes to the people, "O that you [God] would tear open the heavens and come down, so that the mountains would quake at your presence -- as when fire kindles brushwood and the fire causes water to boil" (Isaiah 64:1-2a). He continues by asserting that God will make his name known to all adversaries so that nations will tremble at his presence. The prophet is suggesting that, as the Hebrews now experience a new existence in their life after the exile, so in the future God will return to create a new world that will be obedient to him. Isaiah indicates that the future will be somewhat like the past when God did awesome deeds to assist his people Israel.
Certainly the people hearing Isaiah's message remembered, as do we, the escape of the Israelites through the Red Sea and how God crushed the Egyptians in their wake. Additionally, the people remembered how God fought on the side of Israel, eliminating all their enemies when, after their long sojourn in the desert, they finally reached the promised land. God then raised up judges, kings, and prophets to aid the people and gave them direction in life. God did so much for the people, all of which was unexpected, to demonstrate his loyalty to the covenant and his love for his chosen people. Certainly no one could imagine all that God had done for the nation of Israel. Isaiah makes his point very clear: "From ages past no one has heard, no ear has perceived, no eye has seen any God besides you, who works for those who wait for him" (Isaiah 64:4). Saint Paul understood this same idea writing to the Corinthians many generations later: "What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the human heart conceived, what God has prepared for those who love him" (1 Corinthians 2:9).
It was crystal clear to the people to whom Isaiah spoke that God firmly and consistently stood on the side of Israel. Truly God was the refuge and strength of the nation, a helper close at hand at all times. Possibly Isaiah and his listeners remembered the words of the psalmist: "Blessed be the Lord, for he has heard the sound of my pleadings. The Lord is my strength and my shield; in him my heart trusts; so I am helped, and my heart exults, and with my song I give thanks to him" (Psalm 28:6-7). Israel knew and proclaimed that God was on its side. Again, the psalmist wrote: "My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth" (Psalm 121:2). Since God had chosen Israel and manifest many times over his love and care for the nation, there should be no fear of his return.
Still, the prophet does remind the people of the nation's failures so they may better understand the goodness of God demonstrated toward them in their return from exile. For many generations, Israel sinned and transgressed God's laws and, after numerous warnings, God removed his protection. As the prophet says, God hid himself from Israel, a situation that led directly to the Babylonian exile. Still, Isaiah says, it is a new day. God will come again to rescue Israel to make the world new. As he suggests God is the potter and we are the clay in his hands.
Isaiah's words that recall past events and future possibilities must echo in our daily lives as followers of Christ. Through its wisdom, the church provides us with this season of grace, Advent, a four-week period of preparation where we wait in patient expectation for new beginnings and new possibilities in our life. As Isaiah foresaw the coming of God into the life of the Hebrew people, so we await with great anticipation the return of Jesus Christ, the new Adam, to our world. The Solidarity movement in Poland in the 1980s, a contemporary event that manifest the same action of God found in the return of the Hebrews from exile, inaugurated a new day for eastern Europe. Similarly, during this Advent season we must seek to refocus on that which is most important in our lives. It is a season of grace that we must not pass by; we must engage its opportunities and possibilities.
New beginnings, such as a new liturgical year that we begin today or a new calendar year that will come in one month, provide the opportunity to reflect upon the past and look to the future. Our review must see both the good things we have done and accomplished and those things for which we are not proud, both our sinfulness and our failures. However, as Isaiah wrote and the psalmist promises in numerous places, we must always see God as our help and our shield. God will never abandon us nor let us down.
Our reflection upon the future coming of Christ to our world should begin with the recognition of our need for God. Contemporary society suggests we should seek other priorities, other answers to our problems and difficulties. We are constantly bombarded with secular answers to the problems that often vex our personal and communal lives. For want of any easy or fast fix to whatever troubles us, we too often fall into a pattern that exalts the world and what it offers to the detriment of the power and presence of God in our lives. But, as the dark night of Communism was dispelled to the courage and hard work of Solidarity and similar movements in eastern Europe, as God brought a new day to the Hebrews through their return from exile, God will bring a new day to our lives, as well. We can be confident that if we give ourselves to God, all will be fine. Years ago, a popular television commercial stated, "You're in good hands with Allstate." We must know and have complete confidence and conviction that we are in much better hands with God.
Sin in its many manifestations creates deadness in us that, knowingly or unknowingly, is palpable and visible to most, especially those who know us well. The deadness we find inside is apathy, problems with addictions and other aberrant behavior, or our penchant for the new and the finest when the ordinary will satisfy. These are all manifestations of the darkness in our lives. As we began this season of grace, this Advent period of patient expectation, when we wait for the coming of Christ both at the end of time and in time, the incarnation, let us be open to the power and presence of Jesus in our lives. As we await the newborn king of the Jews, let us see our need for transformation. Made in the image and likeness of God, let us follow Christ who came to save the world and bring eternal life to all who believe. Amen.
The Independent Self-Governing Trade Union -- or, as it was better known, "Solidarity" -- formed in the summer of 1980. Initially organized to protest the government's raising of meat prices, the union, under the leadership of Lech Walesa, quickly became a broad anti-Communist movement and was a sign and symbol for workers and oppressed people throughout eastern Europe. Under Walesa's direction, members of Solidarity boldly and fearlessly participated in numerous strikes, marches, and other nonviolent resistance actions seeking justice. The government attempted to destroy the union when it was clear that national and international sympathy for the movement was increasing. In December 1981, General Wojciech Jaruzelski, First Secretary of the Communist Party in Poland, ordered a massive military operation and imposed martial law. Solidarity leaders were arrested and the organization was driven underground where it remained until 1989. Yet, the indomitable spirit of Walesa, his lieutenants, and thousands of workers could not be broken.
Eventually, the Polish government, weakened by its inability to crush the union, was forced to initiate a series of round-table discussions with Walesa and his people. By the end of August 1989, a Solidarity-led government was formed and in December Walesa was elected president.
The Solidarity movement in Poland ended the dark night of Communism in one nation, but it initiated a more regional movement that culminated in the dissolution of the Iron Curtain and the end of Communist rule in the Soviet Union. Solidarity's example was in various ways repeated by opposition groups throughout eastern Europe. Men and women of great faith and courage, inspired by what they observed from Solidarity, pushed for human liberty in their own nations. The map of eastern Europe, as we view it today, reflects the victory of liberty and human justice over totalitarianism and human oppression. It was a new day for eastern Europe; it was necessary to rejoice.
The Solidarity movement and the consequent end of Communist oppression in eastern Europe provide an important example of how darkness is defeated and a new day of liberty arises. It also demonstrates clearly how the timeless nature of scripture, as we hear today, continues to echo and be relevant in our lives. As a Christian community throughout the world begins a new year through the celebration of the season of Advent, we need to understand and believe in the possibility of new beginnings for all, confident that God will assist us in our everyday efforts to build his kingdom in our world.
The season of Advent, which inaugurates a new liturgical year in our church, encourages us to prepare for the coming of Christ in two different ways. While the world, especially the secular world, concentrates on the coming of Jesus in time, namely the incarnation, the church also asks us to reflect upon the return of Christ at the end of time. On this first Sunday of Advent, it is this latter theme that is emphasized. The second coming or parousia is not an event that most people think about in their daily lives. Tucked neatly in the back of our brains, the knowledge that Jesus will come once again to our world is an idea that is distant at best or distasteful at worst. Who wants to contemplate the end of the world and the coming of Christ to reclaim all for God? Yet, as Isaiah reminds us in our first lesson today, the second coming will provide a new beginning for the world, both collectively and individually. It is a time when all will be made new in Christ. It is not a time from which to run, but an event that we should seek and embrace.
Today's reading from the prophet Isaiah comes from the latter third of this longest book in the Bible. Isaiah prophesied to the Hebrews before, during, and after the infamous Babylonian exile, that fifty-year period when the majority of the Jews were away from their homeland and, in their minds possibly, forgotten by God. Having returned to their homeland, the prophet encourages the people to reflect upon the new beginnings God has provided them by reminding them of the past and instructing them of what the future will hold.
Probably somewhat bewildered from the series of events in the life of the Hebrew community, Isaiah speaks of the future and God's return to the world. He writes to the people, "O that you [God] would tear open the heavens and come down, so that the mountains would quake at your presence -- as when fire kindles brushwood and the fire causes water to boil" (Isaiah 64:1-2a). He continues by asserting that God will make his name known to all adversaries so that nations will tremble at his presence. The prophet is suggesting that, as the Hebrews now experience a new existence in their life after the exile, so in the future God will return to create a new world that will be obedient to him. Isaiah indicates that the future will be somewhat like the past when God did awesome deeds to assist his people Israel.
Certainly the people hearing Isaiah's message remembered, as do we, the escape of the Israelites through the Red Sea and how God crushed the Egyptians in their wake. Additionally, the people remembered how God fought on the side of Israel, eliminating all their enemies when, after their long sojourn in the desert, they finally reached the promised land. God then raised up judges, kings, and prophets to aid the people and gave them direction in life. God did so much for the people, all of which was unexpected, to demonstrate his loyalty to the covenant and his love for his chosen people. Certainly no one could imagine all that God had done for the nation of Israel. Isaiah makes his point very clear: "From ages past no one has heard, no ear has perceived, no eye has seen any God besides you, who works for those who wait for him" (Isaiah 64:4). Saint Paul understood this same idea writing to the Corinthians many generations later: "What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the human heart conceived, what God has prepared for those who love him" (1 Corinthians 2:9).
It was crystal clear to the people to whom Isaiah spoke that God firmly and consistently stood on the side of Israel. Truly God was the refuge and strength of the nation, a helper close at hand at all times. Possibly Isaiah and his listeners remembered the words of the psalmist: "Blessed be the Lord, for he has heard the sound of my pleadings. The Lord is my strength and my shield; in him my heart trusts; so I am helped, and my heart exults, and with my song I give thanks to him" (Psalm 28:6-7). Israel knew and proclaimed that God was on its side. Again, the psalmist wrote: "My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth" (Psalm 121:2). Since God had chosen Israel and manifest many times over his love and care for the nation, there should be no fear of his return.
Still, the prophet does remind the people of the nation's failures so they may better understand the goodness of God demonstrated toward them in their return from exile. For many generations, Israel sinned and transgressed God's laws and, after numerous warnings, God removed his protection. As the prophet says, God hid himself from Israel, a situation that led directly to the Babylonian exile. Still, Isaiah says, it is a new day. God will come again to rescue Israel to make the world new. As he suggests God is the potter and we are the clay in his hands.
Isaiah's words that recall past events and future possibilities must echo in our daily lives as followers of Christ. Through its wisdom, the church provides us with this season of grace, Advent, a four-week period of preparation where we wait in patient expectation for new beginnings and new possibilities in our life. As Isaiah foresaw the coming of God into the life of the Hebrew people, so we await with great anticipation the return of Jesus Christ, the new Adam, to our world. The Solidarity movement in Poland in the 1980s, a contemporary event that manifest the same action of God found in the return of the Hebrews from exile, inaugurated a new day for eastern Europe. Similarly, during this Advent season we must seek to refocus on that which is most important in our lives. It is a season of grace that we must not pass by; we must engage its opportunities and possibilities.
New beginnings, such as a new liturgical year that we begin today or a new calendar year that will come in one month, provide the opportunity to reflect upon the past and look to the future. Our review must see both the good things we have done and accomplished and those things for which we are not proud, both our sinfulness and our failures. However, as Isaiah wrote and the psalmist promises in numerous places, we must always see God as our help and our shield. God will never abandon us nor let us down.
Our reflection upon the future coming of Christ to our world should begin with the recognition of our need for God. Contemporary society suggests we should seek other priorities, other answers to our problems and difficulties. We are constantly bombarded with secular answers to the problems that often vex our personal and communal lives. For want of any easy or fast fix to whatever troubles us, we too often fall into a pattern that exalts the world and what it offers to the detriment of the power and presence of God in our lives. But, as the dark night of Communism was dispelled to the courage and hard work of Solidarity and similar movements in eastern Europe, as God brought a new day to the Hebrews through their return from exile, God will bring a new day to our lives, as well. We can be confident that if we give ourselves to God, all will be fine. Years ago, a popular television commercial stated, "You're in good hands with Allstate." We must know and have complete confidence and conviction that we are in much better hands with God.
Sin in its many manifestations creates deadness in us that, knowingly or unknowingly, is palpable and visible to most, especially those who know us well. The deadness we find inside is apathy, problems with addictions and other aberrant behavior, or our penchant for the new and the finest when the ordinary will satisfy. These are all manifestations of the darkness in our lives. As we began this season of grace, this Advent period of patient expectation, when we wait for the coming of Christ both at the end of time and in time, the incarnation, let us be open to the power and presence of Jesus in our lives. As we await the newborn king of the Jews, let us see our need for transformation. Made in the image and likeness of God, let us follow Christ who came to save the world and bring eternal life to all who believe. Amen.
