Bible Text: Isaiah 64: 1-9, Mark 13:24-37 | Preacher: Rev. Jenn Geddes
It is around this time that I tend to take stock of the year that was. Pretty soon Time
magazine will release their person of the year and other news outlets will be listing off top ten
news items for 2017. Looking back there are lots of personal highlights and challenges, from
personal loss to personal growth. Unfortunately when I look back at the news items for 2017
there isn’t a lot of positive growth, there was awful gun violence throughout the United States
and other human causalities due to terrorist attacks or political unrest, but this was also the year
for natural disasters from the fires in BC to the hurricanes in the south to earthquakes in Iran
and Mexico. This year has seen far beyond its share of natural disasters. So when the
lectionary tells us to read the passage from Isaiah on the first Sunday in Advent, the first
Sunday of the church’s new year I can’t help but feel like the prophet was writing this passage
for us. We hear the words, “Oh that you would rip open the heavens and descend, make the
mountains shudder at your presence- as when a forest catches fire, as when fire makes a pot to
boil.” At this year’s BC Synod meeting in October ministers Shannon Bell and John Wyminga of
the Cariboo Ministries gave a presentation on their summer which included 40 days and 40
nights of sleeping in an office or on a gym mattress because they had been evacuated. As
Shannon shared with me, “The fire came within 2.5km of Nazko and 1km from Lhoosk’uz. In
other house churches the flames could be seen just across the lake. Our community is dealing
with all the emotional healing that needs to go on as well as the lost summer that has left us all
ill-prepared for winter.” The heavens opening, earth shaking, fires raging have been very real
realities for a lot of people around the world and it reminds us of our own fragility and that there
are many things in this world which are out of our control. Yet, while we read Isaiah’s words and
can’t help reading them into our own experiences we also must realize who the prophet was
preaching to at the time.
Isaiah 64 was written during and for a very different context then our own. Most
scholars agree that chapters 56-66 in Isaiah were written in the late sixth or early fifth century
BCE. Which means that the Israelites have returned from Babylonian exile and are in a period
of resettlement. When the Persian king Cyrus conquered Babylon he allowed the Israelites to
return home after 70 years in exile. But we must remember not all the Israelites were displaced.
Often in exile they take the rulers, scholars, law-makers etc but leave the peasants, farmers and
tradespeople so that the oppressor can reap the benefits of the land. After 70 years those that
had been left behind maintained certain traditions and rose in ranks far beyond their original
class while those in exile mingled with the Babylonians. The returning Israelites came back
expecting to return to their station and hierarchy only to discover that someone else had taken
their place. The two groups clashed over issues of status and standing but also over religious
authority. Would you believe that Isaiah’s passage is asking for these natural disasters so that
the people can start over, have a clean slate, be healed and renewed by God’s hand.
I believe the reason why this is the passage we read at the beginning of Advent and
the beginning of our new year is because it contains a dynamic of both a looking back and
looking ahead. The people are asked to recall the exodus rather than the exile. Isaiah is asking
them to remember the time when they were all in this struggle together rather than fractured
groups who can’t even worship together. I see this theme tying in with present day. We are
fractured people, certain denominations unable to work with, let alone worship with one
another. In our division we have all become unclean and need God’s healing- but do we really
need it through violence? Leading up to our Isaiah reading there are some very challenging and
even existential questions, first the community tries to locate God, then it wonders if God is able
to save, and next the question is, are the people even salvageable.
We must read this passage to the end because it ends in hope. We are reminded that
we are not in control and that our communal relationship with God needs healing. The author
affirms our identity in belonging to God and we hear the penultimate verse that we are clay and
God is the potter. I think many of us like this image because it means that God’s hands get dirty,
that we are molded on the wheel, that we are fragile, that sometimes we need to be put into the
fire to make us stronger, but I also think what Isaiah is saying is that we are just big inanimate
lumps with no purpose without the hands of God at work in us. As Corrine Carvalho puts it,
“God not only has the power to mold us, but actually wants to mold us. In fact, God wants to
mold us in the divine image and likeness, a reality made clear when God molded the divine self
on Christmas day as an impoverished, displaced infant. God becomes clay.”
This passage is about finding hope in our powerlessness. A statement like that actually
terrifies me at first- as someone who is rather type A the idea of giving up or not having control
is rather stressful- and then I think but instead of trying to control things that are out of my
control the reality is that I can just live for living or God’s sake- I am free to wonder, worship, and
wait for what God has in store next. Waiting is a big theme within Advent. And we are called to
wait in the Mark passage. But this is not passive waiting. Mark’s words take on a similar tone to
that of Isaiah’s as he writes that natural disasters will essentially wreak havoc and cause chaos.
Danger is all around- and yet we are called upon to keep alert, stay awake! We are not mere
spectators but are called to stay active in the miracle of Christ with us.
We often want to rush through Advent and get right to the sentimental story of
Christmas but at the beginning of this season of Advent it is important for us to reflect on
Isaiah’s and Mark’s dark words- that within the story of the birth of Christ there is pain and
powerlessness but also hope. Advent is all about waiting but not waiting passively. As we
reflect on the year that was we wonder how on earth can God let these things happen! Why isn’t
God changing things? We are waiting on the Lord and things aren’t getting any better.
But also waiting is an end in itself. For fear of sounding a bit Buddhist on this first
Sunday in Advent I believe that what Mark is telling us to do while we wait is to be present. As
Thich Nhat Hanh said, “dwell fully in the present moment.” Advent is not about the discipline of
having to wait for Christmas. Yes, it is filled with the temptation to ignore the present moment-
our brains are always thinking about what it will be like on Christmas eve or day. But the
freedom comes when we realize God, the potter, is ultimately in control. Mark does not say, “be
patient” rather Mark says, “be watchful”- see the ways in which God is active, is molding us or
taking the broken, fractured pieces, and putting them together. Watch as the heavens open and
instead of natural disasters God turns a useless lump into something beautiful. Observe how
God’s presence is present. Amen