Text used – Isaiah 40:1-11

• This morning marks the 2^nd Sunday of Advent – the 2^nd Sunday of this Advent series that we’re embarking on together this year.
  • Series: “Where We Belong” → texts and main ideas/organization come from A Preacher’s Guide to Lectionary Sermon Series, vol. 2[1]
    • This particular series by Tuhina Verma Rasche, and ELCA minister currently serving as the Digital Campus Pastor at University AME Zion Church in Palo Alto, CA → her description: Everyone may have a different definition of home and the places where we belong. Some people may find home not in physical spaces, but instead in belonging to a community that accepts us for the entirety of who God created us to be. Advent and Christmas are a sort of homecoming. God found a new home among us in the flesh and blood of Jesus Christ. God will find this home again in the second coming of Christ as we await that return. The dwelling places where we find Christ today can be in mangers, surrounded by parents, shepherds, magi, and a variety of animals – and also through the moves of the Holy Spirit. Sometimes those dwelling places can take us by surprise; sometimes those dwelling places can also be where we experience the most comfort and joy, where we truly belong in creation. As the liturgical year begins anew, where do we physically, mentally, and spiritually find ourselves as we make preparations for the coming of Christ?[2]
    • Last week: began the series by talking about beginnings and endings and how God’s time differs from our own → chance to recognize that the beginning of the story may come out of the end of something else and that the end of the story may be more of a beginning in disguise
    • Today: turn to the journey itself – the journey of seeking out where we belong with God → And it’s a journey that begins where so, so many journeys begin: in the wilderness … in the wild places.
  • Title for today comes from timeless classic children’s book Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak[3]
    • Story of Max, a boy who’s having A Day: causing mischief, being wild, talking back → sent to bed without supper → “That very night in Max’s room a forest grew” → turns Max’s bedroom into a fantastical world → Max boards boat and sails off into adventure “to where the wild things are” – land of huge and terrible beasts → Max orders the beasts to “Be still!” and tames them by staring into their great yellow eyes without blinking → beasts make Max King of the Wild Things → “And now,” cried Max, “let the wild rumpus start!” → after pages of wild rumpusing, Max orders the beasts to stop the rumpus and sends them to bed without supper → Max realizes he is lonely “and wanted to be where someone loved him best of all” → smells good things to eat → gives up being king of where the wild things are → Max leaves despite the protestations of the wild things (who want him to stay) → ends up back at home and finds his supper waiting for him in his room
    • Truly such a perfect illustration for this intersection of Advent and journeying and God and wilderness
• Begin today with text from Isaiah
  • Whole of Is = time and place and experience of deepest wilderness → Remember that Isaiah was written during the Babylonian exile. Now, we’ve talked a lot over the years about the Babylonian exile because it was such a formative part of Israel’s history, especially pertaining to their waiting for the Messiah to come.
    • Talked a lot about the historical aspects of it
      • Happened around 600 BCE
      • Babylonian empire conquered Judah → destroyed the Temple (1^st destruction)
      • Took all the best and brightest Jews back to live as captives in Babylon for ~70 yrs. → finally released and allowed to return to Judah by Cyrus the Great, king of Babylon around 515 BCE
    • Talked about the geographical aspects of it
      • Babylonian Empire during the time of the exile = vast area that covered parts of Iraq, Iran, Turkey, Syria, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and down into Egypt
    • Prophets that delivered God’s word to the people during that time
      • Isaiah = in Babylon
      • Jeremiah = back in Jerusalem
    • As I said, these are all things we’ve talked about many times before. However, we don’t often talk about the experience of the people during that time.
      • Hear a hint of their distress in today’s passage: Comfort, comfort my people! says your God. Speak compassionately to Jerusalem, and proclaim to her that her compulsory service has ended, that her penalty has been paid, that she has received the Lord’s hand double for all her sins![4] → You aren’t in need of comfort and compassion unless you are already in distress – anxious and afraid, frustrated and depressed. Isaiah uses telling phrases like “compulsory service,” “penalty,” and “sins.” Clearly, this was not a good time for the people of Israel.
        • Heb. “compulsory service” = violent connotations → same word as army service, warfare
        • Heb. “penalty” = connotations of guilt → “activity that is crooked or wrong,” an offense or a punishment
        • Heb. “sins” = connotation of atonement → a particular word that makes it clear the people have acknowledged their sins and are seeking pardon for them
      • But in all our discussion of the Babylonian exile over the years, have we ever listened to the words of the people – the words of their worship, their songs of lament – to get ourselves into a deeper place of understanding? → Psalm 137
        • This is the utter despair. This is the desperation. This is the grief laid bare and raw. This is the lament of a people engulfed by their wilderness.
          • Wilderness can be grief
          • Wilderness can be anger
          • Wilderness can be fear
          • Wilderness can be hopelessness
          • Wilderness can be unease – a sense of not knowing what comes next or how to get there
          • Wilderness can be separation/isolation
• Friends, there are so many ways and places we find ourselves in the wilderness – in those wild places in our hearts and mind and souls, in those wild places in the world around us where things feel unstable, unsettled, uncomfortable, and unmanageable. Sometimes we’re lucky enough to be able to spend only a short amount of time in those wild places, escaping them quickly or even being able to see them coming and avoiding them altogether. But then … there are those others times – those times when we find ourselves blindsided by the wild places, knee-deep in the muck and mire, the inescapable pull of them before we even realized that’s where we were headed. Yes, friends, wild places can be difficult places to anticipate, difficult places to navigate, and difficult places to escape. Fortunately, there are two things about wild places that we are promised again and again.
  • First: we have each other in wild places → Whether we are stuck in the fearfulness of the wild places together or whether we are there to lead one another through, wild places are often not as lonely as we think.
    • Interesting point made by scholar having to do with the plural nature of the addresses in today’s passage – include both masculine and feminine plural commands as well as masculine and feminine singular commands: That is to say, the passage contains not one commission but three. Its inclusion of masculine and feminine, singular and plural subjects yields a broadly inclusive call to action and proclamation. God’s plan for salvation, restoration, and return is collaborative. The multiple addressees don’t only span differences of gender and number. The commands range across space, addressing audiences in exile and in the homeland, separated by hundreds of miles. And they speak to an audience in the space between, whose activity will make possible the reunion of compatriots long separated from one another. This inclusive exhortation furnishes an opportunity for [all]. Each member of the community, both present and absent, receives a commission to preach and transform the very landscape to make possible the shared experience of redemption and return.[5]
  • Even more importantly: God is with us in those wild places → Even when we feel like we’re wandering the wilderness all alone, we are never truly alone.
    • Today’s reading begins with that promise – those words of comfort and promise of compassion: Comfort, comfort my people! says your God. Speak compassionately to Jerusalem
    • Today’s reading continues with that promise: A voice is crying out: “Clear the Lord’s way in the desert!Make a level highway in the wilderness for our God!Every valley will be raised up, and every mountain and hill will be flattened. Uneven ground will become level, and rough terrain a valley plain.The Lord’s glory will appear, and all humanity will see it together; the Lord’s mouth has commanded it.”[6] → God has already led the people through the wilderness once – as God led them out of slavery in Egypt to the promised land – and God will do it again … and again … and again.
      • Remember what we said when we were talking about the Babylonian exile? God spoke to the people through two prophets during this time
        • Isaiah = with the people in Babylon
        • Jeremiah = with the people left behind in Jerusalem
        • Even when they were a nation forcibly divided by distance and violence and generations, God remained with the people … with all the people. And God promised to not only be there in the wilderness with them but to send someone to lead them out.
          • Promise heard in today’s Scripture
          • Promise fulfilled by John the Baptist as he prepared the way for Jesus (beginning of Mt’s gospel): In those days John the Baptist appeared in the desert of Judea announcing, “Change your hearts and lives! Here comes the kingdom of heaven!” He was the one of whom Isaiah the prophet spoke when he said: The voice of one shouting in the wilderness, “Prepare the way for the Lord; make his paths straight.” … At that time Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan River so that John would baptize him. John tried to stop him and said, “I need to be baptized by you, yet you come to me?” Jesus answered, “Allow me to be baptized now. This is necessary to fulfill all righteousness.”[7]
      • Rasche: There’s something interesting about Isaiah’s words and the words of the gospel. God is found in the most unexpected of places. God’s out in the wilderness. And even if God’s people have royally screwed up, God clears a way home for them. God knows our wilderness. God’s not just some entity out there, but God, Christ, knows our wilderness experiences – because God’s been there too.[8]
• Friends, this whole season is about waiting for a God who was born into a wild place – the wild place of a manger and the wild place of humanity. It’s a season about waiting for God to return once again to bring God’s kingdom of joy into to this wild place that we call life once and for all. And it’s a season about examining our own wild place wanderings and looking for ways to find both God and one another. – text: Go up on a high mountain,messenger Zion! Raise your voice and shout, messenger Jerusalem! Raise it; don’t be afraid; say to the cities of Judah, “Here is your God!” Here is the Lord God, coming with strength, with a triumphant arm, bringing his reward with him and his payment before him. Like a shepherd, God will tend the flock; he will gather lambs in his arms and lift them onto his lap. He will gently guide the nursing ewes.[9] → Thanks be to God. Amen.

[1] A Preacher’s Guide to Lectionary Sermon Series: Thematic Plans for Years A, B, and C, vol. 2, compiled by Jessica Miller Kelley. (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press), 2019.

[2] Tuhina Verma Rasche, “Advent/Christmas series: Where We Belong” in A Preacher’s Guide to Lectionary Sermon Series: Thematic Plans for Years A, B, and C, vol. 2. (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2019), 79-80.

[3] Maurice Sendak. Where the Wild Things Are. (New York: Harper Collins), 2012.

[4] Is 40:1-2.

[5] Anathea Portier-Young. “Commentary on Isaiah 40:1-11” from Working Preacher, https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/second-sunday-of-advent-2/commentary-on-isaiah-401-11-10.

[6] Is 40:3-5.

[7] Mt 3:1-3, 13-15.

[8] Rasche, 82-83.

[9] Is 40:9-11.