An Advent Prayer

Here it comes: Advent.

A member of Hamlet Presbyterian Church (yes, in Hamlet, NC) called to see if I could preach on Sunday, so all of a sudden I’m preaching 3-4 Sundays in Advent at 2-3 different churches. Needless to say, I’m turning to the text.

Transitions we have none, for as we enter this new season, we do so not cruising along an “on ramp”, but jumping right off a cliff. We join with the voice of the prophet Isaiah and the post-exilic people of Israel in the climax of a terribly bold prayer, “Tear open the skies, God, and come down to earth, so that mountains tremble before you. Like a fire that burns twigs, like a fire that makes water boil, let your enemies know who you are. Then all the nations will shake with fear when they see you.”.

Crying for help, Isaiah vocalizes the feelings of abandonment God’s people felt as they were tossed around by the powers of the Ancient Near East: “Lord, look down from the heavens and see; look at us from your wonderful and holy home in heaven. Where is your strong love and power? Why are you keeping your love and mercy from us? You are our father. Abraham doesn’t know we are his children, and Israel doesn’t recognize us. Lord, you are our father. You are called “the one who has always saved us”. Lord, why are you making us wander from your ways? Why do you make us stubborn so that we don’t honor you? For our sake come back to us, your servants who belong to you. Your people had your Temple for a while, but now our enemies have walked on your holy place and crushed it. We have become like people you never ruled over, like those who have never worn your name.”.

The chosen people felt like any other people – trampled by the powerful; ensnared in evil; and ordinarily blessed and overly cursed by a God who had called them to God’s self and then turned them over to everyone else.

Perhaps we live in such a paradox.

We are reminded by this post-exilic prayer that we have been called by God to be a blessing in the world, and that if we break covenant with the one who calls us, we are eligible for a double dose of whatever curse God intends to dole out. On the flip side, if we fulfill our servant calling, we will eat; we will drink; we will be happy; we will shout for joy; we will be called by name by a faithful God.

The prophet Isaiah reminds us that a new heaven and a new earth are coming, one in which there will be no more crying and no more hunger – people will build houses and live in them, plant vineyards and eat from them, work and be blessed for it.

And so if we dare be so bold, we crash into the Advent season with a presumptious prayer, “God, tear open the skies and come down to earth, so that mountains tremble before you”.

The mountains of poverty, sickness, and violence – may they tremble before you, God.

The mountains of sadness, fear, and hate – may they tremble before you, God.

The mountains of pride, ambivalence, and oppression – may they tremble before you, God.

God, tear open the skies and come down to earth.

Tear open the skies.

God, come down to earth.

What a ridiculous thing to ask.

Pause and think as literally as a six year old might. Draw the picture of what this prayer vocalizes. People are asking the Creator of the entrie Universe to break into our little world – actually, we’re asking God to forcefully tear through the impenetrable blue sky – and show God’s self on our behalf. We’re bothering the God of the universe to somehow find a way to make God’s self small enough to come down to earth in a way that will cause the mountains to tremble. The thought is ridiculous. Of course the mountains would tremble if God forced God’s self into the world, because God’s presence is presumably so fearsome and huge that everything would bend, shatter, and gyrate in an attempt to make space for the almighty Creator God.

As we pause to remember the baby Jesus- his smallness, his meekness, the fact that he came as the poor son of a unmarried teenage mother – let us also remember that this humble human infant was packed with the power and might of the God who made creation, and who can make the mountains shake, the sun grow dark, and stars fall from the sky.

Somehow, all the power, majesty, and wonder of the creating, soveriegn God – the whole being of a God who has called us each by name – has broken into our world – has torn apart the skies and come down to earth – is here with us now – and has promised to come again, creating a new heaven and a new earth.

Our Advent Prayer from Isaiah is a cliff hanger.

And I will write more about that tomorrow.