Hopeful Anticipation
Isaiah 2: 1-5
Roger Lynn
November 29, 2020
1st Sunday in Advent

Watching! Waiting! Preparing! Anticipating! These are the themes of Advent. This is the season of the Church Year when we turn our attention to new beginnings. In this moment, as, indeed, in every moment, we stand at the edge of something utterly new – long yearned for but beyond our capacity to enact. Advent invites us to awaken from our numbed endurance and our domesticated expectations as we consider our life afresh in light of the unfettered possibilities of a God-centered and God-powered life. Advent is a time to remind ourselves of the promises which God makes. We are challenged to give ourselves over to a vision of a healed alternative for the world. We are invited to look forward to a bright and bountiful future, not because of what we hope to accomplish on our own, but because of what we trust that God can accomplish in us, through us, and with us. The Church at Advent watches, and waits, and prepares, in order that we might notice where God is already acting in our lives and in our world – bringing justice and peace and wholeness. In these days so filled with upheaval, strife, and despair, Advent is a season of hopeful anticipation.

“In days to come...” declares the prophet Isaiah. He proclaims a vision of life which is centered on God – a time characterized by radical justice and even more radical peace. When the world is whole in the ways God intends, then hostilities cease, prosperity abounds for everyone, and people experience safety and security. Isaiah does not even attempt to predict when this time will come, but he declares with unshakable confidence that it will come to pass. His confidence is certainly not based on anything he sees going on around him in the world. His vision will not become a reality simply because enough people decide to work hard enough. Isaiah’s trust is firmly rooted in the God who stands behind the promise. It will happen because God declares that it will happen.

Having said that, however, it is also important to note that Isaiah’s vision requires the participation of we human beings. God may be at the center of the vision, and God may be the source of its fulfillment, but the people must be open to this new life which God offers. God invites and God empowers, but we must be willing to be transformed, and we must be willing to participate in the transformation of the world. God’s peace can be fully realized only when our swords are beaten into plows, and God will not do the beating.

Such a vision was no more practical in Isaiah’s time than it is in ours. Conflict, violence, and war were as prevalent then as now. I’m sure that Isaiah was as tempted as we are to simply write the whole thing off as unrealistic foolishness. But he did not give in to such temptation, and neither should we. Just because such a radical vision of peace and wholeness seems out of reach in our current historical context (or any historical context for that matter), should we then abandon all hope and fall into resignation and despair? We are people of faith who claim to believe that God is more than we can see or even imagine. We dare to trust that God can, will, and does bring transformation to our lives and to our world. And just because the path promises to be long and difficult does not mean we should avoid beginning the journey. Just because we have attempted the path before and failed does not mean we should resist trying again. If not we who already claim to live by faith, then who will dare to step out on such an audacious journey? If not now, when the world cries out for peace and wholeness in so many places, then when will be the right time?

So, as we begin this journey through the season of Advent, it is good that we find ourselves confronted by this radical vision of what life can be like when it is centered on God. And having encountered such a vision, the appropriate response is to open our hearts and allow our lives to be guided and shaped by it. Let us be God’s people who experience life with hopeful anticipation of what God is already doing in the midst of us. And let us be God’s people who strive to actively participate with God in such works of transformation. In the words which Isaiah uses to address the people of Israel, “Come, let us walk in the light of the Lord.” Amen.