"Asking Of Things To Come"
The delight of anticipation.
Sermon Preached by
The Rev. Dr. Andrew Stirling
Sunday, December 17, 2006
Text: Isaiah 52:1-10
I have already had my Christmas, last Wednesday evening! Let me explain. As is our custom now at Timothy Eaton Memorial Church, our Handicapable Ministry provided a Christmas party for its students. Handicapable people came from all over the city: They received a magnificent meal; they were treated with incredible kindness by so many of our volunteers here at the church; they listened to the great guitar playing of The Rev. David McMaster; and they were given presents. It was a marvellous evening.
A certain individual was asked to come in the guise of Santa Claus, or a facsimile thereof. Wearing a very warm and very interesting outfit that evening, Santa Claus was privileged to hand out gifts. It was a wonderful time for that individual! Santa Claus sat and handed out the gifts, and as the different students came and received their gifts, every student's face had this incredible look of anticipation. There was one, in particular, that was most meaningful. One of the students came up to Santa Claus, gave him a hug and a kiss, and said, “Thank you for loving me, Santa!”
Remembering the faces of those who visited Santa that evening, makes me realize the power of anticipation: This look of expectation in the eye was profound, something marvellous was going to happen and something wonderful was going to be received. Over the past couple of weeks, I have been reading that psychologists are fascinated by this human construction of anticipation. What is its source? Why is it a powerful thing? Well, they have come down on two sides of this question.
On the one hand, they have come to believe that there is a predictive element based on previous experience. In other words, anticipation is based on having experienced something before and then recounting it or reliving it or experiencing it in another form. It happened to me last week when I went for my flu shot. As the nurse came towards me, I turned into a great, big babbling baby! I said, “Ouch!”
She said, “I haven't put the needle in yet!”
I cried for my Mommy! Then, the needle went in and it was all over.
What was I predicating my sense of anxiety upon? It was anticipation of a previous experience. Pavlov tells us, for example, that dogs will use their saliva as we do before we eat something to prepare themselves for it. We all do that when the turkey comes on Christmas Day. Somehow, the anticipation of eating the turkey usually exceeds the taste of the turkey itself. The memory of a good piece of turkey that really was outstanding keeps us going back every year for more and more. (You are all nodding, aren't you?)
Anticipation is based on a prior experience. We do the same thing with Christmas. Christmas is anticipated and just like turkey, the anticipation often goes beyond the reality. It is an incredible synergy, an incredible coming together of family and faith and food and joy and gifts. Christmas is a powerful coming together of these forces, and so, to anticipate them gives us a great sense of joy. The anticipation of Christmas is almost more important that the reality.
On the other hand, anticipation can be a negative thing. Some people anticipate Christmas in a negative way. In the past, they have been disappointed; they have been lonely; they have not received the gifts they wanted; they have been hungry; they have been in places of war and violence and broken relationships. Therefore, there is a dread anticipation of the coming of Christmas, and all that it means. That sense of anticipation is based on previous experience.
But psychologists also tell us that there is an anticipatory model based on something entirely new. To anticipate something doesn't always mean that we have experienced it before. How else could you account for the fact that a couple who have never been married before anticipate the joy of getting married? Never having had the experience of getting married, they look forward to that moment. They look forward to that new experience; they look forward to that new relationship. They anticipate something on the basis of it being profoundly new and exciting.
Why else would you travel to a foreign country that you had never been to before, if you didn't anticipate something wonderful at the end? Why would you open a gift not knowing what is inside it, but still anticipating something marvellous if not for this sense of something new that is going to take place? In other words, anticipation can be based on something that happened in the past or it can be constructed in the imagination around something entirely new.
In many ways, Christmas is about both forms of anticipation. Biblically, this spirit of Advent is an anticipation that looks forward, but is also based on something that has happened before. Anticipation is a powerful thing, especially when we anticipate ahead.
Our text from the Book of Isaiah is an anticipation that is forward-looking. The timing of the writing suggests that there had already been the decimation and the conflict; there had already been the sin and the judgment for it brought upon the nation of Israel; and Israel is hoping for better times. They were probably living in exile, in misery, and they have a dream of coming home to Zion, to Jerusalem, to the Land.
Second Isaiah captures that with the language of joy and anticipation. He talks about the garments of splendour that the people will put on the day they return to the Holy City. He is thinking I am sure, of the contrast with the garments worn by the oppressors and destroyed by moths and time. The garments of splendour are the garments of God, and God doing something marvellous. In our passage, there is a vision that Jerusalem will once again be restored to a great city. While it had been decimated, the whole cosmos had lived in darkness. The whole world had lived under the oppressive powers of the forces against Israel. But now, there will be a new day, and there will be a Holy City, and there will be the restoration of God's people.
Isaiah has a vision, and the vision is that the King, God himself, will reign in Zion. Jerusalem will be a place where God is enthroned on high, and the people will renew their faith and return to their God, and God will be joyful in their presence. It is a magnificent picture. There is that wonderful line: “How beautiful on the mountain are the feet of those who bring good news!” Notice the whole language is anticipatory. It is a sense that something good and glorious is going to happen: something marvellous by the hand of God for people who find themselves in darkness and in despair. It is one of the greatest passages of hope in the whole of the Bible.
In the Tate Gallery in London, there is a sublime painting by George Frederick Watts, the Victorian painter. He did portraits mainly, but some of his allegorical paintings are very powerful. One of his paintings is in the National Gallery in Ottawa, another is in the British Museum: they are all over the world. This one in the Tate is particularly moving. It depicts a woman playing a lyre, and she is wearing a blindfold so she cannot see, and underneath her is the globe of the world.
There is a problem with her instrument, the lyre. All the strings are gone, with the exception of one. When they look at this painting, most people say, “Oh, this is a sign of disaster. This is a sign of despair.” Watts says, “No.” He called it Hope, because in the midst of all the darkness, the blindfold, the broken strings, there is still one chord to be played, one note to sound. He said that it is that one note that is the Hope. Not the expectancy of something down the road that is going to be played, but that one chord that when it is played, even now, will bring a majestic sense of hope and concord and harmony.
When we look at the New Testament, there is no question that Jesus of Nazareth was seen as that one chord of hope. Rather than looking back to the time of the Exile, the New Testament writers see and anticipate something based on fulfillment. In other words, all that Isaiah had hoped for - his vision of the King reigning in Jerusalem, of a new day, of peace, of goodwill, of good news - the New Testament writers saw in Jesus of Nazareth, the one chord of hope.
Where Isaiah had looked forward, the Christian writers looked back and they said that everything that Isaiah had hoped for had been fulfilled in Jesus of Nazareth. We can now see for ourselves the coming of the very King. When you look at the New Testament, you see this profound sense that all the things that Isaiah hoped for were fulfilled with the coming of the Christ child.
Isaiah had hoped, for example, that there would have been a day of peace and reconciliation. That is why, at the very beginning of the Gospel narratives, there is this declaration: “Peace on Earth and goodwill to all people!” There is a sense in which the coming of the Christ was the fulfillment of all that Isaiah had hoped for. It wasn't a facile peace that suggests that everything would now live in complete harmony; it was the understanding that this Christ Jesus was bringing God's presence into the midst of a troubled world in a meaningful and a powerful way.
I am sure every one of you this week, like me, has been deeply saddened by the story of Bob Gainey's daughter being swept overboard and lost at sea - a terribly sad, sad story! It reminded me of a story that I read about in Nova Scotia years ago, where a young boy was standing on the shore of Peggy's Cove when a rogue wave came along and swept him out to sea. The young boy lived in the water for a couple of days, and he was able to swim to a rock, but the rock was away from shore, and it could not be seen easily. He survived on that rock for a long time. When interviewing him afterwards about the experience, one of the reporters asked the young boy, “Didn't you tremble a lot with fear when you were on that rock?” The little lad said, “Yes, I trembled a lot, but the rock didn't!”
For the New Testament writers, there is no question that Jesus Christ was that very rock. Writing to the Romans, the Apostle Paul repeats the very same phrase that is in the Book of Isaiah. He said, “How beautiful are the feet of those who proclaim the good news!” There is this understanding of Paul that Christ is that very peace, the very reign of God in the midst of his people.
He was also a sign, not only of good news, not only of peace, but also of salvation. Isaiah prayed and hoped that the people would be saved, and throughout the whole of the New Testament, there is this continued refrain that Jesus of Nazareth is the one who has come to save the people from their sins. In other words, not only from the symptoms of problems, but also from the source; not only the suffering of oppression, but also the very genesis of oppression. Jesus of Nazareth had come to put right the entire brokenness that constituted the misery of the people of Israel. He represented the forgiveness of sins and the salvation of the people. The good news of Christ was seen to be the anticipation of God having done something in Christ for the world.
So, what about us? How do we look at Advent? Well, I think Jim Hannah, a priest at Our Lady of Perpetual Help who preached here for the Advent service of the Churches-on-the-Hill just a couple of weeks ago, said it eloquently. He said that this is the season of the year to look back and to look forward. We need to look back at the biblical story and to remind ourselves of what the coming of the Son of God really meant and the difference he made.
There is no question that when Christ came, he was seen as the embodiment, the incarnation of the good news. The good news was something that changed the lives of those who encountered him profoundly. But, just simply to remember is to turn Christmas into a memorial. There has to be a dynamic sense that we are moving forward. Abraham Lincoln once said, “You cannot escape the responsibility of tomorrow by evading it today.” In other words, there is a profound call to make this anticipation of Christmas a reality in the world right now: to bring the peace, to bring the good news, and to proclaim the salvation of God in the world.
This week, there has been a great deal of controversy over the whole issue of a Christmas tree in a public place. I have received many phone calls and e-mails asking me what I think. I have said, “Come to church this Sunday and I will tell you,” and some of you are here! You know, I think nearly it has been dealt with very well. I think everything that needs to be said about it has been said. I think our politicians have responded well. But, there is one element missing that disturbs me the most. That is the element of joy.
My goodness, folks! Aren't there enough things in this world that talk about sin and the darker side of life, of the inhumanity of people and of the conflict of religions and races, without us making a Christmas tree a source of that misery? It is so easy to lose the joy. I celebrate when I come up University Avenue to Queen's Park and I see the menorah there. I realize that it is making someone's faith in God richer and happier. It has a profound meaning, and I celebrate that when I think that it is a source of joy.
So, too, the Christmas tree! I know it has some pagan roots, and I know that it is not a perfect religious symbol - and it must never replace the cross! It is a tree, and it has some lights on it, and it has green branches, and it represents good news, and happy times, and peace on earth amongst people, and stars in the sky, and the wonder of life and of children. My goodness - it is that which gets lost in all of this!
Just look at the Christmas message. I am not suggesting reductio absurdum - turning it into nothing and of no meaning. It is one that speaks of God's love and grace and harmony and peace and victory over the darker side of life. It is what Isaiah hoped for the nation: the garments of splendour, the good news and the peace that comes with the reign of God.
Christ's salvation does exactly that. The salvation that Christ brings reaches out to the broken and the lost and draws them home into the grace and victory of God. Anne Ortlund tells the story of her husband, a minister who went to Japan years ago. While there, he had a wonderful impact on the life of a young man, who then became a Christian and committed his life to Christ. Not long later, he got a call from the young man's father, who said, “I would like to sit down and talk to you. Can we have dinner?”
So, they sat down at the table and had a wonderful meal, and finally the father said, “I need to ask you a question. I know you have had a great impact on my son. I know my son was a bad young man: He was disrespectful, he was dishonourable and rude. By what has happened by your witness, he has become kind and considerate and generous. A profound change has taken place in his life. Why have you done this to me? Don't you know that for some of us in our society to have a Christian family member is a disgrace - a sign that you are poor and a sign that you have lost your respect? Why have you done this to me?”
John Ortlund responded:
You see, there was once a shepherd, and the shepherd was trying to take his flock from one field to another, but there was a torrent and it was very dangerous. He tried to get all the sheep onto the other side, but they would not go and one of the rams in particular put down his feet and said that he was not going to go because the water was too dangerous. So the shepherd then picked up one of the ram's lambs and carried it to the other side. He then came back again and said to the ram, ”˜Now, what are you going to do?' And the ram says, ”˜I understand.'
The father said, ”˜Ah, so, I understand.'
The Christmas message is the story of the shepherd who takes a lamb across troubled waters and places him safely on the other side, in order that others might be drawn to cross over, too. Jesus was God's way of dealing with the hopes and the anticipation and the expectancy of God's people. Jesus was the way of taking that which was broken and mending it, and placing it safely into the hands of the Father.
So, my friends, this Christmas, let us have that great sense of anticipation. Let us be wide-eyed and open-hearted with joy, expecting God to do something wonderful in the world now. Let us hope and pray for the peace of the world, and for all the brokenness of humanity. Let us, if we cannot fix all the broken relationships in the world, help with God's grace to fix those relationships that are broken in our lives. When we hear of the dark side taking away the joy, let us have the beautiful feet on the mountains of those who proclaim the good news. Let us put on the garments of splendour, and let us have the feet that speak the good news! When we do, may we say to Christ, as the student said to Santa, “Thank you for loving me.” Amen.
This is a verbatim transcription of the original sermon.