When God Seems Hidden First Sunday Of Advent November 30, 2008

(First, read the text for this sermon: Isaiah 64:1-9)

Behold, the very first words of Scripture that we hear, to begin this season of Advent:

O that you would tear open the heavens and come down,
so that the mountains would quake at your presence –
as when fire kindles brushwood
and the fire causes water to boil –
to make your name known to your adversaries,
so that the nations might tremble at your presence!
When you did awesome deeds that we did not expect,
you came down, the mountains quaked at your presence.

The prophet is engaging in spiritual nostalgia! The prophet is making an emotional plea, remembering what God has done in the past, and imploring God to do it again. That is because, at the time of this prophetic speaking, 2,600 years ago, give or take a few decades, God’s people are in exile. Their nation has been destroyed by the Babylonians. The people have been scattered.

Why did this terrible tragedy happen? The prophet speaks:

But you were angry, and we sinned;
because you hid yourself we transgressed.

In other words, in God’s anger over the people’s sin, God hid from the people – which meant that the people sinned even more, since they were left without God’s guidance.

Wow. What a view of God!

Is God far off, removed from our everyday lives? Does God hide, saying, “Let them fend for themselves!”

Many who dismiss God think that is exactly the way God is. It’s ironic. Many cultured despisers of religion are very well educated. But they can only conceive of God according to the old, pre-scientific three-tiered universe that they learned a small children in Sunday School, with God “up above,” or “out there” somewhere, far removed. And so, detractors with this view of God will say, “Where was God when hurricane Katrina happened?” “Where is God in the world financial crisis?” they ask. “How can you believe in a God who would allow such suffering to go on, in Darfur, or Iraq, or Afghanistan?”

Well, I can only speak for myself. As a Christian, I could not be able to believe in a god such as they describe: a god who would just go away and hide, instead of intervening in Darfur, or in Iraq, or in Afghanistan. But God is not like that! God is intervening, constantly, daily, in the flesh and blood of the human beings who are working so heroically to build justice and peace in those places of the world.

So – “Where was God when hurricane Katrina happened?” God was suffering with those who were drowning. God was suffering with those in the homeless shelters. God is intervening, in the flesh and blood of the volunteer workers who drive for hours to New Orleans, and who sleep on cots in church buildings, and go out during the day to help rebuild houses that still sit, destroyed.

“Where is God in the world financial crisis, when people are losing their jobs and their homes?” Wherever there is anxiety, or fear, or depression, or uncertainty, there is God, present, in those human beings’ flesh and blood, and among others in congregations and other communities providing strength and support.

In all of this, I’m simply taking seriously the incarnation – which is the fancy word that means: God become flesh and blood in Jesus the Christ. We read the bible through the lens of Jesus.

Jesus is the embodied word of God. And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father's only son, full of grace and truth, as we read in the gospel of John. (John 1:14) As Christians, you and I affirm each week in the creed that God is in our flesh through Jesus the Christ, and that God is present to our thoughts and prayers and emotions through the Holy Spirit.

This Trinitarian perspective is much different from the view of God that the prophet Isaiah holds.

But we do read the Hebrew Scriptures because of the continuity of revelation. The Bible is always in conversation with itself. The Hebrew scriptures provide essential context to understand Jesus the Christ. And, aren’t there times when it does seem as if God is hidden, as the prophet Isaiah envisaged?

For myself, when it seems as if God is hidden, that is when I’m feeling like it’s all up to me; that every responsibility is on my shoulders, and if I fail then the whole enterprise comes crashing down. What a recipe for burnout, huh?

But – when it seems as if God is hidden, is that the case? Again, for what it’s worth, I’ll tell you what I have found, in my own faith journey. It’s not that God hides! It’s that I have become so turned in on myself, that I can’t get beyond my own anxiety, or my fear, or my sense of being unduly burdened – and so I can’t perceive the God who intercedes with sighs too deep for words. (Romans 8:24)

Let me invite you into the spiritual journey of the season of Advent. During these weeks, the Spirit invites us to listen in prayer – allowing the Spirit to uncover our protective layering, so that we can become aware of where we are wounded and anxious and afraid. Where does all that come from? We become aware of our great need for our savior. We become able to prepare for the joyous celebration of Christmas.

God the Holy Spirit uses Advent to open us to the fulfillment that will come from God: the time to come when there will be no more anxiety or fear, no more wounds, no more death. This new reign of God has begun in Jesus the Christ, risen from the dead. It will be fulfilled when the kingdom comes (which we pray for each week).

Advent is not ultimately about the coming of sweet little Jesus boy. God has come into our human flesh through Jesus the Christ! Advent is about being on the watch for the coming of God’s fulfillment to history.

Listen to how all of this is expressed, in the words of the Holy Communion Prayer of Thanksgiving that is appointed in the liturgy for this holy season of Advent:

With this bread and cup
we remember your Word
dwelling among us,
full of grace and truth.
We remember our new birth
in his death and resurrection.
We look with hope for his coming.

Holy God,
we long for your Spirit.
Come among us.
Bless this meal.
May your Word take flesh in us.
Awaken your people.
Fill us with your light.
Bring the gift of peace on earth.

All praise and glory are yours,
Holy One of Israel,
Word of God incarnate,
Power of the Most High,
one God, now and forever.

I pray for you a holy Advent.

In the name of that God, who is Father and Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.

Pastor Andy Ballentine
St. Stephen Lutheran Church
Williamsburg, Virginia