November 30, 2008
Rev. Kip Gilts

Happy Advent!  There is something about these weeks before Christmas where time seems to slow down and speed up simultaneously.  On the one hand, we do more shopping, attend more social functions, and send more letters than in any other time of the year, causing time to race by.  On the other hand, we read stories, watch movies, and spend evenings with family giving time a chance to slow down.

One of our family activities during Advent is watching Christmas movies.  We have accumulated quite a few.  The thing I’ve noticed about Christmas Movies is that they often reflect the messages of the scriptures, the promises of this season.  These promises are often summed up with the four words of Advent – Hope, Peace, Joy, and Love.  This Advent season and throughout December we will focus on some of these Christmas Movies and the messages from the scriptures that they highlight.  One of the newer classics is “Home Alone”.  It is a 1991 movie about an eight-year-old boy who is only one of a cast of misbehaving characters.  He, however, like most eight-year-olds feels that he is the only one being confronted by his parents and cut-down by his siblings.  He even exclaims at one point, “This house is full of people and it makes me sick.  When I grow up and get married, I’m living alone.”  After an outburst during the evening meal he is exiled to the attic bedroom, the scary room, without supper.  His mother makes it clear that she doesn’t want to see him until in the morning when the entire family will be leaving for Paris.  He replies that he doesn’t want to see her for the rest of his life and wishes that his family would disappear.

The next morning the family awakens to discover that the power had gone off during the night and the airport shuttle is at the door to pick them up.  They scurry about and count heads.  The neighbor boy is mistaken for the eight-year-old Kevin in the count and it isn’t until they are over the Atlantic Ocean that they realize that Kevin is Home Alone.  This is about the same time that Kevin discovers it – feeling free at first, but then feeling as though his exile has expanded from the attic to the entire house.

Exile is a common story in the Bible.  The first thirty-nine chapters of Isaiah are filled with warnings that continued misbehavior will result in exile for Jerusalem and its people.  For the most part, these warnings are unheeded and then it happens.  The 8^th century B.C. Assyrian invasion is avoided through divine intervention, but the 6^th century B.C. siege from and victory of the Babylonians did just that – sent Jerusalem and its people into exile.  No one knows how many years passed between Isaiah 39 and 40, but it may as well have been an entire world of time.  Isaiah 39 addresses people who were free and abused that freedom to exploit others and ignore God.  Isaiah 40 was written to hopeless exiles who barely remembered the stories of home and freedom.  Isaiah’s people must have felt as though they were home alone without their family or even their Heavenly Father.  It is at this point of hopelessness that these words are announced.  They are found in Isaiah 40:1-11.  Hear now the Word of the Lord:

¹Comfort, O comfort my people, says your God. ²Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and cry to her that she has served her term, that her penalty is paid, that she has received from the Lord’s hand double for all her sins.

³A voice cries out: “In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God. ⁴Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill be made low; the uneven ground shall become level, and the rough places a plain. ⁵Then the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all people shall see it together, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.” ⁶A voice says, “Cry out!” And I said, “What shall I cry?” All people are grass, their constancy is like the flower of the field. ⁷The grass withers, the flower fades, when the breath of the Lord blows upon it; surely the people are grass. ⁸The grass withers, the flower fades; but the word of our God will stand forever.

⁹Get you up to a high mountain, O Zion, herald of good tidings; lift up your voice with strength, O Jerusalem, herald of good tidings, lift it up, do not fear; say to the cities of Judah, “Here is your God!” ¹⁰See, the Lord God comes with might, and his arm rules for him; his reward is with him, and his recompense before him. ¹¹He will feed his flock like a shepherd; he will gather the lambs in his arms, and carry them in his bosom, and gently lead the mother sheep.

This is the word of God for the people of God.  In this passage Isaiah assured his people that hope was already beginning to dawn.  Let us pray.

Hopelessness is a terrible place to be.  The people of Jerusalem knew this, we know this, even the characters in Home Alone knew this.  In one scene Kevin’s mom is trying to make her way back to her son.  She is told at the airport in Scranton that it is hopeless to get to Chicago by Christmas.  She shouted in reply, “No, no, no, no, no, no!  It’s Christmas – the perpetual season of hope.”  I like that, don’t you? It’s Christmas – the perpetual season of hope.

God’s Word brings hope from eternity.

The events addressed in Isaiah 39 occurred around 722 B.C.  The events of Isaiah 40 were closer to 540 B.C.  That’s a long time between chapters.  Whether Isaiah was looking forward in Isaiah 40 or a second Isaiah appeared on the scene to pick up the pen is of little concern to me.  My focus is on the exiles, those who felt the oppression, the displacement, and the want from the Babylonians.  My concern is for those who had given up all hope.  Can you imagine how beautiful these words must have sounded upon the souls of the hopeless? “Comfort, O comfort my people, says your God.  Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and cry to her that she has served her term, that her penalty is paid.”  I never hear these words without hearing the music of Handel.  His musical, “Messiah” was written in 1741 under the personal cloud of depression and debt.  Just four months earlier he had retired from public activities.  He was handed a libretto of scripture by a friend with the request that he write the music.  The irony of its 1742 debut was that it was for a charitable event whose proceeds freed 142 men from debtor’s prison.  Its success certainly shielded Handel from the same fate.  Hope was born in his heart before it was born on the stage.  After completing the music in just 24 non-stop days he said, “I did think I did see all Heaven before me, and the great God Himself.” 

This is the type of deliverance offered to the people of Jerusalem.  Look at the strange announcement in verse 6-8, A voice says, “Cry out!” And I said, “What shall I cry?” All people are grass, their constancy is like the flower of the field. The grass withers, the flower fades, when the breath of the Lord blows upon it; surely the people are grass. The grass withers, the flower fades; but the word of our God will stand forever.  At first it looks like a bitter pronouncement upon humanity, but look a little closer and you will see the hope found in God’s Word.  It is not here today and gone tomorrow.  It is forever.  Exile does not last forever, but God’s word does.  When the word of God speaks, you can count on it.  You can place all your hope in it.

I am not a betting man, but there are some bets that I cannot resist – sure things.  I can think of two.  One was a bet that I made with our associate pastor about an episode in Gunsmoke.  It was Festus, not Chester.  The other was a bet that I made with my brother Kemp, about a Saturday contest on the Professional Bowlers’ Tour.  I bet that the guy in the blue shirt would win, in spite of being behind by what seemed to be an insurmountable score.  Why did I bet on this?  Because I had seen that match just a couple of weeks earlier.

The Word of God is more sure than that – more certain than my recollection of an episode or contest that I have already seen.  Whenever I see phrases like, “for the mouth of the Lord has spoken,” as in verse five, I am comforted, I am hopeful.  It’s Christmas – the perpetual season of hope.

God’s Strength brings hope from eternity.

There is a lot of hope placed in the strength of God.  Just as God’s word endures forever, so does God’s strength.  We often grasp the contrast of our lifetime compared to eternity – we are only grass that lives for awhile and then fades.  However, sometimes we don’t get that God’s strength is infinitely greater than ours.  The author of Isaiah 40 sought to remind the hopeless people of God’s extraordinary, supernatural strength.  Verse 10 exclaims, “See, the Lord comes with might, and his arm rules for him.”  There is confidence placed in God’s strength that no matter how hopeless the situation appears, God can bring freedom and hope.

Christmas movies are full of this truth that we can’t, nor are ever called upon to do it on our own.  In Home Alone it is intervention of Mr. Marley, the neighbor of whom everyone is afraid.  In “It’s a Wonderful Life,” it’s Clarence, the angel without his wings.  Who is it in your life? How has God revealed his strength by sending a rescuer your way?  Keep your eyes open for God’s strength.

We are in need of God’s strength.  When terrorist attacks in Mumbai, India rob the lives of nearly 200 people, we need a God tough enough to intervene.  We have not figured out how to stop these types of maniacal displays of power, but I am confident that God can and I pray that God will.  It’s Christmas – the perpetual season of hope.

  God’s Care brings hope from eternity.

It is a fascinating promise given to the hopeless exiles.  Just as they look for the powerful, strong, amazing capacity of God with Isaiah’s invitation in verse 10, “See the Lord comes with might,” Isaiah then described a humble, caring shepherd, “He will feed his flock like a shepherd; he will gather the lambs in his arms.”  It is important that we not lose sight of one of these characteristics by focusing on the other.  God is powerful, but also know that God is caring.  God is tough and God is tender.

I love the part in the movie Home Alone where Mr. Marley and Kevin meet in the church.  The older man asked Kevin if he had been a good boy, and Kevin acknowledged that he had not.  Marley then looked at the little boy and said, “This is the place to be if you’re feeling bad about yourself,” assuring him that he is always welcome at church. Though the movie is filled with action and a couple of tense moments, it is the tender scenes at the end of the movie where Kevin and his mother embrace and Marley hugs his granddaughter that stir the heart. 

We need both the tough and the tender.  Mr. Marley said, “You can be too old for a lot of things, but you are never too old to be afraid.” The exiles needed a God powerful enough to overcome the empires that surrounded them and tender enough to care for them and lead them.  We need both tough and tender.  This is what we all hope for.  It’s Christmas – the perpetual season of hope.

The sure hope of Isaiah is that exile does not last forever.  The people of Jerusalem were promised not only deliverance from the Babylonians, but also promised the hope of a savior that goes beyond that.  John the Baptist would centuries later be revealed as the voice crying in the wilderness and preparing the way of the Lord.  Reading this passage you get the sense that He is coming.  The One who is the Word of God, the Strength of God, and the very Care of God is coming. That is good news to all of us who at some point in our life feel as though we are Home Alone.  Amen.