Hope is the first word of Advent.  Could you hear it in the passage just read from Isaiah?  Hope is an ambiguous word in English.  There is a passive hope, which is my sitting on the sofa and hoping that my football team wins on Thanksgiving Day.  Then there is the active hope, the hoping on tip-toe that children demonstrate so well when they are “waiting” for the ice cream that they just ordered.  This is kingdom hope.  It is the hope that you may have experienced in the living room last Thursday as the smells of the kitchen and dining room wafted into your room and you begin to hope for a wonderful feast that was announced with, “Come to the table, everything’s ready!” It is this kind of hope that I want you to have in mind as the first word of Advent.  Advent hope anticipates with certainty. 

As I read this passage I have this image of God With Us sitting at the table, watching it being set, and calling us to it.  This passage helps us to see that God invites, God instructs, and God inspires.
 

God invites the thirsty to the water and the destitute to the pantry

Most English translations have some difficulty with the first word of this passage of scripture.  Probably the closest we can get to it is our word, “Hey!”  So literally verse one would read, “Hey, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters; and hey, you who have no money come, buy and eat!”  The only thing missing is that the Hebrew word has a touch of sympathy or pity.  Keil-Delitsch stated, “The word expresses deep sorrow on account of unsatisfied thirst.”  Isaiah knows there is a problem and he needs to address it with compassion and urgency.  Not only does God invite the thirsty to drink, the offer is expanded to include bread, wine, and milk.  All that is essential for a joyful gathering are placed on the table and God invites those in need to come.  Those in need at the time of this writing were exiles.  People who had been taken from their homes, people who had their nation invaded and their Temple destroyed.  They had gone from being residents and citizens with property and rights, to being refugees without status or provisions.  They were thirsty.

Do you remember what it’s like to be thirsty?  I do.  Several years ago our family took a trip out west and stopped at Palo Duro Canyon, outside of Amarillo.  We decided, rather impulsively, to hike the trail to the signature rock formation.  The Lighthouse is about three miles down a dusty path.  It was the middle of summer.  I stopped in and bought us each a bottle of water.  Tammy was not dressed for hiking.  She was attired comfortably for our long car ride that day.  We assured her that it would be no problem.  Apparently the human body requires more than 20 ounces of water for a six mile hike in temperatures that exceed 100 degrees, when one is dressed in black.  Who knew?  We were thirsty.  In fact, I am certain that Tammy will tell you that she was more than thirsty.  She began to demonstrate the symptoms of dehydration and the shock that comes with it.  When we returned to the car and she began to get more water in her, normalcy eventually returned.

I am certain that this was the kind of thirst that the exiles in Babylon were experiencing.  They longed for the waters of God.  I still get thirsty.  Not just physically, but sometimes I am spiritually parched.  There are those desert experiences where I feel that I have been walking fast in excessive heat and desperately need an oasis.  That is what Advent offers, “Hey!  Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat!”  God invites the thirsty to the water, the destitute to the pantry.  Advent hope anticipates with certainty. 
 

God instructs the industrious to trade up for the good stuff.

Isaiah realized that his people would try just about everything before they would simply rest in the embrace of God.  They tried to satisfy their hunger with stuff that wasn’t bread and to quench their thirst with what wasn’t real water.  I like how John Calvin put it over 400 years ago, “God invites all indiscriminately…but people are so miserable that although they know they are in need of Christ, they contrive methods by which they may be deprived of this benefit.”  But God is insistent.  Did you catch the urgency in this passage?  It begins with the, “Hey!” that we have already noticed.  Then God pleads, “Listen, listen, to me.”  There is such a lavish meal prepared for the people of God, who too often settle for a day-old Happy Meal.  But God instructs the industrious to quit paying for what is not bread and working for what does not satisfy.  “Eat what is good and your soul will delight in the richest of fare.”  That word “delight” is a great word that means, “the soft, savory, eye closing goodness” of the food that God wants us to enjoy.  Have you ever eaten anything so good that it brings tears of joy to your eyes?  I have.  Have you ever tasted anything so wonderful that you have to close your eyes and soak it all in?  I have.  This is the goodness to which God instructs us to aspire.

Today, we are distributing our Advent Devotional Booklets.  I encourage you to pick up your copy as you leave.  One of the devotionals was written by a college student and candidate for ordained ministry, Bryan Jody.  Bryan wrote about one Christmas when his church in Pasadena was having a present drive similar to our Angel Tree Ministry.  His family decided that they would take the money they typically spent on each other and spend it on the family that they adopted.  So Bryan’s family with one child – him – adopted a family with six children.  On Christmas Eve the two families ate together and Bryan seems to indicate in his devotional that the gift of watching those children open their presents was far more satisfying than opening one of his own.  That is labor on what satisfies.

It is so easy to get distracted in this season of busy schedules and long shopping lists. Be careful not to spend money on that which doesn’t nourish and work for what doesn’t satisfy.  God instructs us to trade up for the good stuff.  The first word of Advent is hope.  Advent hope anticipates with certainty. 
 

God inspires the hopeless to live.

God spoke to the exiles though the prophet and stated the purpose of this urgent appeal, “That your soul may live.”  All these words, “Hey! Listen! Come! Hear!” all point to one purpose, “That your soul may live.”  Some of you may remember this word, nephesh, soul, from earlier this month when I mentioned that The Brown, Drivers, Briggs Hebrew Lexicon of the Old Testament lists these words beside the word nephesh – soul, living being, self, person, desire, appetite, emotion, and passion.  This very word reaches to life, full and rich.  God assured them that he would make an everlasting covenant with them, but then described it as the faithful love promised to David.  The very mention of David’s name reminded those hearers of the pinnacle of their history.  400 years earlier David had established a kingdom that had no earthly parallel for the Jewish people.  The same God who empowered and inspired David, was with them.  The message is clear – God had not forgotten them.  From the shadows of hopeless exile comes the eternal assurance of steadfast love.  You are not forgotten.

This is the magic of all the good Christmas movies.  The hopeless are inspired to live.  A Christmas Story features a hopeless boy who just wanted more than anything else, an official Red Rider BB Gun.  When all hope was lost and all the presents had been opened, there was one present tucked out of sight behind the desk that was revealed.  Home Alone had another boy left hopelessly abandoned as his family, who had unknowingly left Kevin behind, were flying to Europe.  Finally, when all hope seemed lost, his neighbor came to his rescue and his mom found her way back.  It’s a Wonderful Life has a hopeless George Bailey whose guardian angel and a town that admired him let him know that he was loved.  Even Charlie Brown and Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer have crises of hopelessness.  Why this consistent theme?  Because we have all been there.  We know this place and it is right at the darkest corner of that place that God calls us to the faithful love promised to David.

Hey! Listen, listen to me!  God has not forgotten you.  Whatever is going on in your life, God has not forgotten you.  God inspires the hopeless to live.  The first word of Advent is hope.  Advent hope anticipates with certainty. 

I know that the Thanksgiving Turkey is not yet all gone.  Still, I can already smell Christmas dinner, where God With Us is seated at the table – inviting all who are thirsty, instructing all who are working, and inspiring all who are longing to live life as fully as God intends.  It is my desire that your Advent is filled with this kind of hope – Advent hope anticipates with certainty.  Amen.