Advent 1: 2022

It’s almost December. It’s almost the end of another year, which means for many people, it’s almost time to start thinking about New Year’s resolutions. Now, there are two kinds of people in the world: those who love resolutions, and those who hate them. You know who you are. For me, I love the idea of resolutions, even if I’m not all that fond of the practice itself. Here’s why: New Years resolutions give us the opportunity to pause and reflect on the big picture of our lives - which is a practice that is all but abandoned in our fast-paced busyness culture. When we take the time to actually thinking through resolutions, we tend to ask two good questions: 1) What is worth focusing on? And 2) am I pursuing the right goals?

Why does this practice of making new years resolutions even exist? Well, because at the end of every year, we tend to recognize that our life’s focus has shifted - usually, it is the case that it has narrowed, so that we’ve lost sight of what’s truly important in life. Why does a person make a resolution to exercise three times a week? Because they recognize that they’ve lost sight of the importance of taking care of their mind and body. Why does a person make a resolution to go on a date with their spouse every other week? Because they recognize that they’ve lost sight of the importance of their marital relationship. We all know that we lose sight of the big picture, and so at year’s end, we note it and make plans to right the ship, so to speak.

Well, this is the same reason that the season of Advent exists - to remind us of the bigger picture that we are prone to forget. When I first started to attend an Anglican church, the season of Advent really confused me. Because all around me, the world outside was focusing on Christmas cheer and glad tidings and family and lights and gifts; but inside the church we were focused on the end of the world - on the coming of the Son of Man. This season has a completely different vibe than how the world celebrates. And yet it is all very intentional. Advent reminds us of the bigger picture that we are prone to forget and calls for us to have a wider lens when we look at our lives.

Do you know what the world does so well? It persuades us to narrow our focus. My wife has a fancy camera - the kind with all those buttons and the neck strap. It’s the kind of camera where you can change out the lens. And there are wide lens and narrow lens. When Melanie takes a photo with a wide lens, she captures so much more of the world than when she uses a narrow lens. When you’re taking a photo of a mountain, you’re going to use a wide lens - why? Because you want to take it all in. When you use a narrow lens, you focus in on one particular object, and everything else is blurred out.

Well, the world persuades us to go through our lives using only a narrow lens. The world tries to convince us that life is about me and my experiences. It’s about what I can and will achieve, and everything else is unimportant - it’s the blurry background. But here’s the thing. When we go about our days with that kind of lens, we miss out on the glorious activity of our God as He faithfully brings the world and human history to its wondrous destination. Advent is here to remind us of that bigger picture of what God has been doing throughout human history, what God is doing today, and where God is ultimately taking the world and humanity as He brings his great redemptive plan to completion.

And so this morning, we’re going to dive into Isaiah 2, because in this chapter, Isaiah is trying to remind Israel of the bigger picture that they had forgotten. Israel is not in a good place. In Isaiah 1, we are told that though Israel is following the various instructions like sacrificing in the temple, holding the various feast days, adhering to the sabbath, etc. etc. In reality they are utterly estranged from God. They’re just going through the motions. Their hearts are far from God, and they are no longer interested nor involved in what God is doing in the world. They’ve lost sight of the bigger picture.

So what does Isaiah do? He gives Israel a glimpse into the future. He widens their lens and challenges them to respond. Isaiah highlights three aspects of the big picture. First, God is glorified. Second, the Outsider is redeemed. Third, the Kingdom comes. Where is all of history going? God is glorified. The Outsider is redeemed. And the Kingdom comes. Look with me at Isaiah 2, verse 1.

The word that Isaiah the son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem. It shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be established as the highest of the mountains, and shall be lifted up above the hills; and all the nations shall flow to it,

In the ancient world, mountains and high places were seen as sacred and full of mystery and power. They were seen as the connecting places of the heavens and the earth. Because of this, they were deemed perfect places for altars and temples. These were the places where the gods would come and be present and even live among their people. Israel’s neighbors all had temples and altars at the tallest points in their lands - these high points were testimonies to the presence and power of their gods.

But Isaiah proclaims that there will come a time when the temple of Yahweh, the God of Israel - His temple will be established on the highest mountain, as a testimony to his superior presence and power over every other god that people might worship. And on that day, the nations of the earth will acknowledge that Israel’s God is greater than all other gods, and they will flow to Him like a raging river - but a river that is unlike anything seen on earth, because this river is flowing up the mountain of the Lord, such is the magnetic draw of the Lord’s glorious presence. Surely this is an image of God being glorified.

What does this have to do with the bigger picture? Well, we’ve talked about it a lot this year, but there are so many other things in our lives that beg for our worship. We may not sacrifice goats on an altar to Baal or Buddha, but we do give our worship to others besides the Lord. We give our worship to success or popularity. We worship sex and entertainment. We worship reputation and technology. But what is Isaiah saying here? He’s saying that history is moving to a day when all people will recognize the futility in worshiping anything other than the Lord. One day, every creature on earth will acknowledge that no other god or philosophy or religion or person or thing or whatever can ultimately deliver what it promises, except the Lord. Nothing else can make you whole except the Lord, and there will come a day when everyone will know that truth.

So, if that’s the case, what is Isaiah’s challenge? Why waste our time worshipping any other god today? If the bigger picture shows that only God can bring goodness into our lives, why worship anything else? God alone is glorified. That is the first aspect of Isaiah’s big picture.

The second can be found in verse 3.

and many peoples shall come, and say: “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob, that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths.” For out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.

Now this is really interesting. So we have this image of the house of God being lifted up for all the nations to see, and these people, who are outside of the people of God, are flowing up to it like a raging river. But in verse 3 we see that the reason that they are flowing to the mountain God is not because the people of God are calling out to them, but rather these outsiders, are encouraging and calling out to one another to come to the house of God and witness the wonder of His presence on earth. Those who are on the outside of God’s family and therefore, as Paul would later put it, strangers to all the promises of God, apparently a number of them have seen and been transformed by the presence of God on earth, and are now calling to one another to come and worship the God of Israel. This is an image that comes up frequently in the Old Testament prophetic books. It’s a picture of the glory of God on the lips of the outsider.

And they aren’t coming for a spectacular show of miraculous power. They aren’t coming to have all their problems magically solved. They aren’t coming out of fear of punishment or subjugation. They are flowing to the house of God because they are hungry for Him to teach them His ways. They are hungry to walk in his paths. They are thirsty for His way of life, because His ways lead to a lifetime of love and goodness. So they come, they learn, and they are transformed and redeemed. What’s the big picture? God is glorified, and the Outsider is redeemed.

Which brings us to the third aspect of Isaiah’s big picture, the Kingdom of God comes. Verse 4.

He shall judge between the nations, and shall decide disputes for many peoples; and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore.

What accounts for the violence of war, the abuse of the weak, the hatred of the other? Conflict arises because each of us tends to decide for ourselves what we need, and we decide for ourselves what are the legitimate ways of meeting our needs. We wonder and marvel at how human beings can justify some of the terrible acts of history, but the truth is that each and every time these terrible acts of violence and hatred are justified, because the persons involved have decided for themself what is right and what is wrong. And when we do this, when we go about doing whatever seems right in our own eyes, as the author of the book of Judges would say, the weak are trampled, the vulnerable are exploited, and violence results.

But the wonderful future that we are given here by Isaiah is of a time when the nations give up their right to decide for themselves what is right, and instead each of them look to God to see what he deems right. They seek to accomplish not their own desires, but his. They aim to do not their own work, but his. He is their king, because they have learned his ways, and now walk in his paths. And what is the result? Peace.

We see that the weapons of war, and the practice of war, and the mentality for war all fall away when God is King. This is a depiction of the shalom, or the flourishing and well-being that comes when God’s kingdom reigns on earth. His kingdom brings peace, as hearts turn to him, and seek his desires, and strive to accomplish his goals.

So this is the big picture according to Isaiah 2: God is glorified, the outsider is redeemed, and the kingdom comes. This is the big picture that Israel had forgotten, that they had lost sight of. They knew about it. This hope was built into their identity as a people. Dating all the way back to their very beginnings as a people, when God made a promise to Abraham that all the nations of the earth would be blessed through him and his descendents. They rehearsed this great hope in their feasts and festivals. The were taught it as children, and they taught it to their children. This hope that Isaiah is laying out isn’t anything new, it was baked into their DNA. So how had they lost sight of it? How had they forgotten and grown complacent?

Here’s how they lost sight, and here’s how we lose sight of this big picture. When we turn the great redemptive story of God into something we merely witness as opposed to something that we live. When observe the movement of God rather than actually participate in it. This is why the prophet ends with a challenge in verse 5:

O house of Jacob, come, let us walk in the light of the Lord.

Isaiah and the rest of the scriptures puts forward this future not as an ideal but as a picture of what will actually happen when Jesus returns. God will be glorified. The outsider will be redeemed, and the Kingdom will come. This isn’t a fairytale, it’s real life and it’s going to happen. And the church has been given the script - and why? So that we can join in. So we can play a part.

Do you know when in a person’s life they generally start to think about the bigger picture? When does the average person really spend time thinking about the coming of Jesus and all the blessings of eternal life in the New Heavens and New Earth? Typically, we start to seriously think about the big picture of life when we draw near to the end of our life. But the question that Advent poses to each of us, and the challenge that it offers is this: what if we didn’t wait until the end of our story before we thought about how it fits into God’s big story? What would our life today look like, how would our lives today change if God’s big redemptive story was our focus now?

How would the way we spend our time change? How would the way we use our money change? How would our priorities shift? How would the way we interact with others change?

The season of Advent is a season of anticipation. We are waiting in eager expectation for the second coming of Jesus with all the blessings that he promises to bring upon his return. But that word, “anticipation,” involves more than just waiting with eagerness like a child waits for Christmas morning. To anticipate is to prepare. When a basketball player anticipates a pass, they aren’t standing idle - watching the events unfold before their eyes. No, they are getting ready and preparing and responding. To anticipate is to prepare and make ready. So what does it mean to anticipate the return of Jesus? It means to prepare and make ready. And if this picture that Isaiah paints is where all of life is headed, what does it look like for you and I to prepare?

That is the question of Advent, and as we step into the season together, I encourage that question to be in our minds and upon our lips. God is on the move. He is bringing his plan for redemption closer and closer to it’s glorious end.

O house of Jacob, come, let us walk in the light of the Lord.