Come Down Home

Scripture

Isaiah 64:1–9 ESV

Oh that you would rend the heavens and come down, that the mountains might quake at your presence— as when fire kindles brushwood and the fire causes water to boil— to make your name known to your adversaries, and that the nations might tremble at your presence! When you did awesome things that we did not look for, you came down, the mountains quaked at your presence. From of old no one has heard or perceived by the ear, no eye has seen a God besides you, who acts for those who wait for him. You meet him who joyfully works righteousness, those who remember you in your ways. Behold, you were angry, and we sinned; in our sins we have been a long time, and shall we be saved? We have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment. We all fade like a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away. There is no one who calls upon your name, who rouses himself to take hold of you; for you have hidden your face from us, and have made us melt in the hand of our iniquities. But now, O Lord, you are our Father; we are the clay, and you are our potter; we are all the work of your hand. Be not so terribly angry, O Lord, and remember not iniquity forever. Behold, please look, we are all your people.

Introduction

My memory of Christmastime and electric train set

There is a thing called a “rerailer track” which makes it easy for people (especially children) to put train back on track after it falls off.

After playing with it for a while, we need to realign the tracks so that the train can run smoothly. They come loose, if not simply expand/contract.

TRANSITION:

Advent is like a rerailer track a season of realignment for us as we are brought back to the One whom we follow. Throughout the year, we go on different tangents to learn more about God, but every Christmas we are brought back to Jesus.

Message

Overview:

The passage today is a deep and dark passage. It comes from a time when the Israelites were rebelling against God, and Isaiah - who was a prophet - was praying to God for Him to show His power. However, knowing God’s power showed Isaiah how sinful they really were and how they needed to know the magnitude of their sin in front of a powerful and all-controlling God.

We begin the season of Advent acknowledging our estrangement from our Creator. We acknowledge God’s anger and absence, and we confess our complicity in the situation.

God has a right to be angry because we, His people, have sinned against God and one another. We have not loved God fully and have failed to be an obedient church. We have not done God’s will. We have broken God’s law. We have rebelled against God’s love. We have not loved our neighbors well. We have not paid enough attention to the needs of those around us.

The season of Advent is a time for us to consider our present lives, straightening our crooked paths, and bringing our mission and purpose into sharp focus as we prepare not only for the celebration of Jesus’ birth, but also His coming again in final glory.

In order for us to reap the fullest benefit of Advent, we need to be brutally honest about ourselves. We need to be honest about who we are and where we are headed as God’s people. We need to confess our sins as individuals and as a community. Prophet Isaiah wrote in chapter 6, verse 5:

Isaiah 6:5 ESV

And I said: “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!”

We are surrounded by people who are desperately in need of God’s love.

There are people who have lost their homes to natural disasters (Texas, Louisiana, Puerto Rico, and the Caribbean) by Hurricane Irma. At about the same time it happened, a massive earthquake hit Mexico, a monsoon flooded India, thus claiming over a thousand people. In the United States, fires raged across Washington and Oregon. Some might think they are witnessing the end times.

The rhetoric between North Korea and the United States grows ever threatening. North Korea continues to test rockets and had just exploded a nuclear bomb deep underneath the earth’s crust.

During Advent, there will be other disasters, catastrophes, challenges and fears occupying the headlines. Maybe the end is coming sooner than later but we do not know the exact day or time. Therefore, we must live, always, as those who are ready, who are fully prepared for God’s kingdom to come and for God’s will to be done on earth as it is in heaven.

Isaiah’s words help us to see our current predicament through a wider lenses.

He reminds us that human beings have always and everywhere struggled with our failures and weaknesses.

We have always had periods when it felt like God was angry or absent. We have always been sin-infected, sin-contaminated, and prone to blow about like fallen leaves on a breezy autumn day.

As always, we have always needed rituals to help us return to God, right our ship, realign our lives to God’s mission. The Season of Advent, as we prepare the way of the Lord, is one of those times.

Whether we are sailing calm seas right now or facing a catastrophic storm, we need our Lord. We need to hear God’s voice speaking clearly into our lives. We need reassurance that unlike people, who keep records on the size of each hurricane, our Lord is not keeping a record of our wrongdoing. We need to be confident that the LORD is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love ().

Isaiah 64:8–9 ESV

But now, O Lord, you are our Father; we are the clay, and you are our potter; we are all the work of your hand. Be not so terribly angry, O Lord, and remember not iniquity forever. Behold, please look, we are all your people.

Yet in spite of our sinfulness, God is our father who deeply and passionately loves us! This is why God sent His Son, Jesus, to come here and make His home in our own hearts. God wants us to prepare our hearts for Him to dwell with us and to tell other people about Jesus during Christmas.

As we light the first candle in our Advent wreath today, officially enacting this annual ritual reminder, and as we move toward the celebration of the birth of the one God who sent to save us from the law of sin and death, let us take seriously God’s call on our lives.

As we transition to the celebration of the Holy Communion, let us willingly confess our sins, as individuals and as a human community. And let us embrace our need for a Savior and proclaim Him before a watching world.