So Much Waiting

I know I keep bringing up the pandemic during Advent and it seems odd to bring up something so negative during a season of light, but at least for me, and hopefully for you it seems like an appropriate comparison to what is going on in the world. I say that becuase I’m sure like you this whole pandemic season, which is longer than any other season of the church year, even those long summer months of Pentecost, has gone on for far too long. It has also caused this constant waiting game for us.

We waited at the beginning as we discovered the pandemic was moving across the world and that it would hit the United States as well. Then we waited as many of us went into lockdown so that we could help flatten the curve to avoid overwhelming our health care system. Then we waited as we hoped for the virus to disappear during the warm summer months and for the lockdowns to lift as well.

Now we continue to wait as the virus once again tears through our world at an alarming rate, this time with the hope of a cure that has just been approved. Yet, knowing that we will have to wait for that as well and wait for it to become available in the quantities that will help all people.

Due to all this waiting and all the changes that this pandemic has caused it really feels like we have been captive to it. Especially when you think about all of the celebrations and mourning that we have had to put on hold because of it. This isn’t the kind of waiting that we think about when we talk about Advent but it is a very real kind of waiting that we are all experiencing right now. Waiting for a time when we can go out and be around people without the thought that we could be harming our neighbor, the very people Jesus calls us to love and protect.

This pandemic waiting though, doesn’t seem too far off from the kind of waiting that the people of Israel must have been doing as they hear these words from Isaiah. Israel had been in exile for about 100 years when we hear Isaiah’s proclamation. Generations of Israelites had passed away in exile, unable to go back and see their homeland. I can’t even imagine the kind of heartache and struggle the Israelites must have gone through trying to adjust to life in a different country. Constantly being faced with hardships like new laws and a new languages as well as not being able to have that central place to worship God at the temple. Then as I mentioned having generations of families having to live through this. This was a difficult kind of waiting for the people of Israel.

So imagine, to their delight when Isaiah proclaims these words to them. Isaiah directs God’s words to the people who feel they have been oppressed and brokenhearted, as well as the captive and prisoners. Isaiah provides words of promise and of hope to a people who after 100 years were probably feeling pretty hopeless that their waiting and enduring would produce anything. Maybe they had given up on hope and were no longer waiting because it had been so long. Yet, Isaiah steps in and reminds them of who God is and that God has not forgotten or forsaken them.

Not only has God never forgotten them and is going to help them, but God is going to undo what has been done. They will receive so many good things including a double portion. We talked about how the eldest son who received the inheritance was the one who got a double portion. God is declaring that same kind of double portion for all the people. Just before that quote it also says that the people will be called priests of Israel and ministers to God. God is declaring all the people holy and righteous and a part of the royal priestly line. He will make and everlasting covenant with them and make sure that they as well as everyone else knows that they are blessed.

There is so much talk about building things up again, about clothing the people with garments of righteousness and to me a very interesting vision is that they will be called oaks of righteousness. Oftentimes, we hear in the Old and New Testaments about branches and about seeds, but here God is declaring them oak trees of righteousness. God is giving them this vision of greatness and priestly-ness that evokes this idea that life will be better and that there is nothing God won’t do for God’s people.

Isn’t that the same word that we should hold onto today? In the midst of a pandemic which causes us to wait and wonder. In the midst of a season of waiting for the Christ-child to be born we hold onto that same promise that God made known through Isaiah. That no matter how bad things may be and may seem, there is nothing that can stop God’s love from breaking through into this world. God calls us and claims us as God’s holy people and that we are also called to work to bring about these same things for other people as well. So that we can truly declare the year of the Lord’s favor to everyone who is in need of it and show them the light of God’s salvation.

Maybe it’s ok to wait in what seems like an endless exile. No that doesn’t mean that it’s enjoyable or something to look forward to, but to know that even in the midst of an exile experience that knowing that God is by our side working to bring about, again with our help, a time when we can rejoice and celebrate all that God is and does for this entire world. To know also that that promise was made complete when Jesus came to this earth. The very waiting that we are doing this Advent season is to help us understand that this promise from God through the prophet Isaiah is made true and complete. The very child we wait for fulfills that promise that our waiting for a better tomorrow is made possible through his life, death and resurrection.

Most waiting isn’t fun, most waiting is passive. Maybe during this Advent season, and beyond, we can be active waiters, so that we can help God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit fulfill this vision of a a better tomorrow. A tomorrow that says that our God of love is there for you in your waiting, in your sorrow, and in your joys and celebrations. God is doing amazing things through all of it. Whether it is waiting in exile, waiting in a pandemic of waiting for Christmas to come God is actively bringing about God’s plan for this world. It is a plan for good news to all who are in need of it, including you and me. Amen.