Exiled

Exiled: Matthew 24:1-28 & Isaiah 52:1-15

Happy New Year. You might think that this is a bit of an odd thing to say, but we're in church, and the church can be a bit odd. One of the ways that it is odd, is that the church year begins about four weeks before Christmas, on the first Sunday of Advent, which is today. During this four weeks we do two things. Firstly we begin to remember the time when Jesus first came to live with us as a man. Secondly, we look forward to, and prepare for, Jesus' return.
To help us think about these things, I'd like to explore the idea of exile a little bit.

I wonder what makes you feel at home. When I say, “home”, what is it that comes to mind. It might be a place, a house you grew up in, or a room in a house that fits you and you fit it. It might be the city or neighbourhood where you know the people and the people know you. It might be the country that your ancestors lived in, a country where you can buy the food you grew up with, easily. It might be particular people, friends and family. Whichever of these apply to you, home is the place where you can be yourself and know yourself to be valued and loved.

Exile is the opposite of home. Living in exile means being in a place that is unfamiliar, where you feel isolated, threatened, and lonely. Exile is being far from home.

Jesus is on his last visit to Jerusalem. He has spent the day in the Temple, debating with the religious leaders. As he and his disciples are leaving the Temple, they comment on how magnificent it is, how permanent it looks. Jesus is coming towards the end of his time on earth, he knows that in the next few days he is going to be killed. Shortly after that it will be time for him to leave his disciples and return to heaven.

Because he loves them, Jesus is preparing his disciples for the fact that the turmoil following his departure would eventually lead to upheaval in their home. That the Temple will be destroyed, that Jerusalem and the surrounding country will be occupied, and that they would have to leave their homes, to run away, to go into exile. They will no longer be able to live in the place where, up until now, they have belonged.

Isaiah was speaking to those already in exile. The people of Judah had been taken into captivity in Babylon. They are hundreds of miles from the Temple, from Jerusalem. They are sitting in the dust, chained up, mourning for their homes. Isaiah sings a song of hope to them. He encourages them to gather their strength, to get up and to ready themselves for their return home, a return that will be made possible by God, the God who loves them.

As followers of Jesus we are members of his family, and like his disciples, we have been exiled from the place that we used to live. When we chose to follow Jesus, we chose to leave behind things in the world and some of them were things that made us feel like we were at home.

Like the people of God in Babylon, we are in exile from our true home, the Kingdom of God, and we are waiting and looking forward to the return of our King, the King who loves us and will take us home.

So what do we do with this sense of exile, our sense of being away from home. Of having left the home that we used to have, but not yet having reached the one we are headed for? There are opposite temptations that could pull us towards a couple of extremes, neither of which is healthy.

At one extreme is the inner room and the desert. Both of these images seem to me to suggest separation, drastic separation.

The inner room is a secret place, that only those who know the secret can find. We are surrounded by people who are against us, so we gather together for strength and mutual encouragement.

The desert isn't a secret, but I have in my head an image of a wild person, shouting at those going by, insulting them, being very angry. I know that I am tempted by the idea of the desert, of standing, sure of myself, shouting at the world that it is sinful and that judgement is coming.

The problem with both these places is that they stop real engagement with people. And this lack of relationship means that the love that God has shown us doesn't flow out to the rest of creation. It either gets bottled up or drains into the sand.

At the other extreme we might be tempted to give in, surrendering to the culture, going with the flow, denying our exile and returning to our old home. Sometimes the journey feels too difficult and the pressure from people around us to put our feet up is so great. This will allow us to be closely in contact with the world, but is likely to cut us off from the God who loves us.

So, is there another way? Can we avoid these extremes?

When Jesus speaks to his disciples about what to do when desecration comes to their holy place, he tells them to leave. They are not to stay in Jerusalem, they are to go, and the time to do this will be completely obvious.

Towards the end of the reading from Isaiah we find a verse with six instructions given to the exiles, Depart, depart, go out, touch not, go out, purify. There is no room for doubt. The exiles were to leave Babylon, and they were to do so in a way which left them clean.

There is no doubt that the people of God are to leave, to put distance between themselves and those things that are unholy, those things that are not of God. This also applies to us, we cannot remain faithful to the God who loves and continue to make our home in the world.

But the purpose of leaving is not just so that we can keep ourselves all nice and white and shiny and clean. We are on a journey to our new home, and we are called to invite other people to journey with us.

Have you seen those films where there are Roman armies marching around? At the front of each Legion is the standard bearer carrying a pole with an Eagle on the top. Those Eagles were the idols of the gods of the soldiers, they were held to be sacred symbols of the spirit of the Legion to which they belonged.

Thirty years after Jesus spoke his words, the Roman Legions came to Jerusalem in strength to put down a rebellion. When they had destroyed the land around Jerusalem they eventually defeated the city itself. Then they bought their standards, their Eagles, their gods, and set them up in the Temple. They then dismantled the temple.

Along with the other people of Jerusalem, the Christians scattered, as Jesus had said that they would have to. As they scattered, they told their stories. As they told their stories, the stories of Jesus, the Good News was spread through world. Jesus' followers were leaving the place that had been home and were telling people they met about the eternal home that they were on their way to, and inviting people to join them.

The content of the Good News that they, and we, share is also the news that Isaiah's messenger also brings. It is the Good News about God's kingdom that is coming. This new home for God's people has three characteristics that it's messengers can shout about: peace, goodness, and salvation.

There will be peace in this place. This is not a wifty-wafty all be all terribly polite to each other, all quiet and no running about kind of peace. This will be God's peace, a peace in which everybody is in proper, healthy and wholesome relationship with each other. There will be no more fear because God's perfect love for us will have defeated all our fear.

This place will be good. When God looked at the creation, God saw that it was good. When people made the decision to rebel against God, and to break relationship with God, creation was also caught up in the chains that we bound ourselves in. In God's Kingdom these chains will be broken, and God will look again and see that it is all good.

This place will be one of salvation, a place of freedom. There will be no more chains. The things that would have stopped us coming home have been dealt with by Jesus and we are welcomed with open arms.

We leave the world, not so that we can be drastically separated, but because we are drawn by God's love for us towards our new home. We stay in touch with those in the world so that we can share that love and invite others to join us.

It is one of the major themes of the Bible and we find it again and again in the lives of individuals and nations. We have looked at the examples of it given in these two passages. For God's people, exile leads to rescue and the journey home. God loves us and calls us to the new home where God's love for us will surround us, where you can be yourself and know yourself to be valued and loved.

Our exile is a hopeful exile. Our exile should be obvious to ourselves, and those around us, so that we can share the reason for our hope and invite others to join us in exile, an exile that looks forward to the return of the King and our arrival home.