Advent 2-A:                   Isaiah 11:1-10; Ps 72; Rom 15:4-13; Mt 3:1-12
Trinity, Three Rivers                                  Fr. Joseph Neiman (12/9/07)

Homily: “His delight shall be in the fear of the Lord” (Is 11:3)

My brothers and sisters in Christ, ministers also in Christ’s name.

Every Sunday, after the sermon, we pray together from the Nicene Creed: “He (that is, Jesus) shall come again in glory to judge the living and the dead, and his kingdom will have no end.” Our brothers and sisters in Christ have been praying this creed for centuries since it was first formulated at a Council in Nicea, in modern day Turkey, and revised at the Council of Constantinople in 381. At both assemblies, the bishops of the Church were discerning who is Jesus and when should we celebrate Easter, both of which are still being discussed in some circles today.

Advent, which as you know is a Latin word meaning, “coming,” is about remembering how our ancestors in ancient Israel looked forward to the coming of the Messiah to deliver them from oppression and restore the kingdom of David. It is also about us looking forward to the second coming or the return of the risen Lord at the end of time, and how his kingdom, which is vastly different from the kingdom of David, will have no end.

Isaiah in the first lesson this weekend looks forward to a descendant of Jesse, the father of king David, who will come with “the spirit of the Lord” resting upon him, along with “the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, (and) the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord” (Is 11:2). Then Isaiah states: His delight shall be in the fear of the Lord” (Is 11:3).

“The fear of the Lord?” What does that mean? Well, we know about fear. It is deeply rooted in each of us, and it seems to permeate our culture profoundly at this time. Some presidential candidates urge us to fear terrorists and economic depression, and they promise they will rescue us from such fear. So how can we wait in this Advent season preparing for Christmas delighting in “the fear of the Lord?”

Fr. Henri Nouwen tells us: “We consider waiting a waste of time, perhaps because our culture is always saying, ‘Get going! Do something! Show you are able to make a difference! Don’t just sit there and wait!’”

He writes: “Waiting is even more difficult because we are so fearful – not just as individual but as whole communities and nations. Fear explains why it is so hard to wait and how tempting it is to act. That is the root of a “first strike” approach to others. Those who live in the world of fear are more likely to make aggressive, hostile, destructive response than people who are not so frightened. The more afraid we are, the harder waiting becomes.”[1]

Fear comes from the past, from our experiences of suffering, personal experiences in which we were hurt by someone, and even nationally from our experience of September 11, 2001. Fear makes us hesitant to risk trusting others, and therefore to be wary of the future. In short, it makes us walk, as it were, backwards into the future, dragging the past emotions with us. So why should we delight in looking forward to the second coming of the risen Lord when he will judge the living and the dead?

Many popular preachers in our own day speak of the second coming in judgment as a fearful time, a destruction of the earth and a harsh judgment on all people. From a mistaken reading of passages from the New Testament, they tell us some will be taken up in “rapture” and the rest will be left behind waiting in fear for that dreadful day of judgment and the destruction of all life on earth .

A  popular preacher of such fear and judgment was Hal Lindsey whose books have been extremely popular and whose writings have provided some of the theological background for the Left Behind series of novels so popular recently.

The Left Behind series of novels about events following the Rapture has been a phenomenal commercial success. The authors are Jerry Jenkins, writer-at-large for the neo-evangelical, psychologized Moody Bible Institute, and Tim LaHaye, well-known author of over 40 books, who is said to be a "noted authority" on Bible prophecy.

The books have doubled both the profits and staff of Tyndale House Publishers (Wheaton, Illinois). More than 65 million copies have been sold, generating more than a quarter of a billion dollars in sales in just ten years. Sixteen volumes have been published to date and several have been on the New York Times best seller list. In addition to the more than 65 million books, Tyndale House has sold 10 million related items, such as computer screensavers and postcards. There is a Left Behind kids series (Left Behind: The Kids-ten books planned), an audio series, three movies, a video game, and The Left Behind website which attracts thousands of hits a day.

This fearful time coming is called the “tribulation” in some Bible translations of a verse in Matthew’s Gospel from the same chapter we heard last Sunday. Our translation called this a time of “great suffering, such as has not been from the beginning of the world until now….” (Mt. 24:21). This popular view of a catastrophic end of history is widespread in our culture and it is a totally wrong interpretation of the New Testament.

So we have “delight in the fear of the Lord” and dread of that awful time of “great suffering,” which do we believe?

I believe Isaiah and Jesus, and the vision they give us for the future, which is one of great hope because of great love and intimacy with God and one another. Jesus did not come as a mighty king battling the powers of darkness and evil, but as a suffering servant, one powerless before those who oppressed him and put him to death. Henri Nouwen writes: “In Jesus of Nazareth, the powerless God appeared among us to unmask the illusions of power, to disarm the prince of darkness who rules the world, and to bring the divided human race to a new unity”[2]

“God does not want us to be afraid, distant or envious. God wants us to come close, very close, so close that we can rest in the intimacy of God as children in their mother’s arms.”[3] We experience this by living into the kingdom of God which shall have no end, as we say in the Creed.

“Living in the Kingdom of God” means living in the present in the Presence. Let me repeat that: living in the kingdom of God means living in the present moment and always in the Presence of the loving Lord who is Emmanuel, God with us. When we enter through silence and solitude in the quiet and emptiness of our hearts, embrace there with the risen Lord our fears and suffering, our fears can become desire for greater presence, for a greater experience of God’s love in Christ, and so we can indeed delight in the fear of the Lord.

This kind of fear is the kind in which we await the next word of one who loves us and whom we have offended. If I have hurt Judi and have asked for her forgiveness, I wait in “fear” or hope that she will indeed tell me she forgives me and we can walk into the future in greater love and solidarity. Fearful or better, awe-filled anticipation of the greater love that is coming gives me hope in the present moment – that is what Advent is about for me.

But it is difficult to live in the present in the Presence alone. We need to be close, to be the Christian community where together “we keep the flame of hope alive among us and take it seriously so that it can grow and become stronger is us. In this way we can live with courage, trusting that there is a spiritual power in us when we are together that allows us to live in this world without surrendering to the powerful forces constantly seducing us toward despair.”[4]

John, the Baptist, as we heard in the Gospel this morning, quotes a word of hope from the prophet, Isaiah. Matthew tells us John identified Jesus as the long expected one and says of him: “The voice of one crying out in the wilderness: prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight” (Is 40.3; Mt 3:3).

Once we have discovered the transforming relationship which the risen Lord brings us in and through our personal prayer and our corporate worship together we become the Body of Christ in the world and take our servant role in Christ’s mission and ministry in the world. We become the voice of one crying in the wilderness and preparing the way for the coming of the Lord to judge the living and the dead. We who wait in loving hope will find that, as we prayed earlier this morning, “we may greet with joy the coming the Jesus Christ our Redeemer” (BCP p. 211). Those who have relied on what they have acquired or accomplished, on their own might and power, will greet that day with tribulation as they discover what truly heals the suffering of their lives and of the world. Thus we have a tremendous calling to be people of hope and of love in a world dominated by fear and violence.

I once heard a Methodist bishop say in a sermon: “We should live our lives not pushed by our problems, but led by our visions.” Isaiah, we heard last week, spoke of the coming of a time when nations “shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks” and when no “nation shall lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more” (Is 2:4). This week we heard from Isaiah that the coming of the expected one will ultimately bring about a transformation even of nature, and “the wolf shall live with the lamb, the leopard shall lie down with the kid, the calf and the lion cub feed together…, the cow and the bear make friends, their young lie down together…. They shall not hurt or destroy on all my holy mountain; for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea” (Is 11:6-9). The next verse after what was read says: “On that day the root of Jesse (Jesus) shall stand as a signal to the peoples; the nations shall inquire of him, and his dwelling shall be glorious” (Is 11:10).

For your homework for this weekend (I give homework and let the good Lord do the testing): take some quiet time, light a candle if that helps, put yourself in the presence of the good Lord, pray the Lord’s prayer thoughtfully, and consider what is your vision of the future? Sit in quiet aware only of the risen Lord’s presence within and beside you. Let him touch the places of suffering and heal them. Let him touch the fears and turn them into hope. Let him assure you that you are profoundly loved and that He has a wonderful future awaiting you. Then rise up and become a compassionate, loving, hopeful disciple in the midst of a fear filled world.

Henri Nouwen puts is so well: “To wait in openness and trust is an enormously radical attitude toward life. It is choosing to hope that something is happening for us that is far beyond our own understandings. It is giving up control over our future and letting God define our life. It is living with the conviction that God molds us in love, holds us in tenderness, and moves us away from the sources of our fear.”[5] With that attitude we can indeed “delight in the fear of the Lord” looking forward to “when He shall come to judge the living and the dead” for we know “his kingdom will have no end.”

God bless you and keep you this day and always, and remember that the good Lord does indeed love you more than you can ask for or even imagine. Do you believe it?