Immanuel [Advent 2B - Isaiah 40:1-11]
The Rev. Jeremiah Williamson
Isaiah 40:1-11
Immanuel
The first word broke the silence, a silence that had lingered
for far too long. It had been a haunting
silence, a painful silence, a silence heavy with lament.
That silence, it lives between the end of the 39th chapter of Isaiah and the first word of chapter 40. For over a century the prophet went silent. There were no words. Somehow more than 150 years of silence abides in the little white space of your Bible that separates the two prophetic oracles.
While the nation waited a century and a half to hear a word
from God, a lot happened. The Babylonian
empire rose to power and Jerusalem fell into ruin. The Davidic dynasty died. The Temple was reduced to rubble. And the people were carried away into exile and
deposited by the rivers of Babylon. And all
the while the silence, that persistent, deafening silence.
The people met the silence with tears and with anguish, with
heartache and lament. And longing, such
deep, deep longing. They filled a book
with their pain, a book called Lamentations, as they waited for a word.
The poetry was what they offered their silent God: Judah has
gone into exile with suffering…she has been overtaken in the midst of her
distress. She weeps bitterly in the
night, with tears on her cheeks; among all her lovers she has no one to comfort
her. / [H]er downfall was appalling, with none to comfort her. / Zion stretched
out her hands, but there is no one to comfort her. / They heard how I was
groaning, with no one to comfort me.
They needed to know that there was someone out there who
could speak to their pain, who could make it come untrue. And God was silent, for so, so long. Silent but still with them; silent but close
enough to hear their prayers. The
heavens paused but God was listening. And
I know that because the word that broke the silence was the very word they
needed to hear; it was the answer to their desperate prayers: comfort, o
comfort my people.
In any other mouth “comfort” is just word. But in the mouth of the Creator it is a
destiny. God is speaking to their deepest
longing. God is making their pain a
memory and their hopes come true.
To a people living in the depths of despair hope is a
miracle. To a people languishing in
exile the promise of home is a miracle.
To a people haunted by the silence of Heaven to feel again the breath of
God is a miracle. The Gospel is a
miracle because it does not only speak about
salvation, it writes salvation into our story.
The Gospel message today is so simple. God did not give the prophet a theological
treatise. People in pain do not need an
abundance of words. The good news was
packaged in a single word, a word so powerful that it changes everything:
Immanuel. Here is your God! Your God is here. Your God is with you.
Walter Brueggemann says, “Certainly the Babylonians, in their
arrogance, construed a world without [God].
Equally certain, the exiles in their despair construed a world without [God]. Now both imperial arrogance and exilic
despair are countered. [God] is present,
powerful, active; [God’s] presence changes everything.”[1]
God’s presence changes everything. You are not alone. You are never alone. This is the Gospel, the very Gospel that was
packaged in a single word, and on Christmas, in a single body. The Gospel that John borrowed from Isaiah,
that matches our Advent longing: Immanuel.
You are not forgotten. You are
not alone in your despair. You are not
alone in your pain. You are not alone in
your anxiety or your heartbreak or your doubt.
When the heavens are silent and when the nations rage, God is with
you.
And it is the truth even when you cannot believe it. It is the truth when you cannot see it. It is the truth when you cannot hear it. Silence is not absence; it never was.
After such a long silence, the message of comfort that found
a people living in despair was surprisingly brief. But for those who mourn in lonely exile it is
the only word that becomes a home. For
the displaced and the dislocated, for those short on hope and heavy with sighing,
for those who sit alone below the silent heavens, there is only one word that
sounds like salvation. And it is our Good
News, the promise of Advent, the name of our Christ: Immanuel. Here is your God. Your God is here. Your God is with you.
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