Advent 1 2011 Immanuel Lutheran Church, Hamilton, Ohio November 27, 2011 Pastor Kevin Jud Isaiah 64:1-9, 1 Corinthians 1:3-9, Mark 11:1-10 When the children of Israel are in captivity in Egypt they cry out to the Lord for deliverance. The Lord sends Moses who leads them out of Egypt through the parted waters of the Red Sea and then those waters flow back behind them drowning Pharaoh s army. Salvation and destruction. The children of Israel are again in great trouble in the time of Isaiah the prophet. The northern kingdom of Israel has been conquered by the Assyrians and those 10 tribes have been sent off into exile never to return. The southern kingdom of Judah is not in much better shape and is on its way to being conquered by the Babylonians. In the anticipated despair of captivity the people cry out to God. With the sense that they have been abandoned, the children of Israel look for God to break into the world from heaven and bring deliverance to His people. Isaiah 64:1 (ESV) 1 Oh that you would rend the heavens and come down, that the mountains might quake at your presence Lord, we are in trouble here. Things are not going well. Evil is celebrated and good is trampled down. We are surrounded by those that want to destroy us. People have turned from the You, the true God, and worship false Gods. Lord, tear open the skies and make your presence known so even the mountains will shake at the glory of your presence. Isaiah 64:2 (ESV) 2 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!
Lord, let your unrestrained glory blaze like a fire that all people would know you are the true God. Isaiah 64:3 (ESV) 3 When you did awesome things that we did not look for, you came down, the mountains quaked at your presence. When the Law was delivered to Moses on Mt. Sinai the mountains and the people trembled at the Lord s presence. Isaiah 64:4 (ESV) 4 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. St. Paul quotes this in 1 Cor. The wonders of the Lord God are beyond our comprehension. What The Lord has done in the Old Testament times with the Exodus from Egypt and the entry into the Promised Land is amazing. And yet, that is dwarfed by what God the Father has in store for the world in the incarnation of His son Jesus. God indeed breaks into the world to save his people from their sins. In the face of the glory of God the prophet does what we all must do when confronted by God s holiness. Isaiah acknowledges his sin and the sin of the people. Isaiah 64:5 (ESV) 5 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? The Lord greets and blesses the one who continues in the ways of righteousness, but is there anyone? We are all sinners. We have been sinners a long time. Is there any hope?
Isaiah 64:6 (ESV) 6 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. What hope is there for us? We are all polluted with sin. Our best deeds are like filthy, stinking rags. That is our best. We have nothing to offer to the Lord; we are like dried up leaves blown away by the wind. Because of our sin we deserve God s wrath. Isaiah 64:7 (ESV) 7 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. In the face of God s glory and holiness it is time to make confession for your sins. In this season of Advent, as you celebrate Jesus coming as a baby in Bethlehem and look forward to His return in glory, it is time to come before God on your knees and repent and turn from your self-centeredness and return to Lord your God. But by yourself you do not come to God; you melt away in your sins like a handful of sawdust on a windy day; blown into meaninglessness. Ah, but you are not alone. In your confession, in your repentance you acknowledge that the Lord is God. God is God and you are not. Isaiah 64:8 (ESV) 8 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. You are our Father. You created us, we are formed by you. You are indeed God Almighty.
By sinning we pursue other Gods. We make our own Gods, our own idols. We turn money into a god. Sex into a god. Self into a god. In our sin we build for ourselves golden calves to which we give homage and service with our wealth. In our repentance we confess the one true God; Father, Son and Holy Spirit. We recognize that we have nothing to offer God. We are so tainted with sin that even our righteous acts are polluted rags. God is God and I am not. Isaiah 64:9 (ESV) 9 Be not so terribly angry, O LORD, and remember not iniquity forever. Behold, please look, we are all your people. 1 We are God s people. We are the people of his pasture and the sheep of his hand. Lord, though we deserve your punishment now and in eternity Lord we beg of you to relent from your anger. And indeed God has relented from his anger. In His great love, God the Father sent His son Jesus to take on human flesh as a baby born in Bethlehem to the Virgin Mary. He grew to live the perfect life and die the sacrificial death so that we are all freed from our sin. Washed in the blood of Jesus we are made the people of God. Indeed out of love for His people God relented from His anger. In Jesus we see the depth of God s love. In Jesus destruction on the cross at Calvary we see the salvation for all people. The Lord wants no one to be lost. And while we pray for all people to be saved we also pray for an end to evil. We continue to look for God to rend the heavens and come down on the last day for that will be the day of the destruction of evil and the rescue of His people. 1 The Holy Bible : English Standard Version. Wheaton : Standard Bible Society, 2001
Like the waters of the Red Sea that brought both salvation and damnation, so too will the last day be a day of both rescue and destruction. We look for that last day; the day there will be no more evil. Knowing the power of God s love we confess our sins and cling to the cross of Jesus. He is our God. He is our hope. Come, Lord Jesus. Amen.