The Light that Speaks Anew: Isaiah 64: 1-9; Matthew 1: 18-25
Every year growing up in Harlan, Kentucky, they had a small craft, artisan, music festival or expo called “Mountain Masters.” It always took place right after Thanksgiving. You could go and buy homemade soaps, hand-woven baskets, things carved from coal, hear singing…and enjoy all manner of Appalachian-made goods. One of my favorites was the people who made pottery. It always seemed like so much fun to craft something out of a lump of what looked like mud and let one’s creativity run wild.
I decided once several years ago to try pottery and see how I liked it. I had failed at painting classes and photography, so this had to work, right? I was wrong. It was a colossal fail. Right as I made this beautiful something it fell apart and blobbed down into the floor. The pottery teacher shook his head and said, “You have no patience. You have to be ready to wait for something good.”
Every year at Advent I think on that lesson. Christmas is a fun and exciting time, but we can’t just jump right into the Christmas celebration. We have to live in that time of waiting and patiently looking for Christ. Advent reminds us that we must learn to wait, to learn patience with God’s plan in and for us and our world. Waiting and patience, though, are hard for us. I read an article that said, “Never pray for patience unless you want it tested.” They added that praying for patience was like putting a “kick me” sign on your back.
And yet, Advent is specifically about waiting for God’s plan to be enacted, and it reminds us to wait patiently for Jesus’s return in glory, or as Isaiah puts it, “Oh that you would burst from the heavens and come down!” I think 2020 has tested all of our collective ability to wait for Jesus to come back. I’m sure we’ve all had our moments of shouting to the sky, “Any moment now!” But waiting is important because it gives God’s plan time to work, and grow, and create a miracle.
Joseph had to play a tough waiting game. I am sure he was eager to marry Mary, his fiancé. There was excitement, hope, and thoughts of the future. Something derailed that plan, though. Mary was pregnant. We can assume from the scripture here that Joseph did not believe the whole story Mary told. The law provided that Joseph could publicly expose, humiliate, and destroy her. Joseph, though, was merciful and compassionate. He decided instead to quietly break the engagement and spare her the scorn. But God came in a dream to Joseph and told him to wait.
Joseph had to wait on his rash actions of putting her away. He had to wait on the marriage. He had to wait on intimacy with his wife. God’s plan had Joseph in a waiting pattern. It is never easy to wait for God to mold and make something new. So, the question becomes to us, then, how do we wait?
This is one of those few areas where the Bible isn’t particularly helpful in the how. We are told to do it, but not how to do it. A few verses are a bit more helpful than others. Psalm 27:14 says, “Wait for the Lord; be strong, and let your heart take courage, wait for the Lord.” Psalm 37:7 adds to that we should be still and not fret. Psalm 62:5 says to wait in silence within your soul. And the New Testament usually couches the idea of waiting and patience in terms of endurance and growth. There are a few snippets of advice, but nothing concrete. Those snippets say: silence, stillness, and courage.
We see Joseph willing to wait in patience after he hears God’s word speaking. Just like us waiting for Christ’s return, Joseph had to wait for that first coming before he could truly take Mary as his wife. Like her, he had to wait through the funny looks, the whispered concerns, and their society’s coldness.
Jesus also gives the example of these three things: silence, stillness, and courage. He faced the cross in silence, never defending or arguing with his accusers. Isaiah reminds us that as a sheep led away is silent, he “opened not his mouth.” He faced the cross with stillness not fighting, rising up, or having the angels snatch him from the suffering. The Gospels remind us that he told Peter to lay down his sword. And he faced the cross, for us, with courage. Though he had a moment of overwhelming fear and dread in the garden, ultimately, Christ bore the cross with unmatchable strength and courage.
Christ’s example of waiting and doing is important because we see the coming power of Christ even in Joseph’s dream. The angels said to him, “You are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” Jesus, or in Hebrew, Yeshua, was a fairly common name in Jesus’s day. It is translated as “to deliver” or “to rescue.” In this case, it is loosely translated as “God’s salvation.” In the very name of Jesus, we see the power, the work, and the hope we are waiting for: God’s salvation, when God would deliver us from the power and the pain of sin and call us God’s very own—the children of God.
Isaiah speaks to this miraculous work. Verse 5 says, “We are constant sinners; how can people like us be saved?” But Isaiah goes on to say we are the clay and God is the potter who forms us with the very power in God’s hand. That light of God’s molding and refining will work anew in us. Yes, God will shine a renewed light form us even in a pandemic. Yes, God will shine a renewed light from us even when we are blue at the holidays. Yes, God will shine a renewed light from us even when irritatingly dumb political ads infest our televisions, computers, and newspapers. Yes, God’s light shines anew in us, but we must start at the beginning—Advent—waiting for Christ to come and bring that light to us.
Maybe Advent reminds me a little of our family’s Christmas fruitcakes. You see they, too, require waiting. The cake is baked in November, around Thanksgiving, then wrapped and soaked with apple juice, [cough, cough—or brandy—cough, cough] until Christmas when it’s ready to eat. If you jump to the end process, you will have a dry and nasty cake that is practically inedible. Likewise, if you take up pottery making and don’t take the time to refine and sculpt your creation well, you will end up with a lump of junk.
A Christian who does not embrace waiting for Christ to come and work will either jump into a mess or be swallowed up by the darkness around us. Be still and know God. Be silent and let God’s Word be the meditation of your heart. Take heart and take courage, for Christ is still at work, and God is still the potter who molds and makes us stronger and more attuned to God’s will every day. So wait for the Lord, be strong, and let your heart take courage, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.
Worship Video: https://www.facebook.com/fccmacon/videos/812738219289518