; 4 s . 4 i 4 4 \ o aa 44 Vi 4

How can there be hope? What source of comfort is there for a

a

person who intelligently observes and contemplates the current onrush olf
—— —————— ———_

history? In the past several months history has egain issued ominous

threats to mankind. Castro in Cuba, Red China invading India, Berliners
escaping over and @ver tightening wall of oppression. Isn't the

really intelligent stance one of naked realism, no holds parnea?/ Isn't

—

the only live option for men today to accept the rotten hand history

has dealt: to be a realist, which of course means to be a pessimist?

; ; “F
Comfort! Hopes Whee" we ask.
We are not unique in our asking of these questions, / utetory flows on;

civilizations rise and fall; empires come and ago.| But strangely the

~~

questions we ask today, have been asked pérore| specivically 1 refer

————

to @ group of several thousand Hebrews, cantured and dragged off to

Babylon some 500 years beffore the birth of christ. | Israel had involved

—

itself in some questionable political maneuvers. The prophets had warned

that Israel was unfaithful to their covenant with God; and that judgement

was surely in the near future. / The inevitable occured. The mighty forces

of the Babylonian empire invaded Judah and were terribly and quickly

victortous. | To tngure that Israel should never rise again, the Babylon-

ians took the cream of the crop back to Babylon f Lawyers, politicians,

——,

doctors, priest, leaders from all walks of life were exiled hundreds of
—_—_—

miles from their home and forced to live ina foreign and nagan culture.

For seventy years the exiles remained in Babylon. {| Those who_ had

te

lived in Jerusalem, who still remembered the temple worship, were

—$——

getting old and dying oft. | A new generation had been born; a generation

—

i)

ro

of Israelites who had never set “oat on the oromised ane. | tT WAS @
5 Sie

eritical situation; Israel was deterrorating both eulturally and
en] *

ee

religiously. }/ The younger neonle with ro first hmd exnerience with the

Hebraic tradition were easily converted to the Babylonian way of life,

—_

The Israelites remembered God's promise to Abfaham: that his

Ete el

~ rt ty

descendants should maltinly and he like the sands of the gcean, / They

knew the words "I will be your God and vou shall be my peonle," } They

knew that Tsrael was the chosen of the Lord: his children sna seryants,

ee —__

Théir history was divine history; the destiny a divintely ordained

destiny. / But now these remembrances only added pain to grie?®, What-

ever falth and hope micht|ell them. they were conPronted with the harsh

1

faets or hletory. frnetr world had fallento nieecec, [Facts were facts,
I sreel,as 4 peonle,was in grove dange of beings stepped dead; of
} Z — ania

eeising, Tovever, fo @xist. This wee a neonle who knaw real Raenaipr:

i ee

9 neonle withont comfort of hone,

To this dispsyraping situation, and these desnatrine neoanle a voles

nalled out, |the man who wrote the words of our sepipture lesson this

——)

morning besan his messass with a word of comort. / Binlient vreracaroh

has determined that the author of the matorial on Isaish 40-55 rouls

rot have been the nrophet Tsaiah himeelf./ The writer reomings obscurs,

:

and it seems as I? he wanted it that way. Unlike the other nronhets ha
ue [on We dre left

with the unifentified writings of nerhans the most sensitive, most

by

hime

rovely uses the pronoun I, he tells nothing »

D

profount pirter in all of the old Testament.f This mar wes 2 perPodt

fee . nes
synthesis of noet and prophet, His nroess t2 unemaled in sloqiance hy
aac

~_.

any Writes of has time, Hie theologic?l insicht is mature fan heyond

the mentality of the time. | 1s words are perhaps the most important

in the 0.T. Some have said, and rightly sop that the man who wrote the
a

15 chapters in the middle of the book of Isaiah was the turest

—___

prophet of Jesus Christ among 211 the prophets.

i

His message is simple, It is revaled in his first words*comfort, com-
Z ae, F] _—_——

fort, my people, says your goa. [8 better translation of the Hebrew

would be "Be comforted, Be comforted," This is the content of the
— ey =

—

message. He was not a naive ontimist: he didn't attemot to deny the

—

had

reality of Israel's predicament. | Things were bad, Israel had
peta & pie aes ej

nard -
a bad time of it; and indeed found survival threatneed, / 0 yet the

al if
prophet had the audacity to say Be comforted. ['t Israelites in

——______.

ee)

Babylon had forgotten there was a God. They mouthed the old ritualistic

phrases; they told the old stories, they worshipped when they were able.

plosives
eet F

But theme Were just on the surface; perhaps fSen havits, What they eeally
believed, on the inside, was a different story. _ Their despair shows

that they realyy_didn't mean it when they said("we believe in the one

God Almighty, the Lord of creation." They, like many people after them

believed in God with their mouths, but lived as if he didn't exist.

The p

, Peseege

Ophet's advise to this pathetic bunch is to the point-("Reno14 your
His sole purpose, in the-eteven—vesses I read this morning and

God,"

xenon FS

throughout his wrtings is to remind the downhearted that there is a God! -—

7 ser - ange
eee
and that God is in the center of the stage as he always has been. | Tt ia

A ,

God who created the world, who holds the nations in his hands. The prophet m
ee OO

ask the question, (who has measured the waters in the hollow of his

lirector of history. There is no need for erying

—— -

¢

hand?" ; God is the

and despair. God is God--Behold him!

4,

Two thousand and five hundzed years later we find ourselves in a

_—

tite

very similar situation to that of the Hebrew exttes. | To be sure our

problems today are infinitely more confusing and complex: but basicalfy

a

they are still the matter of Survival; the question of history's direction
— oo a — —

{mere are we going?) and underlying this the deeper question of what
co

meaning is there to this vatch work quilt of onrushing events that is
Pease iced =

contemporary history,
Se eee

Hovering over our heads, in every minutes of every day is the
Ti

same hopeless situétion--of sitting by helplessly while nonexistence

—.

creeps up on us. | The only difference is one of magnitude / 2500 yers ago it

Qu

t is su

fee

was amatter of slow death for one particular nation, Today en

|

death for eferyone. This threat is undeflireable; to ignore it is to

close one's eyes and mind to the blunt and terrible truth.

— phates

We must also face the threat of financial Seath,. I would estimate

that there are not too many persons here today who are certain of their

a)
joe
oo

nancial status ten years from now./ Across the country men are

a

laid off by the thousands and hundreds of ieaasaade. / Those now working
—— ee Jin

must live under the constant threat that the next big move by the

———, _—

company may cost them their joo, This is a very real threat--not to

be denied nor ignored ; for here in the wealthiest country in the world,
er t meet

a country where a man can make his own niche in life by his own abilities

and initiative, good men are turning into vegetables, having been

ee

beatae down by the futile attempt to find a Jov. / this is not a direct

threat to life--but in a very resl sense it is a threat to existence;
V—_—_ ~~

a threat to the meaning and good ness of life,

Of course we all face the threat of death in a hundred ways each day.
Sn a

Cancer, automobile accidents, sitdden death lurks around every corner if
we realy want to be truthful about it. sail

ys

All our magnificent achievements in the field of science become

like hollow, tiny noises--when we consider that never have we been
— ‘sala sais A inte

able to discover a way to cure our culture of the sickness that produces

slums , alcholism, and juvenile ZeLingunecy. [ Modern technology allows

us to be in contact with people of every nation of the world; but these
=———— ed

feats of communication technology are rendered meaningless by the

| aaa

fact that we've never yet learned to live veacefully with one another,

Like the Hebrews,history hadveéalt us a rotten hand. [we are not

—_j}

God's chosen; but we are a nation that has tried to live peacefully]

we have given of our wealth and our lives that the world might be
————— ee te

peaceful. | We have suffered, three times in the past 35 years to rid

—

cians

the world of festering, demonic totalatariansism and what has been

our reward? In the place of Prussian Militarism came Nazisim; and in
_— = eel ¢ —

the place of Foecism has come Communism. | History has slapped

us xx harshly in the face, numerable times, /Perhaps the best thing

i

to do is to give up, and to wallow_in despair and pessimism,

Man seems just as helpless today as he did to the Israelites. Man

is still caught in the powerful jaws of a cynical and cruel fate--

———

that mocks his efforts, that allows history to flow on competely

disregarding his hopes and dreams. | a1fred_Lors T nnyson expressed it
in a memorable Line-{"Hiowever we brave it out, we men are a little
breed." |

Where do we stand in this matte? Do we agree that history has no

————_—_————__

meaning, no direction; that if there is a God he is quite ineefective
Si rate es —————

— ————

when it comes to the flow of his tory? | A good spokesmen for this view
ig Emil Zola, a freach novelist. He likens human history to a

railroad train, drawn by a locomotive whose driver has been killed,

Gi.

dashing at headlong snmped into midnight. | vone train is the world; we are
=—— Ese anomie

the freight 's fate is the track; death is the darkness; God is the

engineer--who is aaa." | Most people would find this brutal pessimism

(eee

distasteful--but isn't this precisely the way most of us talk, and act

and Liye? We believe in God--but when it comes to the immense power

«

conflicts of history--he just doesn't seem up to the task.

The great American Philosopher Henry Mames took a more comfortable

but no less pessimistic vious | James believed in God--but about the only

thing God could do was lend sme divine assistance to the efforts of

spherical

good men. J wren it came to believing a God who is the Lord and Master,

a ee

(even of history,}/James backed aown. | It deesn't take much analytical

power to ascertain that modern mentality lies somewhere between these
[ ———— a

When all the barriers are down, when we really tell the truth,

two,

— —— "

wouldn't a great many of us have to sadly shake our heads in —

Wouldn't we have to admit--that we simply don't believe that God/’s will

* nn

is operative in human history® Don't many of us believe in a God

a __ -

that doesn't do a thing? Aren't many of us at heart, forborn and

1 im. ——————n

hopeless pessimists?

Our age has been called the age of Anxiety. Those who study us
SS ———

tell us that the source of anxiety is that we now live in a world that
: ee

has no room for hope. Most of us can live with it; most of us can put

on a facade of cheerfulness, a veneer of optimism--but all of' us, under -
;

?

neath, are torn by the drastic assumption that we are caught; that God

is ineffective, that there is no meaning to ite { The Freanch &£xis-

ec

tentialitd@, the late Albert C_mus, an outspoken discipleg of this

view, once said or most courageous thing a man can do is to emmit

ee to it - .

suiciae.") If his assumptions are true; if Emil Zola, and Henry Mames

-
t 4

zng all those who think history is hurtling, unguided, towards nothingness
prqnt a, wien ——
are tase --then indeed the only solution is to end this despair and

—

anxiety and courageously emmit suicide,
“ =
What is there in the world today to combat and refute this

oessimism> Not very much, admittedly. But there is one institution
ey ae

that ought to be the citadel of hilarious optimism--the Church of

Jesus Christ!

——

It is the testimony of Christianity that there is a goa ff a creator

and Father God who does guide his creation. Men may warp history

es

temporarilly; nation may rise up against nation, but this does not
ia ee F =~.

mean God has abdicated from his throne. f on what grounds do we make

¥

these outlandish claimed If we hgve no serious reason to make these
affirmations of hope we are guilty of v&en and ignorant optisim,

The prophet urged the downhearted Israelites to be contorted. / te
—— =

urged them to Behold their God. He urged that they spread the word
(‘cet you pt to a high mountain--say to the cities of Judah--Behold you
Goa." ) re set out in beautiful poertry the omnipotence BAMNAReSd and
poner of coaf he stated that the Lord God could be compared to no man
and no thing. { He was the power behind and above all powers--He was God
and ultimately his will would be victorious. | The ee words ere

shortly proven as Cyrus the Great, in Pact, did defeat Babylon and allow
" ihe t

Israel to return and to live in relative freedom,

room and justification_for comfort and hone: The Grounds are specifically
700m io See
e

1

theevent that we belebrate on Dec. 25 | the Birth of Jesus Christ./ In

qlt
that small and undramatic event of birth sw pessimism, all despair

a

is utterly shattered; for in the Bethlehem stable God has acted. He

—-.

8.

has shown th at he does care about mankind. | In the smallest--9and yet
aetna

most profound of ways--the Infinite and Eternal Godheag@ has invaded the
pda Mae Si eee

I é
realm of. human history, the realm of human affairs. | The birth of

Jesus Christ is the historical event on which we base our hove. | This
is not an abandoned world, at the hands of fate--it is a world created
7 ‘ieee neater woo ——

good; loved and nijrtured by the creator and visited by him in his

only Son Jesus Christ.

Optimism has been nairvely interpreted by some

a
a
Lote
th
ey
c
3
oy
Ry)
at
es

men. There are those who have found pseudo comfort in denying that evil

does exist--by denying that antyhing is weeng with the human situation,
aa
But remember that the prophet wasn't guilty of this. He took into account
[tiie ail ee

the perfect wretchedness of the Hebrews--but with confidence he could
ee een

still say "Be comforted."

A scotch poet has said\ "Religion is born when we accept the ultimate

fab]

Hy

rustration of mene human effort, and at the same time realize the
strength which comes frm union with Supra human reatity.") This is the

Christmas message to a sick and despairing world. | Whew hisotry

————$ $$

flows over top of us, casting aside our feeble efforts; when

———

Pessimism seems the only alternative--we must look to a ma ngs new born

baby--and hear the words ringing like be@ls--RBehold your God!
Human strife is a fact, men are dying--futily and fruitlessly today; we

are al] caught daily in situations that don't make sense; we live under
—————__—_— —

a sky filled with fallout,resultant from man's honing pp his ability

adie

co kill and destroy. / But above it all is a star--9 estar. whose pure
Seamed . "2

ee — nen

bright light means the Lord has come; a star which eries out--Behold