The Hope of Christmas Isaiah 60: 1-7 December 20, 1964

Things could hardly have been more dismal for Judah. ‘|, The People of God had been

divided into two separate 2 states, Jsrael aaito the North and Judah to the South. | Israel

had fallen and for years the tiny Kingdom of Judah , in the midst of a great international
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power struggle was all that remained of the chosen nation of the tora, | At the mercy of
Bor Ahnen Judek extered
a number of powerful military machines, Judah stood alone. ‘Thesstudabtesturscame, An *"
Qucd
alliance with Egypt, incurred the wrath of “abylon; the a armies swooped down

upon the helpless state, and with relative eased crushed its defences and leveled the

city of Jerusalem. | But again, the Jews had survived #ilitary conquest in the past. A

temporary set-back could hardly interrupt the divinley ordained héstory of God's own

nation, | The Babylonians, however, had other thoughts, |. The thorn of Judah had eri eee

where otet hed fa+ a re defts ~ed
long enought. | This time there would be nothing left: the Bal ylonians would see that the p/
wuld be exterwiucted ~ Mere Jae, Wis ‘ohonters
Jews, as a nation and as a race, were—extinct. A diabolical scheme_ evolved, me sure
Judah's

you know the story. The conquerers carried off to Babylon, the cream of ksxaetkim culture.
: :

Lawyers, Doctors, Priests, Artisans, everyone of stature was removed and relocated in

Babylon in exite.| It was a good plan.| The forces of cultural assimilation would be
7 T

irrestistable, and in a generation or two the Jews would be completely absorbed: udah
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would be gone forever.
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The years passed and the Babylonian strategy was paying dividends. | ‘ne Prophet
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Jeremiah had advised the exéles to settle down in Babylon i make the best of the unfortunate

situation, [as time passed a new generation rose up, a generation tak of Jews that had hever

Sef foot on the promised land; a genetation that had never ad in the Temple: a

generation that soon would have ne reason, no motive for retaining its identity as the

people of God, [' he nation, the culture, the tradition of Israel were perched on the edge

of extinction.
Old Tastemeny Leseon

This is the dismal historical background to our sertptire reading this morning.

Against the harsh reality of the Situation, the opening worab: (arise, Shine, for your

light has come" sound pathetically naive.| The man who wrote these words was in Jerusalem:

in all probability, a yeung man who had grown up after the tragic exile,

Where in the world did he find the rationale to advise a nation about to be annihilated

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to Arise and Shine?{What Light could he possibly mean? | 1¢| ever there was a time of
utter and absolute darkness, this was it! |
And yet, the whole of this man's writing, from chapter 40 to the end of the book,

is undergirded by a strong hope in the future. \His introductory words in Khapter 40:

\°Be comgorted, be comforted, my people, says your Goa") set the temper, and it is one of
| —_—__

thorough-going hope and optimism. | He speaks confidently of a return; a remnant of the

faithful returning to Jerusalem; he speaks of God's purpose at work in history —— even the

tragic present history: he interprets the suffering as Judah's service to God. \Actually

Ee

he is a realist: our scripture reading revealed his assessment of the present: ("For behold,

darkness shalll cover the earth, and thick darkness the peoples." In metaphor, he likened

Judah to a woman, lying prostrate in the dirt.-A woman viglated, oppressed, widowed -
—-_ —

this is no nowiSnenrtaltinh | Ant to this woman he addresses jhis stirring words:( “arise,

Shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord |has risen upon you. Lift up

your eyes and see, they atl gather together, they come toy you, your sons and goughters.’)

—

\ —s In the @ace of indispuaable pessinter, here was a man who had Hope.| And why?/ Simply \
P — —/

because he believed in God: a God who was faithful: A God who was truly God in that he

was the Lord of wasz history. \No matter what happened; no matter the present condition,

God was still in control. | This is why the author could bring optimism and hope to a

beleaguered nation of exiles; and it is pre cisely this trust in a faithful God who picks

up the shattered pieces of history and fits them together again for his own purposes

that aecounts for the existence of ‘srael today. |

———-~—_—

On this fourth Sunday of Advent | would like to suggest that the birth of Jesus

C, rést was is the final testimony to the validity of the briter's hope. Of all the meanings

men¢# and cultures have given the nativity, it is this one| of hope and optimism that |

want to héld up before you this morning.| Further | want te suggest that humanity, and that

includes you and me, needs today, December 20, 1964, that hope in the future as it has

never needed if before.

The exiled Mews in Babylon had no monopoly on disper and pessimism. | It is in the air

today.|Dispair and anxiety because of the hand history has dealt us hang like a pall over

all of life. |! beleive that many people, many of us, have abandoned the giddy optimism

Pal
that is part and parcel of our faith. | the future looks so bad that we refuse to let it
=_-T
interupt our fettish with the present. On the surface It appears that we despair for
-_ OE ]

good reason. |

a

,
in Indiana. | Included with the forms and applications was an Interesting little document

printed by the office of Civil Defence and the Bureau of Public Roads. |! assume all of

you received it also. Its title is (Hi ghway Signs for Survival") fit informed me that / will
the event '

need to know a few highway signs in gaze of a nati onal emergency.| Then, in case | didn't

understand the nature of this “national emergency" the document cryptically informed me
, TE
that\"As soon as possible after a nuclear attack, the following ba&ck and white road signs
\

will be sxecteacr was baothered a bit by the finality of this\"AS soon as"} it would be
<n :

Fas

a little more comfortable to read in case of", at least there would be sqme possibiltiy

that it wasn't going to happen. |

Now lest | incur the wrath of someone who thikks that our salvation lies in the hands
L ey | --=

of this type of thing, let me say [| am not opposed to Civil || Defence per se. | But }t do

question the validity of thie type of exercise. {I am not hesitant to hazard the guess that

most of you didn't read the inclosure, and if you did,you threw it onay. | Assuming | did

file it at hand, and a nuclear attack did eccur, and | was able to evacuate, and | remebered

having received the pamplet in December of 1964, \I am sure i would be unable to find it.

I've yieldedd to the te mptation to have a little fun with this docutent. | Now |

presemt it as exhibit A to prove the existence of a sickness in our midst called d¥fspair

or pessimism or hop lessness.| What really bothers me about this, and Civil Defence in
oe
general ° finality and confidence with which its devotees describe the holocaust around the

corner If they were taken seriously we could be nothing other than absolute pseeimists,
patie

filing away our escape instructions while digging our fall-out shlters. }! see in this

document another chronicle of anxiety, an illustration of a mentality that pervades the

very air we breathe.

Scholars, philosophers, poets, novelists too have messured § the _Signs of the times. And

they too have badgered us with a Phi losophy of déspatr. | Fhe

literary and artistic hall. mark
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of our age is a school of meaninglessness.\ Under the guise of realism, men of letters cry

that God is dead,

that life is absurd, that existence has ne

Emil Zola, some years ago likened human history to a train h

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The track is fate, the freight is humanity, the engineer is God, who is dead,

meaning; that man has no hope.

urtling through the dark.

If Zola

was right, we can alter the metaphor and say that around the |nexf turn the bridge is our—

the inevitable World War III.

Contemporary hisébry is not very encouraging.) It seems that the best efforts of homorable

men today are covevred over by violence and cynicism.

Ourevery act is misi

scorned for doing what we know is right.

East to the Congo to NATO. \ Instead of being loved as defender

are strewn with ugly slogans and our libraries burned. eaxene

evehts in the light of past willie any ray of hope is even more remote

f

reading 4 current survey of history entitled \"The Rise of ‘th

is mexexyxzhexgskaxx simply an account of wars mt the periodg

when looking at the totality of the human story, to realize

) As a |nati on we find ourselves
interpreted ~ from the Far
Ss of the peace, our embassies

If we look at contemporary

I've just begun

| West") and if doesn't take long,

hat by and large human history

between wars when men ce

recupperated and prepared to have at it again. | Arnold Toynbee, discussing possible progress

in civilization céncluded that (there is no reason to expect

human nature."/ that is to say, mankind has become knowledgeab
disposition
peepxagexaggy toward war and destruction is no different today

any change in unredeemed

le and sophisticated: but his

than it ever was.

The historical anxiety of our day is complemented by a mpral dispair. [tn our day we have

seen the crumbling of the a ethic. | The legalistic view

of religéén and morality molded

into our culdite by the Puritains has given way.| The walls have come fumbling down and we have

Voune tec le |
put nothing ‘up in thier ptace.| Aeaelages today live in a a vacumm we have created:

mature academically to buy the aid’

world., | What they see is a culture that is ABEL Xa amoral:

*

not =) simply amoral,
Sok

too

don't smoke don't dance" ethic, they look to the adult

\
wi thout

any commonly accepted standard of morality. \And so our dispair at our r historical plight is

Increased by a very real abd personal dispair, that right is no longer right, and wrong is

no fonger wrong.

Along with these two, we must cope with the natural déspair that is inherent with

man, — the dispair of death. | We all fear death, we all 2 to make some sense out of life,

in light of its inevitable termination. But answers are not easy.| Science and technology has

given us the ability to totich the moon, buf not to extend life, or exon cating it

significantly. lA ypung man dies, ane we find ourselves with a new sense of our own frailty.
, ~~ aamneed little

With Alfren Lord Tennyson we agree: \"However we brave it out, we men are a smmrk —

The Jews.-iIn Babylon had good reason to déspair. \But peee we take a long and honest look

at our own situation, we find ourselves running a close seven, | Real ity appears too brutal

to affo rd us the luxury of hope and optimism. | And so we do one of two things: we can fake

|

one of the easily accessible escape routes away from reality: alcoholism, cartes types

of religion, the gimmick of Positive Thinking: anything to get us away from the futility

of the present.| Or perhaps we try to be realists, looking squarely into the face of the pres
situation, finding no room for hope, and becoming — a is a pessimistic. |

There is however, a third option: | the option ‘eine’ in "Arise, Shine, for your light

has come."| here is the option of confident hope. \!t is not a naive sentimental ism that

hope tonke reality In the face, however

harsh, however distatseful, and comes away smi ling. | For jthis option sees moret than immedi <

histpry: like the prophet of old this option looks at the present aL Eset) Gs aan anes

——EE ee

whatever it is, and through It and in if and over it sees the hand of God. | There is nothing

héstory can do to dull the optimism of this Kamzm option, for it is based on a faith in a &
that ° Se Le
who Is Lord of latory) There is nothing in life that can quash ‘trrert hape this hope, for it

is based on the faith that God can take all the exigencies of life and weave them together

in an orderly pattern.

And where do we find justification for such hope/? Where is the proof?| The justificati

the proof, is none other than the humble event we cet eprate this Friday., We have a third

option, we can afford to be confident because Jesus Christ was born. | The prophet held out

iinivaitaati —————

a glimmer of hope to the captives because he, and they, believed ina God who could and

ee ree ee

would sse the human situation for his own purposes. / 'They had faith in an "Almighty" God

In Bethlehem of judea we have seen that God act, we have heard him speak a word so eloquent

tha even the forces of history have been unable to drown ie out.

The Hebrews believed that God was love.| We have seen — love in the coming of

——— ———

Jesus Christ into the word. The Hebrews believed that God was present in life, in history,

in their culigre. | But we have seen God invade the realm il life in the birth of a

baby. The Hebrews belleved that God was the Lord, even of death ‘\But we we have seen that

Lordship in the miracle of the Resurrection, and the continuing presenée of the Holy

Spirit in the Church.

— —

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The birth of Jesus Chris t means many things to many men. | But over and above al! else,

it means that God cares about the for 1d: \ that his lowe is infinite:\ that his hand is the

!
strongest in History.

a

if we live in the darkness of despair, it is because 7 have failed to see the light

God has shone into our existence/ | If we live without hope, if is because we have never

really comprehended what it means to say —(" the Lord has come".

—

To the exiles, 500 years before Christ, the prophet cl "Arise, Shine, for your

light has com e: (because it has, we can afford to Arise and Shine, to have hope and confi-
anal Ae Ma [—
a rr that light shines over the darkness, the light of a star, announcing

that Jesus Christ was born. Amen