From Loneliness to Love?

Good morning as we continue in the season of Advent, we’ll read two passages. The first is Isaiah 35. The promise of God to restore and redeem discouraged people. Jerusalem has been destroyed and the exiles are in mourning. They aren’t particularly hopeful at the moment. In fact they are feeling alone, rejected and confused. Where is God, why did he let this happen to us?  Isaiah 35 answers those questions and more.

And we’ll also read three verses from Luke 2 – our text. Here we find the ultimate answer to loneliness.

Old Testament Scripture : Isaiah 35

The desert and the parched land will be glad;

the wilderness will rejoice and blossom.

Like the crocus, ² it will burst into bloom;

it will rejoice greatly and shout for joy.

The glory of Lebanon will be given to it,

the splendor of Carmel and Sharon;

they will see the glory of the Lord,

the splendor of our God.

³     Strengthen the feeble hands,

steady the knees that give way;

⁴     say to those with fearful hearts,

“Be strong, do not fear;

your God will come,

he will come with vengeance;

with divine retribution

he will come to save you.”

⁵     Then will the eyes of the blind be opened

and the ears of the deaf unstopped.

⁶     Then will the lame leap like a deer,

and the mute tongue shout for joy.

Water will gush forth in the wilderness

and streams in the desert.

⁷     The burning sand will become a pool,

the thirsty ground bubbling springs.

In the haunts where jackals once lay,

grass and reeds and papyrus will grow.

⁸     And a highway will be there;

it will be called the Way of Holiness.

The unclean will not journey on it;

it will be for those who walk in that Way;

wicked fools will not go about on it.

⁹     No lion will be there,

nor will any ferocious beast get up on it;

they will not be found there.

But only the redeemed will walk there,

¹⁰       and the ransomed of the Lord will return.

They will enter Zion with singing;

everlasting joy will crown their heads.

Gladness and joy will overtake them,

and sorrow and sighing will flee away.

Text : Luke 2:8-11

⁸ And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. ⁹ An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. ¹⁰ But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. ¹¹ Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord.

One of the issues that Israel had to deal with in their history was learning to trust God. Another was learning to understand God’s promises. I dare say not much has changed. The Lord established his people back in Exodus. They took that as privilege and to some degree they were right. But as with most things privilege comes with a price. The price was and still is to be God’s ambassadors in the world; to be a unique group visibly dedicated to God and living in the way of holiness. This of course takes trust and God’s people failed by trusting political power and wealth - other gods. They also misunderstood God’s promise when it came to social relationships. God’s laws all pointed toward a national family where everyone had a place at the table. A community where wealth, intelligence and status didn’t define one person as better than or as worse than someone else. Just like in our congregations, the offices of Elder, Deacon and Pastor are the same in importance, they differ only in role. Elders are not better than Deacons, and so on.

Anyway, for these reasons Israel has trouble and loses their nation. But God’s promise in Isaiah 35 hold firm and the exiles return about 70 years later; they restart the kingdom and by the time we read the happenings of Luke two. Little has changed. God’s people are still divided into the nice, the good, the powerful and the lower classes. God’s people still hasn’t grasped their role as God representatives on earth. The insiders are in control and the outsiders are not. There are places at the table for only a few.

So, God sends the Christmas angels to shepherds, of all people. As we said last week, this was a group of second class citizens, for sure. In spite of being sons of Abraham, they had few rights, were considered untrustworthy and could not be witnesses in court. All violations of the very laws that Moses gave and the Pharisees enforced. They along with “the Jews” a term often used to describe the lower class or at least the regular people, represent the vast majority of humanity that works and lives on the edges of society. The very young and the very old, the homeless and welfare recipients, the mentally ill and mentally challenged, the addicts and prostitutes, anyone who doesn’t fit in nice society, anyone who doesn’t have wealth, power or the right connections.

They also represent the lonely part of ourselves, the part of us that yearns to belong. The part that wonders if we’re good enough or smart enough or have hidden our faults well enough. The part of ourselves that wonders if people will accept or at least forgive us especially when our sins have become public.

Can you relate; does that part live in you?

Loneliness and insecurity are still a problem. What’s been learned, embraced since Jesus came? Sadly, those who should know community best are so often the ones who refuse doing what’s necessary for community to happen. Why do churches struggle with unity? Why do so many people move from congregation to congregation – looking for what? Why are there so many believers in the world who have given up on the church or membership in the church? Why do our neighbours so often reject the church as a place to find belonging?

So instead of announcing the best news of all –Christ’s birth – to the rich and powerful, God’s announcement comes to the outsider, the lonely, the misfit. And that’s a beautiful thing. In wisdom, God knows that his message cannot be easily received by the proud, by those who think they have their lives all together. The message of new life in Christ so often finds fertile soil in the hearts of the humble, by those who know their lives are a mess, by the young who trust easily and with a purity that brings tears to my eyes. Tears because pride is an easy place to hide, isn’t it? So when a child says they love Jesus, or explains how they understand some spiritual truth. I realize that more education is not the answer. Sitting at the master’s feet is.

The story of Mary and Martha teach us this wonderfully. Martha has to get things organized and keep busy. Mary just wants to listen to Jesus, hear his words, but more than that, absorb them; have them become her inner motivation. And that, possibly more than anything else is the way of holiness that Isaiah describes and the angels announce.

I grant the way of Holiness can be many things, but the core of it is to walk with Christ in the Spirit to the Father’s glory. Using terms like father and son tell us immediately that in God’s reality close relationships between believers is not only possible, but normal. The Spirit who also communes with the father and son is the power, the breath, the life of communion that brings and keeps people together. We are one Body of Christ – every believer that has ever or will ever live. The Apostle Paul says that, “After all, people have never hated their own bodies, but they feed and care for them, just as Christ does the church—for we are members of his body (Eph 5:29–30).

And yet within that Body, name calling and self-righteousness often looks like one hand cutting off a finger on the other, while the rest of the body looks on. As if people who are different in perspective or maturity are necessarily wrong; as if those who sin are unworthy of forgiveness and not welcome or needed anymore. How could that be since God has welcomed and accepted all who confess their need of him?

The way of holiness is often understood as a way of perfection: doctrinal purity, moral purity and behavioral purity are good goals, but how we decide what perfection looks like is often misguided and how believers deliver judgments is so often painful and just plain wrong.

It’s amazing that believers judge outside appearances so easily and confidently. It’s amazing how easily the worst is believed of another child of God without a direct conversation. It’s amazing how easily gossip and misunderstandings are so often left uncomforted.

After a year here, it seems clear to me that there is relational brokenness in our church. Not everyone here likes or respects everyone else. Some of you have questions about other’s commitments to the way of Jesus – to holiness. Isn’t the underlying theme self-righteous uninformed judgment.

Don’t be shocked or alarmed; this is a normal church. There is no perfect church and if you come across one that looks perfect, then you’ve just found a really talented group of actors living in denial.

There is an alternative to all of that. What if we engaged the way of holiness like the shepherds did, like Mary did? What if each of us committed to sitting at Jesus’ feet to hear his voice of love for ourselves? What is we dealt with our insecurities and loneliness and doubts together; learned to trust each other and developed deep bonds of fellowship that would be a magnet to anyone who is searching for an answer to life’s deep issues?

What if we decided to spend time with those we know and those we don’t? What if we approached those we have uncertainty about and asked in humble love to hear the cries of their heart? What is we treated others as better, holier than ourselves and found out what their motives and concerns are? What if we prayed for those who we have issues with?

What if we made it a point to suspend judgment and listen?

Is it just possible that loneliness would diminish and community grow? Genuine community, the kind of community Jesus came and died to give?

Isn’t it just possible that just as the shepherds found their place in God’s heart and were restored into God’s people, so too would many, many more?