Isaiah 64:1-9.                      God, come and help us out!!                      30/11/14

 {1)  Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down, that the mountains would tremble before you! {2} As when fire sets twigs ablaze and causes water to boil, come down to make your name known to your enemies and cause the nations to quake before you! {3} For when you did awesome things that we did not expect, you came down, and the mountains trembled before you. {4} Since ancient times no one has heard, no ear has perceived, no eye has seen any God besides you, who acts on behalf of those who wait for him. {5} You come to the help of those who gladly do right, who remember your ways. But when we continued to sin against them, you were angry. How then can we be saved? {6} All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away. {7} No one calls on your name or strives to lay hold of you; for you have hidden your face from us and made us waste away because of our sins. {8} Yet, O LORD, you are our Father. We are the clay, you are the potter; we are all the work of your hand. {9} Do not be angry beyond measure, O LORD; do not remember our sins forever. Oh, look upon us, we pray, for we are all your people.

 As we begin another Advent season the realities of life hover so near: life is not what it should be; sickness, troubles, job losses, poor church numbers and so much more. We try and gee ourselves up; we try and be positive; we get on with life in order to ensure that everything is right; but all the time we fall short; it just doesn’t work out! Life doesn’t work out the way that we think it should.

 So again we join the people of Israel and God’s people throughout history. ‘Come on, God; how about coming down and giving us a hand.’ We long for everything to work out for us; we try so hard to see that it happens; and then we are left with no choice but to finally accept that God needs to come to us and make things right.

 Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down, that the mountains would tremble before you! As when fire sets twigs ablaze and causes water to boil, come down to make your name known to your enemies and cause the nations to quake before you! For when you did awesome things that we did not expect, you came down, and the mountains trembled before you.

Then we would know that everything will be OK. Then we could come here week after week and struggle to find a seat in this place as people flock to hear God’s Word. Then we would have less stress and hassles; life would surely flow more easily and everyone would be more inclined to do what is good and right. Then we would be proved right and we would be able to hold our heads high.

 So, ‘Come on, God; how about coming down and giving us a hand.’ ‘How about showing your great power and zapping all the evil that hangs around us.’ ‘Come and prove to us that you are in control by doing mighty things that destroys sickness, pain and evil.’ ‘Prove to the world you have overcome evil, so that all that is good might be preserved.’ ‘You have told us that you are a great and awesome God, and you have given us your Word, so let us see that you are true to your word.

 But what do we see when God has entered our world in the past in this way. He rescues Israel from the Egyptians with an immense array of powerful and wondrous deeds, but that same power also meant that all along the way, when they sinned, that God also brought disaster on them. God’s holy presence means that all that is sinful is destroyed. That means a terrible dilemma for us: For we are sinful and unclean.

 All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away. No one calls on your name or strives to lay hold of you; for you have hidden your face from us and made us waste away because of our sins.

Yes, all of us have chosen to be selfish, self-centred and rebellious: All of us! All our goodness is like a filthy, stained pair of old underpants [which is the real meaning of ‘filthy rags’ in the original language]. So how can we expect that God should give us all that we want: we don’t listen to him very well, nor do we so often even try to do the right thing. Greed and selfishness has raped our environment as well as our economic system; not to mention our families and support of one another in our society. We deserve everything that comes our way; even as Christians.

 So God hides his face from us, so that we will not be destroyed. Yes even us today. Surely none of us are so self-righteous that we are able to stand in God’s presence, with all it glory. Surely none of us deserve to have everything go well for us. So we need to recognise and remember that we cannot expect God to ensure that we have it comfortable all the time. Inevitably when things go well for us, we as sinful human beings all too often forget God and take all his goodness for granted. So it is not good for us that God let us have our own way.

 So, how then can we be saved? How then can we live in peace and happiness? How can we go on, if all we can expect is more of the same? It would seem that it is all so pointless and negative and miserable. Sadly this is what we as a sinful human race have made the world that we live in like. And no matter how hard we try, we on our own are unable to change the situation. No human plan or system can rectify it, for our sin will always corrupt it, whether we are christian or not.

 But we must remember that this is not the end of the story. Yes, we need to remember that the difficulties and tragedies of life are all the fruits of and reminders of the fact that we are sinful; and that we need to look to and trust that God is the only true answer that we have. We need to turn to, look to and trust that he alone can bring the comfort and strength that we need; and that he is the only real hope of peace and life for the future.

 We need to be like Isaiah: Yet, O LORD, you are our Father. We are the clay, you are the potter; we are all the work of your hand. Do not be angry beyond measure, O LORD; do not remember our sins forever. Oh, look upon us, we pray, for we are all your people.

 This Advent season, as we prepare for Christmas, we are called on to prepare ourselves; turn to and look to God and his answer to the dilemma that we find ourselves in. As we look to God’s answer we need to recall that time and time again throughout the Old Testament period, God told his people that he would send a saviour who would defeat sin, death and the devil. They were called to look forward in faith, trusting that God was true to his word.

 That we find to be the case in the birth, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. There we have “God with us.” There we have his full answer to our need. There in God; coming as a frail little baby; living as a human being; and then suffering and dying on the cross, we have God doing what was necessary for our salvation. There we have the help that we so desperately need.

 Now we are assured that all who are connected to him will get to live with him in heaven free from sin and its consequences. We have a sure and certain hope for us to cling to in the midst of this sinful world. We can even see our troubles and hardships as good, in that they help to keep our focus where it needs to be, on Jesus Christ and his death on the cross.

 Here we need to remember again that God’s demonstration of power and his answer to evil is quite different from the way we think it should happen. He comes in weakness and frailty: he lived in the midst of all the same troubles and difficulties that we face; he defeats the devil by dying himself; he overcomes death for us by rising from the dead himself. As a result we are assured that forgiveness of sins, life and salvation has been extended to us. He has assured us that he is with us as we face our own troubles and that with him there is a way through for us.

 Now he calls us to daily live, suffer and die in the midst of a world that is and always will be troubled by the consequences of sin. However, not to live in and with our own strength, but to always look to the Lord Jesus, and rely on him and live in him. As we do we are assured that he will uphold and sustain us in the midst of all that is happening: All the while having the full assurance that we are forgiven and are guaranteed salvation and eternal life with God in heaven.

 So this Advent season we are reminded again to look forward to; and prepare ourselves for the full assurance that God has come to be with us and to help us in our need. He comes to help us to always look to him and trust that after our short time of suffering here on this earth he has made it possible for us to live with him in eternity, completely free from all that is bad and evil. So look again to him and trust him, to whom all glory and honour will go, now and forever; our great God Father, Son and Holy Spirit. AMEN.

 Pastor Roger Atze

Glandore/Underdale Lutheran Parish