A Season of Preparation for Giving Thanks

3^rd in the Advent Series “A Season of Preparation”

Rev. Jim Merritt

December 13, 2009

 

Introduction:

During our time together today I am going to focus on the wonderful Old Testament reading from Isaiah.  This is a Sunday when we celebrate Joy and this reading from the prophet Isaiah can be for us a source of great Joy, so let’s take a look at it together.

Background:

First of all, let us briefly consider some background on the book of Isaiah.  Scholars, including Brevard Childs and Walter Bruugemann agree that this book is easily divided into three parts. Chapters 1 – 39 are considered “first Isaiah,” and they were written in the second half of the 8^th Century.  We can use the well-known phrase “in the year King Uzziah died…” which occurred in the year 742 to establish that. These chapters can be troubling and are known as “Oracles of Judgment,” the kind of material that makes us question God and much of God’s behavior. Second Isaiah consists of chapters 40 – 55 and is can be summed up in these words from Professor Angela Bauer-Levesque, “Comfort my people; you have already paid double for your sins.”  Third Isaiah, Chapters 56 – 66 come from a later time, probably at the end of the 6^th century and moving into the 5^th; when the temple in Jerusalem has already been rebuilt and the people are considering a return there.  Combined with Second Isaiah we know these chapters of Oracles of Salvation. 5^th.

So today we find ourselves almost in the middle of these Oracles of Judgment.  And before you take a deep breath and nod off for a nap thinking, “O Lord, why do we have to listen to this during Advent of all times,” stay with me.  I can all but promise you’ll like the result. So on to this specific reading.

Scripture

Brevard Childs, to whom I referred earlier, says that this chapter brings to a close all that has happened in the first 11 chapters of Isaiah.  In those chapters we read about a God who is both fierce in judgment and relentless in redemptive acts.  God’s judgment is so fierce and violent some have suggested that God threw horrible temper tantrums and that in some ways God was still learning how to be God; this gentle, loving, compassionate God that we know and love in our own experience today.  The major theme here is simple, “I give thanks.”  It is as if the people might have been saying, “Okay God, even in the midst of your intense judgment, we give thanks. Okay God, even after you have wiped out our ancestors, we give thanks.  Okay, God, even after you have destroyed the land in which we live, we give thanks.”  This constant theme of thanksgiving is really remarkable.  And I have to confess to you that if I encountered this kind of God in my daily living I might just be tempted to turn away and run.  I might be tempted to say, “You can call yourself God if you want to but I’m not having any part of it.  Who’s next in line!”  Haven’t we all known times like that when we’ve had just about enough and we want to cry out to God, “Okay God, it’s time for you to get on the job and do something here!  Okay, God, you better get busy buddy because I’ve had just about all I am going to take!  Do you hear me, God!?!”  And I want to assure you that if ever a people had been tested and tried these people of Israel had certainly been through the fire. 

 I want to point out to you what wonderful literature the Bible, particularly the Old Testament is, and more importantly how deeply these Old Testament prophets had the words of God ingrained on them.  Notice verse two; ²Surely God is my salvation; I will trust, and will not be afraid, for God is my strength and my might; and has become my salvation. Now listen to this from Exodus 15, “The Lord is my strength and my might and has become my salvation.  This is my God whom I will praise.  The God of my ancestors whom I will exalt!  I just think that’s really cool how the Prophet Isaiah is quoting to us from Exodus, don’t you?  On this Sunday when we celebrate Joy, it’s little things like this that I find in my biblical study that bring me enough Joy for a whole day! 

Let me suggest to you that if the children if Israel had so much for which to be thankful…after all they had endured, we also have much for which to be thankful.  And let me be clear, Thanksgiving, which we just observed, is a wonderful occasion AND I don’t want to repeat that sort of thanksgiving.  I hope we can get to a deeper level this morning in this Season of Preparation for Giving Thanks.  I hope we can find ways to give thanks from the very core of our being, from the core of our souls and minds and hearts.  Let me suggest some examples;

1.      I’m thankful for a mother who knew how to pray.  When I was a child I had horrible night terrors. I would wake up in the middle of the night absolutely terrified. And I would call out to my mother who would come get me out of the bed from which I was too afraid to move, take me into the kitchen – notice the spiritual significance of kitchens – and I’m serious about this - and she would pray for me, for Jesus to protect me, to comfort me and to help me go to sleep.  And I would get back in the bed somehow thinking that everything MIGHT be okay, and the next thing I knew it would be morning.

2.      I’m thankful that I grew up in the Baptist Sunday school because it gave me an amazing exposure to scripture that has been the foundation for all my studies to this day.

3.      I’m thankful that I was born gay.  That is not a political statement for me today. I’m thankful that I have found it necessary to read and study and re-work every thing I ever knew about God, Jesus, spirituality, religion, sexuality, psychology and many other subjects. I remember the day I sat with Professor Larry Wills at one of the courtyard tables at Episcopal Divinity School and said to him, “Larry,  I think I know the truth; now I need you to show me how to prove it.”  AND HE DID.

4.      I’m thankful that God who loves the whole world with no exceptions is about to send the only begotten Son of God/Son of Humankind to us all over again to illustrate love at its highest level. 

5.      Alton Pollard, III says, we rejoice in response to the hearing of the good news that people everywhere, the desperate and the expectant, the hungry and the well-fed, the lowly and the exalted, are all accepted in God’s presence.

You know I love that kind of thinking.

It really is an amazing story, you know.  While I was writing this I was moved to tears just thinking about the many ways God has shown radical love, extravagant love to us, all through the ages.  And in the end, who cares if God needed some time to learn to be God. (I prefer a God who is real). Because this God is our God, and we can say from the depth of our souls, “With joy we draw water from the wells of salvation.  We give thanks to God and we call on God’s name. We ARE making known God’s deeds among the nations.  We sing praises to God who has done gloriously.  Let it me known throughout the universe! Shout and sing for…JOY, for great in our midst is the holy one of Israel.

A Season of Preparation for Giving Thanks; A Season of Joy.”  Is there room in our hearts for Jesus?  AMEN.

Isaiah 12

12You will say in that day: I will give thanks to you, Adonai, for though you were angry with me, your anger turned away, and you comforted me. ²Surely God is my salvation; I will trust, and will not be afraid, for  God is my strength and my might; and has become my salvation. ³With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation.

⁴And you will say in that day: Give thanks to God, call on God’s name; make known God’s deeds among the nations; proclaim that God’s name is exalted. ⁵Sing praises to the God who has done gloriously; let this be known in all the earth. ⁶Shout aloud and sing for joy, O royal Zion, for great in your midst is the Holy One of Israel.

 

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