Title: Waiting for a New Light
Reference: Isaiah 8:21–9:7
Speaker: Bill Gorman, BillG@cckc.church

Advent begins in the dark and moves toward the light—but the season should not move too quickly or too glibly, lest we fail to acknowledge the depth of the darkness. As our Lord Jesus tells us, unless we see the light of God clearly, what we call light is actually darkness… Advent bids us take a fearless inventory of the darkness: the darkness without and the darkness within. ~ Fleming Rutledge, Advent: The Once and Future Coming of Jesus Christ

– Take a fear inventory of the darkness

– Look for the light that is dawning.

As always, the people of God must decide what reading of their experiences they will live by. Are they to look at the darkness, the hopelessness, the dreams shattered and conclude that God has forgotten them? Or are they to recall his past mercies, to remember his present promises and to make great affirmations of faith? … The darkness is true but it is not the whole truth and certainly not the fundamental truth. ~ Motyer, Isaiah

– Are you looking for the Light or despairing in the dark?

– Trust the light who will reign

– Turn to the Light

I was a fool to wander and stray
For straight is the gate and narrows the way
Now I have traded the wrong for the right
Praise the Lord, I saw the light

I saw the light, I saw the light
No more darkness, no more night
Now I'm so happy no sorrow in sight
Praise the Lord, I saw the light
~ Hank Williams

– Isaiah sees.

Isaiah’s failure to name the new king puts him in his place and draws attention to his focus on another King…His vision emphsizes who is the real Lord and King. - John Goldingay, Isaiah

– Isaiah burns.

Israel has forsaken the Lord, but the Lord will not forsake Israel; He will not discard them. But in order to redeem, he must first smelt away the dross as with lye and remove the alloy. Grim and dreadful will be the process of purification. There is no redemption without affliction. ~ Abraham Joshua Heschel, The Prophets

Longing for spiritual springs,
I dragged myself through desert sands …
An angel with three pairs of wings
Arrived to me at the cross of lands;
With fingers so light and slim
He touched my eyes as in a dream:
And opened my prophetic eyes
Like the eyes of the eagle in surprise.

He touched my ears in movement, single,
And they were filled with noise and jingle:
I heard a shuddering of the heavens,
And angels’ flight on Azure heights
And creatures crawl in long sea nights,
And the rustle of vines in distant valleys.
And he bent down to my chin,
And he tore off my tongue of sin,
In cheat and idle talks aroused,
And with his hand in bloody specks
He put the sting of wizard snakes
Into my deadly stoned mouth.

With his sharp sword, he cleaved my breast,
And plucked my quivering heart out,
And coals flamed with God’s behest,
Into my gaping breast were ground.
Like dead, I lay on desert sands,
And listening to God’s commands:
‘Arise, O prophet, hark and see,
Be filled with utter My demands,
And, going over Land and Sea,
Burn with The Word the humane hearts.’
~ Alexander Pushkin

– Isaiah goes.

The haunting words which reached Isaiah seem not only to contain the intention to inflict insensitivity but also to declare that the people already are afflicted by a lack of sensitivity. The punishment of spiritual deprivation will be but an intensification or an extension of what they themselves had done to their own souls…callousness is sovereign and smug; it clings to the soul and will not give in. ~ Abraham Joshua Heshel, The Prophets

In the year that King Uzziah died, or in the year that John F Kennedy died, or in the year that somebody you loved died, you go into the temple if that is your taste, or you hide your face in the little padded temple of your hands, and a voice says, “Whom shall I send into the pain of a world where people die?” and if you are not careful, you may find yourself answering “Send me.” You may hear the voice say, “Go.” Just go… To Isaiah the voice said, “Go,” and for each of us there are many voices that say it, but the question is which one will we obey with our lives, which of the voices that call is to be the one we answer. - Frederick Beuchner, Sermons in the Dark.

– Isaiah waits.

Two sympathies dwell in a prophet’s soul: sympathy for God and sympathy for the people. Speaking to the people, he is emotionally at one with God; in the presence of God, beholding a vision, he is emotionally at one with the people. - Abraham Joshua Heschel, The Prophets