Exile is not the end.

A sermon for the second Sunday of Advent, given at the United Church of Acworth, Acworth, NH on December 4, 2011.

Isaiah 40:1-11

Psalm 85:1-2, 8-13

2 Peter 3:8-15a

Mark 1:1-8

These words, these promises, are given in the midst of suffering.

Today’s scripture in Isaiah speaks to a the people of Israel in a dark time in their story as a community. They have experienced great loss—

The homeland was destroyed along with their place of worship and they were forced to move themselves and what little belongings they could take with them to a distant foreign land, Babylon.

We hear the mourning of the exiled in Psalm 137.

By the rivers of Babylon—

there we sat down and there we wept

when we remembered Zion.

On the willows there

we hung up our harps.

For there our captors

asked us for songs,

and our tormentors asked for mirth, saying,

‘Sing us one of the songs of Zion!’

How could we sing the Lord’s song

in a foreign land?

We catch further glimpses of the misery and emptiness felt by the captive Israel in the book of Lamentations.

She weeps bitterly in the night,

with tears on her cheeks;

among all her lovers

she has no one to comfort her;

her downfall was appalling,

with none to comfort her.

Zion stretches out her hands,

but there is no one to comfort her;

They heard how I was groaning,

with no one to comfort me. (Lamentations 1:2, 9, 17, 21)

Loneliness, estrangement, disillusionment, meaninglessness, hopelessness.

The pain of discouragement, the shadow of fear and uncertainty.

These feelings are not foreign to us.

There are those among us today are living with pain, discouragement, guilt, sorrow.

There are those among us who “weep bitterly in the night” with no one to comfort them.

We live in a culture where all of these difficult emotions and experiences must be kept inside – don’t reveal yourself to others – put on a strong face.

We experience the feelings of exile.

We walk through shadowy valleys which remind us of death – of emptiness, of hopelessness.

And it is in this darkness that the light of God’s promise comes to shine.

Comfort, O comfort my people,

says your God.

Speak tenderly to Jerusalem,

and cry to her

that she has served her term,

that her penalty is paid,

that she has received from the Lord’s hand

double for all her sins. (Isaiah 40:1-2)

“The people who walked in darkness

have seen a great light;

those who lived in a land of deep darkness—

on them light has shined.” (Isaiah 9:2)

Exile is not the end.

The story of Israel goes on that under the reign of King Cyrus, 150 years after they were exiled and the city destroyed, the people of Israel were able to return to their land and rebuild Jerusalem and rebuild the temple. Today’s scripture from Isaiah anticipates that return. It speaks to the people in exile, promising the coming of God’s deliverance.

After years of exile, there was a joyous homecoming.

‘In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord,

make straight in the desert a highway for our God. (Isaiah 40:3)

Then the glory of the Lord shall be revealed,

and all people shall see it together,

for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.’ (Isaiah 40:5)

Prepare the way for the great work of God the deliverer, the God of hope!

The desert, a place of wandering aimlessly, a place of going nowhere – the desert will have a highway for God. There will be purpose where there once was aimless wandering.

The glory of the Lord in bringing deliverance and hope to a people who lived in bondage and despair. That glory—the glory of redemption – shall be revealed – and all people shall see it together.

Exile is not the end.

Discouragement and helplessness, fear and anxiety wither the grass of our faith and fade the flower of our hope.

The grass withers, the flower fades;

but the word of our God will stand for ever.

God speaks to us in these dark times with words of deliverance and the hope of overcoming our exile.

Exile is not the end.

Be filled with the hope of God’s coming. In today’s gospel reading John points us to the coming of “The one who is more powerful” –

God the deliverer – Jesus our Emmanuel who frees us from sin and all of its consequences – restoring our relationship with God through forgiveness and the presence of the Holy Spirit, healing our broken relationships by giving us the courage to give and receive God’s unconditional love, building a new community formed by God’s love within which exile becomes homecoming.

Exile is not the end.

And so we’re called in the scriptures to announce the coming of such good news.

Get you up to a high mountain,

O Zion, herald of good tidings;

lift up your voice with strength,

O Jerusalem, herald of good tidings,

lift it up, do not fear;

Good news! We can come home to our true place as those whom God loves, as those whom God has rescued from the darkness of meaningless, hopeless, lonely, despair and guilt. We were once exiles but now we are citizens of God’s kingdom – children of a new family founded in God’s healing and love.

God “will feed his flock like a shepherd;

he will gather the lambs in his arms,

and carry them in his bosom,

and gently lead the mother sheep.”

Exile is not the end.

The darkness of fear and loneliness is not the end. Hear from the mountain the good tidings of God – salvation is here – homecoming is here.

Jesus has restored our relationship with God and by the power of the Holy Spirit brings us into fellowship with God, pouring his love into our hearts and giving us courage to share that love, to share the good tidings.

Breathe deep the hope of God’s salvation.

Exile is not the end.

While we may feel like the fading flower, the withering grass – let us remember that in our desert, God is building a highway – God’s word endures and will endure. Our dark times will come and go. Like the grass, like the flowers we will experience the pain of sorrow, fear, and brokenness – the darkness of exile. But hope in God’s deliverance. The pain that is felt, the loneliness, the hopelessness, God will heal.

Put your hope in God and trust him, only in God will we find true comfort. Only in God will we find our way back home.

Amen.