SERMON FOR DECEMBER 6, 2020     TEXT: ISAIAH 40:1-11
Hear the word of the Lord, delivered by the prophet Isaiah to the people of Judah in the latter half of the 8th century B.C.E.: 
“Keep listening, but do not comprehend;
keep looking, but do not understand.’
Make the mind of this people dull,
    and stop their ears,
    and shut their eyes,
so that they may not look with their eyes,
    and listen with their ears,
and comprehend with their minds,
    and turn and be healed.”
Then I said, “How long, O Lord?” And he said:
“Until cities lie waste
    without inhabitant,
and houses without people,
    and the land is utterly desolate;
until the Lord sends everyone far away,
    and vast is the emptiness in the midst of the land.
Even if a tenth part remain in it,
    it will be burned again,
like a terebinth or an oak
    whose stump remains standing
    when it is felled.” (Isaiah 6:9-13)
Some thirty chapters later we read the story of King Hezekiah welcoming envoys from Babylon. The prophet renews God’s warning to the ruler of Judah, telling him: “Hear the word of the Lord of hosts:  Days are coming when all that is in your house, and that which your ancestors have stored up until this day, shall be carried to Babylon; nothing shall be left, says the Lord. Some of your own sons who are born to you shall be taken away; they shall be eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon” (39:5-7). In other words, do not trust these people, but for the time being Hezekiah sees political advantage for his realm in cultivating a relationship with Babylon. He puts a positive spin on the prophet’s dire warning. Disaster may lie in the future, but it won’t occur on his watch. “The word of the Lord that you have spoken is good,” he replies, for he thought, “There will be peace and security in my days” (39:8). This is where the first section of the Book of Isaiah ends.
The second section begins with the passage we heard this morning. Hezekiah’s reign is long ended. Babylon has replaced Assyria as the dominant power in the region, and the first Isaiah’s prophecy has been fulfilled. The Babylonians have destroyed Jerusalem and taken many captives in two different assaults a decade apart. A new prophet emerges to speak to God’s people in exile, and it is his voice we hear in chapters 40-55 of the Book of Isaiah. 
The threatened punishment for their disobedience has come to pass. Indeed, God acknowledges that it went too far, that they have suffered excessively: “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” (v. 2). God has used the force of an alien empire to carry out judgment, and the violence of the Babylonians likely got out of hand, as human violence is wont to do. 
Now God acts to mend his relationship with these traumatized victims of war. He promises that they will recover; they will return home, and so will God.
“A voice cries out:
‘In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord,
    make straight in the desert a highway for our God.
Every valley shall be lifted up,
    and every mountain and hill be made low;
the uneven ground shall become level,
    and the rough places a plain.
Then the glory of the Lord shall be revealed,
    and all people shall see it together,
    for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.’” (40:3-5)
The Old Testament scholar Michael Chan points out that this highway is for God, not the exiles. He writes: “The implication of this imagery is that God has abandoned Jerusalem, leaving it to the hands of the Babylonians (cf. Ezekiel 10). Verses 3-5 seek to assure the audience that the time of God’s long absence from Jerusalem has come to an end. God will return to his holy city and again be accessible: ‘the glory of the Lord shall be revealed’ (verse 5). The language of revelation in verse 5 is very important. The glory of the Lord needs to be revealed because, from the exiles’ perspective, it has been hidden, and a hidden God is a terrifying God. Isaiah 40:1-11 seeks to convince its audience that the season of God’s hiddenness has come to an end.”
One of my dearest friends is buried on a hillside looking out over the Bay, with the San Francisco skyline shimmering in the distance. His grave marker is a flat stone, flush to the ground. On one side of the tablet are his name and the dates that mark the beginning and the end of his 60 years on earth. On the other side are engraved the words, “The grass withers, the flower fades; but the word of our God will stand forever.” How precious a life is, yet how fragile and small in the unhalting flow of time. My friend designed this stone while the flower of his life was in full bloom. And when it had withered and faded away, the stone continued his confession of faith after his death. Our frailties mark the inescapable boundaries of our lives, yet they are encompassed by the eternal, unyielding word of God. It proclaims his power and his love. It promises his abiding presence. 
We, like the exiles in Babylon so many centuries ago, are a traumatized people. A pandemic has been raging among us for months, violent, destructive and undiscriminating. It is a conquering force that has undermined the life we knew. It has thrust us into alien territory and left us longing for a way out, a way back home. We have compounded the suffering of others and caused unnecessary death with our folly and conceit. And alas, while the hospitals fill up and more and more families are scarred by loss, it is clear that we have not yet paid our penalty in full.  
Now is the time to speak comfort, to bring hope to the exiles. “See the Lord God comes with might, and his arm rules for him; his reward is with him, and his recompense before him. He 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.” We await his coming, a mighty Lord born as a fragile child. “O Jerusalem, herald of good tidings lift up your voice, do not fear; say to the cities of Judah, “Here is your God!” The Good Shepherd will lead us through this valley of the shadow of death. His goodness and mercy will bring us home. Amen.