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“For You Shall Go Out in Joy”

December 12, 2021

Passage: Isaiah 55:6-13

 “For You Shall Go Out in Joy”

Isaiah 55:6-13

December 12, 2021

Read Isaiah 55:6-13

This is the third Sunday of Advent.  Traditionally, the third Sunday of Advent is focused on “joy.”  Hope, peace, joy and love are the topics for the four Sundays of Advent.  Let me take a moment to review where we have been.

First, Advent is a time of hope.  “Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” (Hebrews 11:1)  Just as the people of Israel waited for the fulfillment of God’s promises in the birth of the Messiah in order to make things right; we await Jesus’ coming again because we look around and see things are not the way they should be.  We talk about hope during Advent because God has been faithful in the past; we trust God is faithful now even when things look bad; and we look forward with eyes of faith to the day when God will fulfill his promises.  Jesus has come; He has given us his Spirit to sustain us until the time when He will come again. There is a new heaven and a new earth yet to be seen.  Jesus has promised and Scripture teaches that we have been adopted as children of the King of the coming heavenly kingdom.  Advent is a time of hope.

Second, Advent is a time of peace.  We talk about peace during Advent because it is something God has promised.  In Jesus Christ, we can see how God has reconciled us to himself – creating eternal peace with those who had rebelled and waged war against him.  God has broken the bar of sin across our shoulders; he has released us from slavery to sin.  We know this in faith.  It takes eyes of faith to look at the current situation and through it to see into the full realization of the future kingdom of the Prince of Peace (one of Jesus’ titles).  Living in peace means living within the holy presence of the sovereign God.  In Isaiah 2, the promise is that the Messiah, “shall judge between the nations, and shall arbitrate for many peoples; they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; national shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore.”  We continue to hope for the fulfillment of God’s peace.

Third, Advent is a time of joy.  Preaching on joy during Advent is difficult.  I can remember listening to sermons on joy during Advent thinking, “Oh, great; I’m supposed to feel joy.  All I feel is the pressure of getting everything done – and now you add ‘be joyful’?  Thanks a lot.”  I get it.  However, Advent is a time of joy; we just have to understand what is the source and foundation of that joy and what it means to be joyful.  In an article entitled, “Have Faith in Joy,” James Martin wrote,

Does Christian joy, which flows from believing in the good news, mean that I am supposed to be happy all the time?

Short answer: no. …

Let me distinguish joy from happiness. Unlike happiness, joy is not simply a fleeting feeling or an evernascent emotion, it is a permanent result of one’s connection to God.

*                                *                                           *                                           *

The believer must navigate between grinning, idiotic, false happiness and carping, caterwauling, complaining mopyness.  (Notice I am not speaking of clinical depression here, which is more of a psychological issue).  Overall, the believer will be happy and sad at different points in his life; but joy is possible in the midst of tragedy, since joy depends on one’s faith and confidence in God.[1] 

Advent is a time of remembering and waiting – for God.  It is a time when we focus on God’s story, on God’s activity, and on God’s word.  The source and foundation of our joy is God – it is not something we do or accomplish.  Joy is found in remembering what God has done, what God is doing, and holding onto what God has yet to do.

               Isaiah 55

Turning our attention to our sermon text today, we have been focusing our Advent attention on Isaiah, the prophet cited all throughout Matthew.  As you might recall from last week, the book of Isaiah was written over the course of twelve generations that endured in the midst of suffering.  The situation was not good for Israel. Throughout the time covered in Isaiah, the northern kingdom was defeated by Assyria, the people were taken into exile and never heard from again.  The southern kingdom would survive a little longer, however, it, too, would be taken into exile.

Isaiah 55 was written after those events.  It was spoken to the people in exile.  These were people who thought God was going to protect them and were comfortable in how things had always been.  However, they had lost everything.  They were refugees and prisoners and slaves.  They had been driven from their homes.  They were grieving the loss of their relatives who had been killed or left to die.  They were despairing over the apparent abandonment by God – if God ever existed at all.  It was a tough time to be talking about hope, peace and joy.

How were they to  understand what had happened to them?  Well, in the book of Isaiah, there is a turn at Chapter 40.  The focus turns from the curses of breaking the covenant – seen in God’s wrath and judgment executed by the nations that conquered and oppressed Israel – and the focus turns to how God will restore Israel and remember His promises made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to Moses and to David.

So, what does Isaiah 55 promise?

It is written to those who had nothing.  God called the people to come to Him and be satisfied.  Those who are thirsty?  Come, find water.  Those who are poor and hungry?  Come and be filled.  Those were promises of a great banquet; a banquet where Yahweh was the host.  God made it clear that the way of life was by “inclining our ear” to him; that is, God was inviting them to be restored into a right relationship with him. Inclining their ear to him included remembering God’s convenant promises and call for Israel to be his “priestly kingdom and holy nation.” 

Let me stop here for a moment: while we read Isaiah 55 in the context of the forthcoming Messiah, it is important we remember that it was written hundreds of years before that event and was addressing issues that the people of God had at that time.  How amazing is God?  Consider Scripture: it has a mysterious, rich meaning. Plumbing  its depths is always a fruitful exercise.  Use our text today as an illustration. Isaiah 55 was a foundation for joy for the people who walked in darkness.  God was promising to restore the people from exile to Jerusalem through the agency of Persian Emperors Darius and Cyrus.  Foreign emperors would be servants of Yahweh. Remembering how God had led the people of Israel out of Egypt, defeating Pharaoh; remembering how God had provided for them in the desert; remembering how God had led Joshua in conquering and settling peacefully the Promised land; there was reason to have faith, hope and even joy in hearing God’s promise of restoration.

And it happened.

This text was a foundation for joy for people in Jesus’ time who were living under Roman oppression and Pharasaical judgments.  In his birth, in his life and obedient walk, in his deeds of power revealing his identity as the anointed son of David and Son of God, Jesus gave reason to have faith, hope and even joy in his promise of the kingdom of heaven.  Then, Jesus declared a new covenant as described in Isaiah 55. He instituted the Lord’s supper, a communion meal marking peace with God, salvation, and eternal life for those who “incline their ear.”

When Christ came as a high priest of the good things that have come, then through the greater and perfect tent (not made with hands, that is, not of this creation), he entered once for all into the Holy Place, not with the blood of goats and calves, but with his own blood, thus obtaining eternal redemption.  For if the blood of goats and bulls, with the sprinkling of the ashes of a heifer, sanctifies those who have been defiled so that their flesh is purified, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to worship the living God! (Hebrews 9:11-14)

And it happened.

So today, we return to God’s word in the midst of a world that stands at odds before God.  We see nation fighting against nation.  We see war and strife – Russia and the Ukraine?  North Korea?  The Middle East?  We see our own country ignoring or waging battle against God.  Do I need to trot out the parade of horribles?  Spiritually, we as a country celebrate individual autonomy, wealth, fame, power – we celebrate idolatry.  Our culture celebrates vice and discourages virtue.  I know there are many people who are frustrated and not hopeful about the future because it seems like things are moving away from – rather than toward – God.

These are despairing thoughts; thoughts that can cause us to flag in our joy.  However, in the midst of all these perceived evils, troubles, and hardships, we have reason to have faith, hope and even joy in his promise of Christ’s coming again and the realization of the full kingdom of heaven.

Because God does what He says, we can trust: it will happen.

               See.

How can we know?  How can we believe?  Well, God does not ask us to follow Him or believe Him blindly.  No, instead, he commands us: see.  Look.  See.

We often fall from joy because we fail to see.  We do not have joy because we do not look with eyes to see what God has done and is doing.

If we listen only to the world and do not spend time in the Word, we get lost in the despair of what is going wrong.  If we listen to the world and do not spend time in prayer, we get detatched from God’s promises and perceive only emptiness.  If we listen to the world and keep our faith to ourselves, we find that we are devoid of the encouragement we would receive from others (and they from us) and left alone wondering if any of it is real.

Friends, God is saying, “See.”  Look.  Look at what God has done.  Look for what God is doing.  Look to see what God has promised will be done.  God declares that his word will not return to him empty.  He is already showing us that: we can know joy if we look with eyes to see.  God is using the mission and ministry of this congregation to bless this community.  God is raising up new people to join in the fellowship and outreach of this congregation.  God has provided resources and opportunities to serve, strengthen, and worship Him in this place and – remarkably – around the country and around the world.  Look.  See.  God is doing this.

If we imagine the world around us to be fields, God has promised that He will show us that barren land will be transformed into great explosions of fruitfulness and life.  He will deliver us from despair, from emptiness, from loneliness, and from sin and death.

The great Christmas carol, “Joy to the World” that we sang earlier has it exactly correct:

Joy to the world!  The Lord is come: Let earth receive her king; let every heart prepare Him room, and heaven and nature sing.

Joy to the world!  The Savior reigns: Let us our songs employ; While fields and floods, rocks, hills and plains, repeat the sounding joy.

No more let sins and sorrows grow, nor thorns infest the ground; He comes to make his blessings flow far as the curse is found.

He rules the world with truth and grace, and makes the nations prove The glories of His righteousness and wonders of His love.

Just as the promises in Isaiah 55 were given to the people in exile; just as the promises and the covenant Jesus established in the Lord’s supper came before his crucifixion and resurrection, God  has shown us and promised us the reality of the coming kingdom of heaven.  What the world shows us here and now is not eternal; what the world shows us here and now is not controlling; what the world says is how things are and always will be is not how things will be – look with eyes to see what God has done, is doing, and will do.  See.

               Joy

See what?

Joy is the celebration of God’s rescuing us.  You see, this is the true joy in Advent – the promise of rescue.  It is not a celebration of our abundance.  Unlike the advertisements, eternal love is not expressed in a diamond or other material gift.  The true Christmas spirit is not holiday spirit; that is, it is not a reverie of friendship for the sake of having a party.

Joy is the hope and realization of rescue.  Help is on the way.  We are not alone.  God is with us and we are assured of our hope in him.  Imagine being pulled out into the ocean by a riptide.  Imagine watching the land recede from your view.  Imagine your despair as you watch the waves tower over you.  Then, imagine your response to seeing a lifeguard coming in the distance.  Joy.

Joy is a response to rescue.  Joy is a response to victory.  True joy starts from a place of great need.

Author Leo Buscaglia told a story about his mother and their "misery dinner."  It was the night after his father came home and said it looked as if he would have to go into bankruptcy because his partner had embezzled their firm's funds and run away.  His mother went out and sold some jewelry to buy food for a sumptuous feast.  Other members of the family scolded her for it.  But she told them that "the time for joy is now, when we need it most, not next week."  Her courageous act rallied the family.[2] They remembered their blessings and turned their eyes forward, anticipating the joy of rescue and restoration.

What are the tough times you face?  Unlike the Israelites, we cannot point to foreign oppressors who are keeping us from experiencing joy.  What are the things that would cloud your experiencing and expressing joy?  For some, it is COVID – whether the fear of the disease or anger over how the world is responding to it.  For others, it is the press of monthly bills that are piling up, the fear of trying to figure out how they are going to make ends meet.  For others, it is the question of whether they will be strong enough or able enough to continue to be independent.  For others still it is the loss of something or someone important to them – either through death or brokenness.  For yet others, it is that unconfessed sin; that thing they did, that thing they failed to do, that they feel can never be forgiven.

Whatever it is, the darkness can seem overwhelming; it can seem so heavy and oppressive that there is no way out.  “The time for joy is now, when we need it most.” In these circumstances, joy is not a Pollyanna plastic smile pasted over the difficulties. Joy is the attitude of determined persistence in the midst of the present suffering – holding fast to the vision of a savior, of redemption, of restoration, of rescue.  This is the joy of Advent.

In the time leading up to Christmas, children often act as they do waiting in line to enter an amusement park for the first time.  There is wonder at the sights and the sounds.  There is excitement at they marvel at the mystery and the potential.  There is hopeful expectation for the emotional feelings they anticipate having.  Joy is the anticipation of things to come.  This is the joy of living in the already/not yet time; the Messiah has come, the Messiah will come again.  It is the joy of looking forward.

Joy means seeing things with God’s eyes; trusting his promises, living into the reality He has revealed – even when it does not seem like it is happening.  Joy means reaching out and sharing with others the good news so that they, too, might have hope and expectation and share in the joy of what God is doing.

               Conclusion

Friends, in the midst of everything we perceive in the world around us, look and see: God has not abandoned us.  God has not given up on us.  God has not walked away from us.  He has given us hope, he has given us peace, he has given us joy.  He has given us Jesus.  As we will soon sing:

Joyful, joyful, we adore Thee, God of glory, Lord of love;

Hearts unfold like flowers before Thee, opening to the sun above.

Melt the clouds of sin and sadness, drive the dark of doubt away;

Giver of immortal cladness, fill us with the light of day.

 

Thou art giving and forgiving; ever blessing, ever blest;

Well-spring of the joy of living, ocean depth of happy rest!

Thou our Father, Christ our brother – all who live in love are Thine;

Teach us how to love each other, lift us to the joy divine.

Or, as the prophet declared: “For you shall go out in joy, and be led back in peace; the mountains and the hills before you shall burst into song, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.” (Isaiah 55:12)

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen.

 

Questions:

  1. Where and how do you find joy in the Lord?  What does it look like in your life?
  2. What do you see God doing here and now that strengthens your joy for what is yet to come?
  3. Whom do you know needs to be encouraged by what you have seen, heard, or experienced?  Whom do you know needs to have their worldview pierced by the truth of the gospel?  Will you pray for the opportunity to share with them this week?

 [1] James Martin, S.J. “Have Faith in Joy”, America, americamagazine.org

[2] From sermonillustrations.com