“A Shout for Peace”

Scripture: Isaiah 40:1-11

For many people, the Old Testament is all about a wrathful God who is out to punish anyone and everyone who doesn’t do exactly as he tells them. Personally, if that is all they have gotten out of the Hebrew text, I have to think that they have missed a good portion of God’s word for their lives! Over and over again, we see Jehovah God giving Israel second and third and fourth chances that should boggle our minds. Every time that Israel is forced to endure some privation, it is always because they have brought the trial on themselves. The restoration that God always brings to them is never because they deserve it – it is only because of God’s overwhelming love for the people and his infinite desire that they should know that love.
He comforts, he blesses, he renews, he reestablishes the relationship and covenant that the people have broken, and never lets his displeasure with them last very long. Our reading today begins with the words “Comfort, comfort my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, …” Hardly the words of a hateful, condemning, judgmental God! Listen to the love and comfort that fills each and every word that he gives to both Israel and the Church.

Read Isaiah 40:1-5

“And the glory of the Lord will be revealed, and all mankind together will see it.” – God himself is preparing the way for the people to once again know that he is their God, their champion, their strength, their shepherd. And he does it in the humblest and gentlest way that anyone can ever imagine.

Malcolm Muggeridge was a successful literary critic when the BBC asked him to go with a film crew to India to see what was going on with some “do-gooder” named Mother Teresa. Muggeridge tells of watching her work with the very lowest of the low, and he wrote about the absurdity of bringing comfort and affection to men and women who were the derelicts of Indian society and who could have no possible influence upon history.

“Is this any way to spend one's life?” he asked.

Years later, in explaining how these five days spent in India were the most important five days of his life, literally turning his life upside down, he put it like this: “Humankind will not be changed by being taught, but they will be changed by what is caught.” This is what happened to him: the infection called Christianity. He caught it from a carrier of the infection named Mother Teresa, and from then on he has shared her disease.
- Homeletics On Line

Malcolm learned about grace through a loving “do-gooder” who was living out the glory of God in the slums of Calcutta. And as the story tells us, it was “infectious”. You see, we have no chance whatsoever in creating peace and comfort for ourselves – as a matter of fact, whenever we do try to gain that on our own, we always seem to fail in the most spectacular ways possible!

Read Isaiah 40:6-8

People are like grass – even when we try to gain a little glory for ourselves, it never lasts – we are bound to simply wither and fall away. So, since we are so inadequate, what words do you suppose God wants us to cry out? Simply this – We can’t, but God can. We aren’t, but God is. We don’t, but God does. We fail, but the word of our God stands firm forever.
Those are some pretty good words, aren’t they? But how often do we shout them out? How often do we let the world know just how incredible our God really is? Have you been sharing the Lord with folks this week? Have you invited anyone to join you in worship today? Are you afraid that you won’t say the right thing, or even worse, say the wrong thing? Every morning, read Jeremiah 33:3 – “Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know.”
Do you think that maybe the words we are to call out to our world aren’t supposed to be our words! Maybe we are to call out to almighty God, to seek his plan for our lives, his words for our joy, the love and peace that he wants us to share with others.

After all, isn’t that what the season is all about? To share the Christ Child with others who don’t yet know that he has come? Think ahead to Christmas eve when we read of the shepherds, who, after they had visited the manger in Bethlehem, returned home, and, as Luke 2:17 tells us, “When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, and all who hear it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them.”
Remember the Samaritan woman in John 4? After meeting Jesus as Jacob’s well, and discovering for herself who this man was, she went to all the townspeople, who, no doubt, had been ridiculing her on a daily basis, and told them (v.28) “Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Christ?” A question that is also an invitation to come and decide for themselves!
Remember the man who was filled with a Legion of demons until Jesus healed him? Mark 5:20 “So the man went away and began to tell in the Decapolis how much Jesus had done for him. And all the people were amazed.”
These people – the shepherds, the woman, and the man – were shouting the glory of God to the nations. Not by raising their voices, but simply by offering their witness to Christ’s presence in their lives. Raise a Shout for peace and glory in the world, by sharing your life in Christ with others.
Seems simple, yes? But I know that it isn’t all that simple when it comes to the doing. There is always the human factor to contend with.

Read Isaiah 40:9-11

“Lift up your voice with a shout, lift it up, do not be afraid; say to the [people of our towns], “Here is your God!”

Advent is about shouting out the praises of our God! And just what does he bring to our lives? It isn’t condemnation, it isn’t impossible commandments, it isn’t rejection, it isn’t suffering. The Lord brings, as described in Galatians 5:22, the fruit of the Spirit - “Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.”
These are the things of Advent. Each week, we light candles representing these Godly attributes, and each week, we are encouraged to live by them.

A man is flying in a hot-air balloon and realizes that he's lost. He reduces height and spots a man down below. He lowers the balloon further and shouts: “Excuse me - can you tell me where I am?”
The man replies: “Sure - you're in a hot-air balloon, hovering 30 feet above this field.”
“You must work in Information Technology”, the balloonist says.
“I do”, the man replies. “How did you know?”
“Well”, says the balloonist, “everything you told me is technically correct, but it's of no use to anyone.”
The man below says, “You must work in business.”
“I do”, the balloonist replies, “How did you know?”

“Well”, says the man, “you don't know where you are, or where you're going, but you expect me to be able to help. You're in the same position you were before we met, but now it's my fault.”
- Homeletics OnLine

Are we in the “same position” that we were in yesterday, or last week, or last year? Are we still searching for the evidence that Galatians 5 is an active and intimate part our lives? Or are we secure in our knowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, and that the glory of God is ours for the claiming? It’s certain that the world is still searching and struggling, and needing something new, and they may even be in a worse position now than they were before!
There is only one way for them and us to make any headway, and that is to look to the only one who has made all the plans and who knows all the directions. The balloonist and the man on the ground weren’t a bit of help to each other, and both of them did nothing but aggravate the situation even more. Christians are called to resolve the quandaries of life for each other and not to feed them! But if we just sit on our hands and keep our mouths shut tightly, everyone is going to stay right where they are.

Lift up your voice with a shout this week. Shout a word of peace, shout a word of love, shout a word of kindness, tell just one person that “their God is here”! Be a lowly shepherd, be a rejected woman, be a healed man – be a disciple of Jesus Christ, and share the good news that Jesus Christ is born with one person who hasn’t met him yet. And as scripture tells us, “don’t be afraid”. Just tell others what you know and what you have experienced. And then let the Holy Spirit bring the sense of amazement into their lives.