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“God’s Prophetic Imagination” Advent 3 2007 Isaiah 35:1-10
The story is told of an amateur mountain climber who was left for dead by his companions on the slopes of Mount Everest in the midst of a vicious blizzard. He was injured, warn down by the climb, unconscious. In hopes of saving themselves, they left him behind. Amazingly he awoke knowing the base camp was somewhere below him and that he would die where he was if he didn’t move. In his mind he imagined his reunion with his companions. Driven by this picture, he was given the instinct to survive, dragging his frozen feet down the mountain until he staggered into the cluster of tents. There, what he saw in his imagination became reality, as his colleagues ran out to meet him and take him back to his loved ones. Imagination is what we need to continue this journey we call life. Imagination is what motivates us to keep trying, that gives us courage to face the dangers that surround us, that enables us to see the world with new eyes, that gives us hope for a new day. For people of faith, it has always been God that has filled our minds with imagination of what God’s future is for us. Through God’s prophetic imagination, we hear and see what God is up to, giving to us hope and faith that God is active and alive in our midst. Isaiah was a prophet of God who shared with the people of Judah a word to expand their imagination. Isaiah lived in a time between Israel’s hay-day of King David’s empire and its eventual destruction. A civil war had split Israel in two in the year 922. The northern kingdom was called Israel and the south was called Judah. In the year 722, the northern kingdom had fallen into captivity to the Assyrians and they were now threatening Judah, who was looking to Egypt for protection and help. In our confirmation study Bible, the situation Isaiah faced is described this way: “The nation seemed strong and wealthy. But Isaiah saw signs of grave danger. People were using their power to harass the poor. Men went around drunk; women cared more about their clothes than about their neighbor’s hunger. People gave lip service to God and kept up the outward appearance of religion but did little more. Outside dangers loomed ever larger. The enemies of neighboring Israel were rattling sword and spears at the boarder. On all sides, monster empires were growing, especially Egypt and Assyria. Judah was caught in a pincers. Should the nation choose one of the empires as an ally? The nation of Judah stood at a crossroads: It could either regain its footing or begin a dangerous slide downward. The prophet did not temper his message for the sake of popular opinion. He had harsh and unyielding words about what changes must take place.” Such was the situation of Isaiah’s day. There was a disconnect between the people’s words and actions. The mighty were exploiting the poor. The ruling class was robbing their fellow countrymen of their homes and land. Isaiah’s anger was leveled at the ill treatment of the people who were without any rights at all, the widows and orphans, the stranger at the gate, those who have no voice in local community. What Isaiah saw coming was Israel’s same fate, the destruction of Judah and exile in a foreign land. In the midst of this dire situation, God breaks in with a word that changes the landscape, that gives a different picture of the future, a prophetic word that expands the imagination. “Be strong, do not fear! Here is your God. He will come with vengeance, with terrible recompense. He will come and save you.” In God’s prophetic imagination, “the wilderness and the dry land shall be glad, the desert shall rejoice and blossom.” When God comes, “the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped; then the lame shall leap like a deer, and the tongue of the speechless sing for joy.” God will lead us into the future, “a highway shall be there, and it shall be called the Holy Way; the unclean shall not travel on it, but it shall be for God’s people…the redeemed shall walk there.” God will restore the people, “they shall obtain joy and gladness.” It is God’s prophetic imagination that has sustained God’s people over the centuries as they are reminded of how God has acted in the past and will act in the future. God’s prophetic imagination provides hope that flies in the face of all those worldly claims we have been told are facts. As John sat in prison, wondering if Jesus is the one who was to come, or if they should look for another, Jesus told John’s disciples a word that would create a new imagination for John, “Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have good news brought to them.” These are the same words as what Isaiah told the people of Judah. The difference for John as he sat in prison is that they became realized in the person of Jesus. In Jesus, God’s future has come, the glory of the Lord is revealed. In Jesus, the kingdom of heaven has come near. It was a word that would sustain John as he would face his eventual death at the hands of Herod, helping him to imagine the world to come, God’s world, God’s new creation. This word is also for us, God’s prophetic imagination is also given to us. God’s word touches the hopeless person at many different points, economically as we struggle to make ends meet, when our health declines and fails us, through the pain of separation and divorce, in the face of depression despair and grief, when the night of death comes. Through God’s prophetic imagination, we are given new eyes with which to see the world, new hope to build us up, new motivation to engage the world by serving the needs of others and caring for God’s creation. In the midst of our trials and tribulations, struggles and hardships, God’s speaks this good news, that in Jesus Christ, through his death and resurrection, our sins are forgiven and we are given a new life. Go and tell others what you hear and see: Jesus Christ has come for you to give you life and salvation. In closing, I want to share this prayer that is from the Advent Cantata “Prophets and Angels that the Senior Choir presented last week. Let us pray: O God, your Word is a great promise of very good news, a promise kept; a story so good to all the earth we need only to say: So be it; and believe. Our believing will find its work to do. Through the message of prophets and angels your promise will break through, will struggle, penetrate, hold out, and will not quit. Your light will get to your people. Your light will shine through bad press, oppression, poor preaching and no choir, and will shine in worlds covered with fear, fog, dust, distrust, darkness, sadness, anger, gloom. Your word of hope for heaven and for earth is a story released to all nations, in every tongue and spirit. Long ago, once in a time, just before a deadline, in the fullness of time, all creation was opened to one spot on earth ere all people could see – Bethlehem! We your children still look and listen for your glad tidings. We listen through fog and storm, disbelief and unbelief, through death, through war and anger, through think darkness and gloom and we hear dimly, sometimes clearly very clearly the News!
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