Walking in the Light

Isaiah 2:1-5

To begin the message this morning, I want to invite you to play a little game with me.  It’s called “What do you see?”  The rules are simple, I’m going to show you a picture up on the screen behind me, and I want you to tell me what you see.  Can’t get much simpler than that, can it?  OK, here we go, first picture.  Tell me what do you see?  Do you see an old couple gazing lovingly at one another?  Or do you see two Mexican men, one playing a guitar, and the other with a bottle on the ground next to him, and a woman coming through a doorway?

OK, second picture, what do you see here?  A proud general, or a man and woman standing in a doorway with a dog lying in the middle of the road?  The truth, of course is that all these answers are correct.  Each picture contains a number of images, all of which can be seen depending on how you look at them.  It’s all a matter of perspective.  And what we learn by looking at these pictures is that when we look at seemingly ordinary things in a new way our reality can be changed.  And that’s what Advent is all about, seeing things in a new way as we prepare for the birth of Jesus, the savior of the world.

That’s also the message that was being sent to God’s people in this morning’s prophecy from the book of Isaiah.  At this point in their history, things looked pretty grave for God’s chosen people.   The armies of Assyria posed a serious threat as its empire expanded.  And within a matter of years both Israel and Judah would indeed be taken captive.  Their situation, with an invading army on their doorstep was, to say the least was bleak.  For God’s people here in the 700’s BC, it looked as if all hope was lost.

But then God spoke to his frightened and beleaguered people through the prophet Isaiah,  telling them that things were not always going to be this way.  God promised these war torn, and war weary people that, there would come a time when “They shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation neither shall they learn war any more.”  V. 4 

And that is so like God isn’t it?  How often do we find in scripture that God takes everyday people and everyday situations and everyday circumstances up into His Holy hands and reshapes them into something entirely different and new?  Sort of like those pictures that we looked at a few moments ago where a picture of a sweet old couple, when looked at in a new and different way can be seen as two young fellows hanging out in a doorway, when God gets involved in things there is a kind of holy reversal that takes place.  Swords are turned into plowshares, and spears are turned into pruning hooks. 

And to really drive his point home, just a little over 1,000 years later, God worked the most dramatic holy reversal of all time with the event that we will be celebrating 3 weeks from this Tuesday, Christmas, the birth of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.  Jesus Christ is the greatest Holy reversal of all time.  With Jesus, there was a reversal of power as this tiny baby born to humble parents in an animal pen established a kingdom more powerful and long lasting than any other the earth has ever known. 

There is a reversal of thinking as Jesus taught that in order to live, one must die to oneself, and that in order to be rich, one must give everything away.  Jesus reversed the idea of privilege and importance in teaching that the last will be first and the first shall be last, and that the meek, not the powerful will inherit the earth.  And in the greatest holy reversal of all time, Jesus reversed and overturned the power of death itself when after being crucified on Good Friday, he resurrected from the dead and walked out of the tomb on Easter Sunday.  In Christ, the weak are strong, the lame walk, the powerless are powerful and the hopeless are hopeful.  The meek inherit the earth, and the dead live for all eternity in the loving arms of God. 

And kind of like the way that seeing the various images in those pictures of the old folks and general required us to discover a new way of looking at things, when we look at the pain and challenge of life, seeing the world with Jesus brand of hope and promise can require an equally dramatic kind of holy reversal in the way that we look at things.    

A film scene that offers us a great example of someone having to make just such an adjustment, and even more importantly, someone who is able to trust what he sees, or more accurately doesn’t see, is offered to us from the film “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.”   In the film, Indiana Jones, portrayed by Harrison Ford joins with his father, who is played by Sean Connery, in a quest for the holy grail, the fabled chalice used by Jesus at the last supper.  In the scene that we are about to see, Indy’s father has been wounded by the villain of the movie and our hero is left alone to finish his quest for the grail with nothing more than the guidebook that has led them this far.   (Show Scene) 1:45:33- 1:49:10

In this morning’s scripture passage, Isaiah said to God’s frightened and suffering children, “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; that he may teach us his ways, that we may walk in his paths.” Vs 3  “O house of Jacob, come, let us walk in the light of the Lord.” Vs. 5

Here at the start of Advent these words hold great meaning for us as well.  As Isaiah called God’s children to walk in the path that God had set before them, much like Indiana Jones, you and I also have a path to follow, a quest to pursue, and that is to live a life that reflects the hope, promise, love, and joy that lies at the heart of Jesus life and teaching.   Also like Indy we have been given a guidebook for following that pathway, it is, of course God’s word, the Bible.  And like Indy, when we choose to pursue our quest, it requires that we be willing to trust in the accuracy and reliability of the guidebook that we have been offered.  And that is why Isaiah tells us all to walk in the light of Christ.

In order to pursue God’s call, in order to walk the difficult and treacherous path of faith, it requires that we trust in the wisdom of God’s holy reversal, it requires that we to look at the world in the light of Christ, a new way of looking at things that illuminates and brings to life all the hope and promise on the path ahead of us no matter how dark and uncertain it may seem.  Learning God’s ways, walking in the path of God, walking in the light of the Lord is living in a way that sees and responds to the world in an entirely new way.

The illness or death of someone that we love.  Financial difficulty, troubled relationships.  For each of us the time, place and circumstance is different, but the reality is the same. Like Indiana Jones, we all have our precipice at which the book, common sense, and even our faith seem to run out.   We look out at the gap that stands between where we are and where we need to be and like Indy we say, “It’s impossible.”  And it then that we too have to be willing to take that leap of faith, for it is only when we are able to step out in trust, it is only when we are willing to walk in the light of Christ, that we find the ability to navigate the more difficult and treacherous of life’s paths.  The way may seem challenging, unreasonable, and sometimes even perhaps downright impossible, however, if we are willing to take that leap of faith, if we are willing to take that first step into the light of Christ, a light that changes everything, then the whole world, and what is possible, changes right before our eyes, just as that walkway, that was there all the time, appeared beneath Indiana Jones’ feet when he took his own leap of faith.

“Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; that he may teach us his ways, that we may walk in his paths.” Vs 3  “O house of Jacob, come, let us walk in the light of the Lord.” Vs. 5
Amen.