Isaiah 63:16-17; 64:1-8 Pastor Nathan P. Kassulke
First Sunday in Advent Sunday, November 29, 2020 “The Promise: Our Father and Redeemer”
How long does it take to keep a promise? I suppose the answer to that question depends on which and what sort of promise is being considered. If a dad promises a child that he will take time to do something together when his work is done, it may take a few hours to get to that point when he will hopefully keep his promise. On the other hand, if mom has promised that the family will make a trip to Disneyland, it could take weeks, months, or maybe even years of saving and planning to make it happen. Without even concerning ourselves about the promises that we end up unable to keep—and perhaps this year we experienced a few more of those, since we couldn’t always plan the way that we once did—apart from those, some promises just take longer for us to accomplish and keep. Sometimes a promise has a timeframe that is longer than even our lifetimes. That’s not the sort of promise we should be in the business of making, since that makes it an unkept promise for us. But God can make a promise and he can keep it even if the making and the keeping of the promise are lifetimes apart. In fact, for some of God’s greatest promises, that is exactly the case. Today and in the next two weeks, we are looking at sections of Isaiah’s prophecy in our sermons. And Isaiah stands at an interesting point in salvation history. He prophesied right around 700 years before the birth of Jesus Christ. In other words, some of the promises we will hear from that prophet took around 700 years to be kept. The reality, though, is that many promises of God took much longer. All of salvation history really hinges on one promise: the promise of a Savior from sin. That promise was first given to Adam and Eve when they first sinned, and it wasn’t kept, it wasn’t fulfilled, until thousands of years later. And in the meantime, God expanded on the promise. He shared details about it. He shared it with other people and with specific people groups. He used different imagery and color to drive the point home in different circumstances. And he made other promises that were either supporting the promise of the Savior or were resulting from the promise of a Savior. One example of what I mean by a promise resulting from the promise of the Savior is the promise that the Savior, having completed his work, would come back to bring this world to its conclusion. He will come back to judge. He will come back on the Last Day and will usher in the eternal kingdom. That’s the other big promise of Scripture, one that has already taken lifetimes before being fulfilled, and we have no idea when that promise will be kept. But we know it will. Isaiah knew it would, too. The section from his prophecy that is before us today is not so much a specific expression of God’s promise, but the prophet’s Spirit-moved commentary about promises that God had made and the track record that God had established. Isaiah tells us plainly that God has a track record of both destruction and salvation. He says, “You did amazing things that we did not expect. You came down. Mountains quaked because of your presence.” God had put on all sorts of incredible displays of his power. He inflicted the Egyptians with ten plagues. He parted the Red Sea and brought it back into its place again. He rained hailstones on his people’s enemies. He made the walls of Jericho fall. He brought down fire from heaven to consume an offering while rebuking the prophets of Baal. And in instance after instance, his mighty acts did two things: they saved his people, those people who held to his promises, the people who trusted him, the people who listened to his voice and humbled themselves before him. And the other thing those powerful acts did was destroy the people who opposed him. The Israelites walked through the Red Sea on dry ground, a wall of water to the right and a wall of water to the left. And after them came the Egyptians, Pharaoh and his army, and on them the waters crashed down. They were buried and drowned. Isaiah’s plea is that God would act again. “Oh, that you would rip open the heavens and come down. Mountains then would quake because of your presence. As fire ignites stubble and as fire makes water
boil, make your name known to your adversaries. Then nations would quake in your presence.” “Do now what you did before,” Isaiah implores. “Destroy your enemies, and save your people.” Isaiah had been called to often share a different message. He warned that the people of Israel would be destroyed, that their enemies would defeat them. So much of what Isaiah had been called by God to say to the people was bad news. He rebuked them. Again and again he needed to confront their wandering, their idolatry, their violent behavior, their immorality. What God expected from his people he did not find, in spite of his track record of helping and saving them. Even God’s people fall into the same category as everyone else in the world, and that is natural born sinners. Where can anyone turn for help when they are forced to admit, “All of us have become like something unclean, and all our righteous acts are like a filthy cloth.” Those words describe us, too, at least by nature. That is the way we come into the world, born from sinful parents. Even the best work that we can put forward is no better than a filthy, used up rag. Isaiah looked at the people of Israel around him and said, “there is no one who calls on [God’s name]…you hid your face from us. You made us melt by the power of our guilt.” Our guilt is as real and as powerful. We have seen ample evidence that there is but one God who fights for his people, and we have failed him. We have wandered from him. We have preferred someone or something else too often. So where does that leave us? God not only has a track record of both destruction and salvation, he has made promises of both destruction and salvation. When Jesus returns, he will judge. He will condemn to hell. He will punish and destroy. Listen to his own warning from today’s Gospel: “If he comes suddenly, do not let him find you sleeping…. Keep watch!” His warnings are stark for sinners. His threats are real. Yes, his threats are real, but so are his promises. Isaiah holds out hope because he knows God’s promises. He calls the Lord our Father and our Redeemer. Not only is God our Father because he created the world and all people, he is our Father because he has adopted us to be his own. He has called us to be members of his family, united us to himself through Jesus Christ. He has redeemed us by the blood of Christ. In the Old Testament, believers looked forward to the one that had been promised all the way back to Adam and Eve. In the New Testament times, we now look back on that promise fulfilled. We have seen on the pages of Scripture and through the eyes of faith how God sent his only-begotten Son to be the Savior of the world. The sinless Son of God was born to a virgin mother, grew up as an obedient child, served faithfully as a teacher, and offered up his own perfect life for the sins of the world on the cruel cross. He acted at that time in a way that did not shake mountains or terrify nations, but in a way that demonstrated his tender love and mercy. In him we are a part of the family of God, the people of God, the spiritual heirs of the kingdom of Israel. And God molds us and shapes us. He is like the potter making his clay vessels exactly as he chooses. He shapes and molds us to be more and more like his Son, to be more and more obedient to his Word, to be more and more firm in the faith he has worked in our hearts to trust his promises. This is his promise. He is our Father and Redeemer. We are the work of his hand, in spite of our sins, in spite of our rebellion. And therefore we are prepared for that great and awesome day when Jesus returns. Advent reminds us that we live in a time between the fulfillments of these great promises of God. We know about Christmas. We know how Jesus entered our world for our sake, and we long to and love to celebrate it. We know that his coming in the flesh is just the beginning of his earthly journey that led to the cross and to the grave and beyond. We are waiting to walk in his Word through that path another time as we begin another Church Year. We are also waiting for him to come again. We are watching, we are praying, we are repenting of our sin and asking him to make us ever more like himself until he takes us to be with him. And in the time before he comes in majesty and power, he comes to us in his holy Word and in the sacrament of his body and blood and in the washing of Holy Baptism. How long does it take for a promise to be kept? It depends on the promise. How long will it be until our Savior returns and takes us to be with him? Only God knows. But he will come. And by his grace he has made us ready and will keep us ready. He has promised it.
The Text: Isaiah 63:16–17; 64:1-8 You, the Lord, are our Father. Our Redeemer from everlasting is your name. 17Why do you cause us to wander from your ways, Lord? Why do you harden our heart so that we do not fear you? Return for the sake of your servants, the tribes that are your heritage. Oh, that you would rip open the heavens and come down. Mountains then would quake because of your presence. 2As fire ignites stubble and as fire makes water boil, make your name known to your adversaries. Then nations would quake in your presence. 3You did amazing things that we did not expect. You came down. Mountains quaked because of your presence. 4From ancient times no one has heard. No ear has understood. No eye has seen any god except you, who goes into action for the one who waits for him. 5You meet anyone who joyfully practices righteousness, who remembers you by walking in your ways! But you were angry because we sinned. We have remained in our sins for a long time. Can we still be saved? 6All of us have become like something unclean, and all our righteous acts are like a filthy cloth. All of us have withered like a leaf, and our guilt carries us away like the wind. 7There is no one who calls on your name, who rouses himself to take hold of you. So you hid your face from us. You made us melt by the power of our guilt. 8But now, Lord, you are our father. We are the clay, and you are our potter. All of us are the work of your hand.