Voices of Hope: Isaiah Begins

305th Edition – December 2024

Advent is both a season of vigilance and hope. It invites us to reflect on the warnings of the prophets whose radical voices not only alerted their contemporaries but warn us as well. Isaiah is one of those voices. He was a man of profound faith: a faith that enabled him to condemn the destructive forces of his day, while at the same time, seeing through the darkness and proclaiming without hesitancy words of hope. His voice instructs us during this Advent season. Stay awake, he says. Identify and confront the evils of our day: the false prophets and the chaos they sow. He also instructs us to stay awake and be attentive to the invisible God whose presence we meet every day. Because we have the eyes of faith we, like Isaiah, can wait attentively for the Light to dispel the darkness. All is not dark. There are other prophets in scripture and authors who reflect Isaiah’s theology. Tagore, the Indian poet/philosopher, offered his contemporaries a poetic image that reflects Isaiah’s and our Advent faith. “Faith is like the bird who feels the light and sings while the dawn is still dark.”

Advent is a season of preparation: a time to prepare ourselves to celebrate Christ’s birth. It’s a time to commit ourselves to prayer, to consciously make space and reflect on our lives and the world around us. With this in mind, I am suggesting the following. Set aside 15 minutes each day to pray with the following quotes from the Prophet Isaiah and other insightful preachers. Journal. Write a prayer. Draw an image. Create a poem. Spend quality time reflecting on these hope-filled voices especially when we feel anxious or uprooted by the daily news.

Hope looms large in the second part of the Book of Isaiah. Beginning with Chapter 40, “The Book of the Consolation of Israel,” Isaiah offers us comforting words. He paints the big picture and asks us questions, questions that lift us out of our everyday concerns; questions that ask us to consider the immensity and vastness of creation and our place in it.

Who has measured with their palm the waters, marked off the heavens
with a span, held in their fingers the dust of the earth, weighed the mountains in scales and the hills in a balance? Who advised the spirit
of God? What counselor could have instructed God? See, the nations
count as a drop in the bucket, as a wisp of cloud on the scales; the
coastlands weigh no more than a speck.” You whom I brought from
the confines of the earth, and called from the end of the world (40:12-13).

Similarly, Job in The Book of Job asks:

Have you visited the place where snow is kept or seen
where hail is stored? Who carves a channel for the
downpour and hacks a way for the rolling thunder? What
womb brings forth ice and gives birth to the frost of heaven
when the waters grow hard as stone? (Job 38: 22, 25)

Isaiah reminds us that God does not leave us on our own. Echoing the Psalms, “God’s strong right arm upholds us.”

You are my servant, I have chosen you, not rejected you.
Do not be afraid, for I am with you; stop being anxious and
watch, for I am your God. I give you strength. I hold you with
my right hand (Is 41:9 -10).

God has led us through many challenges before and is leading us now through experiences that threaten us with “death.” But!

Should you pass through the sea I will be with you. Should you walk through fire you will not be scorched and the flames will not burn you.
You are precious in my eyes and I love you (43:2-4).

I have formed you. I will not forget you (Isaiah 44:21).

Psalm 27 reminds us that God can never abandon us. “Even if my father and mother abandon me, the Lord will hold me close.”

God is always calling us to something new, a deeper trust and relationship. We were birthed out of Love and Love continues revealing our true identity.

I call you by a new name… No longer are you to be named
forsaken, nor your land abandoned, but you shall be called
my delight for I take delight in you (Isaiah 62:2).

Something new is happening to all of us. There is no one word to express our experiences. We are slowly identifying the depth of the changes. Yet, we are confident that the Divine is with us as we respond.
No need to recall the past, no need to think about what was done before.
See I am doing something new, even now it comes to light. Can you not
see it? Yes, I am making a road in the wilderness, paths in the wild
(Isaiah 43:18).

It is helpful to recall the past, but Isaiah is emphasizing that God is doing something even more astounding now. We trust God because God has seen us through fire and storm. In those times of pain and struggle new visions were born. Obedience to God requires a willingness to go forward in trust even when it is impossible to see how God will bring blessing and goodness out of the horrendous suffering.

Isaiah, Job, and the Psalms are ancient voices of hope. In our modern world, their words take on a new energy and focus. Their visions challenge us to deepen our hope. Strengthened by prayer, we are able to stand firm and wait for God’s promises to be fully realized.

This waiting time we call Advent gives us pause to reflect on our lives in prayer and silence. It gives us time to ask what is happening around us. It gives us a chance to make new choices about how we can birth hope in our lives and the lives of others. Our actions and attitudes have important repercussions. When we give bread to another, it feeds real hunger. When we attentively listen to another, it feeds the soul. When we work on issues of justice with people of goodwill striving for the common good, we help bring about the restoration of the land and the people. When we work to protect the earth, others will join us because they realize they are protecting their children’s children.

Hope rests in trusting and actively believing that God can do great things even in the “even if” parts of our lives. Even if there is greed in the world, there are many people sharing their food and their resources with those who are in need. Even if there is a growing fear of violence and continued escalation of war, there are people everywhere choosing the path of reconciliation and active nonviolence. Even if we experience the power of international corporations, there is a large and ever-growing movement of international socially responsible investors whose voices cannot be shut out of corporate board rooms or political caucuses. Even if the powerful oil and gas corporations dominated the Climate Conference, there are vocal and larger coalitions forcing their way forward.

I hope this article will encourage you to spend time in prayer reflecting on these quotes or other significant writings. Perhaps by doing so we will become like the bird who feels the light and sings while the dawn is still dark – true Advent people!

An additional Prayer

A Prayer of a Mystic Anonymous

Every noon at twelve in the blazing heat God comes to me in the form of two hundred grams of gruel. I know God in every grain. I taste God in every lick. I commune with God as I gulp, for God keeps me alive, with two hundred grams of gruel. I wait until next noon and now know God will come; I can hope to live one day more for you made God come to me as two hundred grams of gruel. I know now that God loves me – not until you made it possible. Now I know what you’re speaking about for God so loved the world that God gave God’s only son every noon through you.