Today is the first Sunday in Advent.
Advent is the countdown to Christmas, when we remember and celebrate the coming of Jesus, and Jesus, is of course, central to our religion, central to who and what we are.
Why? What's so special or important about Jesus? Why isn't it enough just to have God and be done with it?
Well our two reading today show us the important or Jesus and the difference he makes. Ever seen a before-and-after photo? You know the sort of thing . . . . Our two readings today are a like a pair of before-and-after photos, before and after Christ.
Isaiah is writing about 700 years before Christ and Paul is writing maybe 55 years after Christ – ie 55 years after he was born, or maybe 20 or 25 years after Jesus died, rose and ascended into heaven (The gap between the two readings is about the same as the page number of the Isaiah passage!). From these two readings, one 700 BD and one 55 AD we can see in a nutshell what a difference Jesus makes!
In the first reading God is a God of justice and anger. His people have sinned and he is up in heaven, distant and holy, displeased with his people for their lack of righteousness. In short our Old Testament reading shows a God who is angry with his people because they do not do what is right, socially or spiritually. There is a big gap between God and his people – it is the gap between heaven and earth, between holiness and sin, and this passage from Isaiah is a prayer of confession – an admission of sin and guilt, and a plea for God's mercy and help. The people have rejected God and turned to sin, so God has respected their wishes and left them to it. Pretty soon, though, they are in dire trouble. Their enemies are stronger than them and God's not around to help. Suddenly they need God, but God is absent, distant and is withholding his word and help from them. So Isaiah calls out to God, asking him to break out of heaven, to help and heal, to forgive their sins and give them salvation from their enemies. Interestingly, in his desperation Isaiah appeals to God as "father". That's pretty unusual in the Old Testament and a vital point of contact between the two readings.
But before we move ahead 750 years we should say that this is pretty typical of the relationship between God and his people throughout the Old Testament. It's like an on-off relationship: God loves his people and gives them laws to save them from sinning against him or against each other (the “spiritual” and the "social"). The people drift away from God or rebel against him and start acting in a loveless and selfish way towards God and each other. Then God sends prophets to warn them, so that he might win them back before it's too late. Sometimes the people hear the prophets and heed their call. Other times they don't.
When they don't then God in his holiness and righteous anger withdraws from his people and hands them over to themselves, each other, and their enemies (And that's the three things we need saving from: ourselves, each other, and our enemies. Or as the old prayer book had it: "the world, the flesh and the devil"). Notice the end of this reading: there's a strong sense througout the Old Testament that the wrath of God is the absence of God.
How does God show his displeasure? By going away. After all, that is what his people seem to want. But when God is absent things go wrong. Very wrong. Then – surprise, surprise – the people turn back to God and the whole cycle begins all over again. But not any more.
Why? Because of Jesus. Here we are on advent Sunday counting down, anticipating the birth of Jesus in four weeks' time, but why is that such a big deal? Why is Jesus so important? He is so important precisely because he saves us from this cycle of being on-and-off with God, he saves us from sin, he saves us from God's wrath and he saves us from ourselves, each other, and our enemies.
Let's look now at the second reading. Paul, our author, was familiar with Isaiah and with the text of the passage that we've just been looking at, and there's several points of contact with our first reading. The first to do with the coming of God. In the Isaiah reading there is a hope and yet also a fear that God will come down from heaven. On the one hand they want him to draw close to them and save them. On the other hand they don't want his holiness and righteous anger to visit them. In this New Testament passage God is both already with them and eagerly anticipated. He is with them giving them gifts (v. 7) and strength (v. 8) as they eagerly anticipate the return of Christ. God is booth with them – in a thoroughly good way – and coming to them in way that they are very much looking forward to.
Contrast that to the attitude towards God in the Isaiah passage.
"Advent" means "coming" or "arrival" and in this four week season we celebrate the coming or arrival of Christ. But why? Well, because Jesus saves us from our sin and therefore from the anger and absence of God. How? By being both fully God and fully human. Jesus is as much God as his father and Jesus is as much human as his mother was, or as we are. No more or less divine than his father, God and no more or less human than his mother or his brothers and sisters. So Jesus is acceptable to both us and God. He alone can be the intermediary, the go-between, the intercessor between heaven and earth, between God and us. By his life, death, resurrection and ascension God reconciled the world to himself in and through Christ, who was – and is – the only perfect link to God. In his death Christ took upon himself the all the sin of the world.
Sin is separation from God, but by being God and by taking our sin Christ takes sin and swallows it up “in” God, overwhelming sin and destroying death and by dying he shows his complete empathy and solidarity with the human race and the sacrifice of a life laid down in utter obedience to God. The neat thing is that Jesus is a free gift God of God from God who takes away our sin and gives us his – i.e. God's – righteousness.
What did we do to deserve this? Nothing. It is the sheer grace of God, his free gift of himself to us for our salvation, and so it is Christ who saves from the yo-yo effect of the Old Testament's on-off relationship with God, because Christ takes away the sin of the world and gives us the perfection of God.
So what's the difference between Isaiah in 700 BC and Paul in 55 AD? The answer is in the question: BC is “Before Christ” and AD is "Anno Domini" – the year of our Lord, i.e. life lived in the light of Christ.
So it is that Paul, writing to the church in Corinth, can begin his letter thus:
"Paul, called to be an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and our brother Sosthenes, 2 To the church of God in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus and called to be holy, together with all those everywhere who call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ—their Lord and ours: 3 Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. 4 I always thank God for you because of his grace given you in Christ Jesus. 5 For in him you have been enriched in every way—in all your speaking and in all your knowledge— 6 because our testimony about Christ was confirmed in you. 7 Therefore you do not lack any spiritual gift as you eagerly wait for our Lord Jesus Christ to be revealed. 8 He will keep you strong to the end, so that you will be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 God, who has called you into fellowship with his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, is faithful".
Let's end by hearing it one more time, this from The Message version:
"1 I, Paul, have been called and sent by Jesus, the Messiah, according to God's plan, along with my friend Sosthenes. 2 I send this letter to you in God's church at Corinth , Christians cleaned up by Jesus and set apart for a God-filled life. I include in my greeting all who call out to Jesus, wherever they live. He's their Master as well as ours! 3 May all the gifts and benefits that come from God our Father, and the Master, Jesus Christ, be yours. 4 Every time I think of you--and I think of you often!-I thank God for your lives of free and open access to God, given by Jesus. 5 There's no end to what has happened in you--it's beyond speech, beyond knowledge. 6 The evidence of Christ has been clearly verified in your lives. 7 Just think--you don't need a thing, you've got it all! All God's gifts are right in front of you as you wait expectantly for our Master Jesus to arrive on the scene for the Finale. 8 And not only that, but God himself is right alongside to keep you steady and on track until things are all wrapped up by Jesus. 9 God, who got you started in this spiritual adventure, shares with us the life of his Son and our Master Jesus. He will never give up on you. Never forget that."