Amanda McMillen, “We think we want Christmas. What we really want is the second coming.”
As very tempting as it is, I hate to say that I’m not going to preach on the unquenchable fire gospel reading today. I'm really sorry to disappoint you. It was tempting though!
In our reading this morning from the Old Testament, the Messiah’s coming is foretold - we hear the prophecy that from the stump of Jesse, meaning from the family line of Jesse who was the father of King David, and the grandson of Ruth and Boaz, from that family tree, whose family stories fill the Old Testament, will come a shoot - a branch shall grow from its roots. And on this person, this specific branch on the family tree, the spirit of the Lord shall rest, and with righteousness he shall judge the poor, and decide with equity for the meek and bring peace on earth.
At the time of Isaiah’s writing, the Hebrew people are experiencing the very opposite of peace on earth - they’re living through great political upheaval, and they’re hoping desperately for salvation from it. The Israelites were divided into two kingdoms, the Assyrian Empire had just conquered the Northern kingdom of Israel, and Judah the southern kingdom survived but essentially now acts as vassal to the more powerful Assyrians, at constant threat of being overtaken. The Hebrew people, from both kingdoms, are surrounded by fear of the future on all sides.
But Isaiah’s prophecies do not give them political and military strategies for protecting themselves against every enemy and securing their political future. Rather, Isaiah fixes on what’s underneath their immediate needs, their true fears. The Hebrew Bible scholar Abraham Heschel put it this way: “Isaiah could not accept politics as a solution, since politics itself, with its arrogance and disregard of justice, was a problem. When mankind is, as we would say, spiritually sick, something more radical than political sagacity is needed to solve the problem of security.” (91)
Isaiah’s prophecies are hitting on the longing that the Hebrew people have for security. They long for a Messiah to deliver them from their distress - and instead, they get a prophecy that’s about either Jesus’ first coming, 700 years later, or about his second coming in who knows how long, in which he will judge the earth with righteousness and justice.
So to be clear, this prophecy did not solve their immediate problems. In fact, eventually the southern kingdom of Judah is also overtaken by Babylon, then the Persians, then the Greeks, and then Rome. So the Israelites know a thing or two about disappointment. This advent prophecy of Christmas peace would have been met with disappointment.
And Christmas seems to bring out some disappointment, doesn’t it? I’ll try not to be too depressing here, Christmas is such a sparkly time.
But I also often feel like Christmas should be a time of endless joy and peace and love and glitter and cookies, but instead, especially as an adult, with each passing year, it’s increasingly cold, and dark, and I’m just really tired, and the Christmas songs are starting to come across as a kind of forced joy, and I have a constant nagging feeling like I could and should be doing more to celebrate this fleeting time of year before it’s too late. Not to mention all the gifts that need to be bought!
Here’s the reality. Christmas time can often feel like a bit of a let down. Anyone else feel kind of sad on Christmas day, when you know it’s about to be over? Growing up my family would go around one by one on Christmas morning to open our presents as slowly as possible, just to savor each moment and put off that post-present Christmas haze of disappointment as long as we could.
Well if you do feel this way, you can rest assured you’re not alone - this is a classic theme of some of our favorite Christmas movies.
The first that comes to mind is A Charlie Brown Christmas - poor Charlie Brown is inundated by the commercialism of the holiday season and thinks - is this really what Christmas is all about? It all feels so nebulous - the tinsel, the aluminum trees, the itemized lists to santa - what is actually being celebrated here? Charlie Brown takes his questions to Lucy, a self-identified psychologist, and tells her - “I feel depressed. I know I should be happy, but I’m not. My trouble is Christmas, instead of being happy, I just feel sort of let down.” And she replies, “What you need is involvement! Why don’t you direct our Christmas play?” She should really work for a church.
Involvement! That’ll do it! Just fill those calendars with another party, and longer to-do lists - because a to-do list always makes me feel better about myself - how I wish that were true.
The more adult version of the Christmas malaise comes from the classic, Christmas Vacation - Clark Griswold has high hopes for Christmas. The highest possible hopes, actually. With those crazy eyes and an enormous smile plastered to his face, Clark has decided it’s going to be the best Griswold family Christmas these people have ever seen. But after his unexpected backwoods cousins decide to park their RV in front of the house and insist on spending the week with their family, Clark gets locked in a freezing cold attic, his tree explodes when Aunt Bethany’s cat chews on the lights, and finally he receives a jelly subscription instead of the hefty bonus he was expecting at work, Clark loses it in a magnificent fit of rage on Christmas Eve in front of his whole family.
If there was another perfect illustration of the disappointment of Christmas next to Charlie Brown and Clark Griswold, it would be the Israelites in the 8th century BC hearing Isaiah’s prophecy. Isaiah foretells the coming Christ, Jesus of Nazareth, of the line of David, and the Hebrew people who heard this prophecy would not see that savior for another 700 years. Generations later on the family tree! Like, it’s kind of too little, too late at that point. We needed you when the Assyrians were destroying our land and families and any sense of security in the future. And to add insult to that injury, that coming messiah, when he did finally enter stage left 700 years after this turmoil, came as a baby, born among animals, and he lived a humble life of serving the poor, before eventually being killed by those who feared his claims of divinity. Not exactly the powerful king of kings to destroy all other kings in their lifetime that they were surely hoping for.
But Isaiah’s prophecy was not just about Jesus the baby coming in a manger. It was also about his second coming, the underlying theme of this whole season of Advent. A prophecy that the Hebrew people of Isaiah’s time couldn’t even fathom. As Christians we say the creed each week, we believe that Christ will come again to judge the living and the dead by the mercy of the cross through the forgiveness of sins, when his love and faithfulness shall reign forever and ever. But in the meantime, we go back to our regular lives of uncertainty and anxiety and sorrow. And that’s exactly what the Hebrew people of Isaiah’s time did, too.
What does this mean, for us? It means that if you are feeling disappointed by God right now, you are not the first to feel that way. If you are waiting for God to show up, then your story is a lot like our holy scripture.
Christmas will probably always feel like at least a bit of a letdown - it did for the Israelites in Isaiah’s time as they waited for a messiah, and it does for us today. And that’s because we think at this time of year, as we count down the days, that what we want is Christmas, but what we really long for is the second coming of Christ.
Here’s how Isaiah describes that second coming: The wolf shall live with the lamb. The leopard shall lie down with the kid. The calf and the lion and the fatling together, and a little child shall lead them. The cow and the bear shall graze, their young shall lie down together... The nursing child shall play over the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put its hand on the adder’s den. (The asp and the adder being venomous snakes.) Imagine that, the baby plays over the snake’s den. That last image really captured me.
A very common symptom of post-partum depression is anxiety, specifically in the form of intrusive thoughts. Mothers and fathers both experience this. It’s hormonal actually, a way that your brain tries to protect your child from every danger. It’s when you imagine a worst-case scenario danger coming true. You transport yourself there, you imagine it happening, you imagine witnessing it, you imagine what you’d feel. It’s horrible, and it’s extremely common. You imagine the baby over the adder’s den and the very worst happening, in terrible detail.
We know in our world that danger is real. You hear about how your scariest thought happened to someone you know and love, and you are reminded that we are vulnerable and mortal.
Isaiah’s prophecy says - one day, there will be no more danger. No more uncertainty, no more insecurity in the future. There will simply be no reason to fear anything.
What we long for in the second coming is not just another ride on the merry-go-round of the ups and downs of Christmas. Not just another year of a Christmas come and gone. But for God to show up. For peace. No more strife. No more violence - in thought, word, or deed. No more fear. Imagine - no more fear. I mean, just imagine going through your day with no fear. No more anxiety. And why? Because there’s no more danger. Death and sin have been defeated. We and all those we love are safe, secure. Forever. As deep as your disappointment goes, your fear, your insecurity - deeper still is the measure of Christ’s secure and endless love.
The work of God can feel slow. It takes time, generations, in the case of this prophecy, like rings on a family tree. But take heart - a shoot has come from Jesse, and that first coming of Christ at Christmas is a kind of prequel prophecy itself of the second coming - announcing a reign of peace, ushered in by a baby - and when Christ shall come again, with justice and righteousness and love that casts out all fear and all danger, he will wipe away every tear, all disappointment and anxiety will be a foggy distant memory - and he shall reign forever and ever. Let it be.
Amen.
