Is. 40:1-11, Ps. 85

After words of warning, we hear a decidedly different voice: one of comfort. Instead of shouts of warning, we hear of tenderness. Instead f the word of impending doom hanging overhead, we hear enough is enough. The dreadful waiting was over; the feared punishment had indeed come, and their country was in ruins. A page in national life had turned.

Instead of wilderness wandering, the people will be treated to a divine super-highway, with the obstacles flattened. One day our journey won’t be so hard, but it will be an easy trip. The bathrooms in the rest stops will all be clean. The vending machines will be cheap and will all work. Perhaps the second coming will come with the words of Ps. 85, a time when righteousness and peace will kiss each other. One day all of the obstacles we have built against peace will fall, and the problem will be in creating conflicts. Let alone war. One day we won’t need laws to keep us inline.

After this wonderful announcement, heaven wants the news to spread, and we move to a dialogue in and with heaven. The prophet’s words in response to the request to announce the comforting news that the punishments are at an end are utterly depressed. After all, the prophet has seen destruction. Why bother, life is so fragile, so transient, so ephemeral. God’s breath/spirit does cause flourishing but withering. What’s the use? What’s the point.?

Please note that it seems that the prophet is in the midst of a vision in the midst of heaven, and his first word is arguing with the assembled host. I think that prophet’s sudden shift from depression to hope is the result of the prophet’s cathartic words of depression allowing him to see a note of hope What does it mean to you to have stability and confidence in the security fo the word of God? Here’s something to hold on to, the faithful promise of God. To be able to pray like this is a sign of abundant trust in God’s patience. We’re family, and families need to talk things out sometimes.

At passage end, we have 2 images of God: one of might and one of compassion. The emphasis seems to me to be on the gentleness after the terrifying destruction of Jerusalem and the pain of exile. For Christians, the last image redefines the image of God in compassion rather than the iron fist of might. As the faith developed, that second image of God started to blossom. . God’s power is more often demonstrated by the power of tender care and to take on more and more weight, as we can see with Jesus. In the end, the destruction of Jerusalem did not teach a long-lasting lesson for moral change. Somehow suffering must be infused with meaning, noble meaning, or else it serves to depress and corrode the moral sense, not uplift or transform it. Human wrong is so deep-seated that God would work from the inside out. Many of our brothers and sisters practice Advent waiting with undisguised glee at the assumed coming destruction. That leaves out Incarnation and Resurrection. My sense is that God will use examples such as the highway of the Lord to transform and build, not annihilate. Jesus Christ did not lead a life of destruction but of teaching a different path and healing to allow people to discover that path. It’s no accident that Jesus would take on the title of the Good Shepherd. This is a time of year when our hearts go out to people in trouble, and we try to give them a helping hand out fo the troubles. All of us become part of one flock, one family.