Isaiah 64 -1st Advent
Hope in God
Psalm 130:1-8
1 Out of the depths I cry to you, O LORD;
2 O Lord, hear my voice.
Let your ears be attentive
to my cry for mercy.
3 If you, O LORD, kept a record of sins,
O Lord, who could stand?
4 But with you there is forgiveness;
therefore you are feared.
5 I wait for the LORD, my soul waits,
and in his word I put my hope.
6 My soul waits for the Lord
more than watchmen wait for the morning,
more than watchmen wait for the morning.
7 O Israel, put your hope in the LORD,
for with the LORD is unfailing love
and with him is full redemption.
8 He himself will redeem Israel
from all their sins.
Henri Nouwen says that Waiting is not a very popular attitude.
Waiting is not something that people think about
wirh great sympathy.
In fact, most people consider waiting
a waste of time.
Perhaps this is because the culture in which we live
is basically saying,
“Get going! Do something!
Show that you are able to make a difference!
Don’t just sit there and wait!”
As we enter the Advent Season,
it strikes us that this is a season of waiting.
In revisiting the story of God’s plan of salvation –
God’s unstoppable Purpose for humanity –
we come across the many characters in that story
some from the Old and some from the New Testament.
The Season of Advent casts its light
upon the Hope that is transformed
into joyful fulfillment of God’s purpose
as a gift of God’s love.
Everytime that I read the Christmas story
I am touched by the waiting and hoping attitude
of the people of God.
God’s people is a waiting people and a hopeful people.
Zecharia and Elisabeth,
the parents of John the Baptist, are waiting…
Mary is waiting…
and so are Simeon and Anna…
They are waiting for the Lord’s Salvation.
They are living the words of the Psalmist (130:5-6),
5 I wait for the LORD, my soul waits,
and in his word I put my hope.
6 My soul waits for the Lord
more than watchmen wait for the morning.
We may ask, „Why?“
Why are the people waiting?
The Psalmist wrote in a time of national Crisis.
Because of their sin,
the nation of Israel had been taken into Babylonian Captivity.
And, in their time of Captivity
the people were waiting for the nightmare to be over…
Can you imagine
the victimes of Hurricane Catrina…
or of the the South East Asian Tsunami…
the people who were displaced
by guerrilla warfare in Colombia…
or the thousands of Iraqi and American people
affected by daily suicide bomb attacks?
I imagine that these people are also waiting…
and sometimes, I’m sure, they have not much hope left.
When is this ever gonna end?
When is God going to intervene?
But, sometimes God keeps quiet…
for a long time…
and our hope dwindles…
This is sometimes how it is with our waiting…
for the second Advent of our Lord Jesus!
Waiting and hoping requires patience.
That means we must be willing to stay in our situation
and wait actively!
That’s right, active waiting:
which means that we must be attentive to what God is doing
in the midst of the most devastating situations around us.
Hope is trusting that something will be fulfilled,
because He who has promised is faithful.
Our hoping and waiting must be open-ended…
we cannot control the outcome
of that which we hope and wait for.
But, we can say, like Mary did,
“I don’t know what this all means,
but I trust that good things will happen.”
As we enter this Season of Advent
let us trust that something new and beautiful will happen.
Let us be open to the surprise
that the Christ-child will bring.
Auf Gott hoffen
An diesem 1. Advent
denken wir über das hoffnungsvolle Warten nach.
In Jesaja 64:1 hören wir den schmerzhaften Schrei
des Propheten und des Volkes,
das im Finsteren wandelte.
1Ach daß du den Himmel zerrissest und herabführest...
Hier verspüren wir die Verzweiflung des Volkes Gottes,
daß wegen seinem Ungehorsam
in babylonischer Gefangenschaft geriet.
Die Trost- und Hoffnungslosigkeit
ist auch vielen Menschen heute nicht unbekannt.
Wir brauchen nur an die vielen Tausenden denken,
die von Naturkatastrophen, Krieg und Hungersnot
betroffen sind.
Da stehn wir Menschen hilflos da...
alle Hoffnung auf Selbsthilfe ist da umsonst.
Und wir sind geneigt,
unsere Hoffnugslosigkeit mit dem Propheten
zum Himmel empor zu schreien:
1Ach daß du den Himmel zerrissest und herabführest...
Gott, worauf wartest du noch?
Wir brauchen dich jetzt!
Das warten fällt uns schwer.
Ob es im Wartezimmer (sehr angebrachter Name)
beim Arzt ist,
oder auf einen besonderen Anruf oder Besuch,
oder auf die Heilung von verletzten Gefühlen,
oder auch auf die Wiederkunft unseres Herrn Jesus.
So oft, wenn wir am Ende unserer eigenen Kräfte angelangt sind,
stoßen wir den selben Hilferuf aus:
„Ach daß du den Himmel zerrissest und herabführest...“
Die Adventszeit ist eine Zeit zum Warten und zum Hoffen!
Aber dies darf niemals ein gelangweiltes warten sein.
Es soll viel mehr ein erwartungsvolles,
und sogar ein begeistertes Warten sein.
Wie die kleinen Kinder (und warum nicht die Erwachsenen auch) sich auf die Überaschung des Weihnachtsmorgens eineifern,
so soll auch unser actives Warten
auf die Wiederkunft des Heilandes sein.
Mögen wir in dieser Adventszeit
zum hoffnungsvollen Warten belebt werden,
und unser Gebet zum Himmel emporschicken:
„Komm du langersehnter Jesus...
und kehre heute bei uns ein.“