Advent 3 – God’s kingdom brings restoration

Watch the service

Read the sermon

Sing While Sighing

Pain sometimes leads to progress. When you’re growing up, you learn that you need to exercise. And sometimes exercise is not your friend. If you have an injured leg, for example, it’s best to not run on it. But there are some times when pain leads to progress. I remember when I was a child and, for the first time, I ran up the mountains in my back yard. And as my lungs were burning, I thought, “who would do this for fun?” It’s the same when we get older. You get close to 50 or beyond and you get aches and pains. And there is this temptation to just stay in bed when those pains come. But our bodies were meant to move. And sometimes, that pain of moving is a sign of progress. In God’s word this morning we have the same sort of picture. There is this good goal in sight. The goal is heaven, itself. But we need strength to get there. In Isaiah 35, we read these words: “¹ The wilderness and the dry land will be glad; the desert will rejoice and blossom like a wildflower. ² It will blossom abundantly and will also rejoice with joy and singing. The glory of Lebanon will be given to it, the splendor of Carmel and Sharon. They will see the glory of the Lord, the splendor of our God.” (Is. 35:1–2 CSB17)

In these words Isaiah gives us a beautiful picture of heaven. In heaven we will see God’s splendor. In heaven there will be nothing but singing. That’s our goal. So notice then where Isaiah travels in his words: “³ Strengthen the weak hands, steady the shaking knees! ⁴ Say to the cowardly: “Be strong; do not fear!” (Is. 35:3–4 CSB17)

Isaiah uses the illustration of shaking hands. What do you do when your hands are weak and shake? You strengthen them. It’s true of our hands. But it’s even more true of our hearts. In this bible translation we read the word, “cowardly.” And that’s fine. It captures the thought. For the thought is that our heart runs away when it should stay.¹ And in the words that follow, Isaiah gives us examples where, in heaven, there will not be these fearful examples where we have every good reason on this side of heaven to have our hearts run away when they should stay: “⁴ Here is your God; vengeance is coming. God’s retribution is coming; he will save you.” ⁵ Then the eyes of the blind will be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped. ⁶ Then the lame will leap like a deer, and the tongue of the mute will sing for joy, for water will gush in the wilderness, and streams in the desert; ⁷ the parched ground will become a pool, and the thirsty land, springs. In the haunt of jackals, in their lairs, there will be grass, reeds, and papyrus. ⁸ A road will be there and a way; it will be called the Holy Way. The unclean will not travel on it, but it will be for the one who walks the path. Fools will not wander on it. ⁹ There will be no lion there, and no vicious beast will go up on it; they will not be found there. But the redeemed will walk on it, ¹⁰ and the ransomed of the Lord will return and come to Zion with singing, crowned with unending joy.” (Is. 35:4–10 CSB17)

Isaiah invites us to strengthen our hands and hearts. Why? Our Lord is coming. And what is it that comes with him? First, Retribution is coming with him. Retribution is a fancy word for “payback.”² In our lives there are people who hurt and harm us. Some are vicious and malevolent. They wish and want harm for us. And when we are hurt by others, it’s like someone coming along and hitting us in the gut. It comes out of nowhere, and it hurts.

The Lord will come with retribution against the malevolent. But the Lord will also come with retribution against the incompetent. There are those who intend to hurt us and then do so. But just as bad sometimes are those who think they are doing the right thing and saying the right words. And with their ignorance and incompetence they do harm—real harm. In the book of Job, for example, Job loses his animals and almost all his family. And his friends tell him both to get over it and also that if he were a better person this wouldn’t have happened to him. And the horrible part about this is that we feel we have no right to get angry because the harm they do is done out of ignorance and incompetence.

So the Lord promises to come with retribution. And he also promises to come with redemption. What if, my dear friends in Christ, you were the one who wanted and wished evil on someone else? What if there were times in your life when far more than wanting harm, you caused it with your words and your actions. We all fit in that category, don’t we? What if there were times when we caused harm to others, not through malevolence, but instead through incompetence? For my friends in Christ, there have been. And the shocking part of this truth, is that, most-likely we said unkind and foolish words. And the person was so hurt that they never corrected us. When we realize that we need redemption is sucks the breath out of us. For with malevolence and incompetence, we have harmed others. And our good and gracious Lord sees this. He moves us to repent of our sin. Then he promises that the price that Jesus paid to take away the sins of the entire world is our own possession. We are redeemed from sin.

But there is one final way in which the Lord will bring redemption. He will also redeem us from death. This past year I had 17 funerals. And, on many occasions, when I was there at the bedside of someone who either was dying or who had died, was people who had no tools to deal with this shock. They sat there sighing. It was as if someone came along and hit each of them in the gut. For, when someone we love dies, in that shock and grief our hearts and hands have no tools to deal with that kind of hurt. And that’s why these words are so important for us to hear: Your Lord will come. He will come with retribution against those who were malevolent and incompetent. He will come with redemption for sin and death. This is a truth that is promised. But in our final words we see that this is a truth that is practiced: “Joy and gladness will overtake them, and sorrow and sighing will flee.” (Is. 35:10 CSB17)

Isaiah starts out by saying, “strengthen your hearts and hands.” When it comes to hurt done to us and the hurt done to others and death itself, we are so often robbed of breath and hope, as if we were hit in the gut. So the Lord lets us know that he will come with retribution and redemption. But that truth that is promised we can practice. Singing and joy will rush up and surprise us on that day. But my dear friends in Christ, we sing today too. We sing so that the joy that is promised us then will begin to be ours now.

I think about this at funerals. A person dies. And then what do we do? We have a funeral. I used to wonder at the wisdom in this. We take the loved ones who could be grieving alone in in their own way. And then we put them in a church and make them sing a the very same time they are gasping for breath amidst their tears. Now I understand. We don’t sing at the end of sighing. we sing while sighing so that the joy that is promised to us will reach our hands and our hearts. That joy and peace might not reach your hands and hearts right away. And it might not be there every day. But that joy will be there alongside that sighing. That’s why there is handed down to us such a rich heritage of hymns that no modern hymn can seem to match. When I die, I want in that funeral service to be singing along with the sighing. Think, my dear friends, of some of our treasured hymns that speak and preach this way:

God gives me my days of gladness, and I will trust him still When he sends me sadness. God is good; his love attends me day by day, come what may, guides me and defends me.

O highest joy by mortals won, true Son of God and Mary’s son, the highborn King of ages! In your blest body let me be, e’en as the branch is in the tree, your life my life supplying. Sighing, crying for the savor of your favor, resting never till I rest in you forever.

Joy is what is promised to you. It’s there and it will surprise you there in heaven. But that joy is ours right now too. So let us strengthen our hearts and our hands. Amidst the sighing and crying, let there be singing. Amen.