A Gentle Rain in the Desert

 

Isaiah 35:1-10

Advent 3 / Year A

In the fall of 2018, when Tom Coxe and I went with a group to the Holy Land, we walked along a path on the hills above the Wadi Qelt, a gulch created by a seasonal stream which begins in Jerusalem and winds it way down to Jericho and the Jordon River.  It is the setting for Jesus’ parable of the Good Samaritan where a traveler is accosted by bandits.  The only threat we faced was posed by local venders hocking goods for sale to tourists like us. 

At the time of our visit the rolling hills and deep ravines of this region were completely devoid of vegetation.  After being in the Holy Land for a few days, we had grown accustomed to landscape of nothing more than dust and stones – more stones than you could ever imagine (at least this was our reaction on the first initial days of our pilgrimage).  Many biblical passages refer to ‘the desert’ and now we were in it, or at least one part of one desolate land.  The barren and bleak nature of the Wadi Qelt is unforgettable.

Six months later, the Mottley’s went to the Holy Land and posted a picture from the Wadi Qelt – no doubt from the exact same spot Tom and I had been the previous fall.  Their visit fell just after the spring rains and what had been nothing but a dirt and rock-strewn landscape we were there was for them covered with red crocus, as if someone had carpeted the entire place.  These desert flowers have adapted to the harsh, arid environment and burst to life almost overnight, exploding in color after even a little moisture wets the ground.

The prophet Isaiah, speaking at a low point in his people’s history when tens of thousands have been taken captive and held in forced exile, draws on the image of the desert flower to proclaim a message of hope:

The wilderness and the dry land shall be glad,

the desert shall rejoice and blossom;

  like the crocus it shall blossom abundantly,

  and rejoice with joy and singing.

Why forecast this happiness?  Because, Isaiah proclaims with boldness, the exiles will return.  And not just return, return with singing on a “Holy Way” prepared by the Lord.  Unlike the Wadi Qelt, with its twists and turns and hidden dangers, the Lord’s path be so well laid out “not even a fool will go astray” (no GPS will be necessary!).  It will be free of danger; not even ravenous beasts will haunt it. 

Isaiah says God is going to restore all who have been broken and battered:

The eyes of the blind shall be opened,

the ears of the deaf unstopped;

  the lame shall leap like a deer,

  the tongue of the speechless sing for joy.

You can count on this, Isaiah says, just as surely as you can count of the desert breaking forth in bloom after a spring rain.

Isaiah proclaims this message to a people who have lost hope.  God directs him to “strengthen those with weak hands,” “make firm the knees of the feeble,” and encourage everyone who has a “fearful heart.”  His message from the Lord is this: “Everything we have endured and suffered is about to pass.  Just as the desert is transformed by the rain, so too will our lives be changed when the glory of the Lord appears.”   

Isaiah’s message uses a specific Hebrew word – naqam – to describe how God will act.  Various bibles translate this word as vengeance, vindication, or retribution.  The version we heard this morning puts it this way:

Here is your God.

He will come with vengeance,

  with terrible recompense.

  He will come and save you.

The inference is we are good, so we get rewarded.  They are bad, so they get punished. 

One biblical scholar, Hendrik Peels, argues persuasively that because the focus of Isaiah’s message is on liberation of the oppressed, a more accurate translation is God will come with “restorative justice.”  Walter Brueggemann, another scholar, notes we should remember the term vengeance has more than a negative connotation.  It promises “God will come to right wrong, to order chaos, to heal sickness, to restore life to its rightful order.”

Weak hands, feeble knees, and fearful hearts.  If only Isaiah had included aching backs, we might be tempted to believe he is speaking to us also.  In fact, he is.  God is always about the work of righting wrongs, bringing order, healing sickness, and restoring life… in our world, in our nation, and in our personal lives.  We all go through periods of desolation and dryness.  At times life can be overwhelming.  There is never a moment when “the desert” is not descriptive of some facet of our life… a relationship, your job, losing a sense of joy in what once made you happy.  God is about the work of bringing rain to the desert regions of our lives:  

For waters shall break forth in the wilderness,

and streams in the desert;

  the burning sand shall become a pool,

  and the thirsty ground springs of water.

Advent, as we have said, is a time of watching and waiting.  It is a season of hope; hope for the promised gentle rain God promises will fall in our hearts.  Then, like those of old ransomed by the Lord we too…

… shall return,

and come to Zion with singing;

  everlasting joy shall be upon our heads;

  We shall obtain joy and gladness,

  and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.