Isaiah 35:1-10
Today Isaiah offers us another poetic vision of all that God promises for the people of Judah: everybody and everything will be restored in a land governed by God. Judah has experienced a period of barrenness and dryness in her relationship with God. All of this God will turn into fertile land where everything can flourish. It is a very exuberant text. The glory of God is seen in a land where everything is restored and blossoms. What was once arid will now become fertile.
It’s getting harder and harder to hold onto a vision proclaimed in these terms. Daily we hear of natural disasters and see the scenes of heart-breaking devastation. By all accounts we’ve been too slow to read the signs and to understand that each individual choice can have a global effect. In a sermon preached here at Turvey, Br John made the point that the forest fires in Greece were the result of a cycle of grasping and only a cycle of giving can put out the fires.
Though Isaiah’s vision paints a picture of paradise, in previous chapters he hasn’t been slow to point out Judah’s serious shortcomings: ‘Wow to those who add house to house and join field to field until everywhere belongs to them and they are the sole inhabitants of the land.’
Isaiah too knew the cycle of grasping. He warns Judah of God’s impending judgement. The people have a choice; they can acknowledge their failings and seek forgiveness, or ignore them and rep the consequences.
The final stanza of our reading paints a beautiful picture of joy:
‘They will come to Zion shouting for joy,
everlasting joy on their faces:
joy and gladness will go with them and sorrow and lament be ended.’
All of this is possible because God is coming to save his people. God’s promise to come and save is a strong today as it was for Isaiah.
During Advent we can invite God into the most arid places of our lives. In trust and hope we can wait for those places to blossom.