Stars of Advent: Star of Destiny

Isaiah 2:1-5; Matthew 24:36-44; Romans 13:11-14

November 28, 2004

1. The darkness was so thick you could cut it! Or, at least, it seemed that thick. Things were not going well in Jerusalem. The prophet Isaiah foretold certain doom. Why? Because its kings sought commercial prosperity and success rather than God’s favor. They neglected the spiritual foundations. One by one, the Kings of Israel had fallen away from God, and had led the people away, too. Jerusalem, the foundation of peace, the once proud City of David, was about to fall. It would be a long time before life got back to normal, but it would happen. And it would not be by accident, for God intended that Jerusalem would once again become the foundation of God’s peace. It was "destined," it was "in the stars," for the name of the city itself comes from two words that foretell its destiny: yahrah [foundation] and shalem [peace]. The Hebrew people stacked words together, much like Native people in America. For instance, the name of our state, "Oklahoma," comes from two Choctaw words: "okla" meaning people and "humma" meaning red, so the state's name literally means "red people." Back in Canaan, Hebrew people chose two words meaning "foundation" and "peace" to name their city, changed the sound of the vowel link between them, and there it is—Yahrushalem, or more modernly, Jerusalem, the city where peace is grounded; the city from which springs the wholeness that God intends for everyone.

2. But it wasn’t just the citizens of Jerusalem who would know this peace! God had eyes set on nations beyond Israel! The second chapter of the Book of the Prophet Isaiah makes that destiny clear. "In days to come, the mountain of the Lord’s house shall be established as the highest of the mountains, and shall be raised above the hills; all the nations shall stream to it. Many people shall come and say, "Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths." For out of Zion shall go forth instruction, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. He shall judge between the nations, and shall arbitrate for many peoples; they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more. O house of Jacob, come, let us walk in the light of the Lord! (Isaiah 2:1-5)

3. But when would it happen? When would that light come? We find the answer from Jesus’ own words as Matthew recorded them. And the answer is:"Nobody knows." To reinforce the surprising nature of that day, Jesus reminded the disciples about the days of Noah. All the people were doing their own thing, and nobody paid any attention to Noah. They were oblivious to the coming disaster until it was too late. In our own times, it’s been popular to interpret these words in Matthew as proof of a rapture—a day, THE day, when the "chosen few" will be magically transported out of this world. But look very closely! There is nothing in Matthew’s gospel to support that notion! What Jesus means is that, just as in the days of Noah when some were gathered into the safety of the ark, but the rest were left to fend for themselves, so it will be when the Son of Man comes. Some will be ready and some will not. Those who are not ready will have to continue to live in darkness.

4. It is these dark days of Advent that remind us of the dark days in the lives of those people. We have our own vivid reminders. Darkness comes much earlier than it did a month ago. That absence of sunlight affects many of us. It’s as if we walk around in a dark cloud until the days begin to lengthen again. And the question always is this: What do we do while we wait? How do we find our way through the darkness of Advent into the light of new life in our lives? How do we? We follow a star.

5. We followed a star the other night. We went to Hutchinson, Kansas, to have Thanksgiving Dinner with Richard’s brother and his family. The sky was a brilliant blue when we left Tulsa Thursday morning; the sun shone brightly, so brightly there was no need for other sources of light. We didn’t need to turn on the car headlights. Coming back that night, however, we drove through some really dark places (except the moon was full, so it wasn’t as dark as it could have been). Away from the city lights, we could see stars. Every time I see stars in a dark sky, I remember one Sunday when I was in high school, when our pastor told a story about one dark night during World War II. He had spent time in Germany, where the trees grow tall and thick. One moonless night he had to lead a convoy along enemy lines to safety. Not far away he could hear shots being fired. He knew the heavy responsibility placed upon him—if he didn’t lead them with extreme care, the Germans would learn their position, and that would be the end of Company L. Of course, they could not turn on their head lights; that would have been a dead giveaway. He took a deep breath, lifted up his head to the heavens, and prayed, "Dear God! Show me the way!" He opened his eyes with his head still raised, and saw stars above him. For a brief moment, he wondered how he could be seeing stars through the thick foliage. In a flash, he knew! He could see those stars because of the road which had been cut through the dense forest. And so he drove, not with eyes ahead to see the road, because it was way too dark to see. He drove with eyes looking up, toward the stars, and led that convoy to the safety of the other side.

6. We have dark places of our lives, too, times when it seems we are caught in a dense forest of the trees of commercial prosperity and success, just like the darkness that engulfed Jerusalem. We cannot see far enough ahead to tell where we are going. But remember, God had eyes looking beyond Jerusalem, to nations like ours. God intends for cities beyond Jerusalem to be "foundations of peace." It is ours for the taking, but we must take it! Now is the time to look up.