Preacher: The Rev’d Jenny Wilson, Canon Precentor

 In the name of God, creating, redeeming, sanctifying, … Amen.

Isaiah Chapter 40. The scene is a courtroom, so the scholars tell us. What we are witnessing is a trial in the midst of a heavenly council in which Israel and the nations are participants. In a court of law witnesses speak out giving their testimony. The court has no access to the truth of the situation on which it must pronounce judgement other than the testimony of the witnesses. Each witness speaks giving their version of the events under question, and the court, in its decision, makes the truth. In a heavenly court, the truth decided upon is of profound importance. Those present in the courtroom are witnessing revelation. Revelation about the nature of God.

The first voice in this court which the heavenly Hansard, if you like, records in the 40th Chapter of the Book Isaiah, is the voice of God:

Comfort, O comfort my people,
says your God.
Speak tenderly to Jerusalem,
and cry to her
that she has served her term,
that her penalty is paid,
that she has received from the Lord’s hand
double for all her sins.
(Isaiah 40:1-2)

Those reading or hearing the book Isaiah read would have been shocked by an abrupt jump of the plot. In previous chapters the destruction of Jerusalem and the deportation of the Israelite people into Babylon have been predicted. In fact at the close of Chapter 39, Isaiah speaks the following words to the king :

Isaiah said to Hezekiah, ‘Hear the word of the Lord of hosts: Days are coming when all that is in your house, and that which your ancestors have stored up until this day, shall be carried to Babylon; nothing shall be left, says the Lord. (39:5-6)

Days are coming? It is clear from the words of the witness, God, in the heavenly court, that these events have taken place. Jerusalem has served her term, her penalty is paid; she has received from the Lord’s hand double for all her sins. A significant boundary is crossed in this prophetic book when the reader/hearer enters Chapter 40. We are now in exile. It is into the context of utter devastation, of a people who have lost everything except their memory and their stories, that this court scene is played out.

God speaks a new word. A word of comfort. God names the Israelites God’s people. And God pronounces that their term has been served. Israel is forgiven. This is God’s testimony in the heavenly court.

Then a second voice cries out, a second witness is heard:

In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord,
make straight in the desert a highway for our God.
4 Every valley shall be lifted up,
and every mountain and hill be made low;
the uneven ground shall become level,
and the rough places a plain.
5 Then the glory of the Lord shall be revealed,
and all people shall see it together,
for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.
(40:3-5)

God in God’s testimony has instructed the people to speak tenderly to Jerusalem and to cry out that her sins are forgiven. But the poetic voice of this second witness speaks a truth well beyond what God has asked for. To quote one scholar: What we hear ‘from this voice is not relevant for Jerusalem or God’s people only. Creation itself is affected. God’s glory will be revealed and “all people shall see it together.”’

This voice speaks of the revealing of God’s glory and what is significant is the way in which this revelation will come. The way of the Lord will be in the wilderness, the highway for God will be through the desert. The rough places will be made plain. This heavenly voice seems to be pointing to the fact that it is through the desolate places, the places where God’s people are challenged, or tempted or defeated even, that God will come. In the stories of the Israelite people, the wilderness and the desert have profound significance. In the story of the Exodus, the wilderness lies between slavery in Egypt and freedom in the Promised Land. And John the Baptist and Jesus go to the wilderness to prepare for their life’s work, facing the temptation of human frailty there, exploring the reality of sin there.

The third voice in the heavenly court addresses human frailty.

A voice says, ‘Cry out!’
And I said, ‘What shall I cry?’
All people are grass,
their constancy is like the flower of the field.
7 The grass withers, the flower fades,
when the breath of the Lord blows upon it;
surely the people are grass.
8 The grass withers, the flower fades;
but the word of our God will stand for ever.
(40:6-8)

All theology, a word that literally means speech about God, all theology addresses the nature of God and the nature of creation, and, in the midst of its address on the nature of creation, the nature of human beings. The third witness in this heavenly court, whose topic is surely theology, now offers a testimony that digs deep into the frailty of what it is to be a human being. “Their constancy is like the flower of the field” which withers and fades as the grass withers and the flower fades. Put bluntly, our life on this earth begins with birth and ends with death. But the word of our God endures forever. What is interesting in this speech, so the Hebrew scholars tells us, is that the Hebrew word for constancy is closely linked to hesed the word so frequently used in the Old Testament to describe the loving kindness of God. Human constancy is compared with God’s – we are like the flowers of the field – but the word of God will stand forever.

This witness finishes with a testimony that is profound and that is taken as theophany – a revelation of God – by the heavenly court.

Get you up to a high mountain,
O Zion, herald of good tidings;
*
lift up your voice with strength,
O Jerusalem, herald of good tidings,
*
lift it up, do not fear;
say to the cities of Judah,
‘Here is your God!’
(40:9)

God is here. Speak that truth now not only in the heavenly court but from the high mountain, cry it out as a herald would cry out the good news of king’s arrival. God is here. With might and yet with the gentleness of a shepherd who feeds his flock and gathers the lambs into his arms.

Isaiah Chapter 40. A court scene, so the scholars tell us. The court has no access to the truth of the situation on which it must pronounce judgement, remember, other than the testimony of these witnesses. We have, in our Old Testament reading this evening, a record of just the first few witnesses in this scene. Each witness speaks giving their version of the events under question, and the court, in its decision, makes the truth. In these few witnesses, we hear the ground laid for the searching out of a deep truth. There is God. Our witnesses tell us. And there is frail humanity.

And God comes. On a highway through the wilderness of human frailty. God comes through the time and places of great struggle. God comes in the time of the exile and God comes in all times and places of great struggle. God comes, speaking words of comfort. God comes with might and yet with the gentleness of a shepherd who feeds his flock and gathers the lambs into his arms.