Church of the Holy City

O That You Would Come Down

O That You Would Come Down
Rev. Dr. David J. Fekete
December 2, 2012

Isaiah 64:1-9 Mark 13: 24-37 Psalm 80

The Common Christian Lectionary that tells Christian congregations which Bible readings to select each Sunday again chose an Apocalyptic passage. Apocalyptic writings talk about a time when God will come down to earth and set things straight. Mark 13 is an apocalyptic passage which tells about the final judgment on the earth. Our reading from Isaiah was sort of apocalyptic, but not really. In Isaiah the idea of God coming down to earth to straighten things out is there. That idea is an apocalyptic expectation. But the passage is in the form of an appeal to God. It reads, “O that you would rend the heavens and come down.” This passage is a prayer to God, entreating God to come down and set things straight. It is not an apocalyptic prophesy that predicts that great and awesome Day of the Lord, when God will come down to earth.
We can understand just why the ancient Israelites would appeal to God for help, as we read in Isaiah. Things were really bad for the ancient Israelites in the years just before the Advent of Christ. The passage from Isaiah 64 we heard was probably written when the Israelites were returning home from the Babylonian captivity. They were rebuilding their country, including the temple which had been destroyed by the Babylonians. But the new country that they rebuilt was just a remnant of the former glory that Israel had known under David and Solomon. There were power struggles between the priests, the numbers of the Israelites who returned were small, and they were denied a king of their own in this rebuilt province of Persia. The whole rebuilding process was a disappointment to many. But things got worse. Alexander the Great plowed through Israel, conquering as he went. Israel came under Greek rule, and things got so bad that a pig was even sacrificed in the temple in Jerusalem. Then the Romans came through, conquering as they came. In the years before Christ, Israel was a province of the Roman Empire. Gone were the days of self-governance. Gone were the days of the mighty kings. We can understand the words carried from an earlier age, “O that you would rend the heavens and come down.”
We can’t emphasize too much the widespread expectation of the Great Day of the Lord in the years just before Christ. In the early years before Christ, there was widespread expectation that the Great Day of the Lord was coming really soon. The idea that soon God would come down and set the world right, and that the Messiah would rule on the throne of Israel for ever was in the air everywhere. The Dead Sea Scrolls tell us just how anxiously the world awaited the Messiah and the Great Day of the Lord. The Dead Sea Scrolls were written by a monastic community who were awaiting the Great Day of the Lord and the cosmic battle between the forces of light and the forces of darkness. One such text reads,
On that day when the Kittim fall there shall be a battle and horrible carnage before the God of Israel, for it is a day appointed by Him from ancient times as a battle of annihilation for the Sons of Darkness. On that day the congregation of the gods and the congregation of men shall engage one another, resulting in great carnage. The Sons of Light and the forces of Darkness shall fight together to show the strength of God with the roar of a great multitude and the shout of gods and men; a day of disaster (The War Scroll).
The prophesy says that God and the Sons of Light will win this cosmic battle and usher in a time when God will forever rule on earth,
Then at the time appointed by God, His great excellence shall shine for all the times of eternity; for peace and blessing, glory and joy, and long life for all Sons of Light.
This Great Day of the Lord also has a moral component to it. When God sets the world straight, He will also purify the souls of humans. Not only will the world be redeemed, but human hearts will also be rendered pure. The prophesies about human redemption also begin with the understanding that the world is fallen and in need of divine amendment.
In His mysterious insight and glorious wisdom God has countenanced an era in which perversity triumphs, but at the time appointed for visitation He shall destroy such forever. Then shall truth come forth in victory upon the earth. Sullied by wicked ways while perversity rules, at the time of the appointed judgement truth shall be decreed. By His truth God shall then purify all human deeds, and refine some of humanity so as to extinguish every perverse spirit from the inward parts of the flesh, cleansing from every wicked deed by a holy spirit. Like purifying waters, He shall sprinkle each with a spirit of truth, effectual against all the abominations of lying and sullying by an unclean spirit (Charter of a Jewish Sectarian Association).
We see a similar expectation in the New Testament that God will come soon and right the fallen world. In Mark 13:30 Jesus says that the people now living will see this happen: “I tell you the truth, this generation will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened.” This line suggests that the early Christians expected the last judgement to happen in their lifetime. Paul seems to have the same expectation. In 1 Corinthians 7, he writes, “The time is short . . . For this world in its present form is passing away” (29, 31).
Jesus tells us that we do not know the hour when these things will happen. His message, therefore, is to watch; be ready; do not let the Master find us sleeping when He comes. We face God’s judgement every moment and we are called to live our lives as if Christ is coming soon, or perhaps as if Christ has already come to us.
The message we heard from Isaiah seems to reinforce this New Testament message. Isaiah 64:5 tells us, “You come to the help of those who gladly do right, who remember your ways.” This is a clear statement that God gives aid to those who do what is right. In fact, it even says that God comes to those who do what is right. Yet, surprisingly, this same Isaiah 64 was used by Luther, and is still used by some Protestants to support the belief that doing right does not matter to God. They take one line from this chapter for such support, “All our righteous acts are like filthy rags” (64:6). Luther took this to mean that works are not regarded by God except as filthy rags. Thus works do not, works can not save us.
But Isaiah 64 has both teachings in it. God comes to the help of those who do what is right. But also in the same chapter, the feeling of sin is so great that the writer feels even his righteous acts are but filthy rags.
This church teaches a middle road between these two ideas. We are a mystical form of Christianity. This means that we teach a path that brings us into personal relationship with God. Swedenborg teaches that the heaven-bound way is one in which God lives in our hearts and minds. God is Infinite Goodness. So when we have God in us, we will have Goodness in us. This goodness will flow forth in loving good deeds. Technically, we are not the ones doing good. It is God in us that is doing the good that we seem to be doing. But it is of critical import to our spiritual wellbeing that we do good and loving deeds. If we have God in us we will do good deeds spontaneously. Only if we take credit for the good we do will our deeds appear as filthy rags. But even that is too strong a statement. When we begin our spiritual journey, we may be proud of ourselves for doing good, which we have been taught to do. We wouldn’t want to stifle this bud of spiritual life by accusing these good deeds of being filthy rags. We would want to encourage the early efforts of everyone who is doing good. Ultimately, as a person matures spiritually, a person will see that it is God in him or her doing the good.
We do not know the hour when Christ will come. But that hour is every hour of our day, every minute of our life. God is always with us. Let us do the next right thing that life puts in front of us. Let us do the good that we know to do. In Luke 17:21, Jesus says that the kingdom of God is within us. I take that to mean that the great battle between the forces of light and the forces of darkness is going on in our souls. The Great Day of God happens when we turn to what is good, and dispel what is evil. In its discussion of the Great Day of the Lord, the Dead Sea Scrolls talks about these two spirits that contend in our heart. “Until now the spirits of truth and perversity have contended within the human heart” (Charter of a Jewish Sectarian Association).
We do not know when that Great Day of the Lord will happen on the earth–if it will happen visibly at all. We do know, however, about the spirits of perversity and truth that contend within the human heart. We do know about the forces of darkness and light that contend within our soul. We face judgement each waking moment, when we are called to do the next right thing in front of us. God will come and bring aid to us in this cosmic battle. “You come to the help of those who gladly do right, who remember your ways.” When we conquer in this battle, we will be ready to meet Jesus when He comes in the clouds whether visibly, or only in our hearts.

PRAYER

Lord, you have told us in your Word that you come and help those who gladly do right, who remember your ways. And we also read in your Word that a great battle is waged in our souls between forces of light and forces of darkness. In this battle, we implore your promised help, that the forces of light may find a home in our souls forever. There is a great day of judgment at hand. The great judgment day is at every moment of our lives, it is present each choice we make. May we always be ready to meet you on that Great Day. And we humbly ask you to walk with us, day by day, even as we would walk with you.