Blossoms in the Desert

Isaiah 35:1-10

Using a favorite phrase of my friend Nancy, we have heard from a veritable plethora of prophets this morning.  There’s John the Baptist wondering if his prophecies about Jesus are true.  We hear Mary singing that the world is going to be a better place because of the son she is carrying and if that’s not prophecy, I don’t know what is.  And then we have Isaiah bringing hope to a captive people.  With so many prophets at hand, how is a preacher supposed to choose?  How do we focus our attention with so many working to grab that very attention we seek to focus?

Well, being a visual person, I went with the prophet who used visuals in his message and that of course is Isaiah.  Right there in the first sentence, Isaiah had me: “the desert shall rejoice and blossom.”  It didn’t take long for my imagination to get rolling.  In fact, my imagination didn’t have to come into play; I had my own memories to draw on.

During my time in Australia, I ventured forth into the great center of that continent, to the huge red desert that makes up a large majority of the land mass.  I went in winter, which meant that the temperatures were bearable.  But it also meant that in some of the places there had been some rain, an extremely rare occurrence, which I didn’t experience myself but which had preceded me.

Thus I got to see the desert in bloom, which I was told only happens once every six or seven years.  I counted myself lucky to see this rare event and it is permanently etched in my memory.

That’s what prophets do; they jog your imagination and stir up your memory and by bringing up the past show off the potential of the future.  Isaiah does that in spades in this verse and it’s needed in this instance.

This portion of Isaiah was written after the great exile of the people from Jerusalem to Babylon.  In fact, a generation or so had passed since that terrible event when the Babylonians had swept in, destroyed the holy city Jerusalem, and taken many of the city’s inhabitants as captives, transporting them to Babylon.

This prophet, whom we call Second Isaiah, came along and wanted to keep up the Jewish people’s interest in their land.  Second Isaiah was a cheerleader of sorts for the old country.  Memories were fading and Isaiah found it his job to remind the people what they had left behind.  Some of the folks were getting too comfortable in Babylon: some were attaining positions of importance and marriages were occurring between the Jewish people and the Babylonians.  Isaiah worked to remind them of the place they had left, which had long ago been promised to them.

Isaiah was stirring the people’s memories and inciting their imaginations so that they could envision a future in which they returned to their land.  Between them and their home though lay a vast desert.  A way had to be made there so that the return would be not only safe but also pleasant.  So no wild animals will attack and yes, there will be blossoms to make the way agreeable.

Isaiah knew his audience.  That vast desert between the exiles and home had to be made  traversable.  And it was God who was going to do just that; God would make the way back to Jerusalem available to all who wanted to return.  Not only that, the lame wouldn’t just be able to walk, they’d be leaping.  The speechless wouldn’t just talk: they’d be singing out in joy.  All manner of miracles will take place when God gets involved.  And God is definitely getting involved here.  After the hardship of exile, God is ready to renew God’s relationship with the people of Judah.  Isaiah was talking about restoration.  Justice. Healing.  Joy.  Words that seem impossible to a people in exile.  Are they impossible for us to hear though?

It is the sort of the thing we need to hear this Advent, isn’t it?  Though we aren’t in exile, it feels like we might be in some sort of spiritual exile, doesn’t it?  For instance, across the globe there are many who need a simple thing like water in order to survive, but who won’t get it.  Our war in Afghanistan goes on without any resolution or completion in sight.  The economy remains stubbornly lackluster leaving many un- or underemployed.  And here in our dear community of Chalice, we are facing 2011 with many questions about our future and how we shall remake ourselves.  If ever we needed God’s involvement and attention, as a church, as a nation, as a world, it is now. 

God doesn’t create lush gardens in the desert however for people who don’t want to return.  God doesn’t give sight to the blind who don’t want to see.  That’s why the prophet, Isaiah, needed to get the Jewish people into a state where they wanted to return.  Because if they were going to want to remain an exilic people, God wasn’t going to do those miraculous events for nothing.

Enough of us have to want to return home, to leave exile.  Enough of us have to want to walk again or see again or speak again.  Enough of us have to believe the prophecy that we will be able to go home again, believe it enough to pack our bags and have them waiting at the door, waiting for the desert to bloom and for God’s way to be made through the wilderness.

Yes, our veritable plethora of prophets, headed by Isaiah, all are saying about the same thing: this can be a different world but you need to allow God in and not rely only on yourselves.  Then, when we’ve let God into our lives and allow God to act as God alone can act, will the miraculous happen.  The desert blooming, for instance.