Sermon:  "Waiting On the Lord"
Date:   February 5, 2012
Minister:  The Rev. Charles Ensley

Lesson:  Isaiah 40:21-31

To “mount up with wings like eagles” . . . to “run and not be weary” . . . to “walk and not faint.”  It sounds wonderful, doesn’t it?  To be perpetually lifted up, in good spirits, never weary, maybe not even achy.  Sounds like the ideal for those of us who are occasionally down, or tired, or afflicted with this pain or that.

It was a pretty dispirited group to whom the prophet Isaiah spoke some 2,600 years ago.  The ancient Israelites were in exile in Babylon, which is present-day Iraq.  They were uprooted from their homes and familiar surroundings.  Everything they held dear was uprooted.  They felt so oppressed that not a few began to wonder whether the pagan gods of Babylon had more power than Yahweh.  They remember the words of the prophets who warned that Yahweh would bring justice for their repeated idolatries, immoralities, and injustices, and especially for neglecting to trust in Yahweh alone.  God has punished them so harshly, they wonder if he cares for them anymore.  Where is God in this God-forsaken land?  They are grieving… discouraged… weary and weak in body, mind and spirit.  As tears of hurt and anguish flow from their eyes, they overhear Isaiah bringing them these words of Yahweh:  ‘Comfort, O comfort my people, says your God, speak tenderly to their heart…  Those who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength … They shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.’   –Isaiah 40:1-2, 31, paraphrased

The prophet indicates that not only is God able to rescue them, but he is also willing to do so.  And that’s where the prophet begins talking about God giving strength to the faint and powerless, so that those who wait on the Lord—who rely on him—will have a sustaining vigor that exceeds even that of the young and naturally strong.

In the context of the passage, the exiles are surely the ones who are faint and powerless.  They have no say-so over what happens to them.  But they shouldn’t surrender to despair because God is both able and willing to help them.  For their part, they need to wait on the Lord, and when they do, says the prophet, “they shall mount up with wings like eagles…”

We, of course, are not in the sandals of the exiles.  But we, too, have a journey through life that can be exhausting and sapping, for there’s no shortage of things that wear us down. 

There are simply the demands of each day.  Getting up, getting to work, meeting its demands, getting home, dinner, time with the kids or spouse or partner. . . or not.  Maybe you’re part of the “sandwich generation,” torn between simultaneously meeting the needs of both your offspring and your aging parents.  By the time we get to midlife, the juice that enables us to get things done tends to run out before the hours of the day do.  Peggy and I sometimes reminisce about St. Elsewhere and Hill Street Blues—the 10 to 11 p.m. television shows we used to watch earlier in our married life.  Nowadays, thank goodness for DVRs!

There may be problems we face at work, difficulties in our relationships, worries about family members, unwelcome interruptions in our plans and unexpected health difficulties.

Today’s passage from Isaiah still speaks to us 2,600 years later.  It was and still is addressed to people who have been worn down.  To them the prophet advises, “Wait for the Lord.”  Those who wait for the Lord will “not be weary.”  In other words, they’ll be “unweary.”  That’s not a dictionary word, but it captures what this prophecy is saying.  It is not saying, “Just trust God and you’ll be supercharged in the race of life.” On the contrary, the image is more like that of the marathon runner who knows that he or she need not sprint out of the gate and be at the front of crowd by the end of the first mile.  They’ll get tired out.  Pace yourself, do what you can when you can, and you’ll come out ahead in the long run.

What does it mean to wait on the Lord?  It’s a way of describing how if we live and work within the principles put forth in the Gospels, by the church, and the wide scope of the Christian faith, we will be sustained in whatever we face.

We have had some church members face serious surgeries in the past month.  I don’t mean routine, but SERIOUS, the kind that change your life forever.  Both Rev. Susie and I have sought to minister to them, visiting and encouraging them in hospital and home as their pastors, their friends, and as representatives of all of you, the congregation.  They know it is more than just one of their pastors praying at their bedside.  They know they’re on our prayer chain, they’re in these prayer cards, they’re in your own thoughts and prayers.  They won’t suddenly fly around the room like an eagle, but they are buoyed, lifted up by this visible assurance of the Christian faith, reminded of both their own and ours on their behalf.

Since my return last week from a month’s sabbatical, I have been dealing with three families who have had a loved one die; two were church members and the other attended here.  Susie conducted the memorial service here Friday for another church member’s mother.  One of these family members, calling long distance to tell me of the death of her mother last week, said, “I don’t know what people would do without their faith.  That’s the only thing that has seen me through.”  I heard an echo in my head as she said that, for I’ve repeated those very words from this pulpit numerous times.

In both these situations—serious health issues and death within the family—it is indeed faith and trust in the Lord’s unfailing strength and love that can and will give you the strength to get through whatever you face.  That doesn’t mean you will always get the miracle you request and hope for; but rather because you wait on the Lord, no matter what happens, your life is in God’s hands, and they are hands bearing great love.

In short, waiting on the Lord means carrying on with the tasks at hand in a state of trust.  When we do that, the continuing on itself can become the medium through which God strengthens us.

In the concluding paragraph of his commentary on today’s text, Christopher R. Seitz, professor of Old Testament at St. Andrew’s University in Scotland, writes:

“The Old Testament records the cry of God’s people, honest and anguished and bold.  It records that God’s people set their outrage and complaint before God as the one who is the source both of anguish and of hope.  It records that God answers on those terms, yet with divine freedom and wisdom.  It is on these same terms that we [today] deal with the Holy One of Israel, whose faithfulness has been displayed before all the world in the raising of Jesus.  There can be no place of discouragement, for all has been seen and lived and redeemed in the Son of God, to the glory of the Father.  This means we know where our hope lies, eternally and surely.”

  (The New Interpreter’s Bible, Nashville, Abingdon Press:  2001, vol. VI, p. 346)