Isaiah 64:1-9, the First Reading appointed for the First Sunday in Advent in the Year of Mark, is matched very well with the Gospel reading from The Little Apocalypse in Mark 13:24-37. "O that you would tear open the heavens and come down," declares the prophet. The boldness that begins this reading gives way, however, to a confession of sin which tempers this confident beginning. In the end, we see that our relationship with God is key. The balance between Law and Gospel is evident in this text; it will be the preacher's task to bring this forth.
(The following questions are not meant to be exhaustive, but are best used in conjunction with other fine sets of questions available to exegetes. These questions have been formulated to get at a fundamental concern of Law and Gospel preachers, i.e. What is the Word doing? For more on this method and on Law and Gospel preaching in general, see my brief guide, Afflicting the Comfortable, Comforting the Afflicted, available from wipfandstock.com or amazon.)
1. How does the Word function in the text? Both Law and Gospel are evident in this text, partly as a result of the tone of the speaker. In verses 1-5a, we hear much confidence in God's power and love. The writer glories in the idea that mountains quake at God's presence, and nations tremble. The transition seems to come, when in verse 5a the speaker realizes that doing right and remembering God's ways are a requirement of the people of God. As a result, verses 5b-7 are a confession of sins and a recognition that apart from God we wither like a leaf cut off from its water source. But then in verses 8-9 the speaker turns once again, saying, "Yet, O Lord, you are our Father," and later, "Consider, we are all your people." So the Word functions first as Gospel (vs. 1-5a), then as Law (vs. 5b-7), and then returns to Gospel (vs. 8-9).
2. With whom are you identifying in the text? We could take the place of the speaker throughout, if we please. After all, it is common for us to express confidence in God on one occasion, and then on another to despair of our sins and recognize our dependence on God. Another possibility is to choose to explore the confidence we have in God and the idea that we are the clay in God the potter's hands.
3. What, if any, call to obedience is there in this text? The call to repentance which we see in vs. 5b-7 is not a call to obedience. Calls to obedience are always characterized by an invitation to live in a certain way in response to God's grace. That is not what we have here.
4. What Law/Gospel couplet is suggested by this text? From the two different tones in this text we might be able to imagine several couplets that would work here: despair/confidence; guilty/forgiven; dried up/flourishing.
5. Exegetical work: The Lutheran Study Bible has some excellent notes on this particular passage. It notes that this passage is part of a larger structure of Lament-Warrior-Promises-Warrior-Lament which encompasses all of Isa 59:1 - 64:12. The text before us here, then, is part of the final lament. (LSB, p. 1195). Another item noted in these notes is that this section of Third Isaiah is "the only time this title [of Father] is applied directly to God in Isaiah." "...The assumption is that a father...will recognize and help his children, no matter what might try to separate them." (Ibid., p. 1202). Claus Westermann, in his classic commentary, also provides many helpful insights into this text. He reminds us that the context for this passage is found in 63:19, where the speaker laments that "we have long been like those whom you do not rule, like those not called by your name." Westermann translates this verse: "We are as thou hadst not been our lord from of old, like those who are not called by thy name." (The OT Library series, Isaiah 40-66, p. 391). It almost sounds like the speaker is saying that the people of God had been living like those whose god was not their Heavenly Father. Westermann also has much to say about the confession of sin in vs. 5b-7: "What kindled God's wrath which vented itself so terribly on Israel was her unfaithfulness and transgression. Now after the downfall of the state, this is admitted, and the admission is brought before God." "Its transgression made the entire nation unclean and polluted." "It cut the connection with the fountain of living water, so that the nation withered like leaves." (Ibid., p. 396). Westermann concludes, "...the entire psalm is designed as a question put to God by men (sic) who waited anxiously for him. It also shows that men (sic) who spoke in this way looked to God and to his turning again towards them as the sole source of a change in their lot." (Ibid. p. 398).
6. Consider the insights of the pioneers of the New Homiletic? Eugene Lowry was keen on the idea that preachers must move their listeners from equilibrium to disequilibrium and back again if one was to preach the whole of Law and Gospel to them. This would be an excellent text to work that out.
Blessings on your proclamation!
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