Waiting for God’s Judgment and Restoration

The following video transcript has been lightly edited

Welcome to the season of Advent. Advent is a season in which we celebrate the age to come. Because the current age is an age that good and evil are mixed. That's the present age that we live in. But the story of Advent is the story of waiting and hoping for God to act. And the way that God acts is ultimately in the person of Christ.

But what we learn in the midst of Advent is that in this season in which good and evil join together, that what we hope for and what we need is for God to act and to judge, and to separate the evil from the good and to bring restoration to the world. The good parts of creation, of relationship, and love, and mercy, and beauty, and wonder, and goodness, and kindness, and that is the message of hope in the midst of the Advent season.

Our hope relies on God's judgment. And the reason is threefold. One, existence needs God to act. Two, you and I are masters of self deception, so we too need help. And finally, what we learn and what we see is that we're relying on God's judgment because God's judgment comes to separate the good and evil, and that's done in love and in hope.

I want to sketch this out for you through Isaiah 64. As Isaiah writes, it's all in the form of poetry, and so there's a lot of symbolism and imagery. And he writes, Oh, if only you would tear open the heavens, if only God would come down and act. Why? Because the world is broken and needs God's action.

If you were to think about the world in its presence day, in this age, and we scan the headline for the global news, we are confronted with the brokenness of war and hunger and strife as Israel and Hamas are at war and Ukraine and Russia continue to be at war and all of the injustice and hurt and pain throughout the world.

We need God to act for those things. When we think of our nation and we think about our politics, we see so much division and strife and blame opposed to unity and working together. If you read on Syracuse. com in the local news, you see every day someone hurting. Someone hurting someone else. Accidents, drug overdose, death.

And then when we move to our personal circle, we can all engage. We have personal challenges. At work, health, relationship, money. All these things invade us. And while there's so much wonder and good in the world, there's also this sense in which, when will it end? Oh, God, when will you tear open the heavens and act?

See, this is really something for us to remember, that we need God to act. Existence needs God to act. When we consider our options, we only really have three. One is to say, well, the world just is the way the world is. Unfortunately, that leaves us fairly hopeless. And our options are to check out, to hope it doesn't happen to us.

And maybe be the lucky ones who have enough wealth to insulate ourselves from it most of the time. The other option is to believe that somehow, through human progress, we will be able to transform the world. Unfortunately, what history tells us is that doesn't happen. Why does it not happen? Well, I think it's because of this intermingling.

The idea of progress would have to include us defeating evil, and yet evil is there in the world somehow, some way. It's this alien that's taken over a good creation. And so this idea that we're going to overcome through human progress, I think, leaves us lacking as well. And so what Isaiah writes is this hope that God would come in, that God would tear open the heavens and act.

Act, act and set things right. Judge the evil and separate it and restore the good. And so that's what we're waiting for. We're waiting for the realization of God's action and the hope that comes with that. But you see, it's not just about the world, it's also about us. Isaiah also writes that we are like filthy rags.

That we are like leaves who fade and are blown away by the wind. God has asked Israel to be his people, to reflect this coming grace and restoration, but Israel has failed. And so over and over again in the Old Testament, what we see is God's desire for Israel to be faithful, but Israel to fail in its faithfulness.

And so Isaiah is honest. He says that you and I and Israel are like filthy rags. We are like a leaf that fades and is taken away by the wind. Living in upstate New York, we're familiar with the journey of a leaf. We see it come in the spring, flourish in the summer, turn brilliant colors in the fall, but then now in this season fade. turn brown, fall off, and thankfully because of where I live, blow into the neighbor's yard opposed to staying in my own. But still, nonetheless, that's true for each of us. And it's this honest reminder to us that you and I can take something good and it can quickly go wrong. This is what righteousness is all about, this belief that somehow the things you see, you and I see, are right and true and good, and everyone else is wrong, and yet we can see the pain that that causes in our family, in our communities, certainly in our country right now.

And so we want to acknowledge that. If we want to be strong people, we want to be aware of our weaknesses. Because strong people don't have no weakness at all, strong people are aware of their weakness and are able to accommodate it and plan for it and respond to it through habits and actions. And so that's what we want to be.

We want to be a people who acknowledge our own inability to always reflect grace and goodness. And so what we wait for is restoration. But the way we live is as people who have been given the grace and freedom from that to live in such a way where we bring about the good. And we're always watching.

We're watching our own ability to twist something and make it about us.

Now lastly, so we need God to act because existence needs God to act. We need God to act because we need God to act. But what we need is we need God's judgment. And this idea is really harsh for us. We're like, wait, what, God, why is God, why does God have to bring judgment?

And I think that we shy away from the idea that God is going to bring judgment because we have a misconception about it. It's been used probably in an improper way to shame us and make us feel inadequate. But what I would say is that if God does not come, and judge the evil, then God is not really God.

God is not worth worshiping. We need a God of love who is willing to separate the good from the bad. And how we see that done is through Christ. But the way God brings about loving judgment is through the himself. As he arrives as a baby, as we'll celebrate on Christmas, His life, death, and resurrection reminds us that God brings life and restoration through judgment on the cross, and ultimately one day will set things right, will evaporate and burn up the evil and restore creation to good.

That is the age to come where all things are made new, where there's restoration and beauty and goodness. And so that's what we look forward to. So my question for you, this Advent, is what are you waiting for? And you might say to me, well Kyle, you just told me. I'm waiting for God to judge and restore the world.

And I would say, yes, you are right. But what is also true is God calls us to be the people who live in anticipation of that now. That we are to be the people of faith, hope, and love. In our homes, our neighborhoods, and our workplaces. To be that kind of people who live the Advent spirit.

Let's hope you're able to do that this week. And I look forward to joining together next week as we continue to celebrate this season of Advent, wondering what are we waiting for? Have a great week.