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Let’s step back in time nearly two and a half millennia to ancient Israel in the 500’s BC and revisit the story of ancient Israel going into exile in Babylon and then the eventual return of a small faithful remnant. I know I tell this story a lot but I think it’s a biblical story that is very applicable and relevant to the Church today. The church today resembles Israel at that time as the majority of Israelites were living in cultural captivity in Babylon which means they had adopted the culture of Babylon and lost their Israelite distinctiveness. So also, most of those bearing the label Christian live culturally captive to the beliefs and values of “secular” Western culture. So also, a small faithful remnant of Israelites returned from exile to Jerusalem to try to distinctively live faithful lives much like the faithful remnant of the Church today that exists in smaller gatherings such as ours.
In 586 BC(E) God sent the Babylonians to destroy Jerusalem and level the temple. They did so with vigor and then took anybody who was anybody away into exile in Babylon. The reason God gave for this through the voice of prophets was their idolatry which included child sacrifice and also the more privileged Israelites were taking advantage of the poor in their midst for their own gain. The Land of Judah, the Land God promised to Abraham on which his descendants had become a great nation, was then left undefended and became cheap, quick real estate for foreigners. The great nation was exiled. According to one prophet, the Land had vomited them off.
Those who went into exile, well, they had it tough at first but over time the actually began to fair quite well and they became comfortable resembling Babylonians. You may not know it but the Babylonian diaspora of Jews remained the largest community of Jews worldwide up into the 1800’s AD. Significant things happened in the Babylonian community. Most significantly, in the 400’s BC there in Babylon, the Old Testament, the Hebrew Bible as we know it, received its final edit by a school of the descendants of some of the Jerusalem priests who had been taken into exile. This edit included the addition of most of the legal stuff you find in the Old Testament. Like the Amish have their rules to preserve their distinctive identity so also the Jews in the Babylonian exile wanted to write down and codify everything about their way of life to keep it distinctive while in Babylon. In fact, the roots of Judaism as we know it today formed in Babylon.
In 539 BC(E) King Cyrus of Persia defeated the Babylonians. His policy was to allow the peoples that the Babylonians had taken into exile to return to their homelands. Not soon after that a trickle of Jews, a small remnant, began to head back to Judah and to Jerusalem with the hopes of rebuilding what they had before. Yet, they returned to find that Jerusalem was in tatters. The wall still lay torn down. They strongly felt they needed a wall to make Jerusalem great again for they were outnumbered by the people who had moved in on the vacated lands and “those people”, those not Jewish people, weren’t going to leave and they strongly resisted any effort by the remnant to rebuild Jerusalem and the Temple. It did not take long for this faithful remnant of former exiles to become disillusioned in the realization that their resettlement was going to be difficult.
There are several books in the Bible associated with this time. Ezra and Nehemiah record the history. The Prophets Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi, and whoever wrote the last six chapters of Isaiah speak to this disillusioned remnant. They hoped they could just go back and rebuild and things would be like they were before but without all the bad stuff. Things would be ideal…back to the good ole days.
To this disillusioned, doubly heart-broken people who had been unwelcomed back to their ancestral homes as if they were the squatters by “those people” who actually had moved in to squat on the land, to these Isaiah writes: “Arise, shine; for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you. For darkness shall cover the earth, and thick darkness the peoples; but the glory of the Lord will appear over you. Nations shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your dawn. Lift up your eyes and look around…your sons and daughters will come from far away…the wealth of the nations shall come to you…a multitude of camels shall cover you…They shall bring gold and frankincense, and they shall proclaim the praise of the Lord”. Like Paul Revere at the beginning of the American Revolution riding out to proclaim “The British are coming;” so Isaiah proclaims “The camels are coming.”
This chapter-long exhortation concludes in verses 21 and 22 with God saying, “Your people shall all be righteous; they shall possess the land forever. They are the shoot that I planted, the work of my hands, so that I might be glorified. The least of them shall become a clan, the smallest one a mighty nation; I am the Lord; in its time I will accomplish it quickly.”
“In it’s time,” says the Lord. “In its time.” Step up to the time of the birth of Jesus nearly 400 years inclusive of eight generations later and I wouldn’t use the word “quickly” to describe that. It took 200 years for the Jewish people to repopulate the land. But then 100 years in, the Greeks came and then the Romans and they didn’t bring their wealth. They brought their armies and oppressed these Jews who were only trying to be faithful. Unfortunately, like people living the “Adult Lifestyle” today, many Jewish people back then particularly the leadership and the wealthy began to live “the Greco-Roman Lifestyle”. Yet, there was still a faithful remnant in the Land waiting, waiting, and waiting some more for God to do what he said he would do through the mouth of Isaiah – bring the nations, their kings, and their wealth to Israel to proclaim the praise of the Lord.
Joseph and Mary were part of this remnant. Jesus was born, the Son of God, the glory of the Lord, the presence of the Lord had come to dwell among his people. The promised light began to shine. From angels and shepherds, from highest to lowest, they all began to proclaim the Good News that God was bringing salvation to his people as this baby. As Matthew says an unusual light appeared in the skies and following that “sign” came a caravan of camels carrying three astrologer kings from afar; kings bearing gifts of gold and frankincense, just as Isaiah said. They came not to oppress the Jews but rather, just as Isaiah said, “to proclaim the praise of the Lord.” The little town of Bethlehem was covered in camels but it wasn’t quite like Ottawa being shut down by protesting truckers.
In a small, insignificant way the camels had indeed come and thus began God opening the doors of his faithful people up to peoples of other nations, of other cultures, and races…to all peoples. This “New Jerusalem”, this “New Zion” didn’t need walls around it for protection. It was open to everyone.
The Baby Jesus grew up. He lived and died and was raised and lives and reigns and is coming back to fully fulfill Isaiah’s prophecy in time and quickly when the time comes. In the meantime, as promised God pours his very own Spirit into those who follow Jesus as his disciples claiming us as his very own children who live distinctly according to the way of unconditional love that Jesus modeled to us. Instead of building a wall, God sent out apostles and evangelists such as Paul to tell the people of the nations that they were welcome to come and have new life in Jesus…new life…life filled with God’s own life.
Here is an epiphany for us today. Our lives are now hidden with Christ in God as Paul says at Colossians 3:3. He says, “Set your minds on things above, not on things that are on earth, for you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.” When terrible things happen and our lives fall apart, because our lives are hidden with Christ in God, God has a future for us that is full of his glory, full of his self, a life that we will find in drawing closer to Jesus who is walking with us always. Our instinct may be to try to recreate our lives the way they were or to just give up and live like everybody else around us. We must resist those blackholes and seek the Holy Spirit-filled life God has for us. “In its time” we will heal and shine with the light of God’s glory. The same is true for us even when things are good. When things are good our instinct is to resist change and try to keep things just as they are. Yet, our lives are still hidden with God in Christ and in seeking him “in its time” God will bring it about; life made alive in a prayerful relationship with God in the Holy Spirit in which we learn we are loved by God and learn how to love as we are loved. God gives us a community of friends like us to grow up together in Christ learning the way of non-judgementalism, compassion, forgiveness, building each other up, speaking the truth. This is the light of God’s glory shining through us. So let us arise and shine. Amen.
