Advent Devotions

Today’s author is Prince of Peace member Carol Swanson

Isaiah 52:13-53:12    

In Sunday’s Forum, our guest speaker, Cameron Howard, professor of Old Testament at Luther Seminary, led us through the four “Servant Songs” of Isaiah (Isaiah 42:1-4; 49:1-6; 50:4-11; and 52:13–53:12). She mentioned that scholars and theologians have come up with multiple ideas about who the Servant is, and, so of course, she asked us who we thought the Servant might be—realizing that these were written centuries before the time of Jesus. Ideas were shared.  Maybe Isaiah? The hearer/reader …us? King Cyrus? The people of Israel?  Then of course, when we got to the 4^th song of the “Suffering Servant,” our text of the day, as Christians, how could we not help but  think of Jesus.

But as Pastor Steve asked in his sermon, can’t it be both the original Jewish understanding of their exile and the way Christians see Jesus in the 4^th Song? Can’t’ both “be true and right?”   

Quoting Pastor Steve: “In this Suffering Servant passage, we feel the intensity of God’s love for us.  We feel deeply the suffering of the people of Israel, dragged from their homes and forced to live in exile. We feel the suffering of Jesus, abandoned by friends and family and executed as a common criminal. And it’s not one or the other. It’s both.  And more.  Illogical, perhaps. But we feel that.”

In this devotion I now ask you, What does this suffering say about God—about God’s love? Have you ever considered if God has suffered in all this?

In the book The Suffering of God, Terrence Fretheim goes back to Noah’s flood story to note ‘God’s grieving goes back to the morning of the world…. [T]he flood story witnesses finally to God’s promise to allow the creation to endure in spite of continuing human sinfulness. Yet such a decision entailed a new direction for the world. God promises: I will not respond to evil again with such devastation….

‘God will never be the same again. And so the judgment is a very personal decision with all the mixed sorrow and anger that go into the making of decisions that affect the people whom one loves. Grief is always what the Godward side of judgment looks like. …

‘‘The ongoing significance for Israel of this aspect of the flood story may be seen in Isa. 54:9–10.’

This is like the days of Noah to me:

   Just as I swore that the waters of Noah

   would never again go over the earth,

so I have sworn that I will not be angry with you

   and will not rebuke you.

For the mountains may depart

    and the hills be removed,

but my steadfast love shall not depart from you,

   and my covenant of peace shall not be removed,

   says the LORD, who has compassion on you. (NRSV)

Fretheim comments, ‘The juxtaposition of the Noachic promise in Israel 54 and the “Suffering Servant Song” of Isaiah 53 is certainly not fortuitous. Here, God’s grief is not simply a reference to the internal life of God; it becomes embodied in the world in the life of the servant. It is no longer simply a response to the rejection of the people; it now becomes a vehicle for their salvation. …

‘In these texts we confront the memory of God, wherein the past of God stands in disjunction with the present of God. It is this collision of past and present in God which occasions suffering. God remembers how good things used to be, and sees how that has now all changed. Memory functions for God in ways not unlike the way it functions for human beings, except that for God there is “total recall,” and that must make the hurt in the present even more severe. What might have been! Thus, God’s present has been significantly affected by God’s memories, by God’s experiences with the world in the past, and by their present recollection. God does not keep those memories to himself; God shares them with the people.’

Fretheim writes that the first chapter of Isaiah begins in “a startling manner.”  

I reared children and brought them up,

   but they have rebelled against me.

The ox knows its owner,

   and the donkey its master’s crib:

but Israel does not know,

   my people do not understand. (Isaiah 1:2b-3, NRSV)

‘The entire first chapter of Isaiah, which is commonly considered to be a summary of all that is to follow, is largely an admixture of lament and accusation. Regarding Isa. 1:2–3, [Jewish theologian Abraham] Heschel’s comments suffice: “The speech that opens the book of Isaiah, and which sets the tone for all the utterances of the prophet, deals not with the anger of God, but with the sorrow of God. The prophet pleads with us to understand the plight of a father whom his children have abandoned.” It is important to note, in addition, that the focus is not on Israel’s disobedience to an external legal code, but on the broken state of a relationship between parent and child. Jesus’ parable of the prodigal son cannot help but be recalled here. The rebellion occurs even though God has lavishly bestowed love and care. The people had not been deserted, nor had they been mistreated. In the face of the best parenting possible, they had left home. They did not see that God the parent had been concerned with their welfare…’ (pp 112–114)

God’s sorrow. God’s suffering. They show God’s intense love for us.

Pastor Steve went on to share Walt Whitman’s poem “A Song of Myself, 6 [A child said What is grass?]” from Leaves of Grass. 

‘How could I answer the child?’ Whitman asked, then thought of a few possible images…

‘And now it seems to me the beautiful uncut hair of graves.’  New life found there.

Pastor Steve shared that he and his family and friends would be remembering his son Sam’s birthday “this Wednesday” (today’s devotion date), visiting the spot where he died and his grave.

“I believe there is [death], but I also believe there is resurrection,” he shared. “But here’s the thing. I can’t understand the logic of any of that, of Whitman’s poem, or of resurrection. But I feel the truth of all of it.”  

As Fretheim wrote, ‘God’s grief is not simply a reference to the internal life of God; it becomes embodied in the world in the life of the servant. It is no longer simply a response to the rejection of the people; it now becomes a vehicle for their salvation.’

Loving God, Suffering God, our Redeemer and  Giver of Life––hold Pastor Steve, his family and friends in your warm embrace this day, as you hold Sam, resurrected and whole. Amen

Here is a link to Walt Whitman’s poem:

https://poets.org/poem/song-myself-6-child-said-what-grass

You can find The Suffering God in our library. NRSV)