Our Sermons

Bible Passage: Isaiah 64:1-8
Pastor: Pastor Schlicht
Sermon Date:  November 29, 2020

My daughter’s favorite character from Winne the Pooh is Tigger. “T I double guh er” The wonderful thing about tiggers, is tiggers are wonderful things! Their tops are made out of rubber. Their bottoms are made out of springs! They’re bouncy, trouncy, flouncy, pouncy, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun! But the most wonderful thing about tiggers is I’m the only one.” (The things we memorize as parents…) A few months back we went to the Henry Vilas Zoo and I got to show her a real tiger. It was right next to the glass window and Willow was a bit scared. I tried to comfort her by saying, “It’s a tiger, just like Tigger.” But I realized, even as the words left my mouth, that this actual tiger was nothing like the Tigger that Willow held in her arms at night.

So many people today assume God is like Tigger, not a Tiger. They have replaced the majestic, holy Tiger of Scripture with a flouncy, trouncy Tigger, conformed to the standards of the world, measured by the yardstick of political correctness. Who wants a God who roars, who threatens, who judges? Why not rather make a god in our taste—one who displays no wrath, who doesn’t care about obedience, and isn’t actually in control, one who is flouncy, pouncy, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun.

Our theme for this Advent season is “Expect More out of Christmas”. And if you want to expect more out of Christmas, the first step is to expect more out of God. And that’s what, I pray, the Spirit will help us do today through Isaiah 64. To see who God truly is and to take comfort in him.

1 Oh, that you would rip open the heavens and come down.  Mountains then would quake because of your presence. 2 As fire ignites stubble and as fire makes water boil, make your name known to your adversaries. Then nations would quake in your presence. Isaiah knows God is a Tiger, not a Tigger. He remembers how God came down upon Mt. Sinai and how the mountain quaked with his presence. And he longs for that same power of God to come again, to make himself known to all people. Isaiah wanted the true power of God to silence those who doubt him or mock him. Isaiah calls for God to come again, like fire which boils water and consumes twigs, he wants the Almighty God to come down and remind people just who he is!

Doesn’t that sound good, to a certain extent? How amazing it would be if God could just come down in his awesome power and set everybody straight! Can you imagine the revival of Christian faith that would take place?! Can you imagine all the people who would need to apologize for the way they have mocked Christianity? Can you imagine murderers and molesters cut down to their knees begging for mercy? Imagine every evil crime finally brought to justice. Wouldn’t that be satisfying? ‘Oh that you would rip the heavens and come down’…

There is an old saying, ‘Be careful what you wish for because you just may get it.’ It’s almost as if Isaiah catches himself in the middle of his prayer and begins to realize the implications of what he’s praying for. Isaiah begins to consider what would happen to him if God were to rip open the heavens and come down. It is striking just how drastically the tone of Isaiah’s prayer changes about halfway through. He goes from begging God to execute his dramatic justice, to a humble, penitential confession of the sin of Israel. Now, he’s not speaking to God about “them” or his “adversaries”. Listen carefully to the pronouns he uses: “we, our, us”. 5 You meet anyone who joyfully practices righteousness, who remembers you by walking in your ways! But you were angry because WE sinned. WE have remained in OUR sins for a long time. Can WE still be saved? 6 All of US have become like something unclean, and all OUR righteous acts are like a filthy cloth. 

Should we ask God to rip open the heavens and come down with divine justice and destroy the sinner? No! Because we wouldn’t survive! We would be boiled and burned along with everything else because we too are sinners! Nobody seems to think that God is dangerous anymore and, ironically, that is what is truly dangerous. The living God of the universe is untamable. He doesn’t answer to us, we answer to him. He is the Creator, we are the created. He is a Tiger, not a Tigger. What’s so dangerous is that many people don’t take him seriously. They don’t think that it is necessary for them to consider the child in the manger, but one day he will come to judge the living and the dead. Those who trust him will be saved and those who don’t will be eternally separated from God in hell. 

This is why many people have low expectations for Christmas. It’s because they don’t expect much from God. If you don’t see the Almighty in the manger, then Christmas is simply going to be another Hallmark holiday. You’ll yawn as the story is read once again, sing a few carols and go your way. 

But if you expect more of God, if you understand who he is and what should have happened when he came down to earth, you will be left speechless. The Almighty God did rend the heavens and come down, but not with fire and fury, but as a helpless baby. What mercy is this? The eternal Deity entered into a world of sin and confined himself to the weakness of our frail flesh. What humility is this? The holy immutable God who rightly hates sin and punishes the wicked chose to redeem his people by becoming sin for us. As Isaiah wrote, the virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son and he will be called, “Immanuel” – God with us! And as Isaiah also wrote, “But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed.” God executed his perfect justice for our sin on his own Son. 

Isaiah’s critical question, Can we be saved’? is answered with a definitive YES at Christmas. Shattering all expectations, Immanuel was born, God came to be with us and saved us. In Christ, God has stripped off our ‘polluted garments’ and clothed us with his righteousness. If you expect more out of God, you can’t expect enough from Christmas.

Isaiah’s final verse in our section gives us a timely application: But now, Lord, you are our father. We are the clay, and you are our potter. You may not often consider this, but your comfort and joy, in any season, demands that you worship a God that you dare not trifle with. We often wish we could understand God perfectly, that we could control him and get him to do what we want him to. But in the end that would just be like worshipping another human. In the end, we need God to be God. We need to recognize that he is our Father. As his children, we will not understand all the things he’s doing. Every parent knows that young children cannot understand many of the complex issues and pressures that their parents deal with. That is infinitely true of God our Father. As Isaiah says, Lord, you are our Father. We are the clay and you are our potter. This is the one verse of comfort that Isaiah has here in chapter 64. Ultimately he rests in the fact that God is in control, that God has a purpose, and that he loves us. This is our comfort too. If you expect more out of God, if you understand he’s the potter and you are the clay, then you can take comfort knowing that he is molding you. People say that 2020 was such a waste. They can’t wait for it to be over. But if you expect more out of God, you know it wasn’t a waste. He has been forming you! He has a purpose and he is in control. He isn’t a helpless Tigger, he’s the Almighty Tiger. 

Expect more out of God and you can expect more out of anything! Expect more out of God and you can expect more than just a helpless baby in the manger. Expect more out of God and you can expect more than just meets the eye in every moment of your life. Expect more out of God and you can expect more than bread and wine in Communion today. Expect more out of God and you even expect more out of that final day when your Savior truly will rip open the heavens in limitless glory and bring you home to eternal joy.  Amen.