That once-great nation to which the eyes of the world had been turned now lay crippled and paralyzed, gripped by the frosty hands of embarrassing defeat. It's in the context of that feeling that Isaiah sharpens his pencil and begins to think out loud on paper. God, Isaiah recalls, had become their savior in all their distress, intimately, directly, and reliably. It is, it seems to me, a powerfully appropriate text for these days of the Christmas season. All through the year, to be sure, but especially during these days of candles and evergreen we speak of the coming and presence of God.
Some days are simply the pits.
There is much that I hope we don't forget to remember. Yes, like Israel, we have followed, at times, the hungers of our own desires, but we have also listened for the voice of one who has not been absent. As has been true throughout the more than 100 years of this church's life, God has been busily present here in 1998 in goodness, in mercy, and in renewing and saving loving-kindness. We have not been pursuing our ministry alone. God has been moving here among us in goodness and mercy and love, and we have been the richer for it.