hiddenness

Isaiah 54:1-10; PS 30 I will praise you, Lord, for you have rescued me; Luke 7:24-30

The words of Isaiah

"For moment I hid my face from you;But with enduring love I take pity on you."

How often in our life do we experience the silence of God? How often in our life do we experience the darkness that is God? How often in our life do we wonder why God is hiding his face from us?

As Psalm 88 exclaims, "my one companion is darkness."

God will at times hide his face from us. There will be moments of darkness, trials, tribulations. But, as ISaiah reminds us, times of darkness, this hiddenness of God, is a means to an end, an end by which we are awaken to the enduring love of God.

It is the hiddenness of God that prepares us for the promise we hear on the lips of Isaiah, "Though the mountains leave their places and the hills be shaken, My love shall never leave you nor my covenant of peace be shaken, says the LORD who has mercy on you."


Darkness gives way to light. Silence gives way to great rejoicing. Hiddenness find itself enveloped in the sweet embrace of mercy.

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We look to the gospel this morning.

The gospel writers ends the particular passage of the gospel with these few lines, "but the Pharisees and scholars of the law, who were not baptized by him, rejected the plan of God for themselves."


They rejected the plan of God for themselves.

Think about that for a moment. How often do we reject the plan of God for us, for our community, for our families, etc!

How often does the plan of God rub us raw and irritate us? Think about your life for a moment; when have you rejected the plan of God? When have you cried out to God in refusing to move forward? When have any of us thrown a tantrum of faith, refusing to bend to the call of God as the mystery of tomorrow unfolds?

When God acts in a way we do not anticipate; when God acts in a way we do not appreciate; when God acts in a way we do not like or are not ready for, these are the moments we put our shields us and get in defensive mode.

But these are the exact moments we have been waiting for.

We, like the Pharisees and the scholars, we think we know exactly how God is suppose to reveal himself? We think we have it mapped out how God is suppose to reveal his plan in our life and when it doesn't fit the mold we have formed or the image we have in mind then we too reject.

Learn from the Pharisees and the scholars. Instead of trying to manipulate God and anticipate God, why not just simply surrender to Him.


Advent is a time of waiting; but we wait so that we might surrender and receive the gift God offers. The only thing we have control over and that which we choose to surrender.