How Long?
How long, O Lord, before you burst from the heavens and come done?
This week, after 17 days of being trapped underground, 41 miners were rescued from a collapsed construction tunnel in northern India. What a welcome feel-good story!
How long, O Lord, before You come and rescue us?
Also this week, by Thursday, 102 Israeli hostages and 210 Palestinian prisoners had been exchanged.
The hostages had spent approximately 55 days in captivity, likely in tunnels below ground in Gaza while deadly bombs were being dropped above.
The Palestinian prisoners were mainly women and teenage children. Many had spent dozens of months in prison. One woman had been locked up for 7 years.
Family members were reunited, and a ceasefire respected. It felt like prayers were being answered. To top it off, much needed aid was allowed into Gaza. Upwards of two million people were given a chance to breathe deeply and look up.
Israel’s Prime Minister warned that the war would resume. And it did on Friday.
But for a week, mercies outweighed tragedies.
How long, O Lord, before You make Your face shine down upon us, and save us?
I think we can all relate to those in the Bible who cried out, wondering if God had forgotten about them. Their anguish, and our own, does raise a few difficult questions.
Why do our prayers go unanswered? For example, why does it take 400 years of slavery in Egypt before Heaven comes down and sets the Israelites free?
Why does it take another 40 years in the desert before God gives Israel a second chance to enter the Promised Land? The first-time round, they messed it up and panicked. Nobodies perfect, right?
God calls timeout. Was it to punish, or was it to help them focus on what needs to be done – providing time to unhook and heal from Egypt, time to reorient and deepen their bond with God? I suppose it depends on who you ask.
One of the other scripture texts set out in the lectionary for this morning was Psalm 80:1-7. Like the Isaiah reading, it calls for God to come down & reveal heaven’s mighty power.
Yet nothing appears to be happening. The writer seems frustrated.
Why isn’t God sending help? It leads him to wonder if the problem is on our side.
The Psalmist asks God:
“How long will You be angry with our prayers?” (Ps.80:4).
Is God angry with our prayers? Is that why our pleas go unanswered?
Perhaps we’re not using the right words. // Maybe we forgot to say “please.” //
More time goes by; Heaven remains silent.
We dig a bit deeper and wonder: “Are we asking for the wrong thing?”
Is there something of greater importance we should be seeking? //
More silence….
Maybe it’s not our words. Maybe it’s not even what we’re asking for.
Maybe its our actions, or the lack there of. //
Isaiah lived during the time when the king of Assyria threatened to swallow up the last two tribes of Israel in the south – known collectively as the kingdom of Judah.
The people prayed for God to rescue them. What would it take for that to happen?
Some seem to think that they can buy the favour of God to act and get Assyria off their back. Doesn’t everything have a price?
Surely 10 sacrifices on the temple altar are better than 1, and 100 better than 10.
How many will it take to win God over, grease the wheel, and get salvation turning?
In yesterday’s paper (The Record) just above the obituaries, there was a little text box. Inside it was a short prayer to Jesus and St. Jude, calling on God to help us. Then were given these instructions:
“Say this prayer 9 times a day, (and) by the eighth day the prayer will be answered.
It has never been known to fail. Publication must be promised.”
Is that really how it works? Is prayer a matter of getting the math right? //
More time goes by….
Enemy troupes have arrived in the region – large numbers preparing to attack.
What is God waiting for? //
Maybe it’s not about the number of sacrifices and prayers.
Three hundred years earlier, after a deep struggle wrestling with guilt, David, Israel’s most beloved king, comes to a realization. He confesses to God:
16 You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it;
you do not take pleasure in burnt offerings. //
17 My sacrifice, O God, is a broken spirit;
a broken and contrite heart you, God, will not despise.
Isaiah would love it if his people would fight through their frustration to that conclusion, and humble themselves. To that end he tries to light a fire under them, saying:
We are all infected and impure with sin.
When we display our righteous deeds,
they are nothing but filthy rags. (Is.64:6).
I bet that didn’t go over well in the temple at Jerusalem! How many did Isaiah offend?
It’s hard figuring this stuff out…. especially why prayers go unanswered, or are delayed.
We read that Judah’s King – Hezekiah – “did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, just as his father David had done” (2 Kings 18:3). He trusted in the Lord, and cleaned house, removing idols from the high places of worship.
The northern kingdom of Israel – those ten tribes that had split two hundred years earlier – fall to the Assyrians.
Hezekiah wavers, and tries to pay off Sennacherib king of Assyria. But no amount of silver and gold will get him to turn back.
Hezekiah humbles himself, lays out the crisis before the Lord, and asks for mercy, confessing that there is only one true God, calling on God to reveal this truth to all the nations.
The next day, Isaiah sends a message to Hezekiah, saying that the Lord has heard your prayer. The message ends with a promise that God will defend the city of Jerusalem and save it for the sake of God and the sake of David, God’s servant (2 Kings 19:34).
And that is what happens. Sennacherib’s army is decimated by some mysterious intervention. Some say it was the angel of the Lord who went out and put to death 185,000 troupes. Assyria leaves and never comes back.
Conclusion? Humility matters. Being real matters.
Is that what God might be up to when our prayers go unanswered?
Perhaps God’s quietness is actually God’s way of “shouting,” helping us hear and discover the way home to love by letting go of everything else we’re holding on to. //
It’s easy to assume God’s quietness means something else – like disinterest, or disgust.
When nothing happens when we pray, it’s easy to assume God is a fraud or a fake – something religion made up – not real.
But in our text this morning, Isaiah says God is actually at work, busy stoking the fire of our curiosity – albeit in ways we might not recognize at first, or like.
How does God get us to see what’s needed?
Isaiah says God does it by turning away from us, turning us over to our sins (Is. 64:7b).
At first, that sounds harsh.
It sounds mean – even punitive.
It sounds like God’s love is conditional. You only get rescued IF you toe the line.
But think of a time when one or both of your parents did something like this.
Think of a time they grew quiet, turned away, and left you to work through your frustration – your unmet request.
Think of a time they didn’t give in or rescue you. //
I think I was in grade six – around 11 years of age – when I got it in my head that I should have a “mini-bike.” By that I mean a small kid-sized motorcycle.
Back in the 1970s, Honda made a couple of types, with 50 cc engines.
Growing up in rural Vineland Station, some of my friends on neighboring farms had these fun machines to ride on through the orchards and down long farm lanes.
I got to try one and became hooked! Strangely, the thought that we didn’t live on a farm – hence, no place to ride one – didn’t seem like a problem to me😊!
It was September, and I remember pleading with my parents to get me one for Christmas. I kept asking, and oddly, they kept getting quieter and quieter.
I took a different approach. I wrote them notes and put them under their pillows.
I then started putting notes in my father’s lunch pail.
As Christmas drew near, I got more and more desperate, and resorted to “schleming.”
It’s like whining, where you go around the house hunched over, complaining about everything – how unfair life is – woe is me!
(Why I thought that would work is now beyond me!
What parent would ever reward such unpleasantness and manipulation?) //
My parents chose to wait me out, hoping I would get this out of my system and let it go.
I look back and am amazed that they didn’t react to my tactics.
They didn’t punish me for being annoying. Nor did they threaten to leave me with no Christmas gifts under the tree.
They just left me in my “pain” to figure it out.
Having been a parent now myself, I can imagine that must have been hard for them.
We don’t like to see our children upset. //
I don’t know why it was so hard for me to let the idea of a mini-bike go.
Did it represent an awakening for greater independence and freedom?
It is interesting that it coincided with the start of puberty – the transition from child to adult.
I’m certain that the “issue” – in this case, a mini-bike – was not really the issue.
Here’s why I know that.
Christmas came, there was no mini-bike, and I don’t remember being disappointed.
I don’t remember what I got – might have been socks, underwear, and a sweater. //
I can’t recall exactly when, but around that time a boy in my Sunday School class – Eddy Friesen – was fighting a losing battle with leukemia – a type of blood cancer.
When he died, I saw how deeply hurt his parents and siblings were.
Maybe I “grew up a bit” and realized there was something more important in life. //
You know, looking back, I don’t think my parents really turned away from me completely. They still loved me, fed me, clothed me, spoke with me.
Makes me think God might have done the same regarding Israel – never stopped caring for them, providing daily bread, relating in ways that were still making a difference. //
Another curious thought. My parents didn’t have schooling beyond grade six – same age I was when I had this mini-bike fixation.
They gave up school for work on the farm, and helping in whatever way they could to survive the great depression of the 1930s.
They got through it, and no doubt that mercy shaped and sharpened some of their values – that family is most important, and even more, that relying on God is critical.
Back when I was 10 or 11, many times on my way to the bathroom just before bed, I would walk by my parents’ room and see them on their knees, leaning on their bed, praying….not unlike Hezekiah’s posture in the temple when Assyria was at the gate.
Humility. Being real. Could it be that simple? //
Two Bible quotes come to mind – the first from Proverbs 3:5-6
5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart
and lean not on your own understanding;
6 in all your ways submit to him,
and he will make your paths straight.[a]
The second is from Matthew 6:33
33 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness,
and all these things will be given to you as well.
The Message translation puts it this way:
“Steep your life in God-reality, God-initiative, God-provisions.
Don’t worry about missing out.
You’ll find all your everyday human concerns will be met.”
Let’s pray:
“O Lord, You are our Father.
We are the clay, and You are the potter. We are formed by Your hand. //
Look at us, we pray, and see that we are all Your people.”
Lord, thank You for loving us so much as to see us through times of great frustration.
Thank You for loving us so much as to let us sit with our longings till they clarify and sort themselves out.
Thank You for being so incredibly patient, waiting for us to work it out what it is we most want – namely, to be loved and known at our very core.
Thank You for not rescuing, for not enabling patterns that head us away from You, and away from right relationships with our fellow humans and this precious earth. //
In the silence of unanswered prayer, help us hear the still small voice within our hearts calling our name, welcoming us with such generous love to come home and find what we are looking for — healing and shalom.
Since the world began, no ear has heard and no eye has seen a God like You, who works for those who wait for Him!
Because You have waited for us, we will wait for You.
Please, dear God, reveal Your Power in our day. Come down and make the mountains quake. Come down and make the nations tremble. You are the One whose deeds go beyond our highest expectations.
With the faith that we have, as small as it is, we leave this prayer with You, no matter how long it takes, knowing You are making this time holy and productive for Your will to be done.
AMEN.