Tuesday of the Second Week of Advent

Lectionary: 182

"All flesh is grass,
and all their glory like the flower of the field.
The grass withers, the flower wilts,
when the breath of the LORD blows upon it.
So then, the people is the grass.
Though the grass withers and the flower wilts,
the word of our God stands forever."

 I know of no historian or novelist who has tried to describe the trail of tears from ruined Jerusalem to pagan Babylon. Survivors of the siege in 586 BC were marched into exile as captive slaves of Nebuchadnezzar, the emperor. They would have walked some five hundred miles, encountering a steep descent into the Jordan valley, and the equally steep climb of trans-Jordan, and then marched through the river valleys and plains of the Fertile Crescent. I do not know if they might have followed the more direct desert route across the deserts of Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and Iraq. In any case it was a very long, sad, and arduous journey on foot. Nothing hopeful lie at the end of it.

Perhaps the weary travelers saw vast expanses of grass, such as pioneers found in the Great Plains of North America. It's said that a horseman had to stand atop his saddled horse to see over the high grasses to get a sense of direction. And he would have seen only grass. The enslaved Jews, grieving their lost homeland, walking endlessly toward an uncertain future, must have seen their own lives as brief, pointless and vacant as the grassy steppes. What is the point of this sorrow? Where is it going; when will it end? 

But Isaiah, which had become a communal project of unnamed prophets after the original author died, foresaw a return and rebuilding of the Holy City. The passage would be far easier because the Lord promised: 

Make straight in the wasteland a highway for our God!

Every valley shall be filled in,

every mountain and hill shall be made low;

The rugged land shall be made a plain,

the rough country, a broad valley.

(Then) they will soar on eagles’ wings;

They will run and not grow weary,

walk and not grow faint. 

Their hope defied the reality of the day. It seemed impossible and yet they knew God was with them. He had not abandoned them in their exile. Despite all appearances, he had not been defeated or destroyed by Babylonian gods. In fact, as Isaiah recorded his sacred oath, 

I AM THE LORD, there is no other,

there is no God besides me.

It is I who arm you, though you do not know me,

so that all may know, from the rising of the sun

to its setting, that there is none besides me.

I am the LORD, there is no other.

I form the light, and create the darkness,

I make weal and create woe;

I, the LORD, do all these things.

We live in an American empire today and are subject to its ever changing demands and pointless promises. We remember its origins. If we cannot see its end, perhaps we don't want to. But faith and hope assure us, 

All flesh is grass...

Though the grass withers and the flower wilts,

the word of our God stands forever.

We may believe democracy is the best form of government, and the United States is the most important experiment in democracy, but these beliefs about ideas, ideals, and projects should never displace our faith in a personal God whom we know as the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.