This past week I entered a favorite furniture store where customer service is at the top. Someone greets you when you come through the door. They ask what you’re looking for, offer you water, juice or pop, and check in with you later if you wish to just look around.
If you have something specific in mind, the person will help you find it, show you something else, or steer you to a catalog until you are satisfied.

So I walked through the door. No one greeted me. Two designers said hello and walked past me. No one offered me a drink, so I helped myself. I took the elevator upstairs and heard two other employees talking about how bad this economy is and the lack of any real sales. They didn’t even see me, let alone acknowledge me. I walked around upstairs, looked at various lamps for several minutes, took the elevator back down, passed the same employees still talking about this economy and finally, one person stopped and said, “Have you been helped?” But by now, I was ready to go.

Now, I didn’t buy anything, but I might have at least considered a purchase if I knew what was really available. This was so unlike past visits at the store. And it reminded me of our world today: scared, gloomy, hesitant, ignoring others, fearful, sad. You name it. You’ve seen or heard it all, right? And some of us are so deep in negative conversation that we miss something positive that could happen. People are so pre-occupied with what’s not right in the world, in our lives, that you miss an opportunity to sell me a lamp! You miss an opportunity perhaps for peace to come into your life, for a smile from someone, or an honest conversation with another traveler on this puzzling journey.

The history around our scripture and text today in Isaiah 40 tells the story of the people of Judah who were living in exile following the Babylonian conquest. The temple and Jerusalem had been destroyed. One author (Gary W. Light Interpretation Bible Studies – Isaiah) says “There was a long intermission between Isaiah 39 and Isaiah 40. As far as some were concerned, the relationship between God and the covenant community was over. After the destruction of Jerusalem and the experience of exile in Babylonia, what else was left to happen?” It was a 150-year period that theologian Walter Brueggeman has called a “God-muted time.” (Brueggemann, Isaiah 40-66, 15). What looked like the end in chapter 39 turned around in chapter 40.

Do you ever feel that you’re in the midst of a “God-muted time”? How often have we asked, “Hello, God. Are you out there somewhere? Do you see the mess of this world and this economy? When are you going to help us? And we are told to wait on the Lord. Wait for God. Wait on the help that God is putting together for us, perhaps better than we can imagine.

It doesn’t mean that all great things will come our way…let the good times roll. What it does mean is that “The Plan” is coming together. We will move from empty to full, if we are patient and trust God to be our Source of Strength.

An image of this strength which Isaiah speaks of is the eagle. In the early times, the eagle was included among the unclean birds mentioned in the Bible, similar to the vulture. But it “was admired as a majestic bird.” The illustrated Bible Dictionary describes the golden eagle’s wing spread as “26 meters or 8 feet wide. The eagle will nest in high places that are inaccessible. There, in a nest, which the eagle makes larger each year, the eagle hatches 2 eggs, knowing that only one will probably hatch. The eagle has keen eyesight and can spot prey while soaring hundreds of feet in the air. It can stay aloft for hours and lives 20-30 years in the wild.” (Illustrated Bible Dictionary).

In teaching a little eagle to fly, the mother takes them on her wing then swooshes down quickly so they can learn to fly on their own. She holds them up until they’re sure. God is holding us up and giving us love and comfort and renewal both during and after the hard times, while we’re learning to fly and cope and just live.

This is the lesson Isaiah is trying to teach the people who were in captivity for all those years, who felt alienated from God. Isaiah provides them with an image of the eagle, a picture of freedom, that God gave to people years before (Exodus 19:4) “You have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself.”

God is doing it again today, during these yes, difficult times.
The people who heard the message first were certainly in difficult times – a society who had to leave their homes, people who were debilitated by the worship of false gods. They were so tired and so weary. Could it ever get better?

Some of us are asking the same question – will it ever get better? Many are hoping for a return of “the way things were” – you know, that time of prosperity, million dollar homes, soaring retirement accounts and countless jobs for all. But we’re not there yet.
And when I ask how you’re doing, some of you say, I’m scared. Some are gripped with fear and worry, wondering when the job is coming so you can pay those bills, pay for that college education and so forth.

Maybe it’s time to wait on God and ride the wings of the eagle until we get our footing, until we’re sure of ourselves, until we see and feel the strength we need to go on our own.
Maybe it’s also a time to examine what’s permanent – the love of family and friends, the encouragement of others, the spring that was in the air on Saturday. Now there’s hope.

At the beginning of Isaiah, chapter 40 the first words are “Comfort, O comfort my people, says your God.” Comfort, comfort is a double meaning. In Hebrew, it means both an emotion and a promise of help. The emotion now is “God, are you there? Is anybody out there to help us?” And the answer is, “Wait on the Lord. Wait on the help. Help is on the way. God is putting it all together. “

Verse 29 begins: “God gives power to the faint, and strengthens the powerless.” We think we don’t have enough energy or power to keep going, to sustain ourselves. We believe we’ll run out of strength. But God says, “No you won’t. I’m here with you.” It isn’t the promise that nothing bad will happen. That’s never the promise. The promise is, “I’m going to help get you out of this exile. I’m going to be with you and make you better. But you have to wait. And you have to trust. And you probably will get tired. Verse 30 says, “Even youths will faint and be weary, and the young will fall exhausted.” You’re going to get through this. Some strength is coming. Verse 31 says, “But those who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.”

What is your own exile? What worry or fear is holding you back?  
What things or people are adding some stress to your life? What can you do about that? Not what can you do about them, but how can you turn a conversation around to calm those around you, or make a statement to comfort, or even to stop the negative talk? In other words, how can you help yourself? What is your source of strength? Prayer, meditating, walking, exercise, reading your Bible, reading the stories of Jesus in the gospels all help. Sharing your faith journey and praying for one another all helps.

We may not be as strong yet like the eagle, but if not, we can be carried on the wings and know that strength is on the way if we just wait on the help that God is putting together. I am about to do a new thing, says God.

I close with a true story close to my heart. Last summer I told you quite honestly that a relative of mine had a drug problem. The young man was defiant, stole the family car even without a license, and was found almost a year ago at a church youth event with the possession of marijuana. His life was spinning out of control and so was his family. They didn’t know what to do next. But they found a wonderful Christian drug rehab place that took him to Canada to work and learn last summer. This past school year he has been in the Dominican Republic, helping others and learning how to live a life free of substance abuse. I think he’s going to make it. He is now a top rank leader of his group, given special privileges to email, phone his family and can have weekend visits. He’s even going to graduate from the high school program a year early. And he wants to go to college. But it’s not easy. He also would like to see his old friends again. But he knows that’s risky. So he has to make lots of decisions, hopefully good ones.

God doesn’t promise this young adult that nothing bad will happen once he leaves this safe program and surroundings. But God does promise that he will be given love and strength to make wise decisions, and the good that God is putting together for this creative, wonderful young man.

There’s no easy faith. There’s just faith—the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not yet seen. May God give you the source of strength you need and be the wind beneath your wings. Amen.