The seasons of Advent and Christmas always bring with them a plethora of traditions. We have traditions that are cultural, traditions that have been passed down within our family, traditions of our faith, traditions in our homes, traditions in our churches, traditions at our places of work or at our schools. This morning, we are participating in our church’s tradition of Advent Event, where we come together as a church to decorate for Christmas. Within that tradition, we share a meal of soup and bread, pack care packages for college students and military service personnel, and make a craft to share with others. It’s one of my favorite church traditions of the year.

Something that has become an Advent tradition in the church more recently is the inclusion in at least one of my sermons some reference to Hallmark Christmas movies. Hallmark Christmas movies have become an important holiday tradition for me, so I’ve often brought some of the wisdom and magic of those movies into my sermons. That said, I am disappointed to admit that I have not watched a single Hallmark Christmas movie yet this year. That means I haven’t watched any couples walking around drinking hot chocolate from empty cups or leaving their detached and sometimes mean significant others in the city to reconnect with a high school crush back in their small, community-minded hometown. I haven’t shed a single tear watching a couple finally realize their love for each other just as the movie is about to end. Many of you may not feel at all sad about not watching cheesy holiday movies, but I miss it. Unfortunately, with the busyness of my schedule and a list of things that are of a higher priority for me, I’m not sure if I’ll get to watch any Hallmark Christmas movies at all this year. While that is sad for me, I can take comfort in the fact that Hallmark will come out with new, equally cheesy and predictable Christmas movies next year.

During the time of the prophet Isaiah, the land of Judah was in and out of turmoil, both politically and religiously. Isaiah 9 was written during the reign of King Ahaz of Judah. Ahaz was not a very good king. He allowed the practices of idolatry and child sacrifice to infiltrate the land and disrupt their traditional Jewish worship. And he cozied up with the emperor of Assyria, at one point taking riches from the temple and the treasury to offer as a gift to the Assyrian ruler. That relationship led to a subtle takeover of Judah by the Assyrians. It was likely in the aftermath of this rather chaotic situation that Isaiah wrote the words we read this morning.

“The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who lived in a land of deep darkness—on them light has shined.” This line begins Isaiah’s message of hope to the people of Judah. This darkness that the people find themselves in will not last forever. This verse always reminds me of the saying, “There’s a light at the end of the tunnel.” I discovered this week a bit of an interesting backstory to that phrase. The phrase, though not worded exactly like that, is thought to have first appeared in a letter written by Mary Ann Evans, who was better known by her pseudonym, George Eliot. In the letter, Mary writed, “On Saturday I had a rather severe relapse and though I am getting out of the tunnel into daylight, this renewal of weakness taken with the dreary prospects of the weather under which nothing ripens and fruits hardly escape rotting, makes it seem as if we should be wiser to defer the visit till the 19th when the promised Rubicon of the 16th will have been passed.” The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light.

A tunnel is an interesting thing. The Cambridge Dictionary defines a tunnel as “a long passage under or through the ground, especially one made by people.” Tunnels, particularly long ones, can be very dark. As you travel through the darkness of a tunnel, you may begin to wonder if the end will ever come, if you will ever see light again. So, to see “the light at the end of the tunnel” is a profoundly exciting experience. But something I don’t think we think about very often as we journey through tunnels is that just because we are in darkness, it doesn’t mean that the light has disappeared. Seeing the light at the end of the tunnel reminds us that the light is still there. In fact, it was there the whole time but we just couldn’t see it. It’s the same with night and day. The darkness of night is not due to the light being gone, but due to the earth turning away from the light.

When Isaiah writes, “The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who lived in a land of deep darkness—on them light has shined,” he is reminding the people of God’s abiding light. He is reminding them that no matter how difficult the circumstances of life, God’s grace is still present. And Isaiah presents the light at the end of the tunnel as coming in the form of a child. He writes, “For a child has been born for us, a son given to us; authority rests upon his shoulders, and he is named Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Great will be his authority, and there shall be endless peace for the throne of David and his kingdom. He will establish and uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time onward and forevermore. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this.” Light and salvation are to come through a child. Through the birth of something new. That is the message of Advent as well. God is coming to us in the birth of a child who will be the fulfillment of the grace and hope that God has been trying to give us since the beginning of creation.

In the book “Come Thou Long Expected Jesus” by Andy Langford and Ann Langford Duncan, which we are using for our study after church and as a conversation partner in our sermons through the season of Advent, they talk about Isaiah having two main messages: judgment and hope. As humans, we are pretty good with judgment. I think that’s a good part of why reality shows like American Idol and The Bachelor and Survivor have been so popular. They are all centered around judgment: Who should be voted off the island? Which supermodel should the Bachelor go on another date with? Who is the best singer? We have opinions about those things and are ready and willing to make judgments. We are pretty good with judgment, but we are not always so good with hope.

The first verse of the Advent hymn upon which our study book gets its name, “Come Thou Long Expected Jesus,” says this: “Come, thou long expected Jesus, born to set thy people free; from our fears and sins release us, let us find our rest in thee. Israel’s strength and consolation, hope of all the earth thou art; dear desire of every nation, joy of every longing heart.” Jesus is the hope of all the earth. No matter how far we run from God, no matter how much the depravity of the world pulls us down, no matter how deep we sink into dismay and depression, we still have hope in Jesus. We have hope that grace is here, waiting for us.

Those of you into late 80s pop music may have looked at the title of this sermon and immediately had a song come into your mind. The song is titled “Right Here Waiting,” and it was written by Richard Marx and released as a single in 1989. The chorus goes like this:

Wherever you go, whatever you do

I will be right here waiting for you

Whatever it takes or how my heart breaks

I will be right here waiting for you

Marx said in an interview that he wrote the song as a letter to his wife, before they were married, when she had gone to South Africa for a movie she was filming. He had tried to go there to be with her and was denied a visa, so he wrote this song as a love letter to her. He never intended it to be published, but it ended up becoming a huge hit. And I think the beauty of it is that it captures that sense of hope, that sense of a love that is just waiting for you to return to it. Isaiah’s words in chapter 9 feel to me like God saying to the people of Judah, “Wherever you go, whatever you do, I will be right here waiting for you.”

I don’t know about you, but I need a message of hope reminding me that God is here, that God’s grace and love are not lost but are just waiting. The first week of Advent is the week of hope. It reminds us every year of the hope we have in God that was made manifest for us through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. It is the hope that we are never too far gone that God’s grace cannot reach us, we are never too destroyed that God’s love can’t heal us, we are never too angry that God’s peace can’t calm our hearts. In a world where violence is rampant, hatred is lauded as a virtue, and rightness is more important than kindness, it can be so easy to feel hopeless. But the good news of Advent is that we still have hope, because Jesus is coming, we are not alone, God’s grace is right here, waiting for us. May that message wash over us today, lift our spirits out of the depths, and give us the peace and courage to keep on living and loving. Amen.