Dear Faith Lutheran Church & School,
In the Old Testament Reading for this coming Sunday, the prophet Isaiah writes,
Strengthen the weak hands, and make firm the feeble knees. Say to those who have an anxious heart, “Be strong; fear not! Behold, your God will come with vengeance, with the recompense of God. He will come and save you.” (Isaiah 35:3-4)
When I read a text like this, I’m drawn to words and phrase that describe our basic human situation and God’s response: Our hands are weak, our knees are feeble, and our hearts are anxious.
The general picture here is one of fearful unbelief, but the prophet uses three images to convey this fearful unbelief.
WEAK HANDS:
When we are afraid and our faith is weak, we have weak hands. We are unwilling or unable to use our hands to serve God and His people. We don’t put our hands to the tasks that God has given us to do. We withdraw from His call for our lives and refuse to give of ourselves and the blessings God has granted us for the sake of the Gospel and the ministry of God’s church.
FEEBLE KNEES:
When we are afraid and our faith is weak, we have feeble knees. Feeble knees have trouble standing up and standing firm. So we struggle remain steadfast in our confession of faith. Instead we are prone to compromising, or even falling away entirely from Christ. Weak knees resist prayer; and weak knees are not equipped to walk or to run where God has called.
ANXIOUS HEARTS:
When we are afraid and our faith is weak, our hearts are anxious. Doubt fills us up and we are tempted to fear, love and trust the idols of the moment. We think that money will save us. We devote ourselves to the pursuit of pleasures or possessions. We run after status or power. We seek health and wellness in the vain hope that we will be able to conquer physical ailments through them. The anxious heart twists the gifts of God into false gods, yet meanwhile the anxious heart is never satisfied or set at ease, because it is never resting in the peace of God.
These three phrases aptly describe our natural human condition. But what is God’s response to all this? Through the prophet our Lord gives a remedy for WEAK HANDS, FEEBLE KNEES, and ANXIOUS HEARTS. And the remedy is God’s Holy Word which testifies to the coming and presence of God in our midst.
God commands the prophet to say: Be strong; fear not! Behold, your God will come with vengeance, with the recompense of God. He will come and save you.
When we are plagued with fear and weakness of faith, God speaks to us. He reminds us of His power and His promise. He declares that He has come to us, to save us. While this is clearly an Advent text, confessing the first and second coming of our Lord, yet even more profoundly, it is a text that points us to the MIRACLE that occurs when we gather for the Divine Service.
When we come together in Worship, we encounter the very presence of God, in His Word and Sacrament. God comes to us to give peace to our anxious hearts, firmness to our feeble knees, and strength to our weak hands. He comes to remind us who we are as Baptized Children of God. He comes to forgive us our sins in the Words of Holy Absolution. He welcomes us to His own table and He comes there to feeds us His true body and blood, for the forgiveness of our sins and the strengthening of our faith.
In our broken and fear-filled world, we will often find ourselves with weak hands, feeble knees, and anxious hearts. But Christ our Lord has the remedy to this fear and faithlessness. He calls us to worship, where He comes to strengthen us. And with strengthened hands, firmed up knees, and peace-filled hearts, we are enabled to put our hands to the tasks which God has called us to. We are enabled by Him to fall to our knees, resting in the strength of Christ. And we are enables to walk in paths of righteousness, as we declare the good news of great joy for all people, which is true Peace through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.