Streams in the Desert

Streams in the Desert   

Isaiah 35:1-7 GNT; Luke 5:15-16 CEB

Text: "Streams of water will flow through the desert." Isaiah 35:6 GNT                          

A meditation delivered electronically by Rev. Dr. Randy K. Hammer, Sept. 27, 2020

As a young man, he was destined for greatness.  He had potential.  He had intelligence.  He had compassion.  He had charisma.  And yet, in young adulthood he had, in his own words, “a critical nervous breakdown.”  And as he later reflected on that difficult time in his life, he had this to say: “It was the most terrifying wilderness I ever traveled through.  I dreadfully wanted to commit suicide.”¹ 

He became a preacher; a darned good preacher.  But because of his progressive views and sermons and response to the Fundamentalist movement of the early 20^th century, he was forced to resign his position as associate pastor of First Presbyterian Church in New York City.  But it all worked out for the best in the end.  Because of the stand he had taken and the sermon he had preached against the dangers of Fundamentalism, he soon was called to another New York City church.  The crowds grew and he asked for a larger church building to be built.  A member by the name of John D. Rockefeller obliged and led in the building of Riverside Church in New York, one of the most influential churches in the nation.  Harry Emerson Fosdick became its first minister, becoming a preacher for the nation, a hymn writer (“God of Grace and God of Glory”), and accomplished author.

But back to Fosdick’s wilderness ordeal.  Speaking of that wilderness experience, Fosdick said, “I made some of the most vital discoveries of my life.  My little book, The Meaning of Prayer, never could have been written without that breakdown.  I found God in a desert.”

So did the Hebrew prophet Isaiah – sensed the presence of God in the desert, that is.  Isaiah lived and prophesied at a very difficult time in Israel’s history.  His people were being threatened by Assyria, their powerful neighbor.  Isaiah saw national corruption and moral decay.  There was internal political instability.  Invasion and destruction were threats that had been hanging over their heads.  And they finally had been invaded, overrun, their Temple destroyed, and many of the leading citizens had been carried off to Babylon in exile.

And yet, Isaiah could look beyond the present crises and envision a time of restoration and blessing.  The desert traditionally was not and is not thought of as a place of blessing.  The desert can be barren, desolate, dry, and unbearably hot.  But Isaiah poetically saw a glorious time in the future when blessings would return and even the desert would blossom with flowers and sing for joy.  There shall be “streams in the desert,” Isaiah proclaimed.  “Streams in the desert” has become a metaphor for blessing even in the time of trouble, trials, and hardship.

But Isaiah also speaks of strength being given to people with tired hands and weak knees.  And, he says, “Tell everyone who is discouraged, ‘Be strong and don’t be afraid’” (Isaiah 35:4 GNT).  “Tell everyone who is discouraged, ‘Be strong and don’t be afraid.”  What a message for our own day!

In many ways, we may identify with the first recipients of Isaiah’s message, and with Harry Emerson Fosdick as well.  These past six months have in some ways made us feel like we are wandering in the wilderness or desert.  At times we may have felt that our nerves were about to come unraveled.  We are all tired and discouraged and overwhelmed with all that is going on in America today. 

I was talking with my doctor last week during my annual physical, and I shared that all that is going on today is increasing my stress level and beginning to affect my physical health.  And she replied, “I understand that; that’s why I don’t listen to the news.”

Yes, we feel stuck in the desert; the desert of uncertainty and discouragement; the desert of feeling lost and forlorn; the desert of isolation and loneliness.

Back to Harry Emerson Fosdick, who asks, “Why is it that some of life’s most revealing insights come to us, not by life’s loveliness but from life’s difficulties?”  But he also assures, “We find God in life’s lovely things – yes!  God is in life’s lovely things.  But soon or late all of us come to place where, if we are to find God at all, we must find him in a wilderness.”

And it is interesting to keep in mind (as our gospel reading today points out) that Jesus, when tired and weary from all the teaching and walking and having the people press upon him, wanting to be blessed and healed, actually sought out the desert or wilderness as a place of rest and rejuvenation.  Maybe Jesus was onto something.  You think?

So, my friends, let us take heart and courage.  As I’ve suggested previously, let us determine to persevere during these trying times in which we now live.  Let us seek to find, as Fosdick suggested, God in the wilderness of our present distress.  Let us hope for and be open to – metaphorically speaking – streams in the desert.  Amen.

¹Harry Emerson Fosdick, “Finding God in Unlikely Places,” The Riverside Preachers.  New York: The Pilgrim Press, 1978, pp. 18-26.