This week's thinking bit... |
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This week's thinking bit... |
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DON'T
DESPAIR!
Scholars will tell you that although there are 66
chapters of prophecy with Isaiah’s name on them there were in fact at least
three separate authors whose works have been combined under the prophet’s
name. For the sake of ease the book has been divided into Proto-Isaiah, Deutero-Isaiah and Trito-Isaiah! For the sake of ease we’ll called them
First, Second and Third Isaiah.
First Isaiah was written before the fall of Jerusalem (about 8th Century BC), second Isaiah during the Exile (about 6th Century BC [550 BC]) and third Isaiah once Israel has returned to their own land and are rebuilding Jerusalem (about 5th Century BC).
The bit we have this morning - chapter 40 - is right at the beginning of Second Isaiah.
It’s likely that the original Isaiah had quite
a following after his death and that the two subsequent writers were
disciples in what scholars call an Isaian-school - those who kept his
message alive, who thought, prayed and meditated through his prophetic words
and sought to apply them and his way of thinking and doing theology to their
present situation. So they would have asked themselves “What would Isaiah
have said about today?”
So this Isaiah is writing to the Exiles in Babylon. The
divided kingdom of Israel has fallen, Jerusalem has been destroyed, they’ve
been invaded and the people deported to Babylon. For 70 years they’re taken
away from the land that God promised them and live in the captivity of pagan
oppressors. It is a catastrophic time in the life of the nation and as they
assess it they begin to understand their wrenching from the land as the
consequences of ignoring God. So the Exile is a time of theological
reflecting and of prophets calling people back to Yahweh.
It is difficult for us to grasp
quite how significant the Exile was to the Israelites... Just imagine for a
moment that last night our beautiful church building was destroyed... we
came to worship this morning to find a pile of smouldering rubble.. nothing
left - not even the famous tower. And on top of that imagine the Church of
England folded up during the week... the government seized all the Church’s
assets to pay off its debts and there was no central church structures, all
clergy were out of a job... no where to worship, and no structure within
which to worship.... What would you make of that?!
Of course personality would play a part - the optimists would see the potential for new start and new ways forward - it would sort out the problem with the heating system quite efficiently! Pessimists would hold their heads in their hands and lament the passing of the old... but either way rebuilding - spiritual and physical - would be needed.
Think that through and you begin to get a flavour of how the Israelites were feeling in their Exile from the Promised Land. And also of how the personality of the prophet flavoured the approach he took.
In first Isaiah the tone was threat and condemnation - a warning
of what would befall an Israel who forsook God. But in Second Isaiah the
tone is more sorrowful and consoling of those lamenting their Exile. The
people are dazed, discouraged and tempted to give up on God altogether.
Previously the vision of how God would reveal himself to the world was that all nations would come to Jerusalem; that Israel would model the perfect theocracy - a system in which the king ruled under God; where the laws were directly from God; where justice and mercy were the statutes; where God was worshipped by all; where Israel became the “gate keeper” of God...
But with the land gone, what now? One of
the possibilities which second Isaiah begins to explore later on is the way
in which the Jewish faith might become a world religion - so instead of
importing the nations to Jerusalem (a city now destroyed and ploughed
under), maybe the faith of Israel would go to the nations... This was a
different way of beginning to think about God, life and mission. Maybe even
the other nations have done Israel a favour in helping them look at God in a
new way... But this is perhaps trying to run before you can walk: for the
immediate present how does Isaiah address this situation? What is God’s word
to his people now?
The background for the Exiles then is
of hopelessness, of dazed rethinking, of trying to make sense of God in the
midst of chaos. It may be the sort of thing we experience in bereavement;
when we lose a partner or close friend, when we’re made redundant, when
we’re forced to moved house, when an illness or old age restricts our
activities, when a major change comes upon us without our controlling it.
That’s the kind of background the Israelites were experiencing - the scale
may be different, but it’s a universal experience of our common humanity.
So what does Isaiah say to his hearers, and what might God be saying to us if and when we find ourselves in the same kind of situation?
Isaiah restates something of the glory and power of God. Making
sense of life and trying to find God in chaos starts with the faith that God
is still there. despite the trauma, despite the incomprehension of what’s
going on, God is. Second-Isaiah delights in ridiculing the pseudo-deities of
other nations - they are useless. God is. Yahweh is the creator, the sustainer, the one who is all powerful. It is God who makes the earth turn
and night fall, who created the stars. He is incomparable - but that doesn’t
stop Isaiah trying! Before him people are as insignificant as grasshoppers.
Catching a glimpse of God helps us to re-asses our lives in that light. An old hymn I remember from my childhood had a verse that went like this: “Turn your eyes upon Jesus, Look full in his wonderful face And the things of earth will grow strangely dim In the light of his glory and grace”. There’s something about perspective, and we very easily lose our perspective when things begin to go pear shaped!
Isaiah reminds his dazed and confused hearers that God is.
And more than that: God is passionately interested in those
grasshoppers! His greatness doesn’t remove himself from his people, but in
fact the opposite - because of his greatness he cares for us. God’s very
nature is love. God is not cold dispassionate from-a-distance detached...
his very nature is to be involved. And of course we see that so powerfully
in the Incarnation, as God literally steps into our shoes, takes on our
flesh and walks where we walk.
One of the things about shock, bereavement and depression
is the overwhelming sense of tiredness... It’s the way I deal with illness -
I hibernate! I go to bed, pull up the duvet and sleep... And exhaustion is a
common reaction to trauma - we spend so much energy trying to work out
what’s going on, or we just can’t be bothered any more and we give up...
Isaiah recognises that reaction (even youngsters lose heart, even the young
get weary) and he knows who gives us fresh heart, who gives us hope and
inspiration. Inspiration - breathing in and animation by the Spirit of God.
Isaiah says don’t give up - your weariness will be sustained by God himself,
there will be an end to it, you will walk tall again, you will be lifted up,
your strength will be renewed.
Although things look grim now, God’s plans will come to
fruition. God’s purposes will be achieved; his timing might not be ours. We
may find it difficult to see a way ahead, we may ask what we think God is up
to, but God will not be deflected by other concerns or what rulers may do.
God will not get weary as we do... God won’t give up as we might be tempted
to... God doesn’t lose heart... God doesn’t get dazed or hopeless. Can you
see why Jesus taught us to pray “Your kingdom come, your will be done, as it
is in heaven”? - it will happen!
And so what should our response be?
If we’re beginning to see a light at the end of
the tunnel, if we’re beginning to pick ourselves up... Isaiah’s word is
quite simple: Wait upon God.
Realise your dependence on him; don’t try to do things in your own strength - allow God to rebuild and repair you. Wait upon God. Line up your will with his: if God’s purposes are going to succeed, if the kingdom is going to come, let’s make sure we’re pulling in the right direction. This God who sustains, who creates and who cares wants to work with us to achieve his purposes. In fact part of his purpose is just that: for us to work alongside him.
So the message of Second Isaiah is a message of hope to a shattered community. It’s a word of encouragement spoken into chaos. It’s a word of refreshment to those who are wadding through treacle... Amidst the broken fragments of their former lives Isaiah points beyond - to the God who is greater than us, and reminds us that all is not lost, that we are called to work alongside God... and that the kingdom will come.
Fr Andrew J Perry
Rector,
St John the Evangelist, Pevensey Rd, St Leonards on Sea
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| 29th January 2006 | Why Candlemas? |
| 22nd January 2006 | The Wedding at Cana |
| 15th January 2006 | Revealing the true nature of Jesus |
| 1st January 2006 | The naming & circumcision of Jesus |
| All 2005 Sermons | Click here to see the full list |
