(This is my last sermon as a full-time pastor, as I will be starting a new job later in October. I'll still be writing on the blog, it just won't be in the form of sermons! Thanks for reading!)
Isaiah 43:1-4, 18-21
September 27, 2009
“Do not fear!” it says
and we’re used to those words
coming from the voice of angels
and often afterwards
someone ends up pregnant
Mary, for instance
her cousin Elizabeth
“Do not fear!”
some of us remember those words
coming from an angel with an Irish accent
on the old show “Touched By An Angel”
She’d light up and say,
“do not fear, I am angel sent from God,”
and anyone of course in their right mind
would be afraid
because how often does someone show up
in our lives
and light up like a Christmas tree
and claim to be an angel?
Anyway,
“Do not fear…”
is usually spoken in the bible
before something happens that really does make one afraid
like getting pregnant by the Holy Spirit
and having to explain it to everyone in the village
that the Son of God is in your womb
that’d be pretty scary, I’d say
But here God is speaking directly
no angels intervening
He’s speaking through the prophet Isaiah
to the people of Israel
Do not fear, I am here, God is saying
When I was little
I loved the cartoon of Underdog
and I’d pin a pillowcase around my neck
and fly around the house
saving Sweet Polly Purebread
from the many disasters she managed
to get herself in
and I’d jump into the living room
and declare, “Have no fear, Underdog is here!”
And all was right again with the world
at least for that day
Now we like to watch the TV show NCIS
and of course this past week was the long awaited
season premiere
At the end of the show
Gibbs, the main guy,
shows up in the nick of time
wearing camouflage
bearing a high-powered rifle
and there is an angel-like light around him
Not a sweet, innocent gentle angel, mind you
but more like a Arnold Swarzenegger-type angel
showing up in Sodom and Gomorrah
saying, “Go ahead make my day!”
You don’t have to worry if Gibbs has your back
you’re going to be alright
Gibbs always comes in to say the day
and to kick some butt
And we certainly have plenty of images of God
in the Old Testament like that
a God you don’t mess with
a God who comes in with his proverbial
high powered rifle and wipes everybody out
and a lot of people particularly enjoy that image of God
I don’t
In the book of Isaiah,
the people of Israel have been Through It
You know what that’s like
you’ve been Through It
Where you’re raw, exhausted, wiped out
drained
and you just concentrate on taking one breath at a time
Grief does that to a person
The Israelites have been Through It
They’d been in exile
away from their homeland,
lost, disoriented, always wondering
if they’d ever get back home
because when you’re not home
you tend to forget who you are
you can’t get your bearings
and you tend to panic
Nobody knows your name
nobody knows or even seems to care
what you’ve been through
and you’re too tired to tell the story all over again
Even if there’s some indication that they would listen
They’d been at the mercy of their enemies
for so long
away from their families
away from their temple, their traditions
that kept them grounded
that reminded them daily who they are
They’re grieving
Grieving the loss of those who died in exile
grieving the loss of their temple
their homeland
their homes, their people
their sense of identity
They’d been violated
treated as if they weren’t human
and everything they cared about
was treated as garbage, as nothing
And now they’re coming home
They have serious Post-Traumatic Stress Syndrome
they have been stripped of all hope
of everything that had given them hope
so even the joy of coming home is lost on them
what are they coming home to?
Their homes are gone,
their temple is gone
some of their people and loved ones are gone
how can they rebuild their lives?
And God says to these battered souls,
“Do not fear, for I have redeemed you,
I have called you by name, you are mine…”
This is not the Arnold Swarzeneggar God
This is God who loves, who nurtures,
who welcomes home, who reaches out
to take his people into his arms
and comfort them like a mother would
Come home, God says
I know who you are, even if you don’t
I know your name, even if you can’t remember it
you are mine, you are my people….
Do not be afraid
“When you pass through the waters, I will be with you
and through the rivers,
they shall not overwhelm you
when you walk through the fire
you shall not be burned
and the flame shall not consume you.”
God doesn’t kid them
God doesn’t say, it’s all over now,
everything from here on out is going to be easy
It’s not going to be easy
they have to rebuild their lives
find meaning again in their lives
that will include this brutal experience
they’ve just been through
There will be days they just want to sit on the floor
and cry
give up, believing they don’t have what it takes
to keep going
to move on
to get through
and that’s ok
because God will get them up on their feet again
after they’ve had a good hard cry
and God will help them start again
In one of the churches I served
I remember a woman saying
“you know, I just can’t relate to the story
about Jesus walking on water…
I mean, what was the point?
How can I relate to that?
I will never walk on water
and why do I need to?”
She had a point
I’ve had other people say the same thing
That they didn’t need a Jesus that walks on water
but they do need a Jesus that will walk THROUGH the water
with them
Because we do walk THROUGH water
we do face floods
whether real ones or figurative ones
We face floods that threaten to do us in
we face deep waters
that we don’t know how we will get across
and we know that we can’t just walk over top of them
and avoid the terror, the depths, the darkness
and the brutal cold of those waters
sometimes things happen
that we just can’t get around or walk over top
but in order to get to the other side
we know we have to get through
and God says, I will be go with you
you don’t have to do this alone
Sometimes we have to walk through fire
we have to face things that threaten to burn us up
and simply leave us in ashes
we have to face people who sometimes seem larger than life
who can hurt us
and make us feel rotten if we let them
But God says, I know who you are,
and I will remind YOU who you are
my beloved child who is strong
who faces deep waters and learns how to swim
who faces fire and manages to get through
with only minor burns
This is one of my favorite passages in the Bible
particularly because it’s so personal
I don’t know of any other place in the Bible
where God just comes right out and says
“I love you”
We read about God loving us
Jesus talks about God loving us, caring for us
watching over us,
but this is God talking directly to us
no third person
and simply saying, “Hey, I love you.
You are precious to me
You matter
You are beautiful and strong
and I would do anything for you
I would pay a ransom for you
to get you back from those who take you captive
I would do anything to bring you home
I will bring your children back from all the distant lands
where they’ve been taken away from you
I will bring them home, I will bring YOU home
I will do everything in my power to give you life
even in the world that is so full of death
I love the song by Rascal Flatts, “God Bless the Broken Road”
It’s a love song, of course,
but I love the image of the broken road
that has gotten us to this point in our lives
I don’t think any of us have managed to get here
unscathed
without some heartache
or grief or struggle
If you think you have, I’d suggest you’re in major denial
But I think we can look back and see where God
was able to bring goodness out of pain
life out of death
that God can even bless pain
and bring about new life
Of course we can’t see the good stuff
when we’re still in the midst of the pain
When we’re suffering grief
we can’t possibly see how God will bring anything good
out of it
we simply have to get through it first
but we can look back on our lives
and see how God has brought us safe thus far
how God blessed many of the broken roads of our lives
to make us who we are
I don’t for a minute believe that God causes pain
or makes bad things happen
God’s not like that
God wouldn’t do that because God is no a sadist
But God has the power to take the broken pieces
and make something beautiful out of them
On Friday, I was driving home from Kearney
and I saw a man walking on the side of Route #30
and it looked like he was carrying everything he owned
on his back
He had a huge load, he looked like he’s walked a long way
with that heavy load
he was unshaven, and his skin looked like tanned leather
as if he’s lived a lot on the road
But as he hunched over, bearing the weight of his burden
on top of his backpack, there was a big white sign
and in bold letters, it simply said, “Love Life.”
Love Life
I had to smile
I don’t know what his story is,
I don’t know if he chose to live that way
or if Life imposed it on him
But I can tell that he carries a heavy load
and who knows how much farther he had to walk?
But still he carried a message
“Love Life”
Love it in all its light and darkness,
all of its pain and pleasure
all of its triumphs and defeats
Love it even if you’re bearing a heavy load
and the road stretches out forever in front of you
“Do not remember the former things,”
God says through Isaiah
or consider the things of old
I am about to do a new thing
now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?
I will make a way in the wilderness
and rivers through the desert…”
I don’t think God is saying ‘forget the past’
because the past is part of who we are
and there are some things, some people
that we simply don’t want to forget
even if they’re gone
but I think God is saying, don’t live in the past
don’t cling desperately to it
and refuse to move on
because time will go on without you
the future is coming, whether we’re ready or not
and God is there too
God is in the past and God is in the future
making a way for us,
preparing a path for us
We don’t have to know all the details
we don’t have to know all the answers
because God is already there
There will be more deep water
more raging rivers,
more broken roads
because it seems that this world is just full of all that
but none of it is the final word on who we are
We can start over from wherever we are
no matter where we’ve been, or what has happened
we can still go home
and offer up our broken roads
to the redemptive power of God
and God promises that we will never, ever be alone
no matter what happens
“Do not fear,” God says
“for I have redeemed you, I have called you by name
You Are Mine.
…You are precious in my sight, and honored
and I love you…”
No matter what happens or where you go,
I will bring you home
All of us face uncertain times
we don’t know what’s going to happen
and most of the time we have very little control
over what does happen
but we can know that no matter what,
we are not alone
and that no matter how deep and cold the water
no matter how hot and painful the fire
no matter how long the road is ahead
we will make it home
and God will bless the way
because we know who we are
and to whom we belong forever….
We’ll all going to be ok
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