“What it Could be Like” Isaiah 49:8-16 5/25/08 Dr. Ben Sloan
“In the time of my favor I will answer you, and in the day of salvation I will help you;
I will keep you and will make you to be a covenant people, to restore the land and to reassign its desolate inheritances, to say to the captives ‘Come out,’ and to those in darkness, ‘Be free!’ They will feed beside the roads and find pasture on every barren hill. They will neither hunger nor thirst, nor will the desert heat or sun beat down upon them.
He who has compassion on them will guide them and lead them beside springs of water. I will turn all my mountains into raods and my highways will be raised up. See they will come from afar—some from the north, some from the west, some from the region of the Aswan. 13 Shout for joy, you heavens; rejoice you earth; burst into song, you mountains! For the Lord comforts his people and will have compassion on his afflicted ones. 14 But Zion said, “The Lord has forsaken me, the Lord has forgotten me.” 15 “Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has borne? Though she may forget, I will not forget you! 16 See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands; your walls are ever before me.”
I have read a lot of books written by politicians about what life could be like if they were elected to the office of president or to congress, governor, senator, auditor, sheriff, dog catcher. Maybe you have seen these too. There’s Living History by Hillary Rodham Clinton, and Faith of My Fathers/ Why Courage Matters by John McCain; or The Audacity or Hope by Obama. These are impressive books, and their purpose is to reveal something about the candidate so you might vote for them, as well as raise some money. They try to express their way to the American Dream. They try to tell you they can get you to the American dream if you just vote for them. I think this is a wonderful topic to think about as graduations come and go, and particularly on this Memorial Day weekend. What is our ideal world or ideal country? I do not simply want to give you another opinion based on surveys of what people want, or even my own political views, but I want us to try to understand what Isaiah is saying here. I know I have to use my language, my culture, and even my viewpoint as the lens to see this passage, but I really want to convey to you what the scriptures have to say about the ideal world on earth. Napoleon, was one of the most powerful men in the history of the world. But he knew that the world was not ultimately moved by power but by imagination. He said, “Imagination rules the world.” Society is not held together by law and the gun- ask Ceasescu of Romania about that. The real problem today is many (including many Christians) seem to have lost their moral compass that points true. Isaiah would remind us of the prospects of our earthly hope. Plato talked about having a hope that fits, that we could say, “that is the way it should be.” We live in a confused day. One court rules gay marriage is okay, another rules against it. One court rules children in a polygamist compound should be protected another rules they should be returned to their mother. One law says to put the ten commandments in public buildings, another law says during the same period that we don’t have to observe Sabbath regulations as a whole. One law promotes the family, another seems to encourage people to speak up for promiscuity. We live in a confused society in part because we have forsaken the mores of the past trying to find out own way in the name of tolerance and freedom and an aversion to offend someone else- which has become the leading moral rule of the day. Without a moral hope and imagination we live from day to day or moment to moment like a dog does. Isaiah tries to give us a dream- he does this a lot in his book. Isaiah tries to get us to dream the dream of God- of a time when people follow God and God blesses them. It is the time of God’s favor.
First, let us look at what it does NOT SAY. It does not speak about heaven here. There is still death, still pain, work is still hard, still accidents, still things that go wrong. On this earth we will always have tribulation. But part of our task is to make this world as good a place as it can be- not just for ourselves, but for the people who come after us. Let us not have unrealistic expectations of anyone or of this life. It is important to recognize the limitations, finitude of any ideal.
IT IS A TIME OF FRUITFULNESS-
A) NO HUNGER OR THIRST- We have been blessed in our country to be in a place where there is little hunger or thirst. Last year in the drought we were getting thirsty, and wondering about the quantity of water. But clean water is a scarce commodity in our world. 1 billion lack clean drinking water. Every hour 200 children under the age of five die because they do not have clean water. The rising price of fuel and along with it the rising price of corn (up 53% from last year) have produced a rising crisis of hunger in our world. The price of rice has increased by 80% in the last year- this despite record production of rice and wheat in 2007. There is something wrong when we have record harvests and at the same time record prices that are causing famine. This is not a rice or wheat problem. It is a spiritual problem-because some are hoarding rice while others are starving. When we become generous, and turn away from fear, greed, and selfishness, God smiles, and we smile back.
B) WITH THIS IS GOD’S BLESSING ON CREATION- Again, let me remind you of who the Bible says is in charge. The TV-weather anchor may speak of fronts, jet streams, Santa-Anna winds, etc. but these are descriptive not causative terms. One way God comforts us, according to scripture is by simply cooling the heat and sending rain when things are dry. As the lily and the birds look to God to care for them- so we need to look for God’s care as well. This, I know, is a faith statement. You can argue about it, but in the end it is a matter of faith to put your trust in God. Some say you shouldn’t- I say that holy imagination- at least the imagination Isaiah gives- says you should trust in God.
IT IS A TIME OF RETURN- Have you ever seem something so bad on the news it makes you want to leave? You hear of gang beatings, murders, robberies, burglaries. I do not doubt that some have moved out to our area of Chapin and Irmo to get away from some of this. Have you ever just wanted to move away from all the sin, and heartache? The problem is that without working to make the world better, it just follows you around. What makes a place great to live in are not the number of bars, strip clubs, gambling halls, adult video stores, prostitution houses, methamphetamine labs. The illusion is that these things will bring pleasure. If they really do, why do people not want to live in their neighborhoods? We fight these things not just by law, but by making our world so godly that people don’t want those things. Christians who do not share their faith need to take some responsibility for the degradation of our moral environment.
Isaiah described captives being set free, and people who were hiding in holes, in caves, in darkness coming out into the open because it was safe. When evil roams the land, the godly are held captive. When evil comes out of hiding, it is not long before the godly go into hiding. When Adolf Hitlet came out of prison and into power, it wasn’t long before The Bonhoeffers and Corrie Ten Booms were put into prison. Like the wild west when the gunfighters were on the streets, the good people stayed off the streets-couldn’t walk. Today we are surrounded with growing gangs, growing violence.
God calls us to come back. Coming back literally means “repent.” Come back to the ancient paths. Get back on the right road. True freedom is found in using our freedom wisely. We may have freedom to form all kinds of organizations, but having freedom and using it is not in and of itself good. Using freedom to do good, to build up society and the community is the best use of freedom.
ISAIAH’S REMINDER- I WILL NEVER FORGET YOU. This passage was written before the exile, but the golden age of Israel and Judah were gone. David was long gone. Hezekiah, the godly king had died. The Assyrian armies had invaded twice and were repulsed- but took many captives, and Babylonian armies were defeating more and more countries and looking down the pike at coming to Judah. It looked bleak- really bleak. It was about like South Carolina after Sherman’s armies were in northern Georgia- things looked foreboding and people were wondering if God would remember them. Maybe you feel like that. Maybe you are wondering about the economy and about how you’re going to make it. You may feel that God has forsaken you, forgotten you, or even taken part in your own ruin.
But God says these great words- Can a mother forget the baby at her breast? The answer of course is a resounding, “No!” Can you pick another image that is more universal of unconditional unending love? God says, it is even possible for a mother to forget, but God will not. He has engraved you on the palms of his hands. It is one thing to write on the palms of your hands, but the word here is “engraved” like “tattoo.” The old joke is the guy who comes to the tattoo parlor wanting to add a tattoo. He pulls off his shirt and it says, “I love Rose” that has a line through it. Then “Mary forever” that has a line through it too. And now he wants to put another name down there. Tattoos have the image of permanency, and not forgetting. Human forget. Sometimes forgetting is healthy- like forgetting how severe the pain of having a baby is. But God never forgets.
He is the One who calls us beyond ourselves. He calls us back
In WWI millions of English soldiers were killed by dreaded poisonous gas and trench warfare. There was a strong sense of the need for pacifism and appeasement, and the morals of the country were fading. The Oxford Union debating society overwhelming passed a resolution saying, “In no circumstances [will we] fight for King and Country.” But as France fell and Britain stood alone, Prime Minister Winston Churchill gave the people a moral and social imagination. He said, “We are in a great battle, and upon this battle depends the survival of Christian civilization. If we fail we will sink into a new Dark Age…let us brace ourselves for our duties so that if our [country] lasts a thousand years people would say, ‘This was their finest hour.’” I believe we too are in a struggle of ideas today. It is found among your neighbors who are apathetic on the one hand, and the idealists who would remove all Christian standards- just to have them removed- on the other. In our day, our responsibility is to stand up for our faith, and also to share our faith with those who do not believe. Billy Graham used to say frequently that the only way to change the world was to change the hearts of individuals in the world. I really believe that. There are things that can happen politically to make it easier to be a Christian. Of course there are things that should happen structurally- things that we do together. But we need a dream- a hope. It is for this hope and dream this country that people died. Let us live to spread goodness, holiness, hope, love, kindness in this world- let us spread the dream and hope!