Tawa Baptist

The Fruit of Hope

Scripture: Isaiah 35

Video Link: https://youtu.be/e3kB49mMC_Y

Structure:

  • Introduction – Joy is the fruit of hope
  • Hope for renewal – from curse to blessing
  • Hope for release – from fear to joy
  • Hope for restoration – from exclusion to worship
  • Conclusion

Introduction:

Good morning everyone.

Joy is the fruit of hope. If hope is a beehive, then joy is the honey.

If hope is a herd of cows, then joy is the milk they produce.

If hope is a tree, then joy is the oxygen breathed out by the tree.

If hope is a sunny day, then joy is the Vitamin D you absorb from the sun.

If hope is a good night’s rest, then joy is the energy you get from sleeping well. If hope is a cash deposit with the bank, then joy is the interest earned.

If hope is a gentle spring rain, then joy is the new growth on the land.

Joy is the fruit of hope.

Today is the third Sunday of Christmas Advent. Traditionally, the theme of the third Sunday in Advent is joy. With joy in mind our sermon is based on Isaiah 35. In Isaiah 35 the prophet offers a vision of hope for the future and this vision inspires joy. From Isaiah 35, verse 1 we read…

The desert and the parched land will be glad; the wilderness will rejoice and blossom. Like the crocus, 2 it will burst into bloom; it will rejoice greatly and shout for joy. The glory of Lebanon will be given to it, the splendour of Carmel and Sharon; they will see the glory of the Lord, the splendour of our God. 3 Strengthen the feeble hands, steady the knees that give way; 4 say to those with fearful hearts, “Be strong, do not fear; your God will come, he will come with vengeance; with divine retribution he will come to save you.” 5 Then will the eyes of the blind be opened and the ears of the deaf unstopped. 6 Then will the lame leap like a deer, and the mute tongue shout for joy. Water will gush forth in the wilderness and streams in the desert. 7 The burning sand will become a pool, the thirsty ground bubbling springs. In the haunts where jackals once lay, grass and reeds and papyrus will grow. 8 And a highway will be there; it will be called the Way of Holiness; it will be for those who walk on that Way. The unclean will not journey on it; wicked fools will not go about on it. 9 No lion will be there, nor any ravenous beast; they will not be found there.   But only the redeemed will walk there, 10 and those the Lord has rescued will return. They will enter Zion with singing; everlasting joy will crown their heads. Gladness and joy will overtake them, and sorrow and sighing will flee away.

May the Spirit of Jesus illuminate God’s word for us.

Isaiah 35 is the prophet’s vision for the future. After judgement, there is hope for renewal, hope for release and hope for restoration. Let us begin with hope for renewal.

Hope for renewal:

You renew silver by polishing it.

You renew a battery by charging it.

You renew a plant by watering it.

You renew your body by resting it.

You renew trust by being truthful.

You renew your perspective by getting back to nature.

You renew commitment by remembering your promises.

You renew a friendship by spending quality time together.

You renew behaviour by changing the way you think.

You renew your mind with the help of the Holy Spirit.

But how do you renew joy? By giving people a vision of hope for a better future. Joy is the fruit of hope.

In Genesis 3, when Adam and Eve sinned, God cursed the ground, so it produced thorns and weeds, making it difficult for humankind to work the soil and grow food. Here, in Isaiah 35, the prophet imagines a world in which God reverses the curse of sin so the land is renewed.

In verses 1 and 2 of Isaiah 35 the prophet speaks about the desert rejoicing greatly, like when a crocus bursts into bloom. The crocus plant is beautiful and vibrant. From the crocus flower we get saffron which is a rare and valuable spice used in cooking. This is a wonderful image of renewal. With Genesis 3 in mind, we notice the movement from curse to blessing.

Verse 2 goes on to offer more images of renewal. The glory of Lebanon and the splendour of Carmel and Sharon will be given to the desolate wilderness.

In ancient times Lebanon was known for its cedar forests and Carmel and Sharon were regions renowned for their fruitfulness and beauty. The prophet imagines a future transformed for the better. From a scorched earth to a well-watered earth. From a harsh environment to a fruitful environment. From a cursed land to a blessed land. This is a vision of Eden renewed.  

Verse 2 concludes with the phrase, they will see the glory of the Lord, the splendour of our God. Who is the prophet talking about here? Who are they?

Well, on one level they are probably the Jewish exiles in Babylon who would one day return to their homeland. But on another level, they might also refer to those who live in a spiritual wilderness at any time in history. They whose faith is dry and burned out. They who are oppressed by sin and injustice.

They could be us. The spiritual environment we live in is not friendly or hospitable. It is not easy to live a Godly life in this world. Sometimes it feels like a spiritual desert. We may long for renewal.

The prophet imagines a future in which the spiritual environment will be renewed by the glory of the Lord. The glory of the Lord is a way of talking about God’s power and presence, his divine light. As Christians, we believe Jesus came to make all things new. Jesus embodies the renewing power and presence of God. Jesus’ coming is cause for joy.

Jumping ahead to verse 7, Isaiah returns to the image of a renewed wilderness saying, the burning sand will become a pool, the thirsty ground bubbling springs.

In the Bible water is often a poetic way of referring to the Holy Spirit. The Spirit of the Lord is how God brings renewal to his creation. We don’t manufacture renewal out of thin air. We depend on God’s Spirit for our renewal.

Hope for release:

Joy is the fruit of hope. We have heard about the hope for renewal. Now let’s consider the hope for release.

In the news this past week we have seen images of joy as Syrian political prisoners were released following the fall of the Assad regime. Many of these prisoners were locked up and tortured because they opposed the regime.

The people of Syria are overjoyed at finally ejecting a ruler who governed with fear and ruined his country. 

Prisons come in many forms. There are physical prisons with concrete walls and barbed wire, which are not pleasant places to be. But there are also mental prisons, created by fear. The prison of fear can be difficult to escape.

In the movie, The Truman Show, the producer and director of the show prevents Truman from escaping by lying to him and instilling fear. He fakes the death of Truman’s father in a boating accident to create a fear of water, and the cast reinforce Truman’s anxieties with warnings about the dangers of travelling abroad. Nevertheless, Truman fosters a quiet hope of one day venturing to Fiji.

In many ways, anxious fear is the opposite of joy. Joy is the fruit of hope. Joy is a positive energy that enables us to function and move forward in faith.

By contrast, anxious fear drains us of energy. Anxious fear disables us, preventing us from making the changes that lead to life. Anxious fear is the product of deceit. When we believe in lies, we become a prisoner to fear.

In verses 3 and 4, the prophet offers a message of sure hope for those who are imprisoned by fear. 3 Strengthen the feeble hands, steady the knees that give way; 4 say to those with fearful hearts, “Be strong, do not fear; your God will come, he will come with vengeance; with divine retribution he will come to save you.”

The phrase fearful hearts literally translates, hasty hearts.[1] Hearts that beat quickly with anxiety. Minds that undermine hope and joy by racing ahead and imagining the worst.

Isaiah means to calm hasty hearts and replace fear with joy. The people have apparently believed the lie that God has given up on them, and that God does not care about justice. Isaiah replaces this lie with the truth that God does care and he will come to right the wrongs against them.  

The theme of release, especially release from fear, is echoed again in verses 8-9 which read, 8 And a highway will be there; it will be called the Way of Holiness; it will be for those who walk on that Way. The unclean will not journey on it; wicked fools will not go about on it. 9 No lion will be there, nor any ravenous beast; they will not be found there. But only the redeemed will walk there,  

In ancient times travelling was not easy or safe, particularly travelling through the wilderness. If you were Jewish, making a pilgrimage to the temple in Jerusalem often meant going through enemy territory on foot, where you could be ambushed by robbers. Then there was the added threat of being attacked by wild animals.

For God’s people in exile in Babylon, the thought of making a long and difficult journey home through the bad lands would have been overwhelming.

The fear of being harmed loomed large. Isaiah wants to dispel that fear and give the people confidence. They will be able to travel the way unimpeded and without fear of being attacked.

Isaiah’s words still apply today. This world is like one long exile until God’s kingdom is realized in its fullness on earth. We too are on a journey. We too need to find our way home to God. 

We note here the way is for the redeemed, those ransomed or set free at great cost. We note also, the way back is a Way of Holiness.

Holiness is about living a life of faithful obedience to the Lord. To be holy is to be set apart for God’s purpose. To be holy is to be pure in heart, not double-minded or two faced. To be holy is to be devoted to God, not divided in our loyalty or motivation.  

As Barry Webb puts it: ‘The pursuit of holiness is the pursuit of God himself. The face that is set towards God will open to joy and gladness like a flower opening to the sun.’ [2]   

The road to God is the way of holiness, which is unfortunate because none of us are holy, not really. How then are we to find our way home to God?

In John 14, Jesus says of himself, I am the way, the truth and the life, no one comes to the Father except through me.  

Jesus is the way of holiness that Isaiah was talking about. Jesus is our holiness. To walk the way of holiness is to follow Jesus, to be in Christ, to trust him for our redemption.

Hope for restoration:    

Joy is the fruit of hope. For the people of God, joy comes from hope for renewal, hope for release and hope for restoration.

The hope for renewal involves a movement from curse to blessing.

And the hope for release involves a movement from fear to joy.

But what about the hope for restoration? What movement is involved here?

It’s a movement from exclusion to worship.

In 1973 John Denver wrote Annie’s Song. The first verse reads…

You fill up my senses, like a night in the forest. Like the mountains in springtime. Like a walk in the rain. Like a sleepy blue ocean. Like a storm the desert.

You fill up my senses, come fill me again.

Apparently, John wrote these lyrics on a chair lift after a difficult ski run in the Colorado mountains. He was inspired by the beauty of nature and thought of his wife Annie. It’s a love song. Although John Denver wrote this song for his wife, it has the feel of a psalm. It’s like a worship song.

There are times in worship when God fills up our senses with an awareness of his presence and we are lost in awe and wonder and praise. In those rare moments, we catch a glimpse of the vision which inspired Isaiah 35.

When God fills our senses it’s like we are drowning in his laughter, overwhelmed with the joy of always being with him, giving our life to him in love, and when this life ends dying in his arms knowing eternal life is to come.

Not sure about you, but I don’t usually experience God’s presence like that in gathered worship. However, I have (occasionally) experienced the joy of what I believe is Jesus’ presence, in my own personal devotional times. I hope you do too. It’s a gift to treasure.

In verses 5 and 6 of Isaiah 35, the prophet offers a picture of restoration saying:

5 Then will the eyes of the blind be opened and the ears of the deaf unstopped. 6 Then will the lame leap like a deer, and the mute tongue shout for joy…

In this word picture, sight is restored, hearing is restored, movement is restored and speech is restored. It’s like Isaiah is saying, ‘God will fill up your senses with an awareness of his presence’. 

In this world, people with disabilities are usually at a disadvantage. People with disabilities are often excluded, they tend to miss out. Verses 5 and 6 offer a picture of inclusion. They show the movement from exclusion to worship.

Isaiah’s vision of hope is not just for the strong and able. It is for everyone.

God will even the playing field. He will remove any impediment or barrier that might prevent people from knowing him and worshipping him.

During his earthly ministry, Jesus literally brought physical restoration to people in all these ways. Jesus healed the blind, the deaf, the lame and the mute.

Jesus performed these miracles of restoration as a sign of what people could expect with the coming kingdom of God. The last shall be first. Those who had previously been excluded from worship will be included.

As you’ve probably worked out by now, the words of the prophet and the signs of Jesus operate on more than one level at once. A person may have 20/20 vision and perfect hearing, but sadly be spiritually blind and deaf. A person may be able to run a sub four-minute mile but be quite lame in their obedience to God. A person might speak eloquently in public but be mute in private prayer.

These are the words Isaiah heard when the Lord called him to be a prophet… 

“‘Be ever hearing, but never understanding; be ever seeing, but never perceiving.’ 10 Make the heart of this people calloused; make their ears dull and close their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears,
understand with their hearts, and turn and be healed.”

These are words of exclusion. The people had disobeyed God for a long time and would have to face the consequences for this. Much of the first 34 chapters of Isaiah are a message of doom and judgement. But judgement would not have the last word.   

Isaiah 35 pictures the hope of restoration after the dread of judgement.

Isaiah 35 is like a glass of cold water after a hot day working in the sun.

It’s like seeing the face of a friend after months apart. It is the calm after the storm. It is the holiday after your work is done. It is the healing after suffering.

It is the homecoming after exile. Isaiah 35 is a vision of worshipping in God’s presence after being excluded for so long.

In verse 10 of Isaiah 35 we read how God’s people are restored to their home.  

10 and those the Lord has rescued will return. They will enter Zion with singing; everlasting joy will crown their heads. Gladness and joy will overtake them, and sorrow and sighing will flee away.

This is a picture of the movement from exclusion to worship. But it’s not a tedious, duty-bound worship. It’s a joyful worship. It’s the kind of worship in which God fills up your senses with an awareness of his presence and love.

It’s an eyes wide open worship. It’s an ears hearing and understanding worship. It’s a body responding in obedience worship. It’s a tongue praising God in spirit and in truth worship.   

Conclusion:

Joy is the fruit of hope. Isaiah 35 is a vision of hope for renewal, hope for release and hope for restoration. This trinity of hope involves three movements: from curse to blessing, from fear to joy and from exclusion to worship. 

Isaiah 35 looks forward to the consummation of history after the day of judgement. It is glorious and true. It will happen, we just don’t know when.

In the meantime, we live in the now but not yet. We still have to deal with trials and difficulties. We feel the frustration of our own limitations and the weariness of waiting.

But God in his grace nourishes our hope with glimpses of his kingdom, small windows of eternity opening into time.

May God fill up your senses with an awareness of his presence. May he refresh your hope with a vision of the joy that is coming in Christ. Amen.       

Questions for discussion or reflection:

  1. What stands out for you in reading this Scripture and/or in listening to the sermon? Why do you think this stood out to you?
  2. What is joy? Where does joy come from? Where does hope come from?
  3. What images of renewal does Isaiah use? What difference does God’s renewal make? Discuss / reflect on the movement from curse to blessing.
  4. How does fear affect the human soul? How might someone escape the prison of fear?
  5. What (or who) is the way of holiness? What does it mean to walk the way of holiness?
  6. In what ways does Jesus fulfil the vision of Isaiah 35, for the world and for you personally?
  7. Has God ever filled up your senses with an awareness of his presence? What was the context for this? How did you feel? What lasting affect did it have on you? Spend time in adoration of God this week.  

[1] Refer John Goldingay’s commentary on Isaiah, page 197.

[2] Refer Barry Webb’s commentary on Isaiah, page 146. 

Tawa Baptist

Sweet & Sour

Scripture: Isaiah 64

Video Link: https://youtu.be/U8ejSDq3bgg

Structure:

  • Introduction
  • God’s intervention and absence
  • God’s goodness and anger
  • God’s gentleness and severity
  • Conclusion

Introduction:

Good morning everyone.

If you try sucking a lemon, it tastes pretty sour. Sets your teeth on edge. But if you mix the lemon with a bit of honey and water, it’s delicious and good for you.

Likewise, if you bite into a raw onion on its own, the taste will make your eyes water. It’s not pleasant. But if you cook the onion with a bit of balsamic vinegar and brown sugar, it tastes delicious.

Lemon and honey, sugar and vinegar, these are classic sweet and sour flavours in cooking. You wouldn’t know unless you tried it, but somehow, sweet and sour is a winning combination.

We are currently in the season of advent. Advent is a time to remember Jesus’ coming. With this in view, our sermon today is based on Isaiah 64, which is essentially a prayer for God to come down to earth.

Isaiah 64 is a sweet and sour prayer. In the context of Isaiah, the relationship between God and his people is not good, it’s like sucking a lemon. The people are affected by exile and feeling the distance between themselves and the Lord. The prophet balances this sourness with a little honey. From verse 1 we read…

Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down, that the mountains would tremble before you! 2 As when fire sets twigs ablaze and causes water to boil, come down to make your name known to your enemies and cause the nations to quake before you! 3 For when you did awesome things that we did not expect, you came down, and the mountains trembled before you. 4 Since ancient times no one has heard, no ear has perceived, no eye has seen any God besides you, who acts on behalf of those who wait for him. 5 You come to the help of those who gladly do right, who remember your ways.
But when we continued to sin against them, you were angry. How then can we be saved? 6 All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away. 7 No one calls on your name or strives to lay hold of you; for you have hidden your face from us and have given us over toour sins. 8 Yet you, Lord, are our Father. We are the clay, you are the potter; we are all the work of your hand. 9 Do not be angry beyond measure, Lord; do not remember our sins forever. Oh, look on us, we pray, for we are all your people. 10 Your sacred cities have become a desert; even Zion is a desert, Jerusalem a desolation. 11 Our holy and glorious temple, where our ancestors praised you, has been burned with fire, and all that we treasured lies in ruins.

12 After all this, O Lord, will you hold yourself back? Will you keep silent and punish us beyond measure?

May the Spirit of Jesus illuminate God’s word for us.

We find a number of sweet and sour combinations in the prayer of Isaiah 64. Our message today focuses on three in particular: God’s intervention and absence. God’s goodness and anger. As well as God’s gentleness and severity. Let’s begin with God’s intervention and absence. 

God’s intervention and absence:

How many of you yell at the ref when you are watching a sports game?

And how many of you live with someone who yells at the ref? Be honest now.

It can be frustrating when the ref makes a bad call and unfair play is allowed. Personally, I don’t care. It’s just a game. But for some of you the compulsion to step onto the field and intervene is very strong.

Modern technology has advanced to the point where the TMO does intervene at times. In fact, in cricket, the players can challenge the on-field decision and ask the third umpire for a second opinion.

In verse 1 of Isaiah 64, the prophet makes an impassioned plea for God’s intervention saying, O that you would rend the heavens and come down that the mountains would tremble before you…

Before we unpack this verse, you should know this sweet and sour prayer actually begins at verse 7 of Isaiah 63. So, this plea for God’s intervention comes somewhere near the centre of the prayer. Isaiah 64, verse 1 is the heart of the prayer, which means it is probably the most important part. 

That word rend means to rip or to tear open. In Old Testament times, rending or tearing your clothes was a sign of grief or remorse. It was a dramatic way of showing everyone that you did not agree with what was happening. Sometimes it signalled repentance. Other times the rending of garments was a sign of protest, like yelling at the ref.     

Asking God to rend the heavens was like asking God to tear his clothes in protest at the status quo. But God appears to be unresponsive, aloof and disengaged. The prophet wants God to visibly show his outrage at the state of affairs. He’s asking God (the third umpire) to come onto the field and right some wrongs.

The mountains of verse 1 are a metaphor for imposing and oppressive obstacles. [1] Whether Isaiah’s audience are in exile or returning from exile, they are up against it. The prophet wants God to come down from heaven in power to deal with the challenges his people on earth face.

He wants God to put heat on Israel’s enemies, as when fire sets twigs ablaze and causes water to boil.

Fire is a catalyst for change. Fire makes things happen. If God came down to intervene that would be the catalyst they needed, just like the days of old when God intervened to deliver Israel from slavery in Egypt.

Some commentators reckon the prophet is confronting God and the people with an intolerable tension between the past and the present. [2]

God intervened before, why won’t the Lord intervene again?

For God’s people in exile the contrast between then and now is as stark as a lush green forest and a barren brown desert. The people have gone from a land of milk and honey to a land of tripe and onions. They have exchanged freedom in Palestine for captivity in Babylon. And when they finally did return to the Promised Land, after their exile, they found ruin and disappointment.   

One thing is clear, God’s perceived absence has the effect of causing people to miss the Lord and to long for him. “Don’t it always seem to go you don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone”.

There may be times when we feel like exiles in a strange land. Times when we wish God would intervene to change our situation and yet, despite our earnest prayers, nothing changes. The water doesn’t boil and the mountains still stand in our way.

The Lord disciplines those he loves. Sometimes God’s perceived absence and inaction refines us. It moves us to sort out our priorities and realign our values. It sharpens our yearning for intimacy with God.

God’s goodness and anger:

So why doesn’t God intervene? Well, the prophet thinks it has to do with the sweet and sour combination of God’s goodness and anger.

Most people wouldn’t naturally put goodness and anger together. We tend to associate anger with violence or a lack of self-control. Christians often think of anger like a wild animal, something bad to be avoided. Even secular society frowns on anger (in NZ at least).

And while it’s true that not all expressions of anger are good, there is a right kind of anger. At its heart, anger is the natural and unavoidable response to injustice.         

In the same way that your body reacts to an infection by producing antibodies to fight the infection, so too your soul reacts to injustice by producing anger to oppose the injustice. Anger is our soul’s natural immune response to something immoral or wrong and therefore it is good.

But, just as our physical immune system can sometimes overreact and attack healthy cells, so too our soul (or our psyche) can misdirect anger. We might take our anger out on someone who doesn’t deserve it, or we might turn our anger inward where it festers into self-hatred and depression.   

God’s anger is never misdirected or out of proportion. God doesn’t fly off the handle in a fit of rage. God’s anger is tempered with self-control. God’s anger is a carefully measured and fair response against evil and injustice. Without God’s anger, there is no justice and without justice there is no peace.

In verses 4 and 5, the prophet directs our attention to the goodness of God saying: Since ancient times no one has heard, no ear has perceived, no eye has seen any God besides you, who acts on behalf of those who wait for him.

You come to the help of those who gladly do right, who remember your ways.

God is unique. He is one of a kind. There is no one else like Yahweh. Not only is the Lord powerful he is also just and merciful, acting to help those who do what is right. This speaks to the goodness of God’s character.

It also suggests the problem for Israel. If Yahweh were a pagan god the people might think they could bribe him or manipulate him with sacrifices. But the Lord Almighty is not like the gods of other nations. He is free. He won’t be bribed or manipulated.

God does good because he is good. Likewise, God gets angry with evil because he cannot abide injustice.

You may have seen an ad on TV where the mum is wiping the kitchen bench with a piece of raw chicken – not very hygienic. The point of the ad is that using a dirty old dish cloth to wipe down the bench just spreads the germs around.

It makes things worse. What you need is a clean new cloth.

The prophet puts his finger on the problem in verses 5 and 6, where he says…

…But when we continued to sin against them, you were angry. How then can we be saved? 6 All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags…

It’s like the prophet is saying, spiritually speaking we’ve become like someone trying to keep the kitchen clean with a dirty cloth. We may as well be wiping the bench with a piece of raw chicken. Our righteous acts, our best intentions, are just spreading the salmonella of sin around and making things worse.  

The prophet also uses the image of a leaf blown away by the wind. In verse 6 he says, we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away.

As long as the leaf stays connected to the tree it lives and breathes. But once the leaf is separated from the tree it dies. With this metaphor, God’s people are like leaves which have become disconnected from the tree.

The wind, in this word picture, is sin. Sin separates people from God, the source of life. The prophet is probably alluding to the exile. The nation sinned against God badly and for a long time. As a consequence, they were swept away to Babylon. This explains Israel’s disconnect with God. 

The prophet is basically saying, we have excluded ourselves from the worshiping community and there’s nothing we can do to get back in.

We admit, the problem is less with our enemies and more with us.  

The alienation between God and his people finds expression in verse 7 where the prophet says: No one calls on your name or strives to lay hold of you; for you have hidden your face from us and made us waste away because of our sins.

‘To call on the name of the Lord’ means to pray. The prophet is praying on behalf of the people because the people have given up trying to pray themselves. They don’t believe God will listen to them because of their sins.

It’s a Catch 22 situation. The only way we’re going to get through this is with God’s help (with him coming down to save us). But God isn’t going to help us because we’ve broken faith with him and he is angry. So what’s the point in praying? We’d just be wasting our breath.  

The people feel hopeless because God has hidden his face. What does it mean for God to hide his face? At the end of the service each week, when I give the benediction, I say… May the Lord make his face shine upon you… This is based on Aaron’s priestly blessing for the people of Israel in the wilderness.

To have the Lord’s face shine upon you is like saying, may God smile on you.     May God’s presence light your way through life, so you are not afraid and do not stumble. May God bless you with warmth and wisdom and vitality.

If that is what it means for God to shine his face upon you, then hiding his face is the opposite. When God hides his face, we stumble in darkness. Without the light of God’s presence, we are afraid because we cannot see a way forward. The signs of God’s grace and blessing are hidden from us.

When God is angry, he doesn’t usually storm in and smash things. More often God hides his face; he steps back, he withdraws his light, so we stumble in the dark and suffer the consequences of our actions.   

There’s a certain irony in God’s goodness. On the one hand God’s goodness enables life to function on earth. More than that, God’s goodness supports trust. It is because God is good that we can trust him.

But at the same time, God’s goodness prevents us from getting close to him. We are not always righteous or just and therefore we risk provoking God’s anger. We need a third person (someone good) to intercede for us, to pray on our behalf. Jesus is that third person. He is the righteous one who bridges the gap, restoring the communication with God.      

Have there been times in your life when you felt like God was hiding his face from you; times when you gave up on prayer? Who interceded for you during that time? Give thanks to God for them.

Now ask yourself, is there someone who needs me to carry them in prayer at the moment? Jesus lends us his righteousness that we might intercede for others before God in prayer.

God’s gentleness and severity:

Isaiah 64 is a sweet and sour prayer. The prophet longs for God’s intervention, during a time when God’s absence is felt keenly. The prophet acknowledges God’s goodness together with God’s anger, his opposition to injustice. Now let’s consider the combination of God’s gentleness and severity.

As a kid, I remember watching a potter form a bowl out of clay. I was transfixed, watching the vessel take shape on the wheel.

Every now and then the potter would look up at me and smile. He was completely silent, didn’t say a word, just let his hands do the talking.

There was a gentleness in those hands, a sensitivity. The potter wasn’t forcing the clay, he was respecting it, feeling for it’s true form. He was an artist.

In verse 8 we read…

Yet you, Lord, are our Father. We are the clay, you are the potter; we are all the work of your hand.

Here the prophet puts two images of God together. The Lord (Yahweh) is both a father to us and a potter. In other words, God is our creator and we are his handiwork, his children. We owe our very existence to God.

A good father, like a good potter, has a gentle touch. Just as a potter skilfully shapes and forms the clay into a functional form, so too a father tenderly shapes and forms his children into maturity.  

The Jewish exiles were like a lump of clay. They were in a state of chaos.

They had little form or shape or function in Babylon. And, like a lump of clay, they were completely helpless. There was nothing they could do to shape themselves. They were entirely dependent on God to reform them as a nation.  

Why does a potter work with clay to create something? Because he is a potter and that’s what potters do. Why should God reform and remake the exiles into a new nation? Because he is the creator and that’s what the creator does.

The prophet is not asking God to act on the basis of the people’s righteousness. He has just admitted they have no righteousness. The prophet is asking God to act on the basis of who God is. Creator and Father.

Making pottery is not all gentleness and grace. After the vessel is formed it goes into a fiery furnace where it bakes at a severe temperature to make it strong and durable. Yes, God is gentle. We could say gentleness is God’s default setting. Gentleness is how God deals with us most of the time. But there are occasions, from our perspective, when God can be quite severe.  

In verses 10 and 11 the prophet describes the state of Israel. The cities have become a desert and Jerusalem a desolation. The temple has been burned with fire and all that was treasured lies in ruins. This is a picture of God’s severity.

We have heard enough about God’s severity over the past three weeks, as we unpacked Mark 13. I don’t need to labour the point today. Suffice to say, God is not like Santa Claus. He is not a benign old man who indulges our every whim. As C.S. Lewis reminds us, God is good but he is not safe. Respect him. He holds your eternity in his hands.    

Having reminded God of his severity, the prophet then concludes his prayer with a question: 12 After all this, O Lord, will you hold yourself back? Will you keep silent and punish us beyond measure?

That’s how the prayer ends, left hanging with the question unanswered.

We know, from our vantage point in history, that the Lord did not hold himself back. We know God does not punish beyond measure. The prayer of Isaiah 64 is answered in the person of Jesus.

Conclusion:

The prophet had asked for God to rend the heavens and come down to help them. Roughly five centuries later, at Jesus’ baptism, we read…

And just as he was coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens torn apart and the Spirit descending on him like a dove. [with gentleness]

Jesus is the divine intervention the prophet had asked for. Jesus is God’s presence among us, in human form. Jesus is the potter and the clay. Jesus is the catalyst for change, making things happen in heaven and on earth.

Jesus moved the mountains of sin and death, to restore our relationship with God. Jesus is the embodiment of God’s goodness, the ultimate expression of God’s gentleness and justice. Jesus is the face of God, shining upon us.

Let us pray. Father God, you are the potter, we are the clay. Thank you for rending the heavens and coming down. Thank you for answering Isaiah’s prayer in and through Jesus. Amen.

Questions for discussion or reflection:

  1. What stands out for you in reading this Scripture and/or in listening to the sermon? Why do you think this stood out to you?
  2. Do you yell at the ref during a sports game? Do you know someone who does? Why do people do that? Why does the prophet call for God to rend the heavens and come down?
  3. Have there been times in your life when you longed for God to intervene? What happened?
  4. Have there been times in your life when you felt like God was absent? How did this affect you? 
  5. Why do we need anger? When is anger good? When is anger not good? What strategies do you have for managing your anger well?
  6. Discuss / reflect on Isaiah 64:7. Why did the people give up praying to God? Have there been times when you felt like prayer was useless? Why did you feel that way? Did anyone intercede for you (pray on your behalf) during that time? Is there someone who needs you to carry them in prayer at the moment?
  7. What purpose does God’s gentleness serve? What purpose does God’s severity serve? What is your perception of God? In your mind, is God all gentleness or all severity or a bit of both? Do you have the balance right?    

[1] Refer John Watts, Word Commentary on Isaiah, page 335.

[2] Refer Paul Hanson’s commentary on Isaiah, page 237.

Tawa Baptist

Peace

Scripture: Isaiah 11:1-9

Video Link: https://youtu.be/-iOYOs5t4dg

Structure:

  • Introduction
  • Wise Spirit
  • Righteous Judge
  • Universal Peace
  • Conclusion

Introduction:

Kia ora whanau and good morning everyone.

Have you ever noticed how many dystopian movies there are these days? Dystopia is a term used to describe a highly dysfunctional society, in contrast to utopia which refers to an ideal society.

A dystopian film is usually set in the future with a government that is evil or corrupt. As a consequence, the people suffer in a nightmarish society, ruled by violence and fear and injustice.

Examples of the dystopian genre include The Divergent Series, The Hunger Games Trilogy, The Matrix series, Gattaca, The Running Man, Snowpiercer and Escape from New York.

The main function of these dystopian films is to critique our present day society. It’s like these movies are giving a prophetic message of what could happen if we don’t fix the problems we have now.

The Bible also critiques contemporary society but it does so without giving in to despair. The Bible critiques the present day and inspires hope by imagining a good future.       

Today is the second Sunday in Christmas Advent, traditionally associated with peace. Advent is a time of consciously waiting for the peace only Jesus can bring. Jesus is the Prince of Peace. Our message this morning focuses on Isaiah 11:1-9. In this passage the prophet paints a picture of a utopian future, one of universal peace. From verse 1 of Isaiah 11, we read…

A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse; from his roots a Branch will bear fruit. 2 The Spirit of the Lord will rest on him – the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding, the Spirit of counsel and of might, the Spirit of the knowledge and fear of the Lord – 3 and he will delight in the fear of the Lord. He will not judge by what he sees with his eyes, or decide by what he hears with his ears; 4 but with righteousness he will judge the needy, with justice he will give decisions for the poor of the earth. He will strike the earth with the rod of his mouth; with the breath of his lips he will slay the wicked. 5 Righteousness will be his belt and faithfulness the sash around his waist. 6 The wolf will live with the lamb, the leopard will lie down with the goat, the calf and the lion and the yearlingtogether; and a little child will lead them. 7 The cow will feed with the bear, their young will lie down together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox. 8 The infant will play near the cobra’s den, and the young child will put its hand into the viper’s nest. 9 They will neither harm nor destroy on all my holy mountain, for the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.

May the Spirit of Jesus illuminate God’s word for us.

This passage from Isaiah is about the Messiah, God’s anointed King. The Messiah is empowered with a wise Spirit. He is a righteous judge. And, through his wise and just rule, the Messiah will ultimately bring about universal peace.

The Jews of Isaiah’s day were not sure who this ideal king would be, but they could be sure his wisdom and righteousness were a critique of many of Israel’s previous kings who were far from wise or just.

Christians believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Christ. We believe Jesus will one day usher in universal, lasting peace.

Wise Spirit:

In verse 1 of chapter 11, Isaiah gives us this metaphor for the Messiah:

A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse; from his roots a Branch will bear fruit.

Jesse was the father of king David. David’s descendants sat on the throne of Israel for many years. Some of those kings were good but many of them were rotten. God was patient but there is only so much he will tolerate.

Eventually God decided enough was enough and he brought an end to the Davidic monarchy. He cut the descendants of David off from the throne, like cutting down a tree and leaving only the stump.

In chapter 11, Isaiah foresees the day when a new king (a descendant of Jesse and David) will be restored to the throne. This new king will be different to any of the kings that went before. He will bear good fruit, the fruit of righteousness.

Two things we notice about this metaphor. Firstly, the new shoot (or the new Messiah) grows out of something considered long dead. This is a miracle of resurrection.

Secondly, waiting for this new Messiah will require some patience. What God has planned is not going to happen overnight. It will take many years for the new shoot to appear, grow and bear fruit.

In verse 2, Isaiah describes the special power and authority of this new Messiah, saying: 2 The Spirit of the Lord will rest on him – the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding, the Spirit of counsel and of might, the Spirit of the knowledge and fear of the Lord.

In other words, the Messiah will be empowered with the Spirit of God.

Wisdom, in a Biblical understanding, isn’t so much about head knowledge or being book smart. Wisdom doesn’t necessarily come from having a PhD. Wisdom is more practical than that. Wisdom is about making good moral choices and the way one lives their life day to day.

Understanding suggests being able to join the dots correctly. So, someone with good understanding can see how general principles apply in specific situations. Understanding also suggests an awareness of how people tick.      

Jesus demonstrated wisdom and understanding on numerous occasions, especially when questioned by the religious leaders. One time they asked Jesus, ‘Teacher, is it right to pay taxes to Caesar or not?’

But Jesus, knowing their evil intent, said, “…why are you trying to trap me? Show me the coin used for paying the tax… Whose portrait is this? And whose inscription? …Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s.”     

Wisdom and understanding you see. Jesus understood the hearts or intentions of his questioners. He also had the wisdom to know how to apply the spirit of God’s law to a specific situation, which wasn’t necessarily detailed in God’s law.

Returning to our passage from Isaiah. The Messiah will also have the Spirit of counsel and of might. Counsel here is about the right kind of strategic advice. Drawing on last week’s message, the Messiah will be a wonderful counsellor (or wonder planner), good at chess. 

Might is associated with power but, in this context, it’s not so much the power of brute force. More the power of thinking smarter and having the will or courage to follow through on your convictions.

Jesus also fits the bill when it comes to counsel and might. Jesus’ counsel, if someone hits you, is to turn the other cheek. Incredibly difficult to do but an excellent strategy for minimising violence.

Not only was Jesus’ teaching on this point smart, Jesus also had the might, or the strength, to turn the other cheek and not respond with violence when he was physically beaten at his trial. 

Knowledge of the Lord, means knowing God through relationship and experience. Knowledge doesn’t just mean knowing facts about God. Knowledge comes from tasting and seeing that the Lord is good. Knowledge of God is the basis of trust in God.

Fear of the Lord has to do with awe and reverence and respect for God. As Proverbs tells us, ‘the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom’.

The Messiah will delight in the fear of the Lord. I quite like Abraham Heschel’s rendering of verse 3: Through the fear of the Lord he [the Messiah] will have supreme sensitivity.

Sensitivity speaks of discernment. When a woman caught in adultery was brought before Jesus, in John 8, the Lord showed supreme sensitivity in his dealing with the angry crowd and the frightened woman.    

Righteous Judge:

In ancient times, if people wanted to settle a serious dispute, they might go to the king for a resolution. King Solomon, who lived many years before Isaiah, was renowned for His wisdom. People brought their disputes before him.

Famously, two women came to Solomon one day. They both lived in the same house and both had infant sons. One of the sons had died, but both women claimed the surviving child was theirs.

Solomon ordered one his soldiers to cut the living boy in two and give half to each woman. One of the women just shrugged her shoulders, she was pretty unmoved by this command. But the other woman begged the king to spare the child’s life and give the baby to her rival.

Solomon had no intention of harming the baby. It was a test to see which of the women was the true mother. Obviously the child belonged to the woman who was prepared to give up her baby to save his life.

In Isaiah 11, verses 3-4, we read…

He will not judge by what he sees with his eyes, or decide by what he hears with his ears; 4 but with righteousness he will judge the needy, with justice he will give decisions for the poor of the earth.

These verses are basically saying that the wise Messiah will be a righteous judge. He won’t give preferential treatment to someone just because they happen to be rich and powerful.

There is a famous statue of lady justice holding scales in one hand and a sword in the other. The balanced scales represent fairness and equity. While the sword represents punishment for wrong doing.

The interesting thing is that lady justice is wearing a blind fold. The message with the blindfold is that justice does not take into account a person’s race or religion or wealth or position in society. Whatever your demographic, whatever your background, your case will be decided on the evidence, not on who your parents are or how much money you have.

The inspiration for lady justice comes from passages like Isaiah 11. The Messiah will not judge by outward appearances. He will look deeper, to the heart of the issue, because things are not always as they first appear. 

For example, if a widow steals a loaf of bread to feed her hungry children, then the righteous judge (who is also the king) will acknowledge the law has been broken but also look deeper as to the cause. Why is this woman so poor that she has to steal bread to feed her family?

Is it because her landlord is charging too much rent? Is it because her boss isn’t paying her enough? Or is it because someone has a monopoly on bread making and can charge whatever they want?

If the woman stole bread because the system is broken, then it’s not fair to punish her for something she has no control over. This righteous judge is also the king of the land. His word is law. He controls the system. So he can fix whatever the larger problem (with society) is.   

So that’s the main idea with these verses in Isaiah 11. The Messiah is a righteous judge who looks at the heart of the matter in order to make his kingdom (his society) a fair place for everyone. A place in which widows don’t need to resort to stealing.

But let me develop this idea a bit more, because I don’t want to leave you with the false impression that the rich are evil and the poor are saints. We all know that people are more complex than that. Nor should we think that every act of wrong doing can be blamed on a faulty system. Individuals still have to take some responsibility.

The point we need to keep hold of here is that God’s Messiah does not judge by outward appearances. Sometimes needy people are hidden in plain sight.

Sometimes they are businessmen wearing suits and a thin smile to hide the emptiness they feel inside. Or they may be lampooned politicians who everyone loves to criticise. Or the tired, busy (and somewhat invisible) parent sacrificing their own needs and wants for their family.

No one liked Zacchaeus the tax collector. They all thought he was a corrupt businessman who got rich by robbing decent hard working folks. But that was more of a prejudice. They did not see his loneliness or feel his hurt at the comments people made at his expense.  

Jesus did not judge Zacchaeus by what he saw or heard people say. Jesus looked deeper, beneath the outward appearance, and saw a generosity and faithfulness in Zacchaeus that was just waiting to be released. Jesus honoured Zacchaeus and the whole community was blessed, particularly the poor.  

You know sometimes we judge ourselves by outward appearances. Maybe we look in the mirror and we don’t like what we see. We wish we were a different shape, with better skin or better hair or a bit taller. All superficial things, most of which we have little or no control over.

Or perhaps we get to our middle years and look back at our life, wondering what have I accomplished? What difference have I made in the world? What if I had climbed a different ladder?

In 1946, Frank Capra directed a movie called It’s a wonderful life.  It’s a Christmas movie, although probably not that well known in New Zealand today.

The main character, George Bailey (played by Jimmy Stewart) is a kind man who always puts others first, at his own expense. He is a regular middle class guy, a businessman, who helps people with their finances.

His generosity to others puts him in a vulnerable position. He reaches a low point in his life and his nemesis, Mr Potter, rubs salt in the wound. Potter tells George that he is worth more dead than alive, and George believes him.

George is ready to throw in the towel but then a guardian angel comes along and shows George the good news about himself. Clarence, the angel, shows George the positive difference his hard work and kindness has made in the lives of others.

Maybe you can identify with George. Maybe you do your best to help but still end up feeling like it’s not enough somehow. That your life and efforts have fallen short of the mark. Don’t judge yourself or your efforts. You don’t know how God will use your life for good. What we do know is that God does not waste anything done in love.

Having a Messiah who is a righteous judge, saves us from judging ourselves.

Or, to put it more strongly, you have no right to judge yourself. You are not qualified. You can’t see deep enough or far enough, like Jesus can. You will either think too much of yourself (like Mr Potter) or too little (like George).

Returning to Isaiah 11. The poetry in verses 4 & 5 is vivid. It points to a Messiah (a king) with divine power.

He will strike the earth with the rod of his mouth; with the breath of his lips he will slay the wicked. 5 Righteousness will be his belt and faithfulness the sash around his waist.

The King, Isaiah has in mind, can slay the wicked with his words. That’s how wise and powerful he is.

Accountants get a bit of a hard time. I know this because I used to be one. But actually accountants have quite a bit of power to do good. You would be surprised by how helpful accounting is in pastoral ministry.

Many of us tend to like movies where the hero takes out the bad guy with a fist or a gun. The movie sets us up to hate the villain with a sense of righteous indignation. Then it satisfies our desire to see revenge.

In real life, it doesn’t necessarily play out that way. In the 1930’s it wasn’t Batman or Wonder Woman or Dirty Harry or Bruce Willis who dealt a blow to the mafia. It was actually the work of an accountant, Frank J. Wilson, who finally brought Al Capone to justice.

The Messiah pictured in Isaiah 11 doesn’t carry a gun or a sword. He doesn’t need to swing his fists. He is more like an accountant, who uses his head. The Messiah’s weapons are righteousness, faithfulness and words of truth. Possibly also a calculator (although Isaiah doesn’t mention the calculator in these verses).   

Universal Peace:

God’s promised King, foreseen by Isaiah, has a wise spirit, he is a righteous judge who ushers in universal peace.  In verses 6-8 we read of a utopian future…

6 The wolf will live with the lamb, the leopard will lie down with the goat, the calf and the lion and the yearlingtogether; and a little child will lead them. 7 The cow will feed with the bear, their young will lie down together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox. 8 The infant will play near the cobra’s den, and the young child will put its hand into the viper’s nest.

In this metaphor we have the hunters and the hunted; the weak and the strong; the deadly and the vulnerable; the cunning and the innocent. Each of these pairs of opposites is living together in peace, safely and without fear. When everyone knows the fear of the Lord they feel secure and are not afraid of their neighbours. 

John Goldingay sums up the meaning well when he says: ‘Harmony in the animal world is a metaphor for harmony in the human world. The strong and powerful live together with the weak and powerless because the weak and powerless can believe that the strong and powerful are no longer seeking to devour them.’ [1]

Verses 6-8 are a metaphor about how the world will be when the fruit of the Messiah’s reign is realised in its fullness. It is life as it will be when Jesus returns in glory. This is paradise on earth, at the dawn of a new age.

For this utopian future to be realised, the hearts and minds of the whole world need to be transformed by experiential knowledge of the Lord. Verse 9 reads…

9 They will neither harm nor destroy on all my holy mountain, for the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.

This is telling us something that is hard to believe – that the peace will be universal. The peace is not limited to a particular holy place. The peace fills the whole earth, like the waters cover the sea. Think about that for a moment. The waters of the sea of peace are deep, inexhaustible and full of life. 

In that day preachers, like me, will be out of a job. We won’t need to explain the Scriptures to you because the reality to which the Scriptures point (that is, Jesus the Messiah) will be real in people’s lived experience.

Conclusion:

Sadly, this is not life as we experience it now. This utopian vision of universal peace is a critique of the present world in which weak and vulnerable people are often taken advantage of by ruthless and greedy individuals. This world is still a dangerous place. So don’t go putting your hand in a snake’s nest.

Although universal peace is not a reality for us yet, personal peace with God is possible now through faith in Jesus. Jesus’ death on the cross and his resurrection from the dead opens the door to friendship with God.

Grace and peace be yours in abundance.

Questions for discussion or reflection:

What stands out for you in reading this Scripture and/or in listening to the sermon? Why do you think this stood out to you?

  • Do you have a favourite dystopian film? What is it and why do you like it? What critique might this film be making about our society today?
  • What does Isaiah’s metaphor of a shoot growing out of a dead stump reveal about God’s promised Messiah?
  • What does Isaiah have in mind when he talks about the Spirit of wisdom, counsel, understanding, might and fear of the Lord? Can you think of examples from the gospels where Jesus demonstrates this Spirit of wisdom?
  • Do you judge yourself? Where does this lead? Why is it important to leave judgement (of ourselves and others) to Jesus? 
  • Discuss / reflect on the metaphor of the animals in verses 6-8. What is Isaiah saying with this word picture? Can you imagine a world like that?

[1] Refer John Goldingay’s commentary on Isaiah, page 85.

Tawa Baptist

Star Child

Scripture: Luke 4:16-30

Some years ago I was talking with my theology lecturer and asked him what he did his Phd thesis on

  • It had a long name that I can’t remember exactly now but essentially it focused on the work of a dead theologian from the middle ages
  • What I do remember about that conversation is my lecturer’s advice
  • He said, if you are going to do a thesis on someone else’s work it is best to it on a dead person because they can’t disagree with your findings 

Today we continue our ‘Anthems’ series

  • In this series we are looking at the lyrics of one hymn or Christian worship song each week to see how that song informs our thinking about God and how it connects with Scripture and the heritage of our faith.
  • The song we are looking at this morning is Star Child

Star Child was written by a New Zealander, Shirley Murray, who I believe is still very much alive

  • I have never met Shirley and I don’t know what she would think of the connections and interpretations I am making with her song
  • She may disagree with some (or maybe all) of what I’m about to say
  • So my message today comes with a disclaimer: this is what Shirley’s song puts me in touch with and is not necessarily the meaning she intended to convey – please don’t hold my words against her
  • In any case the lyrics to Star Child are so broad and spacious they invite a wide range of interpretive possibility.

Shirley Murray was born in Invercargill, NZ, in 1931 – which I guess makes her 88 years old now

  • Shirley studied music as an undergraduate and then did a Masters in classics and French at Otago
  • She grew up attending a Methodist church but later became a Presbyterian when she married the Rev John Stewart, a Presbyterian minister
  • Shirley started her working career as a teacher of languages, then did research for the Labour party for a number of years
  • She was also involved in Amnesty International

Shirley was quite prolific, writing (I think) around 600 hymns including: Carol our Christmas, Our life has its seasons and God speed you on your way (which is sung to Tawa College school leavers)

  • Many of her songs address human rights issues, women’s concerns, social justice, peace and care of creation – and were written at a time when these things were considered a bit edgy and not as mainstream as today.   

The song Star Child was written in 1993 and explores the meaning of Christ’s birth in light of the growing gap between rich and poor

  • Shirley is quoted as saying: “The carol grew out of increasing concern at the market values dictating our welfare system, now creating more and more ‘social rejects’.”
  • In other words, Shirley saw how the government’s economic policy was detrimental to the social well-being of many New Zealanders at that time
  • Certainly the early 1990’s saw relatively high unemployment rates, peaking at 10.7% in 1992 – which equates to nearly 181,000 people out of work. [1]  
  • The point is, Shirley wrote about real world issues – she was of that ilk who held the Bible in one hand and the newspaper in the other. 

The music for Star Child was written by Carlton Young, but I think Colin Gibson may have had some involvement too, as his name is on the music score alongside Carlton’s 

The song begins with the words: Star-Child, Earth Child, go between of God, love Child, Christ Child, heaven’s lightning rod,

This verse is clearly about Jesus

  • The phrase Star Child instantly creates a variety of connections
  • It makes us think of Jesus’ natal star – the bright light in the evening sky which guided the wise men to Bethlehem the place of Jesus’ birth
  • More generally though it indicates that Jesus comes from heaven above
  • Jesus is the light that shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it
  • As a star, we could say Jesus is the one we look to, to navigate our way through life, much like sailors at sea navigate by the stars at night
  • Then of course, Jesus is a star in the sense of being famous and adored, sort of like a rock star, except without the sex and drugs

But Jesus isn’t just a star child from above. He is also an earth child – conceived by the Holy Spirit but born of Mary, humble and down to earth

  • Star child indicates the transcendence of God – God far above us, God who is different from us and as unreachable as the stars
  • While earth child suggests the immanence of God – God’s presence close to us, God with us in a form that is accessible and relatable

Jesus is the go between of God – he creates a bridge between humanity and God through his very person

  • This is the doctrine of the incarnation – Jesus is both truly divine and truly human. As we read in John’s gospel…
  • The Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth.    

The expression Love child has a double meaning I think

  • In the 1970’s the term ‘love child’ referred to a child born to parents who were not married to each other
  • Mary was not married when she conceived Jesus by the Holy Spirit but she was married to Joseph by the time Jesus was born
  • God is love, so love child could also refer to Jesus being the Son of God
  • Jesus shows us what God’s love is like. It is a self-giving love

Jesus is the Christ child

  • In Luke 2, an angel appears to the shepherds and says…
  • Today in the town of David a Saviour has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord.
  • Christ is not Jesus’ surname – Christ is a title which literally means ‘anointed one’ or king 
  • Christ means the same thing as Messiah – Christ being the Greek term and Messiah being the Hebrew word

The last line of verse 1 is a bit troubling – it talks about Jesus being heaven’s lightning rod

  • In my sixth form year at Hamilton Boys’ High School we had an electrical storm during the day.
  • About 20 boys (I was not one of them) were sheltering from heavy rain under a tree when a bolt of lightning struck the tree.
  • Eleven boys were knocked to the ground and one had to be revived with mouth-to-mouth resuscitation.
  • He suffered serious burns to his face, neck and shoulders, and especially to his elbows and the soles of his feet.
  • You don’t want to be hit by lightning

To protect people from lightning strikes like this, tall structures sometimes have a rod-like conductor installed to divert lightning away to the ground

  • With this in mind the term ‘lightning rod’ is an English idiom for someone who attracts a lot of criticism or anger in order to shield others
  • A lightning rod personality is often blamed for other people’s mistakes
  • Most people who have ever been in a leadership role know what it means to be a lightning rod for people’s anger and criticism.
  • The Bible doesn’t specifically talk about Jesus as heaven’s lightning rod but we do get the idea of a scapegoat from the Bible, which is similar

To say that Jesus is “heaven’s lightning rod” does not mean that God directs his anger at Jesus. God was not angry with Jesus – He was pleased with Jesus

  • Jesus comes from heaven but the lightning does not come from heaven
  • The lightning comes from earth
  • Jesus is a lightning rod for the anger, criticism and sin of people    

There were a number times in the gospel when Jesus acted as a lightning rod, in order to save those in need

  • Like when Jesus defended the woman caught in adultery, in John 8
  • And it seems whenever Jesus healed someone on the Sabbath he got a hard time from the religious leaders. No good deed goes unpunished.

Please turn with me to Luke 4, page 80, toward the back of your pew Bibles

  • This passage describes one occasion, near the beginning of Jesus’ ministry, when he became a lightning rod for people’s anger
  • From Luke 4, verse 16, we read…

16 Then Jesus went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath he went as usual to the synagogue. He stood up to read the Scriptures 17 and was handed the book of the prophet Isaiah. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it is written,

18 “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
    because he has chosen me to bring good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives
    and recovery of sight to the blind,
to set free the oppressed
19     and announce that the time has come
    when the Lord will save his people.”

20 Jesus rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant, and sat down. All the people in the synagogue had their eyes fixed on him, 21 as he said to them, “This passage of scripture has come true today, as you heard it being read.”

22 They were all well impressed with him and marvelled at the eloquent words that he spoke. They said, “Isn’t he the son of Joseph?”

23 He said to them, “I am sure that you will quote this proverb to me, ‘Doctor, heal yourself.’ You will also tell me to do here in my hometown the same things you heard were done in Capernaum. 24 I tell you this,” Jesus added, “prophets are never welcomed in their hometown. 25 Listen to me: it is true that there were many widows in Israel during the time of Elijah, when there was no rain for three and a half years and a severe famine spread throughout the whole land. 26 Yet Elijah was not sent to anyone in Israel, but only to a widow living in Zarephath in the territory of Sidon. 27 And there were many people suffering from a dreaded skin disease who lived in Israel during the time of the prophet Elisha; yet not one of them was healed, but only Naaman the Syrian.”

28 When the people in the synagogue heard this, they were filled with anger. 29 They rose up, dragged Jesus out of town, and took him to the top of the hill on which their town was built. They meant to throw him over the cliff, 30 but he walked through the middle of the crowd and went his way.     

May the Spirit of Jesus illuminate God’s word for us

This passage from Luke 4 provides a kind of executive summary of Jesus’ earthly ministry – it outlines the gospel in a short story

  • Jesus came with a message of salvation for everyone but not everyone welcomed him or his message
  • Yes, he was popular at first but it wasn’t long before his words and actions rubbed people up the wrong way and they were out to kill him
  • Jesus is sent from heaven and becomes a lightning rod for people’s anger
  • This episode, in Nazareth, foreshadows Jesus’ rejection & crucifixion 

Why did the people of Jesus’ home town get so angry with him that they were ready to throw him off a cliff? I don’t know.

  • Perhaps they didn’t like the way Jesus was claiming the status of prophet.
  • Maybe they thought he had committed blasphemy
  • Or perhaps they took offence at the way Jesus seemed to imply that God was more interested in saving social rejects like the widow of Zarephath and Naaman the Syrian (both of whom were Gentiles).  

Shirley Murray’s song connects with Luke 4 in a number of ways

  • Luke 4 talks about Jesus being good news for the poor and the oppressed
  • Star Child is a song which highlights the needs of the poor & oppressed
  • The chorus expresses the ‘now but not yet’ of salvation

This year, this year, let the day arrive, when Christmas comes for everyone, everyone alive.

On the one hand God’s salvation and kingdom have arrived in the person of Jesus but the fruit of that salvation is yet to mature and be realised

  • The world we live in is still filled with the poor and oppressed
  • Christmas is not good news for everyone
  • For some it only highlights their need and what they don’t have
  • We pray to God, ‘Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven’,and we wait in hope.

If the first verse of the song is about Jesus, then the next three verses are about us. Verse 2 reads…

Street child, beat child, no place left to go, hurt child, used child, no one wants to know,

This verse seems to be addressing the reality of homelessness and being displaced.

  • Beat is another way of saying street. The police walk the beat
  • Beat also hints at violence and being beaten up
  • For a variety of reasons family violence tends to spike at Christmas time
  • Sadly, some young people feel safer on the streets than they do at home

Thinking about the connection with Jesus’ story I am reminded of how, shortly after Jesus’ birth, an angel appeared to Joseph in a dream warning him to take his family to Egypt for a while

  • This was to escape king Herod who felt threatened by the news of Christ’s birth and sought to manage the situation by killing all the babies in the area under two years old. Talk about child abuse.

The line no place left to go connects with what Jesus said to a would be follower, in Matthew 8 verse 20: Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.

  • Jesus knew what it was to have no fixed abode.   

The last line in verse two of the song is intriguing: hurt child, no one wants to know. This speaks of rejection and abandonment and neglect

  • To get to know someone you have to spend time with them
  • Children need the time and attention of caring adults. Not every waking moment, but often enough for a healthy relationship to develop.
  • Consistently enough for the child to know they are safe and valued

We are reminded of the story in Mark 10 where the disciples try to shoo the children away and Jesus rebukes his disciples saying…

  • Let the little children come to me for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these.
  • Jesus welcomes the little children and, by his example, encourages us to give them our time

Verse 3 of the song continues the theme of harsh reality…

Grown child, old child, memory full of years, sad child, lost child, story told in tears,

This verse makes me think of the child within each of us

  • It is perhaps more of a modern psychological idea
  • If you go to counselling, you will probably be asked about your childhood and once those memories are unearthed you may be asked to take care of that child in you  

To some extent the experiences we had in our childhood stay with us into adulthood

  • All of my grandparents grew up during the Great Depression of the 1930’s and they went without
  • This experience stayed with them and, consequently, they were careful with money, always making sure they had some put aside just in case
  • They didn’t want to go through that same experience of deprivation again 

Story told in tears is an interesting line

  • It speaks of someone who doesn’t tell their story in words, so much as reveal the sadness of their life through tears
  • Blessed are those who mourn. They shall be comforted

Each of us is telling ourselves a story to help make sense of our lives

  • We need to make sure the story we are telling ourselves is true 

Once there was a girl named Stacey

  • Stacey grew up in an average middle class kiwi home
  • Both her parents worked hard to pay the bills and provide for their family
  • One day Stacey’s mum left, she ran off with another man
  • Her father was devastated of course
  • He stayed around to provide for his kids and he did his best but he was struggling with his own grief and that limited his emotional availability  

Stacey was the eldest of three children and so she did what most eldest siblings do in a situation like this – she stepped up and took responsibility

  • Stacey cooked the dinner and made the lunches and read stories to her younger brothers
  • She made sure her dad knew about the important stuff like paying the power bill and remembering the boys’ birthdays
  • Stacey worked hard at school, got lots of excellence credits and thought about going to Uni at Otago but put that aside so she could stay home and look after her family
  • Stacey appeared like the model daughter. Always taking care of everyone else’s needs. Never really attending to her own. Not properly.
  • Stacey sacrificed her childhood to be a mother to her father and brothers

One day a young man became interested in Stacey. He was kind, handsome and from a good family

  • The young man asked Stacey out and they started dating
  • Things seemed to be going along nicely at first but whenever he tried to get close emotionally Stacey put up a wall
  • She never really let him in. There was always a distance there.
  • The young man would have stayed around but Stacey ended the relationship, saying they could still be friends, but knowing in her heart that wasn’t going to happen
  • When he asked her why, Stacey couldn’t find the words to tell him how terrified she was at the way love made her feel so vulnerable

You see, Stacey was telling herself a story – a story told in tears. It went like this: ‘I am to blame for my mother leaving. I am responsible for that.’

  • The story was false of course. No one else was blaming Stacey for what her mother did.
  • Stacey was just 13 at the time, it was nothing to do with her
  • But Stacey needed to believe she was to blame in order to feel safe
  • As long as she was responsible, she was in control of the situation
  • (Or at least that’s what she thought)
  • Facing the truth that she had no control over her mother, that her mother’s leaving had nothing to do with her, was just too scary, too painful
  • It made her feel powerless & vulnerable, like being in love with someone
  • But if Stacey told herself it was her fault, that she made it happen, then in a twisted way she felt like she had some control over her circumstances
  • Taking responsibility for everyone else helped to support the illusion.   

Sometimes when we are going through a difficult situation we tell ourselves a lie, to protect ourselves, just to get through that situation, but once the situation has passed we need to tell ourselves the truth and the truth may be a story told in tears

  • Jesus came to set people free. We are set free by the truth.
  • Jesus helps us to face the truth so we are not afraid to love and feel vulnerable

It’s Christmas time, so I can’t leave Stacey’s story with a sad ending

  • Some years later the young man, who had asked Stacey out, returned
  • He was still single, still holding a flame for Stacey
  • In that time apart (a time of waiting) Stacey’s heart was touched by Jesus and she figured a few things out
  • Now Stacey was able to tell herself a new story. It went like this:
  • ‘I am not responsible for the choices other people make. I am only responsible for the choices I make. My mother’s leaving was a gift. It showed me who I am; strong, loyal, compassionate.’  
  • With this new story Stacey was no longer emotionally closed off.
  • Yes, she was discerning about who she trusted but she was also ready to love and be vulnerable.
  • The young man asked Stacey out again and this time it worked out – they were able to get close to one another

Verse 4 of the song reads…

Spared child, spoiled child, having, wanting more, wise child, faith child knowing joy in store,

This verse draws a contrast between those who have too much (and for whom things come too easily), with those who are made to wait in faith

  • Ever noticed how God often makes us wait
  • Sometimes he answers our prayers quite quickly.
  • Other times he says ‘no’ or he says nothing
  • Waiting is God’s way of teaching us to value something
  • When things are given to us too easily we tend to take them for granted
  • But when we are made to wait, we value the gift (and the giver) more
  • Not always getting what we want shows us what we really need

Advent is about waiting for the coming of Christ

  • Waiting is not easy.
  • Waiting in faith for test results
  • Waiting in faith for your surgery
  • Waiting in faith for the baby to come
  • Waiting in faith for the pain to pass so your body and soul can heal
  • Waiting in faith for Christ to touch your heart with God’s love & truth so you are free to be vulnerable and love again, without fear.

Yes, waiting is difficult but there is hope and joy in the waiting

  • Knowing joy in store speaks of the joy of anticipation
  • Joy is the positive energy that comes from hope

The song finishes in the same way that it started, by focusing on Jesus

  • The first verse was all about Christ and so is the last

Hope-for-peace Child, God’s stupendous sign,

down-to-earth Child, star of stars that shine,

Jesus is our hope for peace – peace with God, peace with each other and peace with ourselves

  • The Biblical idea of peace (or shalom) is more than the mere absence of conflict. The peace Christ gives is the presence of abundant life
  • Jesus said: I have come that they may have life and have it to the full [2]
  • Abundant life is life worth living, life at its best
  • We are yet to realise the fullness of life and peace that Jesus came to bring – but we wait for it, knowing joy in store   

God’s stupendous sign is a phrase that may need some explanation

  • Stupendous does not mean stupid or dumb
  • Stupendous means surprising in a pleasing way, generous, better than expected, large or extravagant 
  • Jesus surprises us in a good way, he reveals the extravagance and generosity of God’s love
  • God’s love is deep and wide – deep enough to heal the hurt child within you and wide enough to embrace those a market driven economy rejects

Let’s stand and sing Star Child now, and as we do I invite you to feel the words

  • Let them in.
  • What line or verse is God impressing upon your heart?
  • What is God saying to you today?

[1] http://socialreport.msd.govt.nz/paid-work/unemployment.html

[2] John 10:10b

Tawa Baptist

Good News

Scripture: Isaiah 61:1-4 & 8-11

Title: Good news

Structure:

  • Introduction
  • Messiah – jubilee
  • Yahweh – justice
  • Redeemed – joy
  • Conclusion

Introduction:

This morning’s sermon is based on the lectionary reading for today, Isaiah 61, verses 1-4 and verses 8-11. In today’s reading we hear three voices:

–         The voice of the Messiah, proclaiming jubilee, in verses 1-4

–         The voice of Yahweh, affirming his justice, in verses 8-9

–         And the voice of the redeemed, expressing their joy, in verses 10-11

–         Jubilee, justice and joy. From Isaiah 61 we read…

 

The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me, because the Lord has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the broken hearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners, 2 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn, and provide for those who grieve in Zion – to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of joy instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair. They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the Lord for the display of his splendour. 4 They will rebuild the ancient ruins and restore the places long devastated; they will renew the ruined cities that have been devastated for generations.

8 “For I, the Lord, love justice; I hate robbery and wrongdoing. In my faithfulness I will reward my people and make an everlasting covenant with them. 9 Their descendants will be known among the nations and their offspring among the peoples. All who see them will acknowledge that they are a people the Lord has blessed.” 10 I delight greatly in the Lord; my soul rejoices in my God. For he has clothed me with garments of salvation and arrayed me in a robe of his righteousness, as a bridegroom adorns his head like a priest, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels. 11 For as the soil makes the sprout come up and a garden causes seeds to grow, so the Sovereign Lord will make righteousness and praise spring up before all nations.

 

May the Spirit of Jesus illuminate this Scripture for us

 

Good news is a relative term – what passes as good news for one person can be bad news for someone else

–         It depends on your perspective and on where your loyalties lie

 

The Black Caps’ recent test series win over West Indies was good news if you are a Black Caps supporter, but not good news if you support the West Indies

–         If house prices go down then that’s good news if you are a first home buyer but bad news if you’ve only just bought a new home

–         We could go on but you get the point, generally in our society today, one person’s good news is another person’s bad news

 

The other thing to say here is that sometimes what appears to be bad news at first, actually turns out to be good news in the long run

–         Maybe you miss out on a promotion at work and it feels like bad news at the time

–         But then 6 months later the organisation gets a new CEO and she restructures everything so the job you missed out on gets disestablished – had you got the job you’d be out of work now

–         Or maybe you have an overseas holiday planned but for some reason you are prevented from going

–         It seems like bad news at the time until a few days later you learn that the resort you had booked to stay in was flattened by a Tsunami

–         Sometimes what seems like bad news at first, turns out to be good news

 

The message of Isaiah 61 is good news for the righteous poor – but is it good news for anyone else? We’ll have to see

 

Messiah – jubilee:

Verses 1-4 are the voice of the Messiah proclaiming jubilee

 

Messiah is a Hebrew word which literally means ‘anointed one’

–         Priests in Old Testament times would be anointed with oil as a sign of their consecration and commissioning as priests

–         Likewise when a king was chosen to lead the nation God would send his prophet to pour oil on the king’s head as a sign that the one being anointed was God’s choice to lead Israel

–         (The prophet Samuel anointed Saul to be king and then later David)

 

We know it is the voice of the Messiah speaking in the opening verses of Isaiah 61 because he says…

–         The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me, because the Lord has anointed me to preach good news to the poor… to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour

 

The ‘year of the Lord’s favour’ is most likely a reference to the year of Jubilee

–         Under Jewish Law every 50 years was a special anniversary when everyone returned to their ancestral land

–         It was a sabbatical year – which means the people didn’t sow or reap crops, they simply ate what grew by itself in the fields and had a holiday for 12 months – sounds fantastic doesn’t it

–         Slaves were set free, debts were forgiven and land was redistributed so that any gap between the rich and poor was eliminated – everyone went back to an even footing

 

The year of Jubilee was good news if you were poor because it meant redemption and restoration – you got the family farm back with a fresh start and a clean slate

–         Obviously if you were rich it meant giving back some of the wealth you had accumulated during the past 50 years

–         It’s not that the rich became poor – they just went back to being like everyone else again

 

Now that might seem unfair to us, because we are immersed in a capitalist society where price is driven by demand & supply

–         House prices have gone up in NZ because the demand for houses is greater than the supply

–         But in ancient Israel the value of land wasn’t driven by demand

–         In ancient Israel the value of land was determined by the number of years remaining to Jubilee, when the land would return to its original owner

–         So, if there were 5 years left to Jubilee you only paid half as much as you would 10 years out from Jubilee

–         In effect this means you weren’t buying land to own forever, you were leasing it for a fixed period of time

–         Price was determined by time (not demand) – a much fairer system

 

So was the year of Jubilee bad news then if you were rich?

–         Well, it depends on your perspective and where your loyalty lies

–         If you were the kind of rich person who loved God (more than money) and was generous toward your neighbour, then it was good news for you too, because you would be happy for your neighbour

–         But, if you were the kind of rich person who was greedy and loved accumulating wealth then the year of Jubilee would still be good news, only it would have felt like bad news at the time

 

You see, losing wealth might feel unpleasant at the time but is actually a form of redemption in the long run

–         Giving back to the community sets us free from slavery to greed

–         The year of the Lord’s favour (Jubilee) is good news for everyone because it’s about putting everything back in the right place

–         It’s about putting God in charge of our life (not money) and it’s about putting our neighbour beside us, not above us or below us

 

The Messiah of Isaiah 61 is speaking this message of good news to Jews who were returning to their homeland after being held captive in exile for 70 years

–         The Jewish refugees are the broken hearted receiving healing

–         They are the captives being redeemed (or set free) from exile

–         They are the poor and dispossessed being restored to their ancestral lands      

 

The year of the Lord’s favour is also the day of God’s vengeance

–         God’s favour and vengeance are two sides of the same coin

–         We don’t normally like thinking about God’s vengeance

–         We like God to be friendly & indulgent toward us like Santa Claus or a dotting grandparent, but vengeance belongs to the Lord

–         God is the only one who can be trusted with vengeance

–         He does not over punish as we are inclined to do

 

Jesus read these opening verses of Isaiah 61 in the synagogue at Nazareth near the beginning of his public ministry and he added that today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing [1]

–         In other words, I’m the Messiah that Isaiah talked about and I’ve come to bring Jubilee, to set the captives free and so forth

–         That’s a pretty big claim to make

–         For some reason though he left out the part about the day of vengeance

–         I don’t think that’s because there is no vengeance with God

–         I think God wanted to postpone the day vengeance in order to give Israel’s enemies the chance to be redeemed as well

–         Any way the people of Nazareth didn’t like that and they tried to throw Jesus over a cliff, but he escaped – it wasn’t his time to die

 

From verse 3 the Messiah continues his proclamation of good news saying he will comfort all who mourn in Zion

–         Zion is another name for Jerusalem

–         When the exiles returned to find their beloved Jerusalem in ruins and occupied by foreigners they were devastated

–         Put yourself in their shoes for a moment

–         They had been living in Mesopotamia (Babylonia) for 70 years.

–         Most of them would have only heard about Jerusalem from parents or grandparents

–         They finally get royal permission to return to their homeland and are filled with a great sense of anticipation & hope

–         But on arriving to the holy city they find the place is a mess

–         They’re tired, the kids are grumpy, there’s no McDonalds and there’s so much work to do

–         To make matters worse the people who moved in while they were away aren’t that welcoming or friendly – in fact they are a thorn in the returnees’ side.

–         What a huge disappointment – feels like bad news at first but actually they will discover the good news in the long run

 

Putting ashes on the head was a sign of grief and shame

–         The Messiah will bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes

–         The oil of gladness instead of mourning

–         And a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair

–         In other words he will reverse their circumstances & give them something to smile about

 

They will be called oaks of righteousness

–         Righteousness means right relationship – relating to others in a right way

–         Loving your neighbour as you love yourself – that sort of thing

–         An oak tree speaks of strength and being established, firmly rooted

–         It is oaks (plural) as in a forest of oak trees

–         The refugees may feel vulnerable and misplaced on first returning to their homeland but they will be called oaks of righteousness, meaning they will become an established long standing community, where people love their neighbour

–         Of course, it takes time for an oak tree to grow – this won’t happen overnight

 

Verse 4 says the people will rebuild, restore and renew ruined cities

–         Jerusalem had been laid waste but God will give his people the strength to rebuild

–         Their present may look bleak but their future is strong and hopeful

 

Yahweh – justice:

Okay, so that’s the voice of the Messiah proclaiming jubilee

 

The second voice we hear is that of the Lord God (Yahweh) affirming his justice, in verse 8…

–         “For I, the Lord, love justice; I hate robbery and wrongdoing. …”

 

This is a statement about the character of God – the Lord is just & fair

 

From our point of view in history it is easy to take the justice of God for granted

–         As Christians we worship God because he is good – he is just & merciful

–         But people in the ancient world (500 years before Christ) did not automatically associate the gods with justice

–         For most pagans in the ancient world the gods had little or no moral compass – so for Yahweh (the God of Israel) to say “I love justice” was a significant and shocking thing

–         ‘What? A God who loves justice. That’s unheard of”

 

This Jewish/Christian belief that God is just poses a problem for some people – because this life is not always fair

–         Sometimes bad things happen to good people

–         We might not always get what we deserve – we may suffer loss at the hands of others – but God has a way of compensating us for those losses

–         He has a way of evening things up – restoring our losses and making things right

–         The year of Jubilee was one of the ways God evened things up

 

Of course, some losses can’t be easily restored in our lifetime (even with Jubilee) – in those cases we trust God to make things right in eternity

–         We can count on God’s justice because it is fundamental to who he is

–         God can’t be unfair

 

In the second part of verse 8 the Lord (Yahweh) says…

–         In my faithfulness I will reward my people and make an everlasting covenant with them…

 

The ancestors of the returning exiles had broken God’s covenant – that’s why they were sent into exile in the first place (kind of a massive time out)

–         But God will make a new covenant with the descendants of these refugees

–         This covenant is based on God’s faithfulness to his people, not on the people’s worthiness

–         Once again we see that what God does, flows out of who he is

–         The Lord is making a covenant because he’s faithful and that’s what the refugees need – security & commitment from a higher power

 

People generally change countries to improve their lot

–         But coming to a new country and starting again can be challenging

–         Parents will put up with the hard ship though if they think it will ultimately mean a better quality of life for their kids

–         Yahweh’s words give the returning refugees the assurance they need

–         The Lord is basically saying, I know it is tough for you now but it will get better (easier) for your descendants

 

The band Imagine Dragons have a song called ‘Not Today’

–         The chorus reads…

–         “It’s gotta get easier and easier somehow but not today, not today”

–         The returning exiles had the hope of knowing God would make things easier somehow, but not today

–         It would be their descendants who would be called blessed

 

Jesus is the one through whom God established this everlasting covenant

–         Jesus is the Messiah through whom the blessing of God comes

 

We’ve heard the voice of Messiah proclaiming Jubilee

–         And we’ve heard the voice of Yahweh affirming his justice

–         Now let’s listen to the voice of the redeemed, expressing their joy in verses 10 & 11

 

Redeemed – joy:

I delight greatly in the Lord; my soul rejoices in my God… as a bridegroom adorns his head like a priest, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.

 

Delight, rejoicing, bride & groom on their wedding day – these are words and images of joy

–         And the reason for the joy is that the Lord (my God) has clothed me with garments of salvation and arrayed me in a robe of his righteousness

–         God has covered our shame (our nakedness) and made us look good

–         He has made us publicly acceptable once more

 

There’s a movie called Central Intelligence, starring Dwayne Johnson, the Rock

–         It’s nothing too heavy – just feel good entertainment

–         In this film Dwayne Johnson plays a character named Bob Stone

–         Bob gets picked on and bullied in high school

–         As a prank some guys steal his clothes while he’s in the shower and when he chases them to get his clothes back they lead him into an assembly hall where the whole school sees him in his birthday suit

–         They don’t actually show you anything (thankfully) – they just leave it to your imagination

 

Anyway, everyone is laughing at Bob except for the most popular guy in school who takes off his jacket and gives it to Bob to cover himself

–         The jacket was Bob’s salvation – covering his embarrassment & shame

–         That simple act of kindness changes Bob’s life

–         Bob studies hard and goes to the gym and undergoes a remarkable renewal, becoming a buff undercover agent for the CIA

 

The refugees are a bit like Bob Stone in the movie – they have been publicly humiliated, shamed for all the world to see

–         But God has covered their shame – he has clothed them with his own jacket (his own righteousness) and this saves them, precipitating a renewal of their life

 

In verse 11 the redeemed of the Lord sound a note of hope…

–         For as the soil makes the sprout come up and a garden causes seeds to grow, so the Sovereign Lord will make righteousness and praise spring up before all nations.

 

There’s that word righteousness again, keeps coming up doesn’t it

–         This image of the soil making the sprout come up and seeds grow reminds us of the oaks of righteousness in verse 3

–         Righteousness and praise are compared to a sprout and seeds – living things that start out small but contain incredible potency

–         The sprouts and seeds then are an image of spiritual renewal

–         God is the one who grows righteousness & praise

–         The Lord is the one who brings renewal

 

The sprout and seeds of righteousness & praise are not like Jack’s bean stalk – they don’t grow to the sky overnight

–         They take time to grow – in due course it will get easier to do right and easier to praise God, even if it doesn’t feel like it today

 

So often we approach Christmas with this expectation that it will be perfect or complete – that it will be the fruit fully formed, ripe and ready to eat

–         But that kind of expectation usually leads to disappointment

–         We are better to think of Christmas as a seed or a sprout – the beginning of renewal, not it’s end

 

In the meantime, if we truly believe things will get better in the future, if we know Jubilee is coming, it gives us joy & strength to cope in the present

 

Conclusion:

Isaiah 61 is a message of good news

–         The Messiah proclaims that a time of Jubilee is coming

–         The Lord (Yahweh) affirms his justice (his commitment) to the people

–         And those overdue for redemption are filled with hope & the joy it gives

 

https://soundcloud.com/tawabaptist/17-dec-2017-good-news

[1] Luke 4: 21