Scripture: Isaiah 60
Video Link: https://youtu.be/AaDoG32hNoo
Structure:
- Introduction
- Light
- Gravity
- Worship
- Conclusion
Introduction:
Good morning everyone.
One of the greatest mathematicians to have ever lived was a man called Archimedes. Archimedes was born in 287 BC, nearly three hundred years before Christ. Archimedes lived in Sicily, a region in Italy.
One day the king asked Archimedes to help him solve a problem. The king had given an exact amount of gold to a jeweler and asked the jeweler to make a crown for him. But when the crown came back, the king suspected the jeweler had cheated him by substituting some of the gold for silver.
Archimedes had to determine whether the gold crown contained any silver, without damaging the crown. Archimedes thought hard about this for a while. Gold has a higher density than silver, so if the density of the crown was less than the density of the gold the king had given the jeweler, then the king had been ripped off.
To calculate the density, Archimedes needed to know the volume of the crown. However, he couldn’t measure the volume with a ruler, like you might a square box, because the crown was an irregular shape.
The answer came to Archimedes while he was taking a bath. As Archimedes sat down in the bathtub some water overflowed and went on the floor. At that moment Archimedes had an epiphany. He could calculate the volume of the crown by placing it in a bucket of water. The volume of water that was displaced would equal the volume of the crown.
Some say that Archimedes was so excited about this sudden flash of insight that he ran down the street naked shouting, ‘eureka’, which in Greek means,
‘I found it’. That last part about Archimedes running down the street naked might be an embellishment, but the rest of the story is true.
As it turned out, the density of the crown was less than the density of the king’s gold, which meant the crown did in fact contain silver. I’m not sure what happened to the jeweler, but it probably wasn’t good.
Today, the 5th of January, is the twelfth and last day of Christmas, which means you are supposed to take your Christmas decorations down after today. It also means that tomorrow, the 6th of January, is Epiphany.
An epiphany (with a small ‘e’) is a sudden realization or insight, when the answer or meaning dawns on you, as it did with Archimedes in the bath.
Epiphany with a capital ‘E’ is a special day in the church calendar celebrating the visit of the wise men to see Jesus after his birth. These wise men were probably like Archimedes; mathematicians, engineers and astronomers.
The wise men had an epiphany after studying ancient prophecies and the stars in the night sky. One star shone brighter than usual, so they followed that light to Bethlehem where they found and worshiped Jesus, the Messiah of God.
The Bible doesn’t say how many wise men there were, only that they brought gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. From these three gifts, people assume there were three wise men.
Whatever their number, none of them were Jewish. They were gentiles from the east. For this reason, Epiphany (with a capital ‘E’) is associated with God’s plan of salvation for the nations of the world.
The classic Old Testament reading for Epiphany comes from the book of Isaiah chapter 60. If you listen carefully, God may give you an epiphany of your own. From verses 1-6 we read…
“Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord rises upon you. 2 See, darkness covers the earth and thick darkness is over the peoples, but the Lord rises upon you and his glory appears over you. 3 Nations will come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your dawn. 4 “Lift up your eyes and look about you: All assemble and come to you; your sons come from afar, and your daughters are carried on the hip. 5 Then you will look and be radiant, your heart will throb and swell with joy; the wealth on the seas will be brought to you, to you the riches of the nations will come. 6 Herds of camels will cover your land, young camels of Midian and Ephah. And all from Sheba will come, bearing gold and incense and proclaiming the praise of the Lord.
May the Spirit of Jesus illuminate God’s word for us.
Light:
Isaiah 60 is about the glory of the Lord and the epiphanous effect God’s glory has on the world. Three words to give you a handle on this passage: light, gravity and worship. We start with light.
Near the beginning of the 20th Century, Albert Einstein came up with the special theory of relatively. Einstein had an epiphany in which he realized that the speed of light is constant, while time is relative. Don’t ask me to explain it, but apparently the faster you go, the slower time goes. It’s a real mind bender.
Now light is extremely quick, the fastest thing known to humanity. Light travels at a speed of 300,000 kilometers per second. Einstein theorized that if time slows down as you go faster, then at the speed of light time stands still.
In verse 1 of Isaiah 60 the prophet says, “Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord rises upon you.”
The experts say the one being told to arise and shine here is the city of Jerusalem, also known as Zion. The promise is that God will shine the light of his glory on the holy city, on the people of Jerusalem.
Isaiah 60 gets interpreted in different ways depending on your point of view. Interpretation is often relative to where you stand in time and history.
If you were Jewish and had recently returned to Jerusalem from exile in Babylon, then you would be inclined to think of these words as applying to the physical city of Jerusalem.
When the Jewish exiles returned, during the time of Nehemiah and Ezra, they found the city in ruins. They had to rebuild the walls and the temple and all the infrastructure and they faced opposition in doing this. The city of Jerusalem was anything but glorious. It was a shambles.
For the Jews who were trying to rebuild, Isaiah 60 was an encouragement that God would help restore their fortunes and make them prosperous again. Their hard work would not be in vain.
But if you are a Christian living in a secular western culture in the 21st Century, then Zion, the holy city of God, is code for God’s kingdom on earth.
For us, Isaiah 60 is not talking about the physical Jerusalem we see on the news in the Middle East.
Rather, Isaiah is talking about God’s spiritual reign on earth. For Christians, Zion is not so much a geographical location. It’s more a state of being in which God’s will is done. It is a community of righteousness, justice and peace. It is heaven on earth.
We believe God’s kingdom came to earth in the person of Jesus and that when Jesus returns in glory, heaven on earth will be realized in its fullness.
However you choose to interpret it, Isaiah 60 is first and foremost about the light of God’s glory. God’s people are to reflect the light of God’s glory, sort of like the moon reflects the sun’s light.
In verse 2, Isaiah says, 2 See, darkness covers the earth and thick darkness is over the peoples, but the Lord rises upon you and his glory appears over you.
Darkness here is spiritual darkness. It is moral evil and death. In contrast, the light of the Lord represents truth and goodness, justice and peace, love and life. The light of God’s glory shows us how to live right.
This imagery sounds echoes of the creation story in Genesis 1 where we read…
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 2 Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.3 And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light.
Isaiah is piggy backing off the creation story in Genesis. He is acknowledging that the world is in bad shape, it’s in chaos and darkness. But God is going to bring order to the chaos. God is going to bring light to the darkness. God is making his creation new and it begins with his glory, his divine light, rising over you.
Jesus said of himself, ‘I am the light of the world’. In other words, Jesus shows us the goodness of God. Jesus reveals the truth about God (and the truth about us). Jesus overcomes the darkness of sin and death through his death and resurrection. Jesus comes to make all things new. Jesus restores God’s order to creation.
As I mentioned earlier, light is fast. Isaiah 60 finishes with these words: I am the Lord; in its time I will do this swiftly. In other words, the revelation of God’s glory, will happen quickly in the end, like having an epiphany after a long struggle to understand.
Gravity:
We’ve heard about the light of God’s glory rising over Zion. Now let’s consider the gravity of God’s glory. God’s glory is a weighty thing. It is heavy, it has substance, mass, gravitas.
Outside the Oxford University Museum of Natural History, there’s a statue of Isaac Newton looking down at an apple on the ground. This commemorates Newton’s epiphany about gravity.
For some time, Isaac Newton had been contemplating the nature of gravity.
One day in 1666 Newton was walking in the garden of his family home, when he noticed an apple fall from a tree. He considered why the apple fell straight down and not up or sideways.
From that simple observation Newton reasoned that a falling apple and the orbiting moon are both pulled by the same force. Newton then did some mathematical calculations to prove his theory. Basically, the greater the mass of an object the stronger its gravitational pull.
In verses 3 and 4 we read…
3 Nations will come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your dawn. 4 “Lift up your eyes and look about you: All assemble and come to you;
Thinking in spiritual terms, the light of God’s glory will have a certain gravitational pull, drawing the leaders of the nations toward Zion. This is a poetic way of saying, people are attracted to the glory of God’s wisdom, justice and peace, his salvation, his abundant life. Deep down people want God’s reign on earth.
Notably, among those coming are your sons and daughters. For the Jews of Nehemiah’s time (hundreds of years before Christ) this could have meant the lost tribes of Israel returning to Jerusalem. But for believers today it might mean seeing wayward children returning to church or witnessing secular society returning to faith in God.
Verse 6 mentions Midian and Ephah being drawn to Zion. Midian and Ephah were descended from Abraham through Abraham’s second wife Keturah.
They were like half-brothers to the Israelites. This hints at a reconciliation between the children of Abraham. The power of God’s glory is that strong.
Verse 6 indicates the people of Sheba feeling the gravitational pull of God’s glory too. This reminds us of the time the Queen of Sheba came to Jerusalem with gifts of gold to learn the wisdom of Solomon.
God’s glory is not like gravity in every way. Gravity is an unconscious force of nature. By contrast, God’s glory is discerning and wise, capable of restoring people to right relationship.
God’s glory is his wisdom and power to save all the nations of the earth, whether they are descended from Abraham or not.
Worship:
The glory of God’s salvation requires a response of worship.
The word worship comes from the old English word, ‘worth-ship’.
Worship is about attributing worth or value to something. This means worship costs us. It involves a sacrifice of time, energy and gifts.
Verse 5 talks about the riches of the nations coming to Zion and verse 6 talks about those from Sheba bringing gold and incense and proclaiming the praise of the Lord. Gold, incense and praise are all symbols or elements of worship.
The financial offerings we make each week and the time we volunteer in service to Christ are part of our worship of God, as are the songs of praise we sing in church.
The smoke of incense is a symbol of people’s sweet-smelling prayers rising to God. We don’t literally burn incense in our tradition, but we do pray as part of our worship. Prayer itself is the more important part. Incense is simply a visual reminder of the invisible reality of prayer.
We note also that worship is a process. Worship involves going on a journey. The pilgrims in Isaiah 60 don’t just set and forget a weekly automatic payment to the church (as much as the deacons and staff do appreciate that).
The pilgrims in Isaiah 60 travel a long way to get to a place where they can offer their gifts in worship to God.
The journey to worshipping God takes time and energy. It requires faith to leave what feels safe and familiar. It requires commitment and endurance to go the distance. But we make the effort to go on that journey because God is worth it. The journey is part of our offering to God, it is part of the sacrifice.
Our life in this world is a journey with a purpose. The goal is to offer ourselves in obedience and praise to God our Father.
Isaiah 60, verse 11, says: your gates will always stand open, they will never be shut, day or night, so that people may bring you the wealth of the nations…
Many times, over the centuries, nations have come to conquer and destroy the city of Jerusalem. But Isaiah 60 imagines a very different future. One in which the nations of the world recognize God’s worth (as revealed by his glory) and are drawn to worship the Lord in peace.
God’s glory opens doors and offers security. People are drawn to Zion with goodwill. By God’s grace and power, the spirit of greed and violence, which dominates this current age, is replaced by a spirit of generosity and love.
The glory of God’s salvation requires a response of worship.
Conclusion:
History tells us the promise of Isaiah 60 is yet to be fulfilled. The Jews who returned from exile in Babylon saw a partial fulfilment of Isaiah’s prophecy.
The earthly city and the temple were rebuilt but not to the former glory of Solomon’s time and certainly not to the extent of Isaiah’s vision.
As Christians, we believe Isaiah 60 is properly fulfilled in and through Jesus, the Christ. The visit of the wise men, bearing gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh, points to Jesus being the one in whom the glory of God dwells.
As we read in the gospel of John: The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.
Jesus is the Word of God made flesh. Jesus came to make all things new.
Jesus embodies the light of God’s grace and the gravity of truth.
Through Jesus’ sacrifice salvation is available to all people.
Through faith in Jesus our worship is made acceptable to God the Father.
May the light of God’s glory inspire your hope. And may the gravity of God’s glory keep your feet on the ground, as you journey in worship to him. Amen.
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?
- Have you ever had an epiphany? What happened? What did you suddenly realise? How did you feel? What difference did it make to your life?
- How would the returning Jewish exiles of Nehemiah’s day interpret Isaiah 60? How might Christians living in the 21st Century interpret Isaiah 60?
- Discuss / reflect on the Biblical connections between Isaiah 60 and the creation story in Genesis. How does Jesus fulfil the vision of Isaiah 60?
- Why are you drawn to Christian faith? What do you find attractive about Jesus?
- What is worship? Why do we worship? How do we worship God? To what or whom do you attribute value and worth?
Tawa Baptist 