Year C. Fifth Sunday in Lent April 1st , 2001
Lord of the Lake Lutheran Church
Web page http://lordofthelake.org
By The Rev. Jerry Morrissey, Esq., Pastor
E-mail pastor@southshore.com
Isaiah 43: 16-21
Title: “The, faithful pattern, of a faithful God”
This is a hymn-like prophecy of the return from exile, a promise of salvation. It is cast in terms of a new and better exodus, tantamount to a new creation. Thus the present situation, a return, is interpreted by using the model of an old situation, the Exodus. Comparing the two, the return from exile in Babylon is seen as superior even to the Exodus. Thus God is to be praised even more so because of his great deeds, his loving-kindness. What God has done in the past he continues to do in the present.
In verses sixteen and seventeen, “sea…path…army…extinguished,” The sequence of events given here describe the crossing of the Red Sea at the first exodus. It was a magnificent display of God’s power. He acted then as Israel’s go’el, that is, redeemer. Calling God “redeemer” is based on a custom among the Israelites and many Near eastern cultures, whereby the next of kin, the closest blood relative was considered responsible for the protection of the other and exacting revenge in the event of wrongdoing. Often, the Israelites would consider Yahweh as their next of kin, their redeemer, and their closest blood relative, thanks to the covenant he struck with them. What Yahweh did in overcoming the mighty Egyptians was thought impossible, in fact, unthinkable. The emphasis here, in keeping with Deutero-Isaiah’s perspective, is on God’s action in and over creation. At the same time the exodus was an observable historical event, not only an internal religious experience.
In verse eighteen, Do remember not the former things, or consider the things of old,” “Remember not,” has a wider range of meaning than “forget.” It means here “do not dwell on,” “do not become so stuck in and on the past that you do not or cannot see the present action of God.” In effect, God says, “This release from Babylonian captivity is every bit an exodus, so do not miss it or its meaning.” Surely the Israelites are to remember the past and recite it in their creeds, but they are not to become so focused that they “forget” why they are doing so in the first place. The remembering of the past helps to discern the, faithful pattern, of a faithful God. The remembrance makes that present and enables the people to see the same activity of God going on in the present.
In verse nineteen, “I am about to do a new thing,” What Cyrus, the Persian king, is going to do under God’s prompting and plan is something far greater than the events at the Red Sea of old. Yet, it is entirely consistent with God’s revealed character and modus operandi.
In verse twenty, “in the desert I make a way,” over the wilderness that separates Babylon from Palestine God will make a connecting path, a link, a way out of slavery and into restoration. This is the highway of Isaiah 40: 3, which is to be constructed at God’s command. The first “way” was the “way of the sea” at the exodus. Now, the Creator God will show even greater prowess by making a “way of the land,” through the wilderness, a greater wilderness than the old exodus journey.
In the wastelands, rivers, how will they get the water so fundamental to the preservation of life? The same way the Israelites got it in the former desert Numbers 20: 7-11- God will provide. He did it before; he will do it again and yet again.
“Wild animals will honor me,” God’s actions have cosmic significance. Even the wild animals will cooperate. The prophet sees the ancient historical traditions, Exodus, in a cosmic setting, with the broadest possible scope and meaning. The new exodus will level mountains and barriers, spring up water in the desert and tame anything wild. These are features of the ideal world to come. All of creation will participate in and cooperate with God the Creator.
In verse twenty-one, “so that they might declare my praise,” “Praise” is recognition or acknowledgement. When the people recognize and acknowledge the presence and activity of God on their behalf they will express it in words, in songs, but especially in the way they relate to creation and one another, in a way consistent with the reality who is God, creator and redeemer. God is able to bring salvation and does bring salvation out of the most unlikely situations: water out of the desert, level path out of the mountain, harmony out of wild beats, freedom out of slavery and life out of death.
The study of Sacred Scripture is not for antiquarian purposes. It is not to learn a bunch of insignificant facts so we can do well on crossword puzzles and quiz games. Neither the Exodus nor the Exile is to be studied for their own sakes. They are metaphors for us, paradigms, ways of seeing not the realities of the past, but aids to seeing our own present realities and interpreting them correctly. Thus, at the historical time of the Return from Exile, the prophet first tells the people to look at the Exodus of old, and then he tells them to forget about it. Once they learned the lesson, they were to use their energies to change their situation, not to memorize that of the exodus generation.
Everything is based on the fidelity of God. A careful study of his creation and his interventions into human history- be they national or personal- reveals a pattern, a consistency and so, a certain predictability. Not that we can figure God out or ever be absolutely sure he will act thus and so on a particular occasion. But we can discern patterns from the way he has acted in the past and be confident that he will act similarly in the present and future. Thus the prophet had no doubt God would restore his people to their land, though he had no real idea how, until God revealed it through the events of the present, the prophet’s present.
The Exile is not just an historical reality. It is a paradigm for the present. Around the earth there are thousands and thousands of people forced to live in exile, behind walls, fences and prisons. We have those who live under political tyrants, political prisoners, people uprooted from their homeland by disasters-natural and political. We have people living in exile in urban apartments, suburban homes, nursing homes and hospitals, hospices and hotels. Not to mention those living in their private little cells of hell, alienated, through addictions, from themselves, from their families, communities, God. Then there is the alienation that proceeds from skin color, economic position, sexual orientation, dependencies of all kinds and just general meaninglessness and boredom. Yes, exile is alive and doing all too well in our world and experience. So, when we read of the Return from Exile we are reading of hope, hope for our world, loved ones, lost ones and selves.
Who can and will help us? God and God alone who alone is God! Because he is faithful we have but to look at what he has done in the past and be confident that he will do the same for us in the present. We know that he can do it, that he has done it, and that he will do it. The question is: “What will we do?” It is not God who is the problem; it is our response or lack of it. When we do as verse twenty-one says, when we praise God, then we are in the kind of contact with him that empowers us to see him acting and thereby go along with it. If we do not see it, we miss it and the opportune moments he gives us to join in the great process of moving from here to there, from alienation to reconciliation, from desert to garden, from slavery to freedom, from death to life. He is present to us in our trapped situations and promises to do a new, not really new, only new to us, thing for us. To bring us back home to him by the shortest most direct route through the desert. No fear-inspiring beasts-animal or demonic- can scare us or prevent him from going home to safety, solace and salvation.
The only real obstacle to God is not a mountain barrier, not a torrential sea, not a roadless desert, not anything or anyone but ourselves. Circumstances are not really obstacles to God; attitudes are. The attitude of trust, of faith, in God despite circumstances gives “our vision wider view” and we can see into the past, rediscover the pattern of God’s fidelity, his love and protection, and, with that wider vision, see into the present and find the same God acting on our behalf, as our redeemer. Amen.
