Isaiah 40:21-31 Psalm 147:1-11, 20c
I Corinthians 9:16-23 Mark 1:29-39
Fifth Sunday after EpiphanyB
COMFORT MY PEOPLE
Isaiah 40:21-31
Do you not know? Do you not hear?
Has it not been told you from the beginning?
Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth?
It is he who sits above the circle of the earth, and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers; who stretches out the heavens like a curtain,
and spreads them like a tent to dwell in; who brings princes to nothing, and makes the rulers of the earth as emptiness.
Scarcely are they planted, scarcely sown,
scarcely has their stem taken root in the earth, when he blows on them, and they wither, and the tempest carries them off like stubble.
To whom then will you compare me, that I should be like him? says the Holy One.
Lift up your eyes on high and see: who created these?
He who brings out their host by number, calling them all by name,
by the greatness of his might, and because he is strong in power
not one is missing.
Why do you say, O Jacob, and speak, O Israel,
"My way is hidden from the LORD, and my right is disregarded by my God"?
Have you not known? Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable.
He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might he increases strength.
Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted;
but they who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength;
they shall mount up with wings like eagles;
they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.
Isaiah 40:9 The Greatness of God
Get you up to a high mountain, O Zion, herald of good news;
lift up your voice with strength, O Jerusalem, herald of good news; lift it up, fear not; say to the cities of Judah, "Behold your God!" Behold, the Lord GOD comes with might, and his arm rules for him; behold, his reward is with him, and his recompense before him.
He will tend his flock like a shepherd; he will gather the lambs in his arms; he will carry them in his bosom, and gently lead those that are with young.
---------------------------------------------------------
Amid all the bad news in the world, what are we to say? Shake our heads in dismay and despair and pronounce woes?
WHAT TO SAY Isaiah 40:1-40:8
What is a prophet, a teacher with divine insight, to say?
In essence, the first 39 chapters of Isaiah is a message saying Judgment is coming, repent.
I. JUDGMENT – LEADS TO REPENTANCE
Poets of this post modern age have been aware of judgment, and just as the prophets in the Old Testament were not popular with their kings, Presidents of the post-modern era-post WWII era such as Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon weren’t happy with words such as these from the prophets and poets of their time.
Hear again, after a 35 years John Fogerty’s lyrics. And by the way, I think he still performs, now back with his old record label that produced Creedence Clearwater Revival.
Bad Moon Rising
I see a bad moon rising I see trouble on the way I see earthquakes and lightnin’ I see bad times today
Don’t go ’round tonight It’s bound to take your life There’s a bad moon on the rise
I hear hurricanes a blowin’ I know the end is commin’ soon I fear rivers over flowing I hear the voice of rage and ruin
Hope you got your things together Hope you are quite prepared to die Looks like we’er in for nasty weather One eye is taken for an eye
"Bad Moon Rising" is a 1969 song (written by John Fogerty) of the group Creedence Clearwater Revival, on their album Green River. The song displays John Fogerty’s ill feelings torward the election of Richard Nixon to the U.S. presidency.
That prophecy, in the last 35 years has had two fulfillments as relates to war, and one to natural disaster
In retrospect: the Bad Moon continues to rise and the nasty weather enveloped not only Louisiana but much of the Gulf Coast. The irony of the song, written 35 years ago is that its reference to a “bad moon” is well understood in the Bayou country. A "bad moon" refers to a rising of the water in Louisana caused by the tide every twenty years or so to an unusual level; it’s bad because the land is only a foot or two above sea level and the moon draws the water.
PROPHETS ARE NOT WITHOUT HONOR, EXCEPT IN THEIR OWN COUNTRY SAID JESUS. So while some listened to Bad Moon, few really heard.
Hibbing, Minnesota’s best known citizen is Robert Allen Zimmerman born in 1943 two years before John Fogerty. You’ve never heard of Hibbing, Minnesota or Robert Allen Zimmerman? No, he’s not a sports figure.
Hibbing, Minnesota, is on the extreme western shore of Lake Superior. Today’s population is 17,000 and advertises not only Robert Allen Zimmerman, but also the world’s largest open pit iron mine known as the 2nd Grand Canyon. His grandparents were Jewish emigrants from Lithuania, Russia and Ukraine, and his parents, Abraham Zimmerman and Beatrice Stone (Beatty), were part of the area’s small but close-knit Jewish community. This poet, just before John Fogerty and Creedence Clearwater Revival, grew up a bit alone from the community, and listened to the Rock and Roll and Country Music of the 1950’s. It was his only contact with the Protestant and Catholic majority in his age group.
Robert Allen Zimmerman formed a band in high school and later in college. He decided to change his name. Americans in the mid-50’s and sixties weren’t ready for a Jewish rock-abilly singer. Robert became Bobby. He liked his middle name Allen, and tried giving it a Gaelic spelling, Allyn. He liked the look of it. He tried Bobby Allyn for awhile, but he also liked the name of a Celtic poet of the time, Dylan Thomas. Thus, Robert Allen Zimmerman, the lonely Jewish boy from Minnesota became Bobby Dylan, America’s poet laureate of the last half of the 20th century.
His lyrics were sung by many folk, country and rock singers of the 1950-1970’s. Joan Baez sang many of his songs, making him famous. Peter Paul and Mary, among others recorded his Vietnam War Protest Song “Blowing in the Wind.”
He eventually became a performer as well as a writer: He did most of the popular styles at one time or another, including Folk, Country, Rock and finally, after his conversion to Christianity, “Gospel.” He mixed humor with soulful lyrics filled with philosophy. This was Bobby Dylan.
I can remember, during the time of his rising fame, he was referred to as a prophet.
When he became a Christian in 1979, he refused for a time to perform secular music. Strangely, he was no longer called a prophet. Some of his fans and co-artist for a time distrusted him. John Lennon wrote a song “Serve Yourself” a parody of Bobby Dylan’s Christian Song, "Gotta Serve Somebody".
Ironically, John Lennon is no longer with us, his career both as a Beetle and a solo act was relatively short. Bobby Dylan continues to work and write after over 40 years. His songs published under many assumed names. He has worked with George Harrison formerly of the Beetles and his music is performed by many artists as well as his own groups and he has even done musical scores for Movie directors such as Martin Scorcese.
In 1979 Dylan wrote
You may be an ambassador to England or France,
You may like to gamble, you might like to dance,
You may be the heavyweight champion of the world,
You may be a socialite with a long string of pearls
But you’re gonna have to serve somebody, yes indeed
You’re gonna have to serve somebody,
Well, it may be the devil or it may be the Lord
But you’re gonna have to serve somebody.
At the end of this gospel song he humorously refers to his own often changing identities. . .referring back to his family name Zimmerman and his changing name
“You may call me Terry, you may call me Timmy,
You may call me Bobby, you may call me Zimmy,
You may call me R.J., you may call me Ray,
You may call me anything but no matter what you say
You’re gonna have to serve somebody, yes indeed
You’re gonna have to serve somebody.
Well, it may be the devil or it may be the Lord
But you’re gonna have to serve somebody.”
The sort of judgment of which Bobby Dylan and John Fogery sung is the burden of the first 39 chapters of Isaiah.
Isaiah made clear, as do other prophets, that God would not have any to perish. The Judgments are warnings that the Bad Moon is rising and there is need for salvation. The message of Advent and Christmas, Lent and Easter is Repent – the King is coming.
THERE IS PURPOSE IN JUDGMENT, IN SUFFERING, IN SORROW. It is our school, our teacher.
Bereavement is the deepest initiation into the mysteries of human life, an initiation more searching and profound than even happy love.
~ William Ralph (Dean) Inge, Survival and Immortality (1919).
Love remembered and consecrated by grief belongs, more clearly than the happy intercourse of friends, to the eternal world; it has proved itself stronger than death.
~ William Ralph (Dean) Inge, Personal Religion and the Life of Devotion (1924).
II. ULTIMATE PURPOSE OF JUDGMENT IS FINDING GOD IS STILL HERE. THIS IS THE JOY THAT FOLLOWS REPENTANCE
Isaiah had said to them, “in repentance and rest is your salvation, in quietness and trust is your strength,” and now they were finally ready to receive it. Their sins had been paid for and deliverance was in the air. But this was not the result of what the people had done. This was the work of God. It was undeserved, unmerited favor.
God was coming to them to deliver them, but first the way had to be prepared. In his vision, Isaiah heard a voice calling and saying, “A voice of one calling: ‘In the desert prepare the way for the Lord; make straight in the wilderness a highway for our God. Every valley shall be raised up, every mountain and hill made low; the rough ground shall become level, the rugged places a plain. And the glory of the Lord will be revealed, and all mankind together will see it. For the mouth of the Lord has spoken’” (Isaiah 40:3-5). God was coming to them, and the call was going out to prepare his way.
Each of you have been confronted at one time or another with persons who have had severe losses. A death in the family, a serious illness or other great loss.
We wonder, “What can I say or do?” "What message do I proclaim?" What can I say?
It is an old question. It was asked by Isaiah in our Old Testament lesson thousands of years ago. As long as there have been human relationships, there has been the demand, "Comfort them, encourage them, proclaim a message."
At the dawn of time, two parents sit quietly. They wonder why their two sons have fought and why they could not have loved one another. Now word has come that Cain has killed his brother Able and the two parents sit and wonder. Each wants to say something of comfort, but both are crippled by the question, "What can I say?"
Years pass. Not just centuries, but millennia passes by as nations and empires rise and fall, wars are fought, and discoveries are made, and the question still remains "What can I say?"
BAD MOON RISING IS NOT ENOUGH OF A STATEMENT! It is a question you have lived out in your own lives.
A relative is fired from a job. What can I say? The fabric of a marriage is ripped apart and your two best friends become enemies with each other. What can I say?
A neighbor’s child has died. What can I say? Our friends are ill. What can I say?
The question in Isaiah is a living question and a haunting question. "Proclaim a message," declares the Voice.
"What message shall I proclaim," replies Isaiah.
A lot of us helplessly and hopelessly grope for clichés and platitudes that we’ve heard all too many times before. It’ll be alright. It’ll turn out for the best. It’s God’s will.
I know how you feel."
But those clichés have never worked. Each phrase was inadequate. In some cases they added to the pain; they do not comfort. When Death is near and there is no denying it. What comfort can there be in hearing us say, "It’ll be alright," when everyone knows that it won’t be.
And now, as we try to comfort others, we find ourselves wanting to say SOMETHING. Not knowing what else to say, we lean on the same time worn phrases, even though they do not comfort.
The author of our Scripture reading from Isaiah’s book is too honest to do this, however. The old prophet hears a voice cry out, "Proclaim a message!"
The prophet resists what many of us are unable to resist -- the old temptation to comfort others with meaningless, empty phrases.
Maybe if we could understand the answer to the question of why God allows this or that to happen, then we would find comfort for our friends and neighbors. "Why" is a natural question to ask when facing tragedy.
The Book of Job views the problem of suffering, but wisely does not try to explain it.
What Job does do is to ask some unpleasant questions.
"If God is all, how come houses blow down on innocent people? Why does a good man or woman suffer and die and children go hungry while crooks flourish in high places?
Job’s friends offer an assortment of theological explanations, but God doesn’t offer one. God doesn’t explain."
If we would try to comfort those in sorrow by trying to give some explanation as to why God does what he does or allows what he allows, then we have a problem. God doesn’t always explain.
In our Old Testament reading from Isaiah 40, there is a haunting phrase that reminds us, "No one understands the thoughts of God."
Where is the comfortable message we can speak?
It is not in the chichi.
It is not in the Prophet Isaiah’s pessimism.
It is not in reasoning out a REASON why tragedy occurs.
All of this may lead us to wonder as Israel must have in our Scripture lesson, does God really know our troubles? Does God care if we suffer? Is he really with us in our despair.
Elie Wiesel is a Jewish survivor of the Holocaust of the Second World War. In his book, Night, tells a story of one of the executions he witnessed. It was an hanging of three people. Two were adults, but one was a child. The three victims were forced to sit in chairs on the gallows. Nooses were secured around their necks. The two adults cried out to the witnesses "Long live liberty," but the child was silent. One of the witnesses near Wiesel asked quietly, "Where is God? Where is He?"
The chairs were tipped and the three were hung. The adults died quickly. The child survived for more than half an hour, his body too light to secure a quick death from the rope.
Watching this child struggle between life and death, Wiesel felt a voice within say, "Where is God? Here He is. He is hanging here on the gallows."
While the question "why" often does not have an answer, the question of "where" always does. The answer is "here." God is here with us and present with us in our tragedy.
The prophet wonders what words of comfort he can proclaim. In response, a second voice tells him to tell the people that God is to be present with them.
A voice says, "Proclaim a message" and Isaiah asks, "What shall I proclaim?" And the answer is: "You who bring Zion good news, up with you to the mountain top; lift up your voice and shout, you who bring good news to Jerusalem, lift it up fearlessly. Proclaim to the cities of Judah: Your God is here. He is still your Shepherd."
What more could we want or need? This is, in fact, the very message of the Season of Advent, Christmas, Epiphany and Lent. and Easter. seasons of hope and joy and anticipation because God is here – Christ, the Son of God is born into the world!
In the massive amounts of mail I receive daily from all over the world, I hear of sorrows, woes, sickness and death. The familiar voice within told me to say something -- to proclaim a message. But what could I say?
What could I say, except God be with you. God is with you.
Job’s answer: “I know my Redeemer Lives” – This has become a monumental musical work that we hear at Easter.
Isaiah’s answer: Be comforted, God sees your sorrow, He is still with you through it.
they needed to hear that God still cared for them and that there was hope. And that is the word that came from God to Isaiah, “Comfort, comfort my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and proclaim to her that her hard service has been completed, that her sin has been paid for, that she has received from the Lord’s hand double for all her sins” (Isaiah 40:1-2).
How comfort the sorrowing? Offer no easy answers, just assurance of your presence and God’s.
In deep sadness there is no place for sentimentality.
~ William S. Burroughs, Queer (1985).
2). It is interesting that the Hebrew word Isaiah uses for comfort is also a word which can be translated “repent.” The word is nâham, and its root has the idea of breathing deeply. It can therefore mean to breathe deeply with sorrow for your sin, or to breathe deeply as you comfort and console someone. The idea is that God’s comfort comes as a result the people’s repentance. Because they have breathed deeply in repentance, God has breathed deeply as he consoled and comforted them.
Isaiah had said to them, “in repentance and rest is your salvation, in quietness and trust is your strength,” and now they were finally ready to receive it. Their sins had been paid for and deliverance was in the air. But this was not the result of what the people had done. This was the work of God. It was undeserved, unmerited favor. God was coming to them to deliver them, but first the way had to be prepared. In his vision, Isaiah heard a voice calling and saying, “A voice of one calling: ‘In the desert prepare the way for the Lord; make straight in the wilderness a highway for our God.
The people to whom Isaiah was speaking needed strength to face the journey home, and once there they had the huge job of rebuilding the temple and the city. They were going to need a lot of strength and encouragement. The word encouragement has much the same idea: it means to be in courage. If you are encouraged you have the courage to do what needs to be done. God was comforting and encouraging the people so they would be able to carry out his will. Sometimes God’s comfort comes by forcing us to change and grow. Someone has said that the Spirit of God comes to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable.
Someone once asked a paratrooper how many times he had jumped out of the plane while he was in the military. He said, “None.” His friend said, “What do you mean, ‘none,’ I thought you were a paratrooper?” He said, “I was, but I never jumped. I was pushed several times... but I never jumped.” That is what the military calls encouragement. Sometimes we need a little shove. But along with the shove, God gives us renewed courage and strength to do what he is calling us to do. In the end, it becomes something we want to do.
The other way that God comforted the people was by letting them know he would take care of their enemies. The kingdom of Babylon looked so formidable. No one would be able to get through their walls or defeat their army. The splendor of Babylon was breathtaking with its magnificent buildings and hanging gardens. No one could imagine the possibility of Babylon being destroyed. But God assured them, “All men are like grass, and all their glory is like the flowers of the field. The grass withers and the flowers fall, because the breath of the Lord blows on them. Surely the people are grass. The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God stands forever” (Isaiah 40:6-8). God was saying that no matter how powerful the Babylonians appeared, they were but grass. He determined their time and place, and when he blew upon them it would be like the hot desert wind blowing on the desert flowers. They would wither and fall, but he would remain.
And that is exactly what happened. The Babylonians who seemed so powerful were actually defeated without much of a fight. They thought nothing could happen to them. They were so sure they were safe that they did not even post a guard on the wall. But while their rulers drank themselves into oblivion, the Persian army simply diverted the flow of the Euphrates River, which flowed under the walls and through the great city. Then they marched right into Babylon on the empty riverbed (Daniel 5). The great kingdom of Babylon collapsed in a night. God proved that the people were like grass and that only he remains.
The emperor Diocletian tried to revive the old pagan religions of Rome by persecuting and killing Christians. He set up a stone pillar in his honor, inscribed with the words that he wanted to describe his legacy: “For Having Exterminated The Name Christian From the Earth.” If only he knew how far short of his goal he fell! His monument was more of a tribute to the endurance of Christianity than it was to him.
Isaiah told of an everlasting comfort, and he told of the everlasting Word of God, but thirdly: Isaiah spoke of an everlasting strength. Isaiah wrote: “Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom. He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak. Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint” (Isaiah 40:28-31)
What can we say to the suffering?
Isaiah wrote about an everlasting strength, an everlasting hope, an everlasting comfort, an everlasting truth, an everlasting kingdom, and an everlasting God. But the best thing we can do is to show them the reality of God’s faithfulness as we model it in our lives. We can be living examples of hope. Living sources of comfort. Living proof of the reliability of God’s Word. Living examples of a strength that comes from God. We can mount up with wings like eagles.
Charles R. Scott, Pastor
Church of the Good Shepherd, Anglican
2060 E 54th Street
Indianapolis, In, 46220
crscottblu@yahoo.com
http://www.goodshepherdindy.org
