Suffering

Click here to read Isaiah 53

Isaiah 53 is often read on Holy Friday.  It is read from the lens of Jesus suffering on the cross.  One of the powerful parts of going chapter by chapter through a book of the Bible is to hear what comes before and after a passage.  How can the beautiful feet have just brought good news of peace and freedom to the people in exile, and now all of the sudden we are talking about suffering?  There is a disconnect between these two chapters for me.

It is jarring when our joy and dancing is turned into mourning.  It is unsettling when laughter is suddenly turned to tears.  Perhaps that is why we don't like Holy Week.  The festival joy of the Palm Sunday parade turns to betrayal, desertion, and denial of Jesus' closest friends on Maundy Thursday.  Then, of course, the shadow of the cross on Friday.  We don't deal well with death in our world, especially when there is so much to do to get ready for Easter Sunday: eggs to color and hide, hams to prepare, and family coming.  Do we really need to face the reality of brokenness at that point?

Part of the problem that I notice in my own life is how much I compartmentalize everything.  It is either a joyful time or a sorrowful time.  It is either all good or all bad.  I may talk about the messy middle, but when the messy middle is a whirlwind of emotions and I can't get my barrings straight, I don't like it.

That is what holy week does to us.  It makes our souls and heads spin.  And let's face it, most of life at work and in the world already does that.  Do we really need the church to join in that cacophony?

Isaiah says "YES".  Partly because the response of God will be different than the response of the world.  Partly because the mixture of joy and pain are a part of life.  There can be laughter even at the bedside of someone who is dying.  There can be hope even when you lose your job.  There can be peace even when life is turned upside down.  But it does not always come in the expected ways.

Here the people of God are ready to go back to Jerusalem, and Isaiah talks about suffering.  Perhaps that is because the road back will not be where every mountain is make low and the rough places plain.  Or perhaps it is because the city of Jerusalem is still in rumble.  Perhaps it is to remember that even as people are packing up their belongings and getting ready to return, they remember the suffering they endured in exile and the reality that some of their friends had died in Babylon.  Those are powerful truths for Isaiah and for us.

I think there can be traces of God's grace noticing the messy middle of our lives.  We need to be aware of the ways joy and pain get intertwined and tangled up.  We need to remember that hope and despair can be two sides of the same coin.  If that is the case, then even with the gloom of Holy Friday we can still trust in the One who turns our mourning into dancing.

May the traces of God's grace be felt in moments of joy and suffering and everything in-between.

Blessings!

Just when you thought it was safe

Click here to read Isaiah 3

Just when the hope of Isaiah 2 starts to swell within us, Isaiah 3 lands with all the grace of an elephant in our laps.  Isaiah writes about God judging us, taking our food and water, oppression, and brokenness.  You can hear the thud with each passing verse and by the end I echo the immortal words of Charlie Brown, "Good grief!  Why in the world am I reading this again?"

Reading Isaiah 3 gets me thinking about my images of God.  What do you imagine when those three letters sit down or spill forth from our lips on Sunday morning?  What does God look like?  Do you picture the ubiquitous God of the Sistine Chapel with the wind swept white hair and the beard and the flowing robe?  Maybe God in your mind is more like Jesus' description in Matthew 23:37, where the sacred is like a hen gathering her children under her wing.  Maybe God for you transcends human gender.  Maybe the bigger question is not about a picture of God, but how is it that God acts? 

Is God involved in everything in the world from finding parking spots to granting good grades on tests?  Or is God disconnected almost to the point of being disinterested in our lives?  Of course those are the two polar opposite points of view.  Most of us fall more or less somewhere in-between.  I like to think of God's presence being interwoven in my life, but I question God's presence at some points (and I mean besides those moments when I don't get a front row spot at the grocery store).  I wonder why God doesn't intervene in tragedies like the most recent one in Sandy Hook, CT?  Or why God can't seem to sort out Congress, which may be a problem too big even for God!

One of the images that helps me think about this comes from John Caputo, who describes God as a "weak force".  To be sure, I like images of God that seem to stretch and bend logic, ideas about God that make me stop and be silent for awhile to see if I really understand.  To describe God as a 'weak force' does that to me, it slows me down and jars me a bit - sort of like this passage from Isaiah 3.  To be sure, I don't think the God Isaiah imaged was a weak force at all for him.  For Isaiah, God was directly responsible for events in the world.  But, for me, I want to hold in tension human power and God's power, but the two often collide.  I think human power was seen in Sandy Hook.  I think human power rules the day in Washington.  Yet, even in the midst of brokenness, there is still a glimmer or glimpse...or a 'trace' of God's grace.  

God's grace is a force...a force I feel when I taste the bread and wine at communion.  A force that lingers when I baptize a baby.  But it is not a force that will strong arm me to act a certain way.  It is the force of invitation and the force of words and the force of love...all of which can be and often are ignored and easily dismissed in our world today.  Hence, God is a weak force who spoke through a stuttering Moses to free people, a through a wise judge named Deborah, through prophets like Isaiah and Jeremiah (who thought he was too young to be a prophet) and ultimately through the birth of a baby who would not congregate an army to over throw Rome but be crucified on the very symbol of Roman rule.  And then come back, be resurrected and appear not to crowds but a bunch of scared disciples who were then told to go tell the Good News.  So, while I appreciate so much about Isaiah, this is one place I respectfully disagree.  God is the one who brings the proud down?  Maybe.  But not with a violent arm, but with a grace that is a weak force that can change the whole world and my whole life.

May the traces of God's grace stir in your life like a weak force today and for days to come!

Blessings and peace!