How does God overcome divisions?

Click here to read Isaiah 7

On the surface this passage feels pretty ho-hum.  Sure, there is verse 14 about a young woman (which is a more preferable translation of the Hebrew) who will bear a child and the child will be named Immanuel (a name that means 'God is with us').  In these weeks after Christmas that is familiar to us and maybe we even heard this passage at the Christmas Eve service. Matthew in his narrative of Jesus birth actually quotes that verse.  What Isaiah is saying is that the birth is a sign.  But what is interesting to me is the way in which Isaiah names this birth as a sign.

In verse 1, we have a very short history lesson.  Israel (remember is the Northern Kingdom of the Promised Land) makes a political alliance with the nation of Aram, together they go into Jerusalem (the holy city) and try to over throw it.  Essentially, it would be like Wisconsin pairing up with Canada and trying to overtake Washington D.C.  The Promised Land was deeply divided in the time of Isaiah, North and South.

Within our own United States history we know that kind of division during the time of the Civil War, which is what is going on here in Isaiah.  For the Northern Kingdom to pair up with a foreign country and march into the city of Jerusalem where the temple was and where King David had ruled a united country is just painful, gut-wrenching and pretty well summarizes what I feel every time I watch the news recently.  How in the world can people continue to say and do things that cause such deep division in our country?  At the same time I know that it is not so much that history repeats itself as we never quite completely solve and resolve the problems of the past.  A professor of mine once told a story about speaking at a conference in the south and talking about the Civil War, only to have a participant come up afterwards to tell him that in the future he should call it "The War of Northern Aggression."  And that was a recent story!

The brokenness shakes us still today and Isaiah tells us the actions of the North shake the king and the people of the south like the wind shakes the trees.  And so God says to the king of the southern kingdom, "Go ahead and ask for a sign."  And the king essentially says, "Oh, I am not falling for that trick!"  In the midst of the fear it is hard to trust others and it is hard to trust God.  So God sends Isaiah and Isaiah's son, Shear-Jashub (a name that means a remnant will return) with a message about this child about to be born to a young woman.

One of the reasons why Christmas is so compelling is because there is such hope and possibility that we see in a tiny child, one who has her whole life before her.  Yet, I also know that having a baby is a LOT of responsibility.  To say God enters our world in the birth of a child is not just sappy sentimentality, but it is an almost radical statement about the 'weak force' of God. That God does not come into our lives like a bull in a china shop, but sometimes in the midst of quiet, subtle, and ways we often miss.  Isaiah promises the birth of a child.  It is up to discussion about whether Isaiah was referring to Jesus, or his own second son who we will meet in a coming chapter.  Yet, what Isaiah is reminding us that God's presence in our life does not always come in ways we can anticipate or in ways we can control.  I am sure the king of the southern kingdom would have preferred the sign of God be to increase his army or help him invent a weapon to protect.  But the 'weak force' God comes in the sign of child.

May we continue to ponder that mystery and truth prayerfully in these days after Christmas.  And may we be open to those subtle signs of the traces of God's grace.

Blessings and peace!

Worship Isaiah Style

Click here to read Isaiah 6

Each time I read this passage it makes me think of two of my favorite hymns: "Holy, Holy, Holy" and "Here I Am, Lord".  Both hymns are based on this passage.  "Holy, Holy, Holy" invites us to join with the seraphim in singing out to God. "Here I am," is based on Isaiah's response to God's presence. Many of the prophetic books begin with the prophet encountering God in the first chapter. Here we are, already in the 6th chapter and the Word of God has already come to Isaiah on other occasions (see chapter 1-3).  Yet, when Isaiah is in the temple it is more than just a word from God.  Rather, what Isaiah experiences is an encounter with God. God present in a way that causes him to wonder about his calling as a prophet.  Hence the comment about being a man of unclean lips.  This causes one of the seraphim to bring over a hot coal to touch his lips.  To which I say, "Ouch!"  Within the Bible there are two natural elements that have cleansing power: water and fire.  Both are woven throughout the Bible at various times and places.  In Isaiah 6, fire becomes the one to cleanse Isaiah and reassure him that it will be okay.  So, Isaiah says, he will go.  And then he is entrusted with what might be the hardest sermon ever to preach.

Go to the people: they do not listen, they are cognitively challenged with hard as rock hearts.  That ought to win them over!  Isaiah wants some sign of hope too.  He pleads to know how long?  And God says until utter chaos (note the connection to Genesis 1) reigns in their land.  Again, not exactly the easiest sermon to preach or hear.

Part of what I love about Isaiah 6, besides it brutal honesty, is that it is the basis for Protestant worship.  We come in, like the seraphim, and we sing a song of praise.  Usually the first hymn in worship is upbeat and joyful.  After singing that hymn to each other in the presence of God, we, like Isaiah, realize that we have missed the mark in our relationship with God.  While I don't often start the opening prayer with "Woe is me," the sentiment is similar.  We don't always get things right and we need a place to name that honestly.  And even in our brokenness, God still calls out to us and sends us.  We hear God's Word through scripture (and hopefully on some Sundays also through the sermon, offering and closing hymn).  Then, we are sent out like Isaiah into this world where we do find people who will not listen to us, who don't understand us, and don't always love us.

Isaiah 6 not only inspires beautiful hymns for worship, it inspires our worship.  It becomes the routine we repeat Sunday after Sunday.  Like Isaiah in the temple, we need moments when we can sing together, confess together, be reassured together and be sent forth knowing that there is a community waiting for us next Sunday to do it all again.  I encourage you to break out your hymnal this week and sing, "Holy, Holy, Holy" or "Here I am, Lord."  I encourage you to re-read this invitation to worship before you come to church on Sunday.  I pray our worship this coming Sunday invites you into the presence of God!

Blessings and peace!

When Grapes Go Bad

Click here to read Isaiah 5

Isaiah begins this chapter with a parable of a vineyard owner.  If that sounds familiar, it might be because Jesus told three parables that were set in a vineyard: Matthew 20 is the parable of a vineyard own who hires workers throughout the day but in the end pays all the workers the same amount causing no small amount of grumbling from those who worked all day.  Matthew 21:28 is about two sons who are told to go out and work in the vineyard - one says yes but does not go; the others says no but does go - and the question is, who was faithful?  Matthew 21:33 echoes the parable we have in Isaiah, where a landowner plants the vineyard, builds a tower and then goes away leaving it in the hands of tenants, who eventually try to take over the vineyard and become as Isaiah calls them, bad grapes.

Isaiah tells us he is going to sing a love song and it starts out in a way that would make Michael Buble smile.  The owner of the vineyard does everything possible to make this vineyard bear good fruit.  The owner clears all the stones from the ground.  I remember the first time I tried to plant a garden in New Hampshire, which is named the Granite State for a good reason.  Every time I pushed my shovel into the ground, I felt the resistance and heard the clunk of several rocks.  I tried to dig as many of the rocks out of the ground so that my tomatoes might prosper.  In the end that summer, my yield of rocks far out weighted my yield of tomatoes.  So, to say the owner cleared the rocks should not be over looked as some easy task.  It is arduous work to prepare the soil, especially in a desert.

The owner planted the top of the line seeds, the owner builds a wall (perhaps out of the stones that were pulled from the ground) and also a watch tower for protection.  But then this love song goes from a major key to a minor key; it goes from something sentimental that warms our hearts to a country song of love lost.  Because the grapes are no good at all.

Isaiah then says the vineyard and grapes are like the people of Israel and Judah, the Northern and Southern Kingdoms.  And because they are bad grapes there are consequences.  I have to be honest that I struggle with images of God be vengeful or angry.  I prefer the sentimental God.  And yet recently I read an author who suggested that perhaps our desire for God to be always loving and kind and not get upset at us makes God out to be like a bit senile, who only sees us through rose colored glasses and is willing to overlook even our most destructive and broken actions and say, "Ah, its okay."  The author says there are times we need to be held accountable, not with violence, but with an anger that says God knows we are better than our broken actions and hurtful words.

That makes sense to me because when I get upset with my kids, the question is not about whether I still love them, I do unceasingly.  But, I also have a hope that they will grow up to know responsibility and accountability.  I want them to know that actions and words have consequences.  And to be honest when I am upset with my kids those are some of the hardest and heart-wrenching times.

I don't know if I understand God's anger any better thinking about it that way.  I am somewhere in the messy middle. On the one hand I want God to instantly forgive my boneheaded mistakes but also I don't want what Bonhoeffer called "cheap grace," which was grace that came so easily and with so little demands that a person did not need to change at all.  When I say hurtful things or my actions cause brokenness, I want God to help me realize the way I missed the mark (which is really what sin means, "to miss the mark" or "to get off track").  I want God to be invested and engaged in my life and challenge me in a good way to grow into the image of God in which all of us are crafted.

There is a story about a priest in Russia who would go out into the streets late on Saturday night and take into his arms those who were drunk and say, "This is beneath you.  You were created to reflect the fullness of God." In the end, that is my image of the vineyard planting God, One who is willing to say when my actions or words become bad grapes, "This is beneath you.  You were created to reflect my fullness."

May the traces of God's grace be found in your life this day and as we gather tomorrow at the communion table and taste the fruit of the vine.

Blessings and peace!

A Remnant

Click here to read Isaiah 4

This is a short chapter in Isaiah but still significant.  Yet, much like the hope of Isaiah 2 balanced out the brokenness of Isaiah 1, Isaiah 4 balances out the pain of Isaiah 3.  We start to see a rhythm that is reminiscent of Charles Dicken's beginning line in A Tale of Two Cities, "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times."  For Isaiah that was true.  Isaiah lived at a time when the kingdom had been divided in half.  There was a Northern Kingdom called Israel and a Southern Kingdom called Judah.  We know all too well today what can happen living in a place that is suppose to be "United" but is divided.  We hear constantly about 'red states' and 'blue states'.  We see our Congressional leaders caught in a vicious and seemingly endless cycle of partisan politics.  We know what it is like to live in a divided land...to put it quite simply, it hurts.  We want better.  

Eventually, the Northern Kingdom will be conquered and then the Southern Kingdom too will fall.  Hence, it was the worst of times.  But Isaiah also wants to point out the traces of God's grace, the places where God's presence, like a weak force, is still affecting and effecting lives even in the midst of being ruled by a foreign country.  Isaiah in this passage points out how women, who did not enjoy much social status in Isaiah's day, take charge and control.  Women claim their right as equally created in God's image (Genesis 1:27).  

Perhaps that Genesis passage reminds us that even from the beginning there has been a division within humanity.  We are two separate genders, we are different.  Those differences can be a blessing, they can remind us of our limitations and that in God's vastness God claims both females and males as reflecting God's image.  Yet, differences can also make us feel vulnerable or like we need to defend our way and our ideas as better.  

So many religious fights today, and even the fights recorded in the Bible, are often about a difference that people felt they had to defend their way as better.  Isaiah says even in the midst of such brokenness, there is a remnant of hope, or what I call a trace of grace.  The remnant left in Israel and Judah after it fell to Babylon were not the rich and powerful, they were not the righteous or influential.  The remnant were the people who Babylon did not really care about and certainly did not feel threatened by.  They were left behind because they did not pose a threat to Babylon's power.

Yet in God's upside down, inside out world, Isaiah proclaims it is the remnant who show God's presence most gloriously and beautifully.  I encourage you to think about this image of the remnant over the coming weeks, especially as we listen to four sermons from the beginning of Luke's gospel in church.  So often in Luke, Jesus proclaims that God is concerned about the least and lowly and lost.  Or to use the image from Isaiah, the remnant.  God has always been concerned with the remnant, even from the moment God called Moses to lead a rag-tag group of indentured servants out of Egypt.  And Isaiah picks up on that image of wandering in the wilderness when he writes about the "cloud of smoke by day and the fire by night" which is from Exodus 13:21.

Isaiah reminds us that God cares about the remnant, those who fill left out and left behind.  God cares about the rag tag people who feel like they are living in the midst of division and brokenness.  And because God cares we are called to care too.  Called to care for those outside the church who feel broken and forgotten, called to care for each other because we can feel that way too.  So may the traces of God's grace be felt and seen in our midst this day in ways that are beautiful and glorious.

Blessings and peace!

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!

Click here to read Isaiah 2

If Isaiah 1 shines a light on places where our relationship with God has broken down and invites us into a conversation or an engaged dialogue with God, then Isaiah 2 is the rationale and hope for such a conversation.  The truth is because Isaiah 1 is so in-your-face honest, it might be easy to feel a bit glum after reading it.  The deeper truth is that it is quite easy to get discouraged, especially now.  The holidays are over, Christmas has come and gone, it is a new year and yet it seems like some of the problems we thought would get left behind when we put up the new calendar followed us right into 2013.  For us living in the upper Midwest we know the truth of what it means to live in the midst of the "Bleak Midwinter" and that midwinter lingers...and lingers...and lingers sometimes longer than what we want.  And so, when Isaiah shines a light on the brokenness of our connections with God, I get why sometimes people want to throw their hands up in the air, exasperated and wonder if there is anything we can do?

Isaiah promises that there is something we can do.  Isaiah hints at a theme he will pick up again in chapter 11 about the "Peaceable Kingdom".  A place where violence is no more, where all are equal.  And what I appreciate about Isaiah is that the response of the people to this vision is not, "Golly-gee this is swell".  But people run and hide!  Talk about being honest and knowing humanity well. For all that we talk about an end to violence and wanting peace and equality, the reality is we are all pretty invested and comfortable with the status quo.  And so there is a tension within us.

I remember sitting in a sociology class in college and the professor asked, "How many of you would give up what you have so that the poor would be brought to an equal economic and social standing with you?"  To be clear, I went to a private college and we were all fairly well off in that classroom.  Only a few hands went up in the air.  In the conversation that followed most people were glad to help those in need as long as it did not hinder or infringe too much on their way of life.  This is why Jesus' response to the rich ruler is so difficult for us (Luke 18:18-30).  We want to share, we want to be generous, but we also like to be in control and know that at the end of the day we can take care of ourselves.  There is a tension within us.

Yet, there is hope in Isaiah 2, because he honestly asks us to notice where in our lives are we hiding right now from God's realm in our midst?  Where have I stuck my head in the ground or fled from God's call to live in peace?  Sometimes it is in my relationships with others, sometimes it is how I use the financial resources entrusted to my care, and sometimes it is that I still prefer the hierarchy of the world than the truth that in God's eyes all are equal.  Those truths challenge me.  At the same time, Isaiah 2 with its hopeful tone reminds me things can be different and I want to talk more about that.  Talk to God, talk to you about this tension, about the realities of today and our hopes for tomorrow.

And one finally place of hope I hear in Isaiah 2 is a reminder that it is not all up to me.  Isaiah does not say it is up to humanity to establish this holy mountain, that is up to God.  Our task is to notice the mountain, heed the invitation to go.  And how do we notice the mountain and respond to the God's invitation?  We go back to Isaiah 1 and look at the way we worship and the way our worship extends into every aspect of our lives.

May you notice the traces of God's grace and may those traces infuse and immerse you this day in the One who sees you and every person you brush up against today as "Beloved."

Blessings and peace!

Click here to read Isaiah 1

Okay, so maybe Isaiah does not have the most optimistic opening to his book in the Bible. He is a bit on the deary side. He is a bit like some person giving a gloom and doom sermon on the street that causes you to avert your eyes, study the sidewalk and pick up the pace to get past.  Somewhere around verse 6 with talk of sores that won't heal maybe you started wondering, why?  And then the whole city goes up in flames and you wonder about my sanity in wanting to comment about this book.  

I will be honest that the first time I read this Isaiah did not seem like the sort of warm, cozy slipper-like faith I often yearn for to comfort me in these difficult times.  Yet, I think that is the point.  Isaiah says that something is broken in our relationship with God.  We don't like to hear that, but I know there is truth in that sentence.  I cannot pretend that just because I post this blog or say a quick prayer or go to church on Sunday that I have somehow pacified God.  Isaiah takes our worship to task when we go through the motions.  And let's face it, there are moments when we have mumble our way through the call to worship or start thinking of what to have for lunch during the silent prayer or glanced down at our watch to see how long the sermon is or if we are going to make it home by kickoff. 

Worship is not the only place we nurture our relationship with God.  In fact, Isaiah says in verses 16-17 that it is our actions toward the least, lowly, and lost in this world that will truly be a place where we can reconcile with God.  (By the way, in Luke where Jesus is constantly reaching out to the least, lowly and lost in this world, Isaiah is one place where perhaps he got idea.  Perhaps that is why Jesus reads from Isaiah in his first sermon).  At the close of worship, I often encourage people to see 11 am on Sunday not as the end of the worship event but as the beginning of our worship in the world.  Again, that is what Isaiah is inviting us into.  What we say to our co-worker's sarcastic comment about our new shirt or how we treat the clerk when we return that sweater we got from Christmas, what if that is every bit as sacred as what we do on Sunday morning?  What if worship becomes not a place where we dump all those regrets and feel guilty so we can go out and keep repeating the same miscues and missteps, but a place where we are reminded this one hour is how every hour should be?  

That is why, in spite of Isaiah's perhaps too honest and in-our-face assessment of our human situation in the opening verses, I still appreciate this book of the Bible.  I don't want worship to be an escape. Worship can be a safe haven sure but with an awareness of the storms of life.  I want worship to be the place where we as the people of God "settle the matter" (vs. 18).  Actually, I prefer the NRSV where God says, "come, let us argue this out." Maybe we think arguing does not have a place in church, certainly not in worship.  But arguing does not need to be shouting or trying to win points.  Arguing can mean being engaged and invested in our relationship.  That is what God invites us into: an engaged relationship that makes all the difference.  That is what worship can be in the best sense: an engaged way to nurture that relationship.  

So maybe there is more to Isaiah than sores and fire and references to blood, maybe there is something that can help us see the traces of God's grace in our lives that makes worship part of our life every day.

Happy 2013 and God's blessings!