On courtrooms and hope!

     It is another of those weeks where I have two different sermons.  Unlike a couple weeks ago, though, I recognize there are different needs in each group that need to be addressed.  Better still, I should say, I am fairly certain that God was leading me this week to what people needed to hear in light of the readings.  In any event, I will endeavor to get both written so that y’all can compare notes and gripe at me for preaching the wrong one at the wrong service!

     Larry Douglass has been spending a bit of time recently in the adult Sunday School class talking about courtroom cases in the book of Hosea.  Naturally, as he has discussed Hosea, he has been drawn into discussions of other cases throughout the OT.  One of the great surprises to some in the class is the roles that people play in the cases presented.  God is always the prosecuting attorney, to draw from our system of justice or the million plus courtroom dramas that are on television now.  We Christians tend to think of God as the judge and jury, but such is not His intent in these court cases that He presents to His people.  He states His case.  He makes His argument.  He presents His evidence.

     Who judges, you ask?  Initially, it was the people of Israel.  The people of Israel heard the words of the prophets and were called, by God, to judge.  Human beings being human beings, of course, God’s people loved to serve as their own defense attorneys.  Well, maybe we did wrong, Lord, but so and so made us do it.  Have you ever noticed how Israel, and now us, sound like teenagers in our ears?  We laugh, but there’s an edge to the laughter emanating from those who raised teenagers in our midst.  All that is missing is the obligatory “But everyone else is doing it” defense, and we all have been on both sides of these accusations and defenses.  Of course, as we are God’s people now, on this side of the Cross, Death, Resurrection, and Ascension of our Lord Christ, you and I and the whole Church are called to judge whether God is right in His case against us.

     The case from Isaiah occurs near the end of the long book that bears the name of the prophet.  In truth, I think the assigned reading today would be better to study in Lent, but maybe our lectionary editors had a point, making this the subject of normal season.  How often do we forget God in regular times of our lives?  How often do we ignore His teaching and commandments when we go about normal life?  How often do we live as if we do not believe the proclamations of the Easter Season or of Pentecost?  Maybe we need a good reminder in the green season after all?

     God begins His case by asserting through the prophet that He was ready to be sought, that He is always “here.”  It is a simple and yet profound statement.  So many times people drift into my office or talk to me in the world out there wondering what happened to God.  At times in their lives, God has seemed incredible close, almost tangible.  But they find themselves groping for Him, looking for Him, wondering if He finally gave up on them.  My job, of course, is to remind people that God is never-changing.  He is always seeking us, always wooing us.  What changes in the relationship is always us, not Him.  Do we still pray like we did?  Do we still worship like we did?  Do we still serve others like we did?  It is a difficult truth to acknowledge, and we human beings are quick to defend our actions and decisions.  I would come to church, but it’s my only day to sleep in.  I would come to church, but I really needed to play golf.  I would come to church, but I have Titans tickets and don’t want to miss the tailgating.  I would pray, but I don’t know what to say.  I would serve, but I don’t know what to answer if I am asked questions.  Sound familiar? 

     God argues that He has always held out His hands to a rebellious people, but they always reject Him.  If you here those objections a second ago, or similar objections, in your own voice, yes, the case is against you.  Fortunately, we are all in the same boat.  All of us, every single one of us, have been rebellious.  We have all thought we knew better what we needed.  We have all suffered Satan’s temptation wondering if God really loved us, if He really took notice of our condition.  We have all been willful teenagers in God’s eyes.

     God goes on to describe the activities that His people have adopted, activities that provoke Him to His face continually.  God, for His part, has instructed His people how to worship Him.  Just as important, though, He has taught His people those worship activities which are offensive in His sight.  We might find the idea of sacrificing in gardens and burning incense on bricks “no big deal.”  But experts tend to think they were banned fertility rites.  In any event, God said “Do NOT do this.”  Some in Israel, though, have trusted their own discernment, their own knowledge, and ignored their Lord and Father in Heaven, who only wants what is best for them.  Similarly, some of His people have taken to trying to divine from the dead certain knowledge.  Again, most of us assume that the dead cannot speak and that such activity was just a waste of time.  God, for His part, commanded specifically against it.  They chose to eat things He declared abominable and to try and communicate with the unclean dead, rather than seek Him, the source of life and breath, who, in turn, sought them!

     Rather than shame at their disobedience, though, how do His people respond to the knowledge they are doing these abominable things in His sight?  They declare themselves holy, set apart.  They are special.  While it is true that God’s people are set apart, a people holy to Him, we are set apart for a purpose!  We are set apart to draw people into His loving embrace, to point out that voice, “Here I am.”  Everything that God instructed His people in the OT was done for the purpose of glorifying Him in their lives.  Similarly, everything that Jesus calls us to do, those instructions we would say are summed up by the words of the Two Great Commandments, are done to glorify God and draw others to His saving embrace.  We are NOT called to be a people without a purpose, NOT called to be a bunch of naval gazers, and certainly NOT called to think that, by doing that which God specifically forbids, we are special.

     For His part, God describes this behavior as smoke in His nostrils from a fire that burns all day long.  It constantly offends Him.  If you have sat too close to a campfire, you understand what this is like, except we simply move back a bit to get the smoke out of our noses and our eyes to quit stinging.  And He warns His people that He will not keep silent; He will repay all their iniquities, and those of their ancestors, into their laps.  Those of us who know Israel’s history understand the Exile is on the horizon.  God warned Israel, long ago, that if they ever persisted in sins and abominations despite His warnings, He would cause the Land to disgorge them.  That time is now at hand.  Their idolatry is out of control; they do not seek Him, even though His hands are held out to them.  They forget that what made them truly special was the fact that God chose them to be His people!

     The prophesy should be sufficient to cause Israel to repent and return to the Lord.  We know, of course, that they do not.  Knowing this, we might expect a terrible end.  But even in the midst of this promise of judgement, God reminds the hearers and readers of Isaiah’s words that He is a God of mercy.  God uses an idiom about the grape and the cluster to describe Israel.  Vintners will tell us that individual grapes can be sour or have other tastes that are . . . not pleasant to the palate.  But the cluster of grapes, pressed and fermented properly, make a good, sometimes even great wine, despite the contribution of any single grape.  God explains the analogy to those of us who do not understand.  Even in the midst of such a rebellious people, there is a faithful remnant.  There are individuals who still seek God and honor God in their lives.  And for the sake of Jacob and Judah, recipients of His Covenant with them, He will bring forth descendants who will possess and settle the Land, just as He promised long ago.  In other words, Exile is not the last word.

     Those of us shocked by the fact that Israel is so rebellious that they seek wisdom from the dead, rather than the Living God, or they eat pork and call themselves holy and set apart, should likewise be surprised by God’s promise.  God is reminding His people of His faithfulness, of how the Land will disgorge them as He promised Moses and their ancestors.  There will come a time in the not too distant future where Israel will wonder whether God has finally given up on them for their disobedience.  Prophets will spend some time assuring Israel that God has not given up on them, that He has been the faithful One in the relationship, and that they can and should trust in God’s promises.  Even in the midst of the humiliation of the Exile, the people should turn to God.

     In some ways, you and I have it far better than Isaiah’s audience.  You and I live on this side of the Seed of Abraham, on this side of the coming of Messiah.  We know how well we received Jesus.  We mocked Him, rejected Him, and eventually cheered His Crucifixion.  More significantly, though, you and I live on this side of the Resurrection.  Israel only understood whispers and shadows.  You and I have the glory of the Resurrection and Ascension before us each and every time we gather to worship God and thank Him for the saving work He has done in our lives.  Yet, how much are we like Israel?  How often do we chase after desires that we know God detests or hates?  How often do we reject His outstretched hands?  How often do we become so secure in our set-asidedness that we forget His heart for those abhorred and forgotten by society around us?  Were God to send another prophet like Isaiah among us, how would we judge ourselves against God’s evidence?

     I see the squirms.  It should make us uncomfortable.  When we judge ourselves with His eyes and His heart, we recognize our unfaithfulness.

     Like Ancient Israel, though, God does not leave us without hope.  Each and every one of us baptized into Christ’s Death is promised a share in His Resurrection.  We may well experience Exiles of sorts.  Perhaps we will struggle financially, relationally, in our health, or by reputation.  Each of us will likely experience all kinds of time in the wilderness or groping in the darkness, to use God’s other descriptions.  But, because our Lord Christ was faithful, because Jesus did all that God willed, you and I are promised we are in the cluster!  We are promised that one glorious Day, we will be the inheritors of His promises to Abraham and Jacob and Judah.  We are promised that we will settle with Him in our midst and inherit all the blessings of that promise.  Can you imagine?  All we do is claim our Lord’s work and person, and God makes us His chosen heirs!

     Of course, we understand that we do not just choose.  We do have a responsibility.  As we reminded ourselves over Pentecost and Trinity Sunday these last two weeks, we never engage in our responsibilities alone!  Thanks to the Death, Resurrection, and Ascension of our Lord Christ, we are never truly alone.  So long as we are about the business of glorifying God in our work life, our family life, our social life, He is there with hands held out, offering us what we need to glorify Him in our lives properly.  It is an amazing promise.  And yet, there’s more.  If we find ourselves like Israel, wandering way from Him, turning away from those outstretched hands, still we are told if we repent, we find His mercy, again and again.  That those who seek Him with contrite hearts are never an affront to His nostrils, but rather a pleasing smell.

     You and I live and serve in a world that looks everywhere to but to their loving Father for wisdom and hope.  We live in a world, as we reminded ourselves in the Christmas season, that has chosen to embrace the darkness rather than the Light.  But our job is to point those in the world around us to that Light.  Brothers and sisters, we labor in a world that seems anything but stable.  War is so common that many of us shrug it off.  Environmental issues are so large that we shrug off the responsibilities of stewardship of creation.  Political leaders care only for their own self-aggrandizement and accumulation of wealth.  The fifteen minutes of fame is the goal of too many of our neighbors.  And even something as simply as tasteful Episcopal worship and fellowship can cost us our lives.  I could go on and on and on how those in the world are rebellious and seek anything but God.  I am sure that you would be able to add to any exhaustive list I might compose.

     But the Gospel news, the great reminder to you and me today from the God who will one day move from the role of the prosecuting attorney to the role of judge, is not the final word of rejection and suffering.  No!  The final word from He who stands with outstretched hands is that He will bring forth inheritors of His covenant, that He will settle with His people, His servants, and that they will inherit all those blessings He has intended for them since Creation, if only they would seek Him.  Brothers and sisters, it is a dark and crazy world in which we labor.  You and I are called to minister to sour grapes and crazy grapes and rejected grapes and who knows what else.  But we are called to that labor not as hopeless slaves, not as those who have no idea what is going on around them, but as a people who have been promised not even death can keep them from inheriting that promise!  And armed with that hope and that certainty, we head back out into the wildernesses of our lives, confident that He who holds out His hands to those whom we are ministering will equip us with those things we need to glorify Him in our lives!

 

In Christ’s Peace,

Brian†