Eleventh Sunday After Pentecost Year c 2010

August 8, 2010

Isaiah's Vision

This morning we're presented with a vision of the prophet Isaiah, and it's been on my heart to speak to you about prophecy, so let's take a look at old Isaiah, shall we?

I'd like first to get past some common misperceptions. While prophets often wrote about things God was going to do in the future, they were not fortune tellers or seers in the usual sense. Prophets were really interpreters of current events. The mode of their interpretation was to speak in God's voice. The most common phrase in prophetic literature is "Thus saith the Lord."

You'll notice if you look at your bible that Isaiah begins with a historical setting. In this particular time and place, God spoke to Isaiah. During the reign of the following kings in the southern kingdom of Judah, God spoke to Isaiah and told him to tell the people thus and such.

Now this morning's reading jumps over some verses that describe a terrible disaster, the northern kingdom, Israel, lying in ruins. Judah, the lower half of the land God had given to the Jewish people, still barely standing, now surrounded by powerful empires all spoiling to tear Judah apart. God is grieving over Israel, who turned away from God, and therefore experienced this awful destruction and desolation. God speaks of Israel as God's child.

But of course, Isaiah is a priest of the temple in Jerusalem, the capital of Judah. We met him, if we read our bibles, in the latter part of the Second Book of Kings. His prophecy is for Judah.

God begins by speaking about worship. Isaiah would have seen a lot of worship in his day to day job. There can be no doubt that Isaiah believed in worship and practiced worship with real devotion. But Isaiah also saw what was going on outside the temple.

It might be that the people of Judah, particularly the upper classes, thought themselves superior to the people of Israel because they did worship right. They had the temple after all, and believed that God had commanded the building of the temple and had forbidden the old worship in the so-called high places, where the northern kingdom people had worshipped.

Well, now, God really showed those bad old Northerners, huh? Wiped 'em right out. Sent the survivors into exile. But that won't happen to us. We have the temple.

Well, God says, temple shmemple.

Judah had the same problems Israel had. They were infatuated with and terrified of the tremendous power Assyria and other empires around them were developing by creating big hierarchies, vast slave labor forces and well-trained, well-equipped armies. Nothing succeeds like success, you know. The promises of God were all well and good but look at those buildings! Look at all that shiny armor! Look at all those horses and chariots! Yes, it means a huge poverty-stricken labor force, yes it means widows and orphans will die of starvation and neglect, but hey, that's just the price of doing business, man. Who needs widows and orphans? They're a drain on the system. They can't fight and they don't generate tax income.

The temple itself was a doubtful proposition to begin with. It seemed like it was more something the people wanted than God wanted. The king deal was the same way. The people wanted a king like all those other empires had. God was not so sure that was a good idea, but God said, sure, why not. But then, all those other emperors had big palaces. David and then Solomon thought that God had to have one of those too. God was doubtful, but then he said, sure, why not.

Before you knew it, the temple and all the impressive rituals going on in the temple got to be more important than the God for whom it was built. The love affair with empire building went on, and God's rule was more-or-less forgotten. Judah, just like Israel, wanted to run with the big dogs.

Well, God says, if you're going to worship and then ignore my law, you're going to end up like Israel. So all your worshipping just makes me tired. I see just where you're headed, and the worship just makes me feel worse. It just makes me sick.

God had demonstrated again and again through the time of the judges that the people didn't need all the trappings of empire to be safe and secure. They didn't need the king, they didn't need the temple, they didn't need the standing army, they didn't need the big palace bureaucracy. God would keep them safe, as long as they were willing and obedient. But the people didn't believe God.

And this is what Isaiah is on about here, friends. The people didn't believe God's promises, so they operated out of their fears and infatuations, and this, God says, always leads to disaster and ruin.

But, God says through his prophet Isaiah, it's not too late. You can still change your attitude. You can become willing and obedient and all the terrible things you've done while you were building your empire will be forgiven and forgotten. And God makes it very clear what God means by becoming willing and obedient.

God says, rescue, plead for and defend the poorest and weakest people among you. Isaiah uses the widow and the orphan, because in the patriarchal system of that day, to be without a husband or a father was the most desperate situation anyone could be in.

God is not saying that God doesn't want his people to worship. Worship is indeed the main work of God's people. Isaiah certainly wasn't preaching that the temple should be shut down or that people should stop worshipping. God is saying that worship's purpose is to inspire a living and active faith, a belief in God's promises on which God's people act willingly and obediently.

Who are the widows and the orphans among us today? And when I say "us" I don't mean Philippi or Deltaville or the United States. When I say "us" I mean the world-wide church. Who are the people who have no one in their corner? Who are the people on whose backs the rest of the world stands?

Might God be wearied of the worship of the church in these days? Could God be a little tired of our preoccupation with pretty buildings and entertainment worship? Could it be that the economic wastelands we see today might spring from the same causes as Israel's desolation was caused by?

God has made a simple promise that is hard to believe. Plead for, rescue and defend the weakest and the poorest, and we will be fine. Fail to do that, and no matter how lovely our buildings or how inspiring our worship, desolation will be the end.

Amen.