"Hope within the Ruins"
Sermon Presented February 4, 2007
Isaiah 6:1-13
This is another Sunday when I will venture beyond the lectionary reading. The lectionary concludes with verse 8 of Isaiah 6, but Isaiah 6 is a self-contained unit - a first person report by the prophet of what happened to him, what he saw and heard and what he said. It doesn't make sense for me to avoid the difficult part of the message Isaiah was given just to make my job easier. It would be much easier to speak only of worship and God's call to Isaiah than it is to tackle a difficult message. But I love the challenge, so we're going to look at the entire sixth chapter of Isaiah. (Read text.)
Not much is known about Isaiah except that he is the son of Amoz; is married to a prophetess, has two children, and lives and preaches during the last half of the eighth century during the reign of four kings. The time for this vision he receives from God is the year that King Uzziah dies - 742 BCE - the end of an era of relative independence for Judah and the beginning of a struggle against foreign powers. (Judah is the southern Kingdom and Jerusalem is in Judah.)
It's logical for Isaiah to be in the temple, because he has served and worshiped God in that place every Sabbath for his entire life; but this day is different. This day he sees what no one else sees and experiences what no one else experiences. He comes to seek God in ritual worship and receives more than he bargains for. He has an immediate and direct experience of God's holiness in a powerful vision, and this experience changes his life.
This text serves to legitimize the person of Isaiah and according to several Hebrew scholars it also serves to legitimize the entire set of writings in the book. The purpose of the account is clear. Because a prophet's authority to speak God's word was frequently challenged - especially if the message was one of judgment, Isaiah needed authority. Unlike priests who had official standing, prophets had no such standing. This account confirms Isaiah's right to speak for God. Because of God's call, he's not only entitled to speak but also compelled to speak. Isaiah justifies his message by reporting his call.
This is one of the earliest and best outlines for worship. It also provides a pattern for personal transformation. The pattern is one of moving from orientation to disorientation and then to reorientation. Isaiah's disorientation begins with his vision of God sitting on the throne and recognition of his sinfulness; and his reorientation begins with his call to a new purpose.
In his transformation, Isaiah confronts himself and is undone. In God's presence, he becomes painfully aware of his limitations. His former orientation no longer works, and yet God's presence gives him hope. He accepts God's call before he hears the message he is to proclaim. He accepts before he learns that he is to confuse the people, making it impossible for them to understand or to be healed. Now you may understand why the lectionary writers lost their nerve when it came to extending the text to the end of the chapter. God commands Isaiah to prevent hearing, to make the minds of the people dull. This is bad news and a questionable task for any prophet. He is to prevent repentance. People shouldn't need a prophet to keep them from repenting, but to lead them to repentance.
God decrees here that God's people should have all of their senses dulled and numbed beyond notice. All of their organs of perception - heart, eyes, ears, - must fail. Why? Because if they notice they will turn! And if they turn, they will be healed! God intends for Judah and Jerusalem to be anesthetized so that they won't be healed! God wills that they won't be healed! This counters most of our assumptions about God.
Isaiah's question to God isn't to obtain an answer to the length of the suffering when he asks "How long, O Lord", but it does suggest that God is unfair or inattentive, and that he deserves something better from God. God's answer is until! Until the failure of cities, houses, and land; until the land is abandoned; until only 10% remain; then a fire; and then, only a stump! Isaiah hears that God has given up on this people and will no longer protect them, but will actively intervene to undo them. This isn't a message Isaiah wants to hear, let alone speak!
Sometimes we focus on one element of a message and don't hear what comes next. That's why it's helpful to have someone accompany us to the doctor if there's any important information to disseminate. For example, after Mom shattered her shoulder and needed to go to assisted living, she dreamed of returning to her apartment, even though her dementia was rapidly increasing and she couldn't adequately care for herself. When I took her to the orthopedic surgeon for her final visit, he told her that her shoulder was healing nicely! Mom was delighted. Then he told her that she could no longer live by herself. On the way back to the care facility, I asked Mom what she thought about what the doctor said. She said: "It's great! My shoulder is healing well!" I then asked what she thought of his statement that she could no longer live alone, and she hadn't even heard that word. When she heard the good news, she quit listening.
In this text, Isaiah listens to the end - and at the end, he hears a word of hope, even though it's only a glimpse. He hears that after an extended time of disorientation, there will be hope in the remnant - in the "holy stump". There is hope beyond destruction.
This reminds me of a forest after a devastating fire. The heat of the flames activates the growth of hidden seeds and the forest is eventually restored. I also thought of sucker trees that come from the stump of a tree that is cut down. God gives Isaiah and Judah hope for restoration and new growth after it appears they have lost everything.
If you haven't read the entire book of Isaiah, you might still consider this message to be hopeless - even with the part about the seed in the stump because it's only an obscure thought at the end of the oracle. However, when we read the rest of the book, we see that the word of destruction isn't the only word or the last word. This is a word of judgment that also speaks salvation. Sometimes things have to get worse before they can get better.
People with addictions to alcohol, other drugs, spending, gambling, unhealthy foods, and sex can affirm that they had to hit rock bottom before they could turn around. Miss America, Tara Conner, has just emerged from rehab. She was forced to address her problem when she almost lost her Miss America crown because of public drunkenness.
This isn't an easy message for Isaiah to hear, but he stands with the people throughout his lifetime. This confirms his call, because if a minister/prophet doesn't stand with the people/the accused, then he or she is not called. Isaiah questions God's edict because he loves the people and not because he wants a timeline. And in scripture, questioning God is always allowed.
More than 150 years after God's call to Isaiah, all seemed to be lost to God's people. Jerusalem has been destroyed and the people taken into exile. However, from this devastation, the holy seed begins to germinate. It is after Jesus' crucifixion on Friday that the seed from the holy stump took root. The Hebrew prophet won't let us rush to the post-exilic period, just as the gospel writers won't let us rush too quickly past Friday to resurrection Sunday. God uses the bad times to bring about personal and national transformation.
It's clear from the text that God intends to work in the midst of human stubbornness. There are no easy healings. There are no ready turnings toward God. The healings aren't readily available and the turnings are too demanding. There's no easy gospel, no cheap grace, no good word for those hoping for a quick and comfortable deal. This leaves us with our own stubbornness and its consequences.
Those who are dulled and numbed are headed toward termination. These words sound ominous in a society like ours - a society that is deeply anesthetized by the poverty, violence, self-indulgence and war - the same list as that of the ancient writers. Not noticing leads to termination. Not noticing may not evoke a supernatural sweep from heaven, but there are consequences. Judgment may come more like a thief in the night, too quiet to be noticed until it's upon us.
To be sure, there is comfort at the end of this oracle from God. But the hope looks like an afterthought. It's a small, thin hope of a holy seed from the stump - the stump of failure and termination rooted in numbness and hard-heartedness.
Our contemporary call to respond prophetically to social issues such as racism, poverty, war and other forms of injustice typically comes in the context of prayer and worship - as it did for Isaiah. Martin Luther King, Jr., Mother Theresa, and environmentalist Cal DeWitt became aware of their need to use their prophetic gifts through being in the presence of God. Worship and prayer are shallow unless we receive an awareness of and concern for the specific and concrete problems of our society.
God calls each of us to do something positive to bring God's reign to earth. We can accept the call or ignore it. There are consequences to both responses. What will your response be?
