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“God Is” Lowell Fenner - January 3, 2010 Isaiah 60:1-6, Ephesians 3:1-12 The troubling words the prophets spoke had come true – the destruction was complete; Jerusalem had been under siege and was now taken by the Babylonian invaders. The year is 586 BCE. The Temple-the focal point of Jewish worship- lay in ruins and the Judean community was split – those not taken into exile remained behind with the carnage. Until you understand what lead up to the fall of Israel and Judah, you can’t grasp the depth of Isaiah’s words of hope in chapter 60 – “Arise, shine: for your light has come, and the glory of the LORD is risen upon you. For darkness shall cover the earth, and thick darkness the peoples; but the LORD will arise upon you, and his glory will appear over you.” God’s own chosen people had turned from Him and were now bowing down to idols lead by their kings. Numerous prophets spoke the Word of God – Micah 3 is directed squarely at the leaders: “Listen, you rulers of Jacob, you chiefs of House of Israel! For you ought to know what is right, but you hate good and love evil…(you) who detest justice and make crooked all that is straight....assuredly, because of you Zion shall be plowed as a field, and Jerusalem shall become heaps of ruins, and the Temple Mount a shrine in the woods.” Hosea personified God’s relationship with Israel as one where God is the faithful husband and Israel is a very unfaithful wife, “I will make her like a wilderness, render her like desert land, and let her die of thirst.” (Hosea 2:5b) In Psalm 137:1-6, the author records a lament for Jerusalem, “By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat, sat and wept, as we thought of Zion. There on the poplars we hung up our lyres, for our captors asked us there for songs, our tormentors, for amusement, ‘Sing us one of the songs of Zion.’ How can we sing a song of the LORD on alien soil? If I forget you O Jerusalem, let my right hand wither; let my tongue stick to my palate if I cease to think of you, if I do not keep Jerusalem in memory even at my happiest hour.” Yet in their time of darkness, God instructs Isaiah to tell them, “Arise, shine; for your light has come….nations shall come to your light….lift up your eyes and look around…then you shall see and be radiant; your heart shall thrill and rejoice…the wealth of the nations shall come to you.” Their outlook was not as bleak as they thought, for God would bring resources to their aid if they would work hard and keep the faith. “A multitude of camels shall cover you, tribes from Midian like the Ephah and those from Sheba (hundreds of miles from Israel) shall come. They shall bring gold and frankincense, and shall proclaim the praise of the LORD.” The passage continues to add that foreigners would bring tribute and sacrificial animals for temple worship. All people would come to Jerusalem because God would be living there and they would be attracted to his light. After the conquering of the Babylonians by the Persians and Cyrus the Great in 539 BCE, the Judeans were allowed to return to Jerusalem. “For I am about to create new heavens and a new earth; the former things shall not be remembered or come to mind. But be glad and rejoice forever in what I am creating; for I am about to create Jerusalem as a joy, and its people as a delight.” (Isaiah 65:17-18) According to the Hebrew Scriptures, God’s mission for Israel was envisioned two different ways: the prophets Ezra and Nehemiah believed it would be a nation set apart by renewed adherence to the Torah; while according to Isaiah, Israel’s task was to serve the entire world as a “light to the nations.” This is an example from Scripture of a situation of light coming to darkness, how does this give meaning to us today? In her book The Uncluttered Heart, Beth A. Richardson writes of a challenging time in her life: “Many years ago, I went through a ‘dark night of the soul,’ a crisis of faith. I felt deeply disappointed by my family and other significant people in my life. Wounded and vulnerable, I questioned God. I was angry at God, disappointed that I had not been saved from deep wounding. I felt that I no longer knew anything for sure about God. My beliefs were stripped away, one by one, until all that was left was a simple knowledge that God existed. I did not know who God was or what God was doing, but I knew God was. In the midst of my turmoil, I held on to my belief that God Is. That simple knowledge kept me from coming apart in the crisis. And over time, my faith and God’s presence renewed themselves within me. When I look back on that time, I see that God was with me throughout. It was my crisis, not God’s. God gently held me through my questioning and my struggle. God never let go but kept me wrapped in love, sheltering me from my own self-destruction. God was with me; God never left.” We may be aware of His presence at certain times in our lives; what Rabbi Heschel called “radical amazement” – a sensory experience that elicits a keen sense of God’s presence- the birth of a child for example. What about the times when we feel we’re alone? Perhaps our fear of the unknown has replaced our faith in the unseen. Even when He sent his own into exile, God didn’t abandon them and He doesn’t abandon us now in times of ‘darkness’. “God never left.” God still is. While the human condition is fragile, eager, unpredictable and unstable, God is creating, recreating, and restoring. Acknowledging the presence of God is the first part in determining our own individual Mission on Earth as outlined by Richard N. Bolles in his book What Color is Your Parachute? Bolles states, “Your first Mission… is one that you share with the rest of the human race…to seek to stand hour by hour in the conscious presence of God, the One from whom your Mission is derived….to know God, and enjoy Him forever, and to see His hand in all His works.” After doing in an earnest way your first Mission, your second Mission according to Bolles is “…to do what you can, moment by moment, day by day, step by step, to make this world a better place, following the leading and guidance of God’s Spirit within you and around you.” And once you’ve begun to do that in a serious way, your third Mission, that is uniquely yours, is “to exercise the Talent that you particularly came to Earth to use – your greatest gift, which you most delight to use, in the places and settings that God has caused to appeal to you the most, and for those purposes that God most needs to have done in the world.” For the apostle Paul, he understood that his third Mission was to bring the Good News that “Gentiles have become fellow members of the same body, and sharers in the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel….to bring to the Gentiles the news of the boundless riches of Christ and to make everyone see what is the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God who created all things…” (Ephes. 3:6, 8-9). He speaks of the revealing of mysteries; of darkness being brought to light. The first hearers – the church at Ephesus and other Gentile congregations are enlightened. They are no longer outsiders, but heirs with the Jews. Today is Epiphany Sunday. “Epiphany” is a Greek term meaning “revelation” or “manifestation”. It refers particularly to the way Jesus was made known to all, especially to the Gentiles. The Epiphany reveals the identity of Jesus by exploring the question: “Who is this who had been born in a stable and is on his way to the cross?” In part the answer lies hidden in the gifts the magi presented: gold – this is the King of kings; incense – God is with us; and myrrh – this is the one who suffers and dies….Luke’s story of the nativity establishes that Jesus is made known to the Jews via the shepherds… Matthew extends the manifestation to Gentiles from the East via the magi. Therefore Christ is the One who has come for the salvation of all peoples (This Day – A Wesleyan Way of Prayer). Traditionally, this is the time of year when New Year’s resolutions are made and about two weeks from now they are forgotten. Resolutions are made after reviewing the past and looking forward to the future with the intention of making a change for the better. The top 8 resolutions are: to lose weight, manage debt, save money, get a better job, get fit, to get a better education, to drink less alcohol and to quit smoking. There’s even an U.S. government website that lists popular resolutions. To help keep resolutions, it is recommended that you write them down, make them specific, and make a plan with attainable goals. This year, I encourage you to reframe the focus of making resolutions from self-examination to stewardship. Instead of resolving to break a bad habit, think rather of the unique gift of life you have received from God and how you can better take care of it. Do you desire to resolve to make more money? Have you considered how you could further the kingdom of God here on earth? Do you know what your unique Mission is? Are you in a sincere way standing hour by hour in the conscious presence of God? Do you see His hand in all His works? For your second Mission, are you doing what you can, moment by moment, day by day, step by step, to make this world a better place, following the leading and guidance of God’s Spirit within you and around you? For your third Mission, are you exercising the Talent that you particularly came to Earth to use – your greatest gift, which you most delight to use, in the places and settings that God has caused to appeal to you the most, and for those purposes that God most needs to have done in the world? As a church, we will soon be in the final stage of our Great Co-Missioning – embodying our unique call from God. This will involve embedding and implementing the new missional strategy. It may involve changes in the ways of thinking, perceiving, and behaving as a missional congregation. Regardless of what you may resolve or what may come of our Great Co-Missioning, we need to keep in mind Paul’s message to the Ephesians – we as Gentiles “are fellow heirs to the kingdom of God, members of the same body, and sharers in the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel; because of Christ and our faith in him, we can now come fearlessly into God’s presence, assured of his glad welcome.” May God reveal to you your Mission for He does have one for you; and know with confidence that God is. Amen. Sources: What Color is Your Parachute? 2010 by Richard N. Bolles The Uncluttered Heart by Beth A. Richardson Invitation to the Old Testament Participant Book by Celia Brewer Sinclair and James D. Tabor New Living Translation Life Application Study Bible The New Oxford Annotated Bible The Jewish Study Bible New Year’s Resolutions: Make’em, Don’t Break’em by Marshall Brain, The Cedar Rapids Gazette, Saturday, January 2, 2010 |