Wellspring UMC; Third
Sunday in Lent; March 11, 2007: “Reach”:
-Isaiah
9: 8, 13-17, 21-10:4; Isaiah 10:20-27
What is the change in your life which will
move you to reach toward God? Or
should I ask, “What change needs to take place in order for you to yearn for
God as much as you yearn for air?”
This
was one of the most interesting weeks in sermon preparation I’ve ever had. I’ve mentioned before that I went on retreat
in October and spent three days praying and preparing my preaching schedule for
the year. During those days I prayed
about God’s vision for the church and how that can be supported and enhanced
through the scriptures shared in worship, then I went through the calendar with
many resources and ideas and begin to chart the year’s scriptures, one Sunday
at a time. Out of that time came the
prompting to focus on the book of Isaiah for Lent.
I
remember vividly going through this book and seeking direction for what Word
would come from out of these 66 chapters for this third Sunday in Lent. I came
across Isaiah 9, finding myself drawn to the parallelism here. It is a classic example of Hebrew verse,
where the same event and imagery is stated over and over again, worded a little
differently, but each phrase ending the same.
Destruction,
judgment, suffering...”For all this God’s anger has not turned away...”
Destruction, judgment, suffering...”For all this God’s anger has not turned
away...”Destruction, judgment, suffering...”For all this God’s anger has not turned
away...” But then, at the end of each
phrase, “His hand is stretched out still.”
In
my mind I thought, “What an image, judgment and suffering, but God’s hand is
stretched out still! God is reaching out
to the people and they won’t take God’s hand.”
What a great message for this season of Lent, when we wrestle through
the change and at times find ourselves being beat up by reality...but God’s
hand is stretched out still!...
Great
thought, great image...but not even close to the intent of the text. As I sat down to wrestle with this passage
this week, it became all too clear that that hand that was stretched out as a
hand of correction. Isaiah is accounting
the interpretation of the Assyrian invasion as God’s judgment and correction
for
Anyone
want to take a shot at preaching on this one?
I certainly didn’t, and I almost scrapped the whole passage. But then I realized what happened. Six months ago I read the Word and heard was
my desire and my perspective. It wasn’t
God, nor God’s Word. Thus, instead of
letting the Word and God transform me, I heard what I wanted to hear. I didn’t listen. I was tuned in to myself, not God, and in
discerning for this Sunday, I didn’t reach out to God, instead I focused on
what I wanted to hear, which made me comfortable.
This season is about inviting God to
change our hearts. We began with an
invitation to listen...to open our lives up to simply listen and be with
God. Then last week we were invited to
be a listening people – those who are open enough to listen, but then be bold
enough to take the next step toward God’s change in us. Today, the step becomes a personal action –
reach. Today we receive an invitation to
literally reach outside ourselves toward the One who made us and loves us
beyond what we can imagine...to reach to the One who is changing our hearts and
lives.
Now,
I must say that I’ve never been not a huge fan of the images of God associated
with destruction and vengeance, and I struggled with those for a long
time. Then I entered seminary and began
to understand a bit more about Hebrew theology.
From a Western perspective it is easy for us to see this vengeful God in
the Old Testament and a loving God in the New, but in reality, that’s not the
intent of the Word. No, judgment in Old
Testament is always meant for redemption.
It is never for punishment, and prophecy of judgment is always given in
God’s hope for our return.
In our second lesson from Isaiah 10
we see this played out. A chapter and a
half of destruction is accounted for, then suddenly, “But a remnant of
Like
a parent who loves her children enough to correct and hold them accountable,
God loves us. Like a loving friend who
knows that, if we fail on our own we’ll learn quicker and be wiser than if we’d
just been told not to do something, so God gives the freedom to choose...and
choose we do.
There
were times in our lives when we had a strong dislike for our parents when they
held us accountable, but in the end we knew they were right and did it for our
own good, and despite the good which comes from accountability among friends
and the church, we still resist. But we
know that when done in love, it is done for us.
Such is the way of God...for God is love.
We started off this season being
invited to ask some heart questions.
“How is it with your heart? Where
is your heart? Where is God changing
your heart? Can others see a change in
you?” These are hard questions, because
they begin to make room for change. When
taken seriously, they force us to examine ourselves, and when that happens, the
door is open for God to come in. They
invite us to listen, they invite us to be a people willing to respond, and when
the truth is before us, they invite us to reach toward the One who saves.
“How has this Lent been for
you?” In observing and talking with
others, in being attentive to what’s going on around us, I get the sense that
God is at work, and when God is at work, times can be hard. For when God is at work, things change. Questions arise. Through the listening, we hear things we
didn’t expect, or expect things we didn’t hear.
In taking the time to walk with Christ, we are seeing things we have not
seen, and recognizing that God really does love us and want us to share that
love with others.
Such responses can leave us gasping
for air or it can move us to lock in and reach out to this never-changing God
who is changing our hearts. This is a
season of choices, and yet always in those choices and through them, God is
with us.
As we continue on the journey to Lent,
I invite you to add to the heart questions, “How is Lent really going for
me?” When you do, listen then reach out,
for God is there. When you do, remember
the words from John 3:16-17, that “God so
love the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him
may not perish...for indeed God did not send the Son into the world to condemn
the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.” When you go through these weeks ask about
the change God needs for you...a change to listen, a change to be a listening
disciple, and a change to reach out toward God, the giver of all grace.
Part
of my father’s ministry was to volunteer at the hospital working with addicts.
Every Wednesday he’d make his way over to the psych ward of
Though
my father never shared specifics, what he experienced on that ward affected all
of us. He walked hand in hand with those
who were battling forces that could not be battled alone. He observed what they went through, and he
realized that if change was going to happen, then so must ‘tough love.’ Accountability in direction and dependability
in presence.
My
sisters, brother, and I were the recipients of that tough love when we needed
it, and at the time, I hated it. But in
the end, it was right. My father and
mother were right. I’d get angry, rant
and rave, go to my room and sulk, and it felt like they hated me, but
eventually, I’d return. The damage had
been done, but my parents were still there, arms outstretched...but every time,
what churned inside me was whether I would have the strength to then reach out
to them. I always had to make that
choice.
As
children of God, we daily have to make the choice with God, our Holy Parent.
What’s the change in your life needed for you to reach out to God? There is always a remnant of God’s hope for us in our hearts, and that hope springs eternal when we listen, respond, then reach out to the One who loves us and saves us...saves us even from ourselves. Amen.