I’ve been preaching on Wednesday nights from Isaiah 56-66. What an incredible chunk of scripture.
Feast on these words of imagination and conviction:
“For this is what the high and exalted One says –
he who lives forever, whose name is holy:
‘I live in a high and holy place,
but also with those who are contrite
and lowly in spirit,
to revive the spirit of the lowly
and to revive the heart of the contrite.’”
“Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen:
to loose the chains of injustice
and untie the cords of the yoke,
to set the oppressed free
and break every yoke?
Is it not to share your food with the hungry
and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter –
when you see the naked, to clothe them,
and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?
Then your light will break forth like the dawn,
and your healing will quickly appear;
then your righteousness will go before you,
and the glory of the Lord will be your rear guard.
Then you will call, and the Lord will answer;
you will cry for help, and he will say: Here I am.”
“Sure the arm of the Lord is not too short to save,
nor his ear too dull to hear.”
“Arise, shine, for your light has come,
and the glory of the Lord rises upon you.”
“The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me,
because the Lord has anointed me
to preach good news to the poor.
He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,
to proclaim freedom for the captives
and release for the prisoners,
to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor
and the day of vengeance of our God,
to comfort all who mourn . . . .”
“But you are our Father,
though Abraham does not know us
or Israel acknowledge us;
you, Lord, are our Father,
our Redeemer from of old is your name.”
“All of us have become like one who is unclean,
and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags;
we all shrivel up like a leaf,
and like the wind our sins sweep us away.
No one calls on your name
or strives to lay hold of you;
for you have hidden your face from us
and have given us over to our sins.
Yet you, Lord, are our father.
We are the clay, you are the potter;
we are all the work of your hand.”
“See, I will create
new heavens and a new earth.
The former things will not be remembered,
nor will they come to mind.
But be glad and rejoice forever
in what I will create,
for I will create Jerusalem to be a delight
and its people a joy.
I will rejoice over Jerusalem
and take delight in my people;
the sound of weeping and of crying
will be heard in it no more.
Never again will there be in it
infants who live but a few days . . . .”
“For this is what the Lord says:
‘ . . . As a mother comforts her child,
so will I comfort you.’”
What jumps out at you from these passages?
Mike - I’ve been reading this section as well. Just so happens by calendar that my two-year Bible is in this area of Isaiah - and Larry James also has been in these sections lately. I keep wondering what we, the church, are to be doing with the poor, the oppressed, the down-trodden, the lonely? Ignoring them, or making them center-point of our very existence, or something in between?
How do you relate these chapters with the Beatitudes? Was this Matthew’s inspirational foundation? Thanks.
Isaiah 58 has shaped (re-shaped) how I participate in the discipline of fasting. According to Is.58, fasting is not for personal growth, but rather it is for social justice. Here, fasting points us to the way of service.
I’ve read this passage dozens of times, but I don’t know if I have ever heard a sermon on this chapter. In fact, I can count on one hand how many times I have heard a sermon on fasting.
I can’t help but imagine Isaiah 58 being lived out, not just by individuals, but what if an entire community of faith set out on the “Isaiah 58 journey” together? How would that shape and form a community?
This has become one of my favorite sections in scripture. When people express an interest in where God is taking us in the future, I suggest they read from the latter chapters of this book rather than the Revelation. As I read it, the Revelation is much more about what we do while we are waiting for that future - testifying to the presence of Jesus in the midst of the apocalyptic. Isaiah, on the other hand, presents a beautiful vision of where God is moving all things, re-making creation and bringing new life to his people.
Would love to hear Larry James cut loose on these texts, Kent.
Josh - Great questions. I think God’s going to let you help lead a church in exploring those them.
Matt - I agree. Doesn’t get any better than Isaiah 65:17ff.
Mike,
What leaps at me is this incredible middle section:
“Then your light will break forth like the dawn,
and your healing will quickly appear;
then your righteousness will go before you,
and the glory of the Lord will be your rear guard.
Then you will call, and the Lord will answer;
you will cry for help, and he will say: Here I am.”
If you treat people with dignity and respect, fight injustice, set slaves free, share your food, clothing and shelter with those in need and your family – then God has got your back. Our rear guard.
Does it get much more fundamental is that?!
Isn’t that what we all want – we want someone to have our back?
To know that we can walk in this world in the confidence that if we are doing what we can to help others then Someone has our back.
It’s an amazing passage.
Need. More. Editing. Features.
Typed - “Does it get much more fundamental is that?!”
Should be - “Does it get much more fundemental THAN that?!”
When confronted with what to do for the kingdom some days I turn to this scripture for focus. All of the ones mentioned in need are in abundance in Modesto, both in the church and outside the church. Isaiah has always been a great compass for me.
“The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me,
because the Lord has anointed me
to preach good news to the poor.
He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,
to proclaim freedom for the captives
and release for the prisoners,
to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor
and the day of vengeance of our God,
to comfort all who mourn . . . .”
Aside from the comfort, the love, the warmth of our Father, I think about one of Jesus’ first little talks in His hometown synagogue in which He reinterpreted Is. 61 through the matrix of His own ministry. By the time He was finished, He was quite close to being pushed over a cliff! How does God put up with us? He gives Himself, extends His arms, He sends even His own Son to expound one of the most beautiful and hopeful passages of scripture, and the human response is to kill Him. Praise God that He is as gracious as He claims. He’s proved it over and over again.
And Is. 65 certainly echoes ch. 11 and the whole new creation/reversed curse theme that runs prominently throughout scripture. I also find it comforting in the sense that there will be continuity between this life and the next phase of our existence. That is, the earth is good and will be set free from it’s present bondage. The enlightenment garbage that pushes heaven way “out yonder” where we’re supposed to live like Casper the ghost and sing devo songs for a million zillion years is just BORING. Isaiah’s picture is so much more robust and appealing! I can’t wait.
“the sound of weeping and of crying will be heard in it no more.”
Someday…
Almost two years ago, we sat with friends in a dark hospital room. The wife had gone in to be induced on a Friday morning. But the heartbeat that was there on Tuesday wasn’t there then.
“. . .Never again will there be in it infants who live but a few days . . . .”
What peace that can bring. To know that no mother will know the pain of losing a child. I love Natalie Grant’s song, “Held” because it really was God that held them through their loss, gave them the strength to get pregnant again, and gave them the joy of a healthy baby. But what awesome hope to know that in Heaven, we won’t need Him to hold us through suffering, because He will take all of that away. What peace.
What matters most about our faith at this point is all “here and now.”
Larry - what an insightful observation.
This is the already/not yet, isn’t it? We look for the new creation that awaits us. AND YET . . . God has already begun that work. So we look for the kingdom of justice in its fullness; but we participate with God in the forming of such a world right now as he seeks to put things right.
I wonder what it means when it seems to say that participating in the kind of fast God desires results in healing quickly appearing? Spiritual? Physical? Emotional?
I, too, love this passage. What a need the American church has for a refreshing look at these words from Isaiah. I have been reading Lee Camp’s book on discipleship lately and am burdened with what to do as a citizen (a disciple) in the kingdom of God. In what ways can I make personal changes that impact my external existance as much as my internal? I too, like Buddy, go here and to Lev. 25, Matt. 5-7 (just to name a few) when I feel uneasy about my role as disciple/citizen.
Some close friends of mine did a hebrew study on the 58th chapter of Isaiah.
“Fast” was translated from the hebrew word “tsum” (sp?) meaning literally to “close one’s mouth” (so I’m told).
As in, to shut your yap so that you can actually listen to the plight of the poor.
That text means a lot to me. Thanks for preaching from it.
Mike-
Yes! And doesn’t Isaiah say just that: when YOU learn to do justice, share food, shelter homeless, etc. - when YOU do that is when *I* will come. THEN is the day of the LORD.
That is an ALREADY experience: God is present when we bring his kingdom to these places/people.
But…I also wonder if, in some way, it is also foreshadowing someting indescribably glorious that God is bringing about in a future that will come when God’s people truly embrace this mission in its fullness.
Amy-
I think the “healing” has to do with the ongoing “bondage” of Israel. In a sense, they will be free during the second-temple days. But the voices of the prophets repeatedly suggest that there is a sense in which bondage - both political and spiritual - is still present even after some of them return to Jerusalem. Just my 2c.
This is another reason why I see promise in our churches today. More and more, we are enacting justice, food, clothes, compassion, comfort and hospitality for the kingdom. Many believe we are leaving our heritage. But I think we are realizing more where the bulls-eye is truly at.
Larry James, if faith is the substance of things hoped for, then the here and now gets its energy from the eschaton. I would say it a bit differently than you: What matters most about the here and now is our faith in the not yet grounded in a past event (cross and resurrection). The here and now is the in-between. Aren’t we modeling–imperfectly–God’s glorious future? Paul was immersed in future imagery (2 Co. 4-5, 1 Co. 15, Ro. 8, etc.). We need to be fully alive here and now, but living out of faith in what God is doing with the whole project ultimately. Inaugurated eschatology is just that–a beginning that moves toward a completeness. We need to pull as much of that future glory into the present as God’s grace will allow. But it’s still always the future rushing back into the present. It seems to me that present and future are at least equally important right now. If it’s all future, then we’re Platonist. If present is the main thing, it can quickly morph into existentialism. It seems to me that we need the grace to keep a foot in both dimensions, and therefore out of either ditch.
Ben, I think you have spoken well. The trouble is in the emphasis of the present day church and our tendency to hide in our constant focus on eternity, the hereafter and our “status” with God. I say leave all of that to God. . .God will handle well. My assignment is here and now. I can lay the past to rest–God cared for all of it in the past for the sake of my past. I can let tomorrow, including eternity, care for itself. What about today? What about Africa’s starvation in and of itself. The problem with our eschatology–or some of it that is today so popular–is that is allows us, provides us an escape from the real world we face today–it robs us of the power and the priority of staying incarnate in the mess. Forgive me, I know I am so biased by my context and by what I see daily here. I have decided the answer of faith is not away from the here and now of my life. As one wise prophet once observed, “the only way to heaven is through the earth.” Jesus seemed to “get” that.
The late Burton Ciffman , who died a few days ago, states in his Commentary on Isaiah that it is a mistake that God is not concerned with anything except social justice “….It is very significant here that the very first sin God mentions is their neglecting “God’s ordinance.”
That ordinance he states is the single fast God had commanded on the day of Atonement.
He goes on…”Of course God is also concerned with social justice: but all social justice, in the final analysis, derives from honor paid to the word of God and the holy worship he has commanded.”
Sorry, that’s Burton Coffman.
If we (as a planet) survive another 2000 years, what will be our legacy to the earthly church? Surely, the saints of all time before us thought the end times were near; just how far have we come since Peter was nicknamed “Rocky”? Have we progressed or regressed or stagnated? What if WE are the early church?
Larry, Your comment at 4:54 really impacted me. Thank you.
Larry James, we’re concerned about the same thing, just saying it in different ways perhaps. The platonic/enlightenment versions of the after life create discontinuity so that nothing in the next life seems to pour back into this life. There’s “here” and its reality, and the future with an entirely different reality–an absolutely different reality that erases any semblance of continuity. We can’t pull energy from the future into the present because we don’t see how future connects with present. Like spiritual parasites, we suck enough blood from the cross to cope with feelings of guilt, but not enough to radically change us by the Spirit of God; not enough to feed the poor or heal the sick in Africa (as you mentioned). The appropriate response, in my opinion, isn’t that we should just dismiss the future while focusing on present; rather, we need a biblically informed vision of the future; e.g., the Isaiah passages under discussion. Will children be fed in God’s glorious new creation? Will aids be treated (of course healed) in God’s new creation? Will suffocating debt be forgiven in God’s glorious future? If the answer to all of those questions is yes, then we need to be about that business today as a church. As we act out God’s future, more people will want to jump right into the kingdom, and O, how God will be glorified!
It’s interesting that when John refers to “eternal life” or “life,” that doesn’t begin when we die. It begins when we join the right story — God’s story. Part of what makes that life “abundant” is the privilege we have to join God in His redemptive work in the world, which includes the practice of acts of justice.
So Larry is right: The salvation of abundant life in the “here and now” is all we have (that is tangible), and the hope for the future glory won’t be fully realized until Heaven.
Isaiah’s so rich!
I love the conversation here between Ben and Larry. Bravo Ben on your perspective! Amen and Hallelujah! I love the attention you give to our future reality of a perfect Kingdom. I also find hope in Larry’s words of a very real and tangible kingdom for the “here and now”. To me both are equally important and functional. You cannot have a here and now without an eternal reality. Both are real. Both are callings. One we live out - the other we hope and pray for! The here and now serves the eternal like the cross serves the table.
Thanks, Joe. And Steven, I agree! The only passage that explicity defines eternal life is straight out of Jesus’ mouth in Jn 17.3. Eternal life is knowing (being in relationship with) the Father and the Son. Therefore, the eternal life has already begun. The Spirit is bubbling up inside us as and flowing out like rivers of water, producing fruit, and ideally, healing the nations. We’re in eternity now if we are in relationship with God. Now, what are we going to do about it–how should we think, act, be?
Ben,
What if there was no eternity and only a “now”? Would you wake up and treat your fellow man like garbage? If so then then it seems like the “now” is only a self centered formula followed for personal reward.
Athiest’s who love “others” need no reward for treating all with dignity and respect.
What’s wrong with “Loving your neighbor as yourself” and letting the rest take care of itself?
Mike,
What struck me about the passage was the “here and now” nature of it but also the empty promise of a better tomorrow tied to a “here and now” done right.
Why can’t a “here and now” done right be the reward the seek? It cannot be if it is all about me and my pain, but it can be if it is all about true community.
Mike:
Tomorrow an Iranian dissident journalist is starting a hunger strike in front of the UN in an effort to secure the freedom of political prisoners of the Islamic theocracy in Iran. His name is Akbar Ganji. Earlier this year he fled Iran after being released from prison. He had been imprisoned for reporting on the murder of students who and expressed opposition to the regime.
Ganji, and many like him, are fed up with the regime in Iran, and Islam in general. There are many in Iran who are disillusioned. While they know what they are against (the regime), they are not sure what they are for. In this there is opportunity. Indeed, the Church in Iran is growing, in spite of the fact that proselytizing could draw a death sentence. Please pray for those who are pressing for freedom of expression in Iran. More to the point, please pray for the growth of the Kingdom in Iran.
This is not necessarily the heart of how I see this passage of Isiah. Given the timing of your posting on the eve of Ganji’s efforts, however, I felt compelled to comment.
Jeff Rambin
Sometimes I don’t do a good job of explaining what sets me off, so here it is:
“Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke?”
Please pray for Ganji as he fasts to loose the chains of injustice.
“Ganji, and many like him, are fed up with the regime in Iran, and Islam in general. There are many in Iran who are disillusioned. While they know what they are against (the regime), they are not sure what they are for.”
Replace “regime” and “Islam” with organized Christianity, “US” with “Iran” and you have the US.
Is Ganji a Christian or a Muslim and does it make a difference. I know many Muslims who are not dis illusioned, radical or acting violenting in the name of God.
They are treating me with respect and dignity. On behalf of my Muslim friends, I take offense to the above remark. There are good and bad people and their in most cases their religion has little to nothing to do with it.
for the nit picker:
Replace “regime” and “Islam” with organized Christianity, “Iran” with “US” and you have the Christianity.
Leland:
I don’t by any means approach this from a viewpoint of the inerrancy of the Constitution or the U.S. in general. Note that I did not mention the U.S. in my posting. What I am trying to say is that, in Ganji’s fast (which is being joined by many people of many faiths) I see an effort to loose the chains of injustice.
I make no apologies for hoping that Muslims can be converted to Christianity. I do not think that all religions are equal. That being said, I have no problem with Muslims who offer dahwa to me. I certainly agree with the statement in the Qu’ran that “there can be no complusion in religion.” I long for a world where all can freely delve into and decide these matters for themselves. I believe that there are many Muslims who are good people, and even Godly people who are seeking His will as best they can in the environment in which they find themselves, and given the knowledge that has been imparted to them. And I do have a bone to pick with those who are so pious in their “Christianity” that they will not engage with those who believe or think differently. However, I will not refrain from offering my testimony of praying for the conversion of others for fear that I may be seen as pious.
I hope this gives you a better feel for where I’m coming from. Against this background, it would sure help me out alot if you would expand on your objection to my comment, and your reasons for objection. If there is a way that I can set you at ease, or apologize for an unnecessary offence, I will be glad to do so
Aside from your feelings about the U.S., and organized Christianity, as well as your offense at my comment …
How do you feel about the passage in Isaiah, and how (or if) Ganji’s hunger strike ties into what Isaiah is spekaing to?
Jeff
Leland, I’m not talking about acting in the now on the basis of reward in the future. The reward isn’t the point. The point is there is a future, a resurrection, a new physicality in a freshly created universe, an earth set free from bondage of fallen structures, and children of God who are glorified in Him. Don’t forget Paul’s argument in 1 Co. 15. He said if there were no resurrection, then just eat, drink and be merry. His ethic was tied to the resurrection as much as it was tied to the cross. Without the resurrection the cross wouldn’t look like love, it would look like madness. The eschton pumps meaning into our ethic today. God is making the world right again, and we are to telescope His image in the here and now (might want to check out my blog from yesterday). As an authentic human, newly created by the cross and resurrection, and powered by the Spirit breathed into us by Christ (jn 20.21f), we are for the world who Christ was for Israel and the whole world. We are called to be light, not because of reward, but because we aren’t fallen parodies–we’re the real thing–spiritualized (at least a down payment at present) people sharing the divine nature, escaping the corruption of the world for the sake of the world. It’s not reward I want; it’s life, and more life, real satisfying life that will be fully realized in the resurrection. Until then we work in God’s grace to give the world hope through love (and this is abundant life in the present), pointing the way to a day when the lion and the lamb can romp through the fields together without worrying about being scratched by thorns and thistles. At some point hopefully our lives will generate questions in others; Why are you like that? Why do you go on loving your enemies? Why do you feed the poor? Why do you fight for justice? And it’s at that point that I think we tell the story of creation, fall, and new creation, inviting others in on what God’s up to. It’s not that we get so much payment for so much love. It’s that we yearn for the restoration of all things and find energy from that worldview to act with the appropriate courage, to God’s glory, today–and all of that’s love!
“At some point hopefully our lives will generate questions in others; Why are you like that? Why do you go on loving your enemies? Why do you feed the poor? Why do you fight for justice?”
Lives of other faith’s generate the same question.
Jeff and Ben, Thanks for your thoughful response.
I am offended because the people I know who live Godly lifes are told somehow this is not good enough. The notion we are the only ones who have something to offer is arrogant. The Church of Christ is incurring the effects of this damaging attitude with respect to US Christianity right now.
If we continue to see these people as “someones” who need to be like me in my faith, we will never truly hear what they have to say and never truly commune with them.
Leland, indeed the lives of other faith’s generate the same questions. Don’t assume I have a sectarian agenda. . . I don’t. Mike’s post has to do with Is. 55-66, which among other things, points to the new creation. If we can embrace that story, then we can be part of God’s agenda–reverse the curse of the fall in Christ (the crux of the original covenant). No doubt there are plenty of churches of Christ who still only want to get all the right answers to a few religious questions so that they can escape the evil, physical world, and live as flittering spirits singing Kum-by-ya forever with only those who asked the same questions and give the same answers. But I think they’re being marginalized (thank God) by their own lack of relevance, and no longer define who we are. I think we need to stop reacting to what we were and become who God’s called us to be for the sake of the world and His own glory.
Thanks everyone for a great discussion, it broaden my thoughts and brought me closer to God.
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