The Voice of the Lord

Sermon Isaiah 6: 1-8 May 27, 2018 Trinity Sunday/Memorial Day weekend

The Voice of the Lord

“In the year King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord.” This classic opener line to the call story of Isaiah grabs our attention, holds on to us and gets us to read the rest of the story. It’s a classic capture phrase as good as any classic novel we have read. “Call me Ishmael” from Moby Dick is one that almost everyone knows even if they’ve never read the book, they know the phrase that famously draws readers into an adventure of a man and his adventure with the whale hunting obsession of Captain Ahab. “In the year King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord,” draws us into an adventure with Isaiah and his experience with the voice of the Lord and the people of Judah.

                                  King Uzziah was the king for a little more than 45 years when he was struck                                       with leprosy and had to have someone else rule in his place. When he died                                             everything that had been rather relaxed and comfortable for the people of Judah                                   was thrown into uncertainty. Judah was always under the threat of invasion by                                       the Assyrians and now with the death of the king that threat became more of a                                        reality. The king died, an era has ended, things change.

We mark our lives and our history books by significant events. 

Where were we on the day Kennedy was shot, the Challenger exploded, the bombing of Pearl Harbor or on 9/11? 

Those particular events in history are events that signaled an end of an era and the beginning of something else. 

We can recall the tiniest details of those moments in our lives and we can repeat them to others over and over.

It is in this moment in history that the people of Judah can recall the details of when everything changed for them. It was all in the year King Uzziah died. And in that year, something else happened, one young man had his life turned upside down. One young man heard the voice of the Lord and his life changed direction forever. It was an event that he could recall the tiniest details because they marked him and took him to a place he could not have done on his own.

God called him into service. God called him to a life committed to prophesy, to be a prophet.

After Uzziah died his son Jotham was on the throne and Israel had allied with the Syrians and were making advances against Judah. The crisis continued as Jotham’s son Ahaz took to the throne. And there through the readings of Isaiah we discover how he tried to convince Ahaz to resist these advances. But, he chose an alliance with Assyria. Through the power of this alliance they were able to defeat the Syrian-Israeli advance. But, they were eventually bound to an intolerable alliance with Assyria which ended in the invasion of Judah by their allies under the reign of Hezekiah. Thus, fulfilling the prophecies given by God to Isaiah.

And so, for Isaiah, that very significant moment in history, that moment in the Temple, when sci-fi creatures approached him, and the Temple filled with smoke, God’s presence was very clear.

God enters and intervenes in moments of history to declare that all is not lost and purpose is not nullified.

It’s interesting to note that this passage of chapter 6 verses 1 through 8, interrupts the section of Scripture where the prophet Isaiah is already speaking to the people. Some would say it is out of order and yet others say it is inserted at just the right time to bring attention to the fact that Isaiah has been called by God to do this job.

An essential piece about this text is that it claims a particular order of worship. If we pay attention to the verses we can observe that verses 1-4 are words of praise, verse 5 confession, verse 6-7 forgiveness, and verse 8 a sending or commissioning.

In significant events in our life, the call of God and God’s claim on who we are become essential. We often ask ourselves the question, “Why am I here?”  We wonder about our purpose and if we can make a difference even as we age. Isaiah’s story reminds us that especially in the events of history God calls us out and uses us for God’s glory. God call us to serve even if our world is just one small room. It is God who takes out of our comfort zone and sends us into the world of the people.

In the midst of what was happening, in the upheaval of events around him, Isaiah went to church, he went to worship, he went to the Temple. Perhaps, he went because he wanted comfort, or perhaps as an obligation or he went out of habit. But, he went. In the midst of the events that are happening around us today in the world, in our country, in our community, and in our own homes, are we aware of the desire or the need to go to church, to go and find an opportunity for worship?

Greek Orthodox Church, Corfu, Greece

As Isaiah entered that Temple on that day, it filled with smoke and seraphs, and the very presence of God scared the living daylights out him. He was overwhelmed by the presence of God.

I’m not sure how I would feel if this sanctuary filled up with smoke. I look up at these rafters and wonder how it would be to watch billowing smoke filling this place. Okay, not like it did that recent January, not that kind of smoke. But, the incense kind of smoke that our Episcopalian or our Orthodox friends use, yes, like that a room filled with incense smoke. And then if a bunch of creatures started coming down from the rafters, giant winged things, I’m not sure if I would recognize any of it as the work of the Lord. I might think I’d been captured by aliens. 

For this story of Isaiah, this appearance of God fully present was his experience of the power of God to engulf him and claim him for a life of service. He was in the holy place of the presence of God and God came to him and all he could do was cry out to God in his own sense of inadequacy.

Immediately God intervenes and touches the lips of Isaiah,

purifies him,

and makes him whole.

We, too, can have an experience in the presence of God that throws us into a sense of inadequacy. Also, in the presence of big events, major world happenings, national crises, community tragedies, or personal challenges we can get overwhelmed and think we are inadequate.

We have a sense of helplessness

or distress of purpose,

or a sense of a loss of direction. We lose hope. We wonder when God will show up for us.

For some God’s voice comes as it is for Isaiah,

God reaches down and touches us,

calls us,

sets us apart,

and sends us out.

 For some the claim God makes on us is much quieter. God comes with the still small voice. Or God comes in the silence.

The heart of the matter is that in any event,

whether major earth shaking historical moments,

or individual trials,

God shows up.

And God calls us as witnesses to the awe and wonder of the presence of the One who holds us and binds us together with heaven and earth; binds us to the saints, the saints before us and the saints present with us; binds us to the work of the Lord.

When the voice of the Lord fills our lives in the presence of worship we are overwhelmed, 

and we are caught in the moment and there is no turning back. 

We are changed forever. 

An era has ended and things change. 

We are caught in the grip of the love of God that will not let us go. 

It does not let us go.

When we leave the sanctuary of our experience with God, our lives are changed and all our encounters with the world are changed. God’s presence, 

God’s love has altered the course of our personal history. 

And by our own personal historical change 

we can change the course of the history of the world.

Through the love of Father, Son and Holy Spirit, we are brought to new life. How will we alters the course of the world’s history? 

In the year 2018, I saw the Lord…whom shall I send…here I am, send me. Amen.

Light of Love

Sermon Luke 1:26-38 December 24, 2017 Advent 4

Light of Love

Last Sunday we spent our worship experience focused on the story of the birth of Jesus through the Christmas program. The children and the choir shared the news words and music. Our hope was renewed as we witnessed our children participating in the promise of God. It was truly a light of joy.

Today on the fourth Sunday of Advent we spend time reflecting on the words of Mary as she encounters the angel Gabriel. I find myself pondering on the moment of discovery for Mary.

What is it like for us in those moments of surprise?

When the unexpected comes to us?

When the derailment of our plans and our dreams occurs, what is our response?

When we are left vulnerable to our family’s opinions, cultural expectations, and the views of the world, how do we react?

Are we aware of the presence of holiness when it appears?

There is quite a lot for us to ponder on this fourth Sunday of Advent.

God does enter into ordinary lives in ordinary ways. The angel called Mary highly favored. There was nothing in Mary’s life that would have been considered as something to be highly favored. She was poor. She lived in a town that people said nothing good comes from Nazareth. She was engaged to be married to a carpenter not a statesman or a wealthy, famous person.

God does enter into a real place in time and space. 

God breaks from heaven and begins dwelling among us in the most vulnerable way. 

Life and death hang in the balance for many a mother and child. 

Pregnancy and child birth are still to this day challenging. To conceive for some is without a thought and for others a time of great disappointment, despair, and grief. 

There are so many women who have suffered in silence as one pregnancy after another is lost and the hoped for infant returns to heaven. 

Women in childbirth are still at risk even with the best doctors and equipment available. There were safer ways for God to come to us to be among us than through this risky means.

And yet, in a little town, in a little house, with a young girl, we witness something new, something that changes our lives forever.

Mary heard the words of the angel and knew that God had come to her. Holiness had invaded her space. Holiness had come.

She asked the angel Gabriel, “How can this be?” We don’t have the opportunity for tone or inflection so we have to guess. We wonder if she is afraid, or if she was incensed, or confused, or just pondering the logic of what the angel is telling her. 

She talks with the messenger of God! She is not a silent bystander. She gets involved with the work of God within her. She becomes a partner with God in this process of redemption.

 Her response to the angel is so amazing. “May it be as you say, here am I the servant of the Lord,” is not a passive resignation for God or anyone else to do what they want with us. But, it is a response of commitment and participation with the work of God in this world.

Imagine if we too heard the word of God through the angels who visit us. Imagine if we too took a stand with God and said, “May it be as you say, here am I”.

Mary as we read further in Scripture sang a song which we now call the Magnificat. 

It was a song of liberation, a song of reversals, a song of resistance and even rebellion. 

Mary took her role as the mother of God in strength and in resilience. 

She had the resolve to follow through with whatever was to come. She had the ability to stand with a task that was contrary to the current culture. She stood firm in her faith as she faced the possibility of death. She stood firm in her faith when her son grew and took the risk of death upon himself. She stood firm in her faith as she sat at the foot of the cross and watched her son die. She stood firm in her faith even as she was cared for by others in her old age.

It is so hard for us as people of faith to figure out what God is calling us to do. 

We agonize over the call God has placed on us. We wonder if we are really doing what God has asked us to do. We agonize wondering if God really loves us. Are we worthy?

 Are we doing the right thing?

And then once again the story of Mary reminds us that God has not abandoned us. 

God chose to enter the human race by means of the human race. 

God’s creation so destroyed and distorted by acts of violence upon the earth, the creatures and each other could have been destroyed in the same breath by which it was created. But, somehow God looked upon everything there and burst forth in love. 

The Light of Love chose to push through all the depravity, sin, corruption, and discord to wash it all pure again beginning with waters of the womb. Our being drawn to the Light of Love is a rebirth in the same way.

God has sent angel messengers to us to announce that we too have received the power of God through his son born to us today. Let us say yes, let it be as you say, here am I your servant. Amen. 

Stubborn Prayer

Sermon Luke 18: 1-8 October 16, 2016 Parable Series

Stubborn Prayer

We can no longer sit silent.

This text from Luke is a pivot point for us. It reveals the Word of God powerful, strong, and unrelenting.

The widow can no longer be dismissed.

She can no longer be pushed aside.

Work for the Kingdom of God is challenging, confusing, frustrating and ongoing. We find ourselves at a place where we can no longer sit at the feet of Jesus and pray prayers with flowery platitudes.

We stand shaking our fist and we scream and we yell and we demand, “When are you coming to straighten out this mess?”

“How long do we have to wait for you Jesus, to return to us with your justice, love and reconcile the world to yourself?”

We plead with feeble voices, “Where are you?”

There are times we are angry, we are bitter, we are hurt in many ways by words, by feelings of those who think and act differently from us.

We have lost loved ones, we have lost parts of our own selves.

In the midst of crisis around the world we watch and wonder, “where is God?”

In helpless voices we ask, “Where do we step in and stop being afraid and where do we stand before those who block the way of doing what is right?”

There are many reasons why believers have lost hope and trust.

There are many reasons among believers (and those who don’t believe for that matter) where faith feels dismantled.

Can you name where your faith seems dismantled? For those around you, Do you where faith has disintegrated?

For places in your heart where has faith been disrupted?

Is there something burning to burst forth from your heart that must be spoken?

Each of us has a widow voice within us.

We come before God with persistent cries for the young woman who has lost yet another child and has empty arms and an empty womb.

We are angered at yet another death in the streets of police officers and unarmed men. We are bitter at another factory closing and people without work.

We are hurt by the public officials who fling words as if they are immune to retribution. We hide behind social media and witness accusations hurled across invisible wires by those who refuse to come face to face.

We are infuriated at rebels who take the lives of children and have no remorse.

We find ourselves banging on the door of God’s Kingdom begging and begging for action on the part of God. (1) Our prayers, like the widow’s, are persistent and stubborn-do something God! Show up for Pete’s sake God-we are here! We beat ourselves against the gates of heaven to get God’s attention.

~~~

This week we hosted a spaghetti dinner to raise funds for the Coalition Against domestic violence. We seek to be light to the women of abuse to find a way to leave the life that holds them hostage. We seek to speak out so they can find their voice to speak out against their abuser. We have made a choice to reconsider our silence (2) and as a church speak openly in the community that words matter and that violence against women is NOT ok.

The world seems out of our control and so the widow voice is all we have.

We come as she does before God-vulnerable, alone, without a crowd to support us. The Old Testament and during the times of Jesus the faith community was responsible for the care of widows and orphans. They had a mandate from God to provide widows with all that they needed. And so here we read about a widow before a judge, an unjust one to boot, who comes alone-no faith community is present with her-no one has taken responsibility to care for her and to remain at her side. And yet, she goes forth with audacity and unashamedly before the judge to stubbornly make her request.  

We come willing and with audacity and with stubbornness before the One who can make a change, we come persistently and consistently.

The widow voice within us cannot let go.

This is the hopeful courage that resists the injustice in our lives and in our world.

The Spirit fills the heart and bubbles it up with strength to act when there is no strength. The Spirit acts within us to go beyond ourselves.

And perhaps, that is the Good News for us today.

It is in our daily persistent prayers-“give us this day our daily bread”-our stubborn faith that God will provide-that God’s amazing love for us is a promise that brings it all around-even if we have to wait-we will not give up. For the Kingdom will come on earth as it is in heaven. The Scriptures remind us, “For the Kingdom of God is within you.” 17:20-21

That’s all well and good you say to me, that’s only half of the story, what about this unjust judge?

Is this judge an image of God?

How can we imagine such a capricious being? How can God be so frivolous?

This judge says he has no fear of God or respect for others. What does that mean?

Is he granting to this widow the answer to her request just to keep her quiet;

to protect his reputation?

Is he giving her what she wants to keep himself from being publicly embarrassed? Is it that she won’t leave him alone that people are beginning to wonder about his ethics? How can God be compared to this judge?

What have we learned about God as we’ve grown up? Nothing like this guy, for sure! We’ve learned that God is faithful and loving.

God claims us as his children.

God’s love is so persistent for us that God chases after us continuously with love for us even though we keep running away. Hosea.

God is relentless in love to the point that Jesus was among us-God incarnate-persistent-stubborn-fully present.

Jesus who gave his life for us so we in turn can have the fullness of life.

There is no doubt of God’s unfailing and sacrificial love for us as we have been taught.

Perhaps then this judge who has no fear for God and no respect for others

is how

we see God in relation to our unanswered prayers and our frustration in a broken world.

Perhaps this

is how

we see the lives of the faithful who pray and one prayer is answered and another goes unanswered.

Perhaps our witness of God, our experience of God is of a being who has no respect and no fear.

Perhaps we feel that God is just NOT fair.

That is exactly where the gospel writer Luke wants us to be with this parable of Jesus. He provides us with the definition of justice that Jesus proclaims: respect for others and the fear of God.

Which brings us back to stubborn prayer.

An unjust judge grants the request of a widow who puts herself at great risk to receive a measure of justice.

Her stubborn persistence brought about change, no matter how she felt about the judge.

No matter how we feel about God: just or unjust; we can have the widow’s voice and come to God over and over again.

We have a widow’s voice within us.

Let us act with stubborn prayer, with unrelenting faith (the faith that Jesus will find on earth) and publicly come before God seeking justice for all. “Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done.” Amen.

Resources: Karoline Lewis (2); Feasting on the Word (1).