"The Backstory: Despair Seeking Hope"
Rev. Paul Mitchell
Vashon United Methodist Church
November 27, 2016
Vashon United Methodist Church
November 27, 2016
Isaiah 2:1-5, Matthew 24:36-44

Of course, those
first Christians did not come to know or learn of the anointed savior through the
Gospels, or through the teaching of the church, or through the preaching of
pastors and theologians. All they had was the Torah, the Prophets, and the
Writings, and the cultural milieu and cultural historical context in which they
lived – and Jesus, of course. They had the real deal. But how did they know he
was the real deal without the Gospels? Some scholars have called the book of
Isaiah the fifth gospel. Some theologians have even claimed that without the
four canonical gospels, Isaiah could tell us everything we need to know for our
salvation.
This Advent I’ll be
using Isaiah as a lens to examine some of what shapes our expectations for the
anointed savior – the Christ Jesus – whom we call Emmanuel; God-with-us. Isaiah
is comprised of three main parts, artfully sewn together, written over the
course of at least two centuries. Scholars refer to chapters 1-39 as First
Isaiah, chapters 40-55 as Second Isaiah, and chapters 56-65 as Third Isaiah.
All of the prophetic readings for Advent this year are drawn from First Isaiah.
It was written in the 8th century before the Common Era, generations
before the exile in Babylon. It was a time of great despair, anxiety, misery,
and separation amongst the covenant people – but perhaps not as great as the
despair, anxiety, misery, and separation they would face later when they were
taken into captivity. The Hebrew nation, which thought of itself as a contender
for greatness among nations – a mythos embodied in the characters of David and
Solomon, had long since broken into two kingdoms. Neither of them had the
strength or resources to outweigh the true empires that flanked them. They were
like two siblings, back to back, not fully trusting each other, each facing
great danger.
They were a divided
nation not only in governance, but also economically. The northern kingdom,
Israel, encompassed fertile plains, hills, and valleys. It was agrarian, and
thus a strategic target for conquering armies. The southern kingdom, Judah or
Judea, was mostly arid high ground. It revolved around Jerusalem, the site of
Solomon’s temple, and home to the Ark of the Covenant. Its “mountaintop”
location could also be a tactical asset in times of war as well as times of
worship. Each kingdom laid claim to legitimacy as successor to David. Each laid
claim to greater faithfulness to the covenant.
Isaiah’s people
faced the expansion of the Assyrian Empire. The northern kingdom sought to
bring the southern kingdom into an alliance in order to resist Assyrian
expansion. The pressing issue of the day was whether or not to gear up for war.
Isaiah unequivocally declares God’s disapproval of this plan. Isaiah’s message
was this: God will empower a leader who does not seek the idolatry of war, but
instead who seeks to be faithful to God as God is faithful to the covenant
people. In other words, do not succumb to despair, do not put your faith in the
hands of the “strong man” – but seek your hope in God.
To get the full
picture of Isaiah’s prophecy, we need to see the whole book, and more. God’s
message through the sewn together book of Isaiah is expansive and poetic. But biblical
scholar Walter Brueggemann suggests that in its three segments, we do not see
the whole story that takes us from despair to hope, from anxiety to peace, from
misery to joy, and from separation to love. Brueggemann suggests that First
Isaiah is primarily about recording the profound sense of loss that the
covenant people share in their division, even as it records the independent
success of the southern kingdom in repelling the advance of Assyria. Second
Isaiah is a picture of hope – a vision of what lays ahead for those who are
faithful to God, and was written centuries later at a time when Judah faced a
new expansive threat from the north – Babylon. Third Isaiah is a great hymn of
assurance that God will always be faithful, and desires thriving for all
nations, all creation. What Brueggemann suggests is missing in this narrative
tapestry is grief. He suggests that we need to read Lamentations after First
Isaiah, after our loss, before moving on to hope.
Despair – or an
aspect of despair – is the sense that things fall apart despite our best
intentions. We somehow know that the “strong man” is not going to be able to “fix”
our predicament.
Things fall apart.
There is disunity.
Danger lurks
nearby.
Despair literally
means a loss of spirit. In the English language it replaced the older word
“wanhope.” Wanhope connotes feeble hope or hope spread too thinly. The Hebrew
word that we translate as despair is ruah
kehā – or spirit of fainting. There is a sense in
our loss, whatever it may be, that we are about to faint. We do not have the
energy to go on. We may be tempted just to collapse to the ground where we
stand and allow our grief to rush over us, to overwhelm us, to drown us. It
seems to describe a loss of energy, a loss of will. In contrast, Isaiah’s word
for hope really means “to look to.” In other words, hope is a matter of vision,
not dependent on whatever muck or mire we stand in, but rather where we set our
sights. Hope is a matter of perspective or a habit of seeing that allows us to
breathe even in stale air.
There is trouble in
the Isaiah text. The main trouble is this:
Adversaries loom.
Darker days seem
immanent.
The nation is
divided, lacking allies, and unprepared.
Despite the loss they
have experienced, or perhaps the loss they are anticipating, Isaiah warns,
“Hold on! Do not buy into false trust or false promises.”
There is trouble
today. Among many troubles, one is parallel to First Isaiah’s predicament:
Our nation is
divided.
Adversaries loom.
Darker days seem
immanent.
The nation is
divided, lacking allies, and unprepared.
We find ourselves
at a loss – perhaps we feel nostalgic for a time in the past that never
actually existed. We find ourselves trying to satisfy our deepest yearnings
with material comforts or extreme experiences. Isaiah warns, “Hold on! Do not
buy into false trust or false promises.”
But there is also
grace in the text. Isaiah tells us that “in the days to come” our attention
will no longer be diverted by distractions. In the days to come – in other
words, within time and place – not in some distant heaven, but in the days to
come – holy ground is high ground. We can speak of high ground literally –
higher ground is strategically advantageous. We can speak of high ground
ethically as well. We can choose the morally higher ground, from whence we can
see better and farther. Isaiah says that many peoples will turn their focus
from the distractions to the vision of wholeness and justice that radiate from
God’s high place, so that we can learn God’s ways and walk in God’s paths. Those
who seek God’s instruction and seek to walk in God’s ways do not focus
primarily on the present existential quagmire in such a way as to lose sight of
God’s way of peace-making, peace-saying, peace-acting.
Isaiah tells us, God
will judge between the nations – in other words, God will set things right. And
the sign of God’s judgment will be whether or not we disarm. To disarm is to
hope. This hope is predictive, not prescriptive. It doesn’t match the reality
on the ground. Hope is not certainty, but seeing beyond and choosing God’s
path. Hope is an act of will. In hope, we envision God’s way and we lean into
it – live into it. Whatever has been a tool of despair, anxiety, misery, or
separation – in other words, whatever has been weaponized – we must reclaim and
reshape as a tool of life – for cultivation and harvest.
There is also grace
for today that radiates from the prophet’s vision:
Make allies, but
not with war-mongers. Make allies with peace-makers.
Align with power,
but not with the powers of despair, anxiety, misery, and separation. Align with
the seemingly powerless who hold the moral higher ground – the holy ground. They
may be the children, the homeless, the meek, the gentle, the oppressed, the
water protectors, the “other” – these have tremendous spirit-power. There is
power in walking in God’s light right now, one step at a time.
Take the energy and
resources that have been invested in division and destruction. Invest them in
cultivating life, in harvesting love. I’m thinking of Heifer Project, Mary’s
Place, Bread for the World, Children’s Defense Fund, UMCOR, the Food Bank.
Cultivate hope –
not some rosy colored version of wishing for the best, but through the
investment of your relationships, your prophetic truth, your wellness, gracious
leadership, time and place, and money. Cultivating hope is work – it’s farm
labor. It’s daily rising at dawn and working past sunset everyday planting,
tending, and harvesting hope.
Hope is an action
word.
At the Interfaith
Evening of Gratitude this past Tuesday that was held right here in our
sanctuary, the Free Range Folk Choir sang an amazing African song punctuated by
three drum solos. It was an Uhuru song – or freedom song. And although freedom
and hope are not the same, they are twin siblings – each seeks and needs the
other. The idea of the song is something like this: Each drum solo represents
striving for freedom. For those who have been oppressed, pressed-down, robbed,
depressed, and are in despair, they must strive for their freedom. But that
struggle only brings them back to where they were before. Then they must strive
for more – to advance their freedom. But even then, they must press on or their
freedom will be taken. Hope, I believe, is the same. For any who are lost or
have lost, they must envision God’s wholeness, to see it in the eye of the
heart as actualized. For any who have seen God’s hope, they must reach for it.
For any who have reached God’s hope, they must share it.
Do not hope in the
strong man. Hope in the one who came to us as a powerless, immigrant, fugitive
infant. Hope in the one who poured himself out from the cradle to the cross.
this was such an inspiring post. filling all the spaces that needed to be filled. you are such an inspiration to have posted with this. keep updating
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