Second
\nIsaiah is a cheerful writer. \u00a0He writes from the exile, to
\nbroken-hearted, broken people. \u00a0He speaks words of hope, reminders of
\nthe nature of God, and expectations that healing is possible.
\nToday’s passage is classic Second Isaiah. \u00a0\n<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
For
\nthose who have NO CLUE what I’m talking about \u2013 Isaiah is a book
\nwith 66 chapters. \u00a0Scholars agree that chapters 1-39 reflect one
\npoint of view \u201cFirst Isaiah\u201d, 40-55 a second \u201cSecond Isaiah,\u201d
\nand 56-66 a third \u2013 wait for it – \u201cThird Isaiah.\u201d \u00a0First Isaiah
\ncomes before the exile. \u00a0Second Isaiah speaks DURING the exile \u2013 in
\nthe immediate aftermath. \u00a0Third Isaiah has a later voice, debated to
\nbe either near the end of the exile, or post exilic. \u00a0For those who
\nstill have no idea what I’m talking about \u2013 in 587 BCE the
\nBabylonian Empire defeated Judea, took the city of Jerusalem,
\ndestroyed it, and force marched its leaders across the desert to
\nserve as slaves in Babylonia. \u00a070 years later they were freed when
\nthe Persian Empire beat the Babylonian empire and the exiles
\nRETURNED. \u00a0So I’m saying that this cheerful dude was writing after
\nhis city and country had been utterly devastated.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Our <\/p>\n The <\/p>\n The Second <\/p>\n The <\/p>\n Traditional \n\u201cChrist \nwho, For <\/p>\n My <\/p>\n \u201cOH!\u201d That <\/p>\n In <\/p>\n The <\/p>\n The <\/p>\n The <\/p>\n No 1<\/a>Neal 2<\/a>Stephen 3<\/a>Marcus Rev. Sara E. Baron<\/p>\n First United Methodist Church of Schenectady<\/p>\n 603 State St. Schenectady, NY 12305<\/p>\n http:\/\/fumcschenectady.org\/<\/a><\/p>\n
\npassage today starts with \u201cHow beautiful upon the mountains are the
\nfeet of the messenger who brings peace.\u201d \u00a0This is not a literal
\nstatement. \u00a0In those days important news was \u201cbrought by a runner,
\nan athlete whose marathon commitment to good news drove him across
\nthe arduous mountain, where his whole frame ached from the effort of
\nbringing good news. \u00a0His feet were crusted with callouses and torn by
\nthe rocks and thorns of his course.\u201d1<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n
\nmessenger’s feet were NOT pretty. \u00a0The feet were ugly. \u00a0The news they
\nbrought though, could make even \u00a0the ugly feet beautiful. \u00a0The
\nbeautification of the feet continues as the message is shared. \u00a0 God
\nReigns, restoration is coming, goodness will return, people will
\nspontaneously break out in song, God’s comfort will be known, and all
\nthe earth will see the healing power of God.<\/p>\n
\nmessage of Second Isaiah was heartening to its first hearers \u2013 they
\ndesperately needed the hope it brought. \u00a0The message was obviously
\nheartening beyond its first hearers, as it made the cut to be a part
\nof the book of Isaiah. \u00a0Furthermore, this text is part of Christmas
\nevery single year in the traditional readings. \u00a0(Although not the
\nmost common ones.) \u00a0Christianity has claimed this text as a way of
\nunderstanding Jesus, and the meaning of his birth. \u00a0That implies that
\nit has significant meaning beyond the original intention.<\/p>\n
\nIsaiah wrote to a displaced, broken hearted, broken people, with
\nsigns of hope. \u00a0The concerns of the people were practical. \u00a0The
\nmeaning is different when applied to Jesus. \u00a0Connected with the
\nChristmas story, the messenger gets undertones of angelic messengers
\n\u2013 who very well may have beautiful feet for all I know. \u00a0Connected
\nwith the birth of Christ, this passage has often been spiritualized,
\nwhich I mean in the bad way. \u00a0The sort of spiritualization that I’m
\nreferring to takes this passage out of the practical concerns of the
\nworld and into some sort of forgiveness of sins\/afterlife concerns.<\/p>\n
\nironic change of the meaning of salvation from being a down to earth
\nact of liberation from oppressors to an otherworldly acceptance into
\nheaven really weakens this passage. \u00a0As one commentator puts it,
\n\u201cAmong the affirmations [Second Isaiah] offers are: (1) God cares
\ndeeply about this<\/i> world \u2013
\nso deeply, in fact, that God intends not rescue us from it but to
\nredeem this world through us; (2) where we are matters; that is, if
\nGod wants to redeem that<\/i>
\nplace (Zion\/Jerusalem), God wants to redeem this<\/i>
\nplace.\u201d2<\/sup><\/a>
\n If WE want to take this passage as our own, and as a valid
\ninterpretation of our Christmas narrative, then I think we have to
\nstart there!<\/p>\n
\nincarnation theory suggests that God became human in the form of
\nJesus in order to redeem the world. \u00a0Many of the theologians I like
\nbest are very excited about the incarnation. \u00a0For some it is the
\ncenterpiece of their understanding of God. \u00a0My New Testament
\nprofessor was one of them. \u00a0He loved to quote Philippians 1, which
\nsays,\n<\/p>\n
\nJesus,<\/p>\n
\nthough he was in the form of\u00a0God,
did
\nnot regard equality with God
as
\nsomething to be exploited,\u00a0
but
\nemptied himself,
taking
\nthe form of a slave,
being
\nborn in human likeness.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nmany years, I struggled with incarnation. \u00a0It is such a powerful and
\nmeaningful theological idea for MANY people, including most of the
\npeople I look up to theologically. \u00a0I never knew why I couldn’t get
\nexcited about it. \u00a0I felt like I was missing something. \u00a0(Namely, I
\nfelt like I was missing the entire point of Christmas, if not
\nChristianity.)<\/p>\n
\ndear friend Chad is a much more orthodox Christian than I am. \u00a0He is
\nthe one who TOLD me why I don’t care. \u00a0He said to me one say, \u201cYou
\nare a panentheist, right?\u201d \u00a0(A panentheist believes that all that
\nexists, is within God and yet God is more than all that is.) \u00a0
\n\u201cYeah,\u201d I responded without understanding. \u00a0\u201cWell, then the
\nincarnation would be sort of redundant to you, wouldn’t it? \u00a0I mean
\nif you already think God is fully present in the world in all times
\nand places, then Jesus isn’t really different, is he?\u201d \u00a0\n<\/p>\n
\n I responded. \u00a0Which cleared things up for me. \u00a0I fully support
\nanyone, including Chad, for whom the traditional understanding of the
\nincarnation works. \u00a0You are in good company. \u00a0But I’ve never been
\nable to wrap my head around
\nit. \u00a0It doesn’t make sense to me to think that Jesus WAS God, at
\nleast not in a unique way. \u00a0My favorite succinct summary of Jesus is
\nMarcus Borg’s, \u201cJesus was a Jewish mystic.\u201d He goes on to
\nexplain, “My claim that Jesus was a Jewish mystic means Jesus
\nwas one for whom God was an experiential reality. He was one of those
\npeople for whom the sacred was, to use William James’ terms, a
\nfirsthand religious experience rather than a secondhand belief.\u201d3<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n
\nfits what I hear in the Gospels. \u00a0Jesus was unusually connected to
\nthe Divine, and he had wisdom that most people lack. \u00a0He was faithful
\nto loving all of God’s children in a particularly unusual way. \u00a0He
\nlived as if he KNEW God. \u00a0I’m pretty sure that’s so amazing, and so
\nexciting, that it is why we still talk about him and his teachings
\nall these years later. \u00a0\n<\/p>\n
\nsome ways this gospel \u00a0story seems abrupt. \u00a0Jesus is born, and then
\nthat’s sort of it. \u00a0The passage from Luke today is unique to Luke.
\nOnly Luke and Matthew present Jesus before he was a grown man, and
\nMatthew has nothing between his birth and his ministry. \u00a0Luke has two
\nstories: the story of the presentation of Jesus at the Temple, during
\nwhich two wise old sages proclaim respond to meeting Jesus with
\npraising God, and this story. \u00a0Both present the \u201choly family\u201d as
\nparticularly devote Jews. \u00a0Both conform to common practice of
\nbiographies in that day \u2013 including by having the hero show his
\nprecocious talents while still a child. \u00a0(Jesus is 12 here. \u00a0He was a
\n\u201cman\u201d at 13.) \u00a0This story is the first time that Jesus speaks in
\nthe Gospel of Luke, it serves beautifully to foreshadow Jesus’s
\nministry. \u00a0The story mostly seems to exist in order to remind us that
\nJesus was God’s first and only his parents’ second. \u00a0The story
\nclearly comes from a separate tradition than that of the Bethlehem
\nbirth, as it seems to come as a surprise to his parents that Jesus is
\nso… different.<\/p>\n
\ninteresting piece of the story, whether it is intentional or not, is
\nthe expansiveness of it. \u00a0There is no boundary around the nuclear
\nfamily. \u00a0Jesus’s parents did not travel alone on the journey to
\nJerusalem. \u00a0They were with a large group of friends and family \u2013
\nthat’s how we can presume he was lose-able. \u00a0Jesus himself wanders
\naway from those he knows in order to inquire among the teachers of
\nthe law. \u00a0Both the holy family, with their large expansive group of
\ntravelers, and Jesus himself, who drew the circle wider, foreshadow
\nthe welcome that will exist in following Jesus. \u00a0The welcome never
\nends.<\/p>\n
\nministry of Jesus was decidedly earthly, and practical, much like the
\noriginal meaning of the Second Isaiah passage. \u00a0Jesus heals broken
\nbodies. \u00a0He worries about food and drink for the people . \u00a0He talks
\nabout animals and agriculture. He takes seriously concerns about
\ntaxation. \u00a0The sacraments of the church are symbolized with water,
\nwine, and bread. \u00a0The salvation that Isaiah references, that
\nChristians understand to come through Jesus, is an earthy one. \u00a0\n<\/p>\n
\nwork of Jesus is to redeem THIS world, and for us, in part, THIS
\ncity. \u00a0God’s work of redemption and salvation is also earthy. \u00a0As far
\nas I know, \u201cheaven\u201d isn’t a place in NEED of healing or
\nredemption. \u00a0Peace is needed on EARTH. \u00a0Equality is needed on EARTH.
\nJustice is needed on EARTH. \u00a0New policies, procedures and laws that
\nrecognize the value of all human lives are desperately need on EARTH.<\/p>\n
\nmatter how we understand the birth, Jesus served to remind us of
\nGod’s presence with us on EARTH, and God’s work here to bring hope
\nand healing. \u00a0The work of the followers of the way of Jesus is to
\ncontinue his earthy ministry. \u00a0May we do so \u2013 with the
\ncheeriness of Second Isaiah himself. \u00a0After all, if he could speak
\nwords of hope in a time such as THAT, then we can do so in a time
\nsuch as this. \u00a0Thanks be to God for hope. \u00a0Amen\n<\/p>\n
\n\tWalls, \u201cHomiletical Perspective on Isaiah 52:7-10\u201d from <\/i>in
\n\t<\/i>Feasting on the Word Year C
\n\tVolume 1
\n\tedited by Barbara
\n\tBrown Taylor and \u00a0David Bartlett (Westminster John Knox Press:
\n\tLouisville Kentucky, 2009), page 125-7.<\/p>\n
\n\tB. Boyd \u201cTheological Perspsective on Isaiah 52:7-10\u201d also in
\n\tFeasting on the World Year C Vol 1, page 122.<\/p>\n
\n\tBorg, Meeting Jesus Again for the First Time <\/i>(HarperOne:
\n\t1995), page 60.<\/p>\n