{"id":4501,"date":"2022-11-13T17:50:18","date_gmt":"2022-11-13T17:50:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fumcschenectady.org\/blog\/2022\/11\/13\/gods-responses-to-despair-based-on-isaiah\/"},"modified":"2022-11-13T17:50:18","modified_gmt":"2022-11-13T17:50:18","slug":"gods-responses-to-despair-based-on-isaiah","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fumcschenectady.org\/blog\/2022\/11\/13\/gods-responses-to-despair-based-on-isaiah\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cGod’s Responses to Despair\u201d based on\tIsaiah 65:17-25 and Luke 21:5-19"},"content":{"rendered":"

\nThe people that walked in darkness have seen a light….
\nbut it is discolored and a little murky. <\/p>\n

<\/figure>\n

I think that’s a fair
\nsummary of what the \u201creturn\u201d from the exile was actually like.
\nWhen Jerusalem was defeated in 587\/586 BCE, the city gates were
\nripped down, the Temple was destroyed, there was massive death and
\ndestruction, and the remaining leaders, priests, and scribes were
\nforce march to Babylon. The exile. During the time of the exile we
\nhear emerging stories of great pain and lament, AND prophecies of
\ngreat hope in and care of God. The exile and the period right after
\nit are also the time when the Hebrew Bible started to be written
\ndown.<\/p>\n

\n<\/p>\n

\nIn 538 BCE those in exile were freed to return home if
\nthey wished. Thank God! And many did, thank God!\n<\/p>\n

\n<\/p>\n

\nAnd when they came home, it was \u2026. painful.<\/p>\n

\n<\/p>\n

\nThe Promised Land had been decimated. Those who
\nremained had been without protection, without resources, without
\nhope. Many, many had died. I’ve heard as high as 90% of the
\npopulation. Those who were alive had now lived in fear and scarcity
\nfor generations. And those who returned weren’t much better off,
\nexcept that they’d had hope of return which now turned out to seem to
\nbe misplaced.<\/p>\n

\n<\/p>\n

\nI’m going to just throw out here that if we are now in
\nthe \u201cend of the pandemic\u201d it sure doesn’t look like I hoped it
\nwould in March or April of 2020, and I have lots and lots of empathy
\nfor those who \u201ccame home from exile\u201d only to find out that home
\nhad changed in the meantime.<\/p>\n

\n<\/p>\n

\nIn the midst of the struggles of return, and the
\nconflicts that inevitably emerged between those who’d been left
\nbehind and those who’d been force-ably removed \u2013 and even more so
\nbetween their children and grandchildren, come the words of our
\nHebrew Bible text. In context, Isaiah 65 is still struggling to
\nanswer why things are so bad, and the first part of the chapter
\nclaims that the issue is that people aren’t being faithful to God and
\nGod’s dreams. But this later part of the chapter is focused on the
\nblessings God has in store for those who do follow the ways of God.
\nWe may like to think of this as the fruits of living out God’s
\nvisions for a just and compassionate society.<\/p>\n

\n<\/p>\n

\nAnd, its pretty great. We’ve talked recently enough
\nabout the part of Jeremiah that urged the exiles to build houses and
\nlive in them, plant gardens and eat from them. This Isaiah passage
\nreiterates those ideals, but does so BACK AT HOME. Now the command
\nis not to give up on Jerusalem, but to have hope it can be rebuilt.<\/p>\n

\n<\/p>\n

\nI think this might be a good time to remind you that
\nJerusalem WAS rebuilt. The Temple was rebuilt. The city walls were
\nrebuilt. The city gates were rebuilt. The traditions of the people
\nwere rebuilt. The hope in God was rebuilt. It didn’t look the same
\nas it had before, but it was rebuilt.<\/p>\n

\n<\/p>\n

\nIn fact, that’s a story we don’t focus on enough, and
\nI’ve been in initial conversations with people about restarting Bible
\nStudy in January, and I’ve now convinced myself we should read the
\nbook of Ezra, the story of rebuilding Jerusalem. (If you’d like to
\nstudy with us, the current question is: what time on Sundays shall we
\ndo it, and I’d LOVE to hear your opinion.)<\/p>\n

\n<\/p>\n

\nBut now I’m ahead of myself.\n<\/p>\n

\n<\/p>\n

\nIn our passage today, we hear of the \u201cnew heaven and
\nnew earth\u201d God is preparing. To summarize quickly, I’m turning to
\nWalter Brueggemann1<\/sup><\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n\u201cYahweh is moving beyond what is troubling and
\nunresolved to what is wondrously new and life giving. There is a
\nsteady push towards newness in the Isaiah tradition that intends to
\noverride the despair of Israel, especially the despair of exile.\u201d
\n246<\/p>\n

\n<\/p>\n

\nThere are thee facets of new city:<\/p>\n

\n<\/p>\n

\n\u201cThe first quality of the new city, stated negative
\nthen positively, is a stability and order that guarantees long life.
\nAs long as the city is both a practitioner and victim of violence and
\nbrutality, no life is safe and no one will last very long.\u201d (247)
\n\u201cThere will be a reordering of resources so that all may luxuriate
\nin life as the creator intends.\u201d (248)<\/p>\n

\n<\/p>\n

\n\u201cThe second facet of the reconstituted city is
\neconomic stability.\u201d Which implies stable society, lack of
\ninvasion, fertility of land, fair taxes, fair laws. \u201cYahweh will be
\nthe guarantor of a viable, community-sustaining economy.\u201d \u201cNo
\none is threatened, no one is at risk. No one is in jeopardy because
\nthe new city has policies, practice, and protective structures that
\nguarantee what must have been envisioned as an egalitarian
\npossibility.\u201d (248)<\/p>\n

\n<\/p>\n

\n\u201cThe third provision…concerns an agenda of
\nwell-being for children in the new city.\u201d (249) \u201cThese three
\naccents on guaranteed long life, economic stability, and life under
\nblessing all attest to a city in which the power for life given by
\nthe creator is fully available and operates in concrete ways. The
\npoem is a vision, but it is a vision looking to a public practice.\u201d
\n(249)<\/p>\n

\n<\/p>\n

\nThat is, Isaiah 65 is written to COUNTERACT despair with
\ndreaming. It is a vision of hope, but one that would be worth
\nperusing. Despite the language of new heaven and new earth, this is a
\npretty earth-centric vision. It centers on civic stability, economic
\nsustainability, and God’s tangible presence among those who are
\nalive. It starts with peace, includes distribution of goods, and
\nlooks towards the well-being of all.\n<\/p>\n

\n<\/p>\n

\nThat seems like it would have landed well among the
\npeople in despair, and changed what was possible for them.\n<\/p>\n

\n<\/p>\n

\nWhich has me wondering what God is dreaming of here.
\nHow God is counteracting despair here and now. What sort of vision
\nGod is planting among us for our community, state, nation, world
\ntoday?<\/p>\n

\n<\/p>\n

\nBecause I have noticed that God doesn’t give up when
\ndisaster strikes, God just keeps on working towards goodness. This
\nalso strikes me as the narrative of Luke. I think to hear our Luke
\npassage well requires remembering that Luke was likely written after
\nthe destruction of the SECOND Temple, which coincided with the
\ndestruction of Jerusalem and a horrifying number of her people. It
\nwas a time of great despair, a moment of transformation in our faith
\nhistory and the history of our Jewish siblings in faith, a time when
\neverything changed and new forms of faith practice had to be created.
\n The transition from the Temple to the Synagogue happened at that
\ntime, the end of the Sadducees and beginning of the leadership of the
\nPharisees, etc. Our tradition was so new I can’t point to the same
\ntypes changes, but I can see how seismic this experience was.<\/p>\n

\n<\/p>\n

\nThe passage we read today was written by the early
\nChristian community, presumably trying to make sense of the
\ndestruction and trying to reassure each other about what Jesus would
\nsay to them in the midst of it. It is probably true that the Holy
\nSpirit helped them find these words of comfort, but it is probably
\nALSO true that Jesus didn’t say this stuff in his life time.<\/p>\n

\n<\/p>\n

\nThe early Christian imagination produced the hope it
\nneeded to face its reality without shattering into despair.<\/p>\n

\n<\/p>\n

\nWhich is to say that both of our passages are written to
\npeople in despair, to try to keep them together and focused on hope.
\nThey just sound really different.<\/p>\n

\n<\/p>\n

\nMaybe that’s because people need different things at
\ndifferent times.\n<\/p>\n

\nMaybe it is because the despair they faced was
\ndifferent.<\/p>\n

\nOr because the perceived opponent acted differently.<\/p>\n

\nOr the community was struggling in different ways.<\/p>\n

\n<\/p>\n

\nBut truly there are different ways to respond to despair
\nwith hope, and the Bible is full of them, and we have two solid
\nexamples before us today.\n<\/p>\n

\n<\/p>\n

\nAnd, I heard a third recently. Bishop Karen Oliveto
\nshared a quote that I keep thinking about, \u201cI rarely feel such
\nclear signs of fatigue and anxiety on days that are filled with
\ntravel, meetings and assignments\u2014only when I stop to rest. Without
\nsabbath, I would be dangerously ignorant of the true condition of my
\nsoul.\u201d \u2015 Andy Crouch<\/p>\n

\n<\/p>\n

\nI think in the midst of the struggles I hear today, this
\nis the one that could make the fastest difference. Right now we have
\na lack of sabbath, lack of rest, lack of spaciousness for joy \u2013 and
\nlack of time to face despair. But this is change-able. We can
\nprioritize sabbath. We can make space for rest. We can sort through
\ndespair instead of running from it. We can make space for joy and
\nnot just distractions. We can even make space for relationships and
\nnot just be ships passing in the night.<\/p>\n

\n<\/p>\n

\nOver the past almost 3 years we’ve been exiled. I can’t
\ntell if we’ve really returned, but if we have, it is still hard.
\nWe’ve seen a lot of destruction and more than our fair share of
\ndeath. But based on the Bible we can be sure that God is speaking a
\nword of hope and a depth of vision into this moment.<\/p>\n

\nMaybe this seems too simple, but I think it is abundant:
\n take time OFF. Be spacious with your soul. Let your to-do lists
\ngo. Follow what brings you joy. Let your emotions BE, without
\njudgment. Let God have time to dream in you.<\/p>\n

\n<\/p>\n

\nBecause as Psalm 30 says, \u201cWeeping may linger for the
\nnight, but joy comes with the morning.\u201d God isn’t done with us,
\nnot yet. May God’s dreams be met with our spaciousness to hear them!
\n Amen <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

1<\/a>Walter
\n\tBrueggemann, Isaiah Vo. 2: 40-66 <\/i>in
\n\tWestminster Bible Companion Series, edited by Patrick D. Miller and
\n\tDavid A. Bartlett (Louisville, KT: Westminster John Knox Press,
\n\t1998).<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

November 13, 2022<\/p>\n

Rev. Sara E. Baron
First United Methodist Church of Schenectady
603 State St. Schenectady, NY 12305
Pronouns: she\/her\/hers
http:\/\/fumcschenectady.org\/<\/a>
https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/FUMCSchenectady<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The people that walked in darkness have seen a light…. but it is discolored and a little murky. I think … Continue reading \u201cGod’s Responses to Despair\u201d based on\tIsaiah 65:17-25 and Luke 21:5-19<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[34,38,28,39,33,59,1484,1542,56,57,1540,1541],"class_list":["post-4501","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-fumc-schenectady","tag-progressive-christianity","tag-rev-sara-e-baron","tag-thinking-church","tag-umc","tag-brueggemann","tag-pandemic-preaching","tag-realities-of-despair","tag-schenectady","tag-sorry-about-the-umc","tag-stockadathon","tag-words-of-hope"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fumcschenectady.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4501","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fumcschenectady.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fumcschenectady.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fumcschenectady.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fumcschenectady.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4501"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/fumcschenectady.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4501\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fumcschenectady.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4501"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fumcschenectady.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4501"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fumcschenectady.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4501"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}