\nexile: first in warning that it might come unless things change
\n(chapters 1-39), then the exile \u201chappens\u201d and there are
\nconversations to the exiles about what return will look like
\n(chapters 40-55), and finally encouragement to those who have
\nreturned and are struggling (chapters 56-66). \u00a0Isaiah 55, our passage
\nfor today, is the end of the encouragement to the exiles, and it is
\nwritten in \u201canticipation of a a joyous and secure homecoming.\u201d1<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n
\n<\/p>\n
\nWalter Brueggemann in his commentary on Isaiah 40-66 \n<\/p>\n \nAs the text refers to the \u201cwicked\u201d, Brueggemann has \n<\/p>\n \nThere were, in fact, plenty of people who didn’t return \n<\/p>\n \nAnd all of this makes me wonder about how it applies \n<\/p>\n \nWhen are we the \u201cwicked\u201d who are too enmeshed with \n<\/p>\n \nOne of the tools of domination systems is fear. \u00a0Fear \n \n<\/p>\n \nAnd, it can get a hold on me rather too easily, \n<\/p>\n \nAnother of the useful tools of domination systems is \n<\/p>\n \nTruth be told, when I read the Bible, I’m often struck \n<\/p>\n \nAt the recommendation of my colleague the Rev. Harold \n<\/p>\n \nThis church was one of the ones that did NOT comply with \n<\/p>\n \nOne of my big take aways from the book was that every \n<\/p>\n \nThe fact that the worship attendance of the 1950s was a \n<\/p>\n \nHowever, \u00a0I’ve been in A LOT of meetings over the years \n<\/p>\n \nInstead, there are seemingly infinite definitions of the \n<\/p>\n \nLearning that there is a bigger narrative at play has \n<\/p>\n \nAnd, I worry about all the church leaders in all the \n<\/p>\n \nOf course, it is hard to see the church in decline and \n<\/p>\n \nThe thing is that strength, even strength in numbers, \n<\/p>\n \nThere is the labor that matters, the bread that <\/p>\n 1<\/a>Brueggeman 2<\/a>Brueggemann, 3<\/a>Ibid <\/p>\n Rev. Sara E. Baron <\/p>\n March 20, 2022<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\n(amazingly, one of my favorite Brueggemann commentaries) says, \u201cThe
\ninitial verse…offers to passersbys free water, free wine, and
\nfree milk. \u00a0This of course is in contrast to the life
\nresources offered by \u00a0the empire that are always expensive, grudging,
\nand unsatisfying. \u2026 The rhetorical questions ask,
\nincredulously, why Jews in exile would invest so much in forms of
\nlife that cannot work \u2013 why work so hard and so long in ways that
\ngive no satisfaction; why give life over to the demands and rewards
\nof the empire that yield nothing of value in return.\u201d \u201d2<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n
\na great explanation for who that refers to. \u00a0\u201c’The wicked,’ I
\nsuggest, are not disobedient people in general. \u00a0In context, they are
\nthose who are so settled in Babylon and so accommodated to imperial
\nways that they have no intention of making a positive response to
\nYahweh’s invitation to homecoming.\u201d3<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n
\nfrom exile. \u00a0After 80 years, for many, Babylon had become home. \u00a0The
\nscripture says that even those who have accommodated themselves to
\nthe empire \u2013 to the systems of domination \u2013 can be freed and
\npardoned, and come back to a full and abundant life within the
\ncommunity.<\/p>\n
\ntoday. \u00a0When are we settled into domination systems, and in need of
\nbeing reminded that other options exist, and welcomed home to the
\ncommunity of God, and forgiven and set free to live in equality and
\nequity with each other?<\/p>\n
\nthe empire, and need forgiveness? \u00a0This is a convicting question for
\nme. \u00a0I continue to struggle to hold onto ONLY kindom values and let
\ngo of the domination ones. \u00a0I appreciate the reminder that it can be
\nchanged and forgiven.<\/p>\n
\nworks to keep us from seeing things clearly, fear moves us into
\nright\/wrong thinking, fear moves us into blame, fear moves us into
\nus\/them thinking, and fear kills creative problem solving. \u00a0Fear
\nmakes people more interested in authority, which means more invested
\nin hierarchy, and more likely to accept the commandments of
\nauthoritarians. \u00a0Fear leads to snap decisions, instead of careful
\nconsideration.<\/p>\n
Fear is a really, really useful tool, if the desire
\nis to keep people separate, compliant, and disempowered.<\/p>\n
\nparticularly when I’m not getting enough down time with God.<\/p>\n
\ngetting control over meaning making, which usually means
\nappropriating religion for its own purposes. \u00a0We can see this clearly
\nin looking at the Roman Empire in Jesus’ day, and the Roman appointed
\nHigh Priests running the Temple. \u00a0That domination system thought
\nhaving the Temple’s support was imperative to keeping control, and so
\nthey appropriated it. \u00a0That is one example of a rather constant
\nreality.<\/p>\n
\nby the struggles back and forth between the stories of an all-loving
\nGod encouraging the people to care for each other and the strangers
\nin their midst AND the stories of a God who controls, rewards,
\npunishes the people \u2013 including by trying to frighten them into
\ncompliance. \u00a0I tend to think of the first as the stories of God, and
\nthe second as the constancy of humans trying to to claim the power of
\nDivine meaning making for their own ends. \u00a0The fact that it is a
\nconstant tension in the Bible itself clarifies how hard it is to
\nseparate out the love of God from the desire of people for control.\n<\/p>\n
\nWheat, I recently read \u201cOne Nation Under God\u201d by Kevin Kruse.
\nThe book takes a long view of American religion, and the battles for
\ncontrol of it. \u00a0The history takes a sharp turn after the successful
\npassage of Roosevelt’s New Deal, which was generally lauded by the
\nnation’s clergy. \u00a0In response, business and industry leaders started
\nmultiple meaning making campaigns of their own, putting clergy on
\ntheir payrolls to deride \u201ccommunal values.\u201d \u00a0They spent decades
\naccessing power at the highest levels, providing resources, and
\nfinally in engaging in nation-wide PR campaigns to encourage people
\nto attend worship as part of their patriotic duty. \u00a0Since these
\ncampaigns were so successful, those pushing worship were confident
\nthat most of those attending worship would be getting their
\npro-business messages shared from the pulpit.<\/p>\n
\nthe campaigns, thank God. \u00a0But, being a part of US culture during
\nthat time meant being a part of a society with the highest worship
\nparticipation rate in the country’s history, and this church did
\nbenefit from that. \u00a0\n<\/p>\n
\nchurch and every church structure I know well has defined itself from
\nits heights in the 1950s or 1960s, and created its narratives and
\nidentity in those \u201chigh times.\u201d \u00a0But that came without an
\nawareness of the forces that created that high, or the reality that
\nit was an ABERRATION, not a \u201cnew normal.\u201d \u00a0It is a bit like the
\nJewish people in 506 BCE looking back to the glory days of King
\nDavid, and forgetting that in 1500 years of history, about 80 were
\nthe time of nation-state empire. \u00a0It was an aberration, not the norm.<\/p>\n
\ncultural swell of worship attendance nation wide suggests that the
\nnarratives of \u201cfailure\u201d for not maintaining the heights are…
\nwell… wrong. \u00a0After the nation wide ad campaigns stopped and the
\nnation stopped being pushed to define being a good American with
\nbeing a good worship attender, worship attendance started returning
\nto more historically normal levels. \u00a0\n<\/p>\n
\nwhere in direct or indirect ways people have tried to \u201cproblem
\nsolve\u201d church decline, and that has almost always sounded a whole
\nlot like blame. \u00a0This is never the story I heard \u2013 that the
\nhuge ballooning of membership was an oddity that was unsustainable,
\nand that it was to be expected that it would not be maintained.<\/p>\n
\nproblem and possible solutions. \u00a0\u201cBetter evangelism.\u201d \u00a0\u201cMore
\nprayer.\u201d \u00a0\u201cClear mission statements.\u201d \u00a0\u201cGood websites.\u201d
\n\u201cMore faithful leaders.\u201d \u00a0\u201cMore training in inviting people to
\nchurch.\u201d \u00a0\u201cBetter missions.\u201d \u00a0\u2026 Take this class, do this
\nstudy, engage in this survey, read this book, \u2026.and some of it is
\neven useful, but the impact of the whole is the continuation of the
\nnarrative that worship attendance in the 1950s was \u201cright\u201d and
\nthat means that everything since then has been \u201cwrong\u201d and if
\nthat’s true, then it implies we’re doing our FAITH wrong. \u00a0\n<\/p>\n
\nhelped me reframe those conversations about church growth and church
\ndecline. \u00a0It has also helped me see that even when there isn’t active
\nblame going on, church leaders (clergy and lay) are just
\ninternalizing it. \u00a0I’ve done it (I still do it.) \u00a0The number of
\npeople who choose to attend worship FEELS like a tangible expression
\nof how faithful I am to God. \u00a0But it isn’t. \u00a0Yet, I have to actively
\nremember that.<\/p>\n
\nchurches for the past 70 years who have asked \u201cwhy are we getting
\nsmaller\u201d and ended up believing that it was because THEY were doing
\ntheir faith wrong, because they couldn’t see the larger dynamics at
\nplay. \u00a0They’ve taken in the wrong story. \u00a0Our faith is not WRONG, nor
\nBROKEN. \u00a0\n<\/p>\n
\nit is extra hard right now to see the church transforming and not
\nknow if it is strong or weak or.. what it is right now. \u00a0 But, as I’m
\ncommitted to building the kindom of God, and I’m excited to have ANY
\npartners in that work who want to work with me. \u00a0I’m willing to tell
\npeople why that seems worthy of my life energy, and I am delighted
\nwhen I get to teach about what kindom\/God values are and how they
\ndiffer from empire\/domination values. \u00a0\n<\/p>\n
\nlooks a lot like a domination value. \u00a0And inflated numbers in the
\npast were aimed at no good. \u00a0God is willing and able to work with any
\nof us who want to work with God, and to make a big difference with
\nthose who are committed to doing so. \u00a0I’m interested in celebrating
\nthose committed to following in the ways of Jesus, and the power that
\nlove has in our midst. \u00a0I’m ready to let go of an old, false, and
\nmisleading narrative of who we are supposed to be, and let us be who
\nwe are.<\/p>\n
\nsatisfies. \u00a0And leaving behind the old myths that were created to
\ncontrol the churches and their people\u2013 that’s the empire stuff we
\ndon’t need anymore. \u00a0May God help us sort through, and find the
\nkindom values in our hearts, to put them to further use in our lives.
\n Amen <\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/64.media.tumblr.com\/99b6fc7ec3f0fa94faf9cb1fd9e39696\/4b39a7caf510886f-74\/s540x810\/df4f439914b682f14c94ebbae69b2df7d447bdc6.png\")
<\/figure>\n
\n\t158.<\/p>\n
\n\t159.<\/p>\n
\n\t160<\/p>\n
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