\nThe
\nwords we heard from Isaiah today were spoken to a community abandoned
\nto despair. \u00a0Isaiah chapters 40-55 is called \u201cSecond Isaiah\u201d and
\nSecond Isaiah was written to the exiles who had been force-ably
\nmarched across the desert to Babylon after the defeat and destruction
\nof Jerusalem. \u00a0The exiles in Babylon were despondent. \u00a0They’d watched
\ntheir city, their temple, and their nation be destroyed. \u00a0They’d seen
\nentirely too much death. \u00a0Those who were left behind had all of their
\npossessions and food taken from them, and were left without city
\nwalls to protect them. \u00a0And the ones in exile were supposed to be the
\nleaders of the people who took care of them, but instead they were in
\ncaptivity in a foreign land. \u00a0\n<\/p>\n
\n<\/p>\n
\nIn
\nthe midst of all of this, they were likely struggling with their
\nfaith. \u00a0Not only do terrible events tend to make most people struggle
\nwith their faith, the faith of the Israelites at that time centered
\non two things: \u00a01. \u00a0The story of the God of Liberation who had freed
\nthem from slavery in Egypt and 2. The gift of the Promised Land to
\nGod’s beloved people as a sign of God’s intention to keep them from
\nother nations. \u00a0You can probably see how a faith based on freedom and
\nland would be seriously shaken by being taken back into slavery after
\nlosing the land.\n<\/p>\n
\n<\/p>\n
\nTo \n\tThis \n\tDo \n\tand \n<\/p>\n \nThe \n<\/p>\n \nThis \n<\/p>\n \nThe \n<\/p>\n \nSecond \n<\/p>\n \nThere \n<\/p>\n \nLuke’s \n<\/p>\n \nOur \n \n<\/p>\n \n\u201cThis is my child, the \n<\/p>\n \nAnd then there is the correlated \n\tThis \n\tDo \n\tand \n<\/p>\n \nWe \n<\/p>\n \nThis \n<\/p>\n \nWe 1<\/a>Kathleen 2<\/a>Walter 3<\/a>Bruggemann, Rev. Sara E. Baron<\/p>\n First United Methodist Church of Schenectady<\/p>\n 603 State St. Schenectady, NY 12305<\/p>\n Pronouns: she\/her\/hers<\/p>\n
\nthose struggling former leaders, now slaves, Isaiah send a message of
\nhope. \u00a0Isaiah was a prophet, so he spoke what he believed to be a
\nmessage from God for the people. \u00a0The message is shocking. \u00a0It may
\nhelp to know that \u201cTo be redeemed according to Israel’s law means
\nto be bought out of human bondage by one’s kin, a close member of the
\nextended family.\u201d1<\/sup><\/a>
\n More specifically, \u201cThe verb refers to a family intervention and
\nsolidarity whereby a stronger member of the family intervenes to
\nassure the well being of a weaker member.\u201d2<\/sup><\/a>
\nSo with that, we can hear the first verse again.<\/p>\n
\nis a message to you from YHWH, who created you, from God, who formed
\nyou:<\/p>\n
\nnot be afraid. \u00a0You are in need of a family member to pay for your
\nfreedom,\n<\/p>\n
\nI have done so. \u00a0You are my family. \u00a0You bear my name.<\/p>\n
\npeople are ENSLAVED. \u00a0In a foreign land. \u00a0After a major defeat, that
\nmost of them took to be a judgement by God. \u00a0This cannot be what they
\nexpect hear. \u00a0Not even the beginning, the reminder that they were
\nformed by God’s own hand. \u00a0And definitely not the next part that God
\nwas going to pay for their freedom \u2026 since they thought God had
\nsent them into exile. \u00a0After feeling abandoned by God they got this
\nmessage that God claimed them, loved them, acted on their behalf. \u00a0I
\nimagine that it was confusing to try to parse out if this could be
\ntrue. \u00a0As a scholar puts it, \u201cIsrael is now fully identified with,
\nbelongs to, and is cherished by Yahweh.\u201d3<\/sup><\/a>
\n But they’ve been interpreting their experience as the opposite.<\/p>\n
\nexperience, while very specific, seems to have some universal themes
\nunderlying it. \u00a0Life has its ups and its downs, some of the downs are
\nvery far down, some of the downs are for a whole family or whole
\ncommunity, and quite often the downs feel like God has forgotten us,
\nabandoned us, punished us, or… maybe like God ISn’t after all.
\nToday’s Isaiah scripture speaks into those times. \u00a0\u201cDo not be
\nafraid, I am with you. \u00a0I have called you by name, and the name I
\ncall you is ‘mine.’\u201d \u00a0We are not forgotten, abandoned, nor
\npunished. \u00a0We are still connected, beloved, claimed… and when
\nthings are at their worst, God is with us for it.\n<\/p>\n
\npassage then turns to possible threats that could harm Israel, and
\nassures that YHWH is available to help them if that happens. \u00a0Floods
\nand rivers, not too much for God. \u00a0Fires and wildfires, not too much
\nfor God. \u00a0This, too, applies to us. \u00a0Bad things may come, disasters
\nmay come, raging loses may come, they aren’t too much for God and God
\nis still with us.<\/p>\n
\nIsaiah speaks words of comfort and hope. \u00a0This is particularly
\nnotable because First Isaiah (the first 40 chapters) come before the
\nexile and speak rather dire warnings of what might come to pass if
\nthe leaders of the people don’t chance course. \u00a0As most of the Hebrew
\nBible was written down during and immediately after the Exile, I am
\nconvinced that it has two primary questions it is asking is \u201cwhy
\ndid this happen to us?\u201d and \u201chow do we understand God in these
\ncircumstances?\u201d \u00a0The Hebrew Bible answers those questions in a lot
\nof different ways, and Second Isaiah’s take is \u201cit happened, that’s
\nnot the right question. \u00a0But as to how do we understand God, that’s
\nthe important one \u2013 we know a God who comforts us, cares for us,
\nnever abandons us, and claims us. \u00a0Because of God, we have hope for
\nthe present and the future.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nare so many themes that bounce back and forth between our two
\nscriptures today, it can seem that Luke 3 is using Isaiah 43 as a
\nsource text. \u00a0However, Isaiah is inherently talking to the COMMUNITY,
\nand in Luke 3, God is speaking to Jesus \u2013 just one guy. \u00a0Or, at
\nleast, I think that’s what is happening. \u00a0The story says that it is
\nof God speaking to Jesus, but I also know the story is much larger
\nwhen we consider the baptism of Jesus as one of the primary reasons
\nwe baptize people into membership in the Body of Christ, and that
\nthis story then resonates within all baptized Christians. \u00a0So maybe
\nboth them are written to communities, but only one of them admits it?
\n I’m not sure.<\/p>\n
\ntelling about Jesus’ baptism is brief but powerful. \u00a0Jesus was
\nbaptized, he was praying, the Spirit came (like a dove) and then
\nvoice (from heaven) said, “You are my Child, the Beloved; with
\nyou I am well pleased.” \u00a0Within the Gospel this serves as an
\naffirmation of Jesus’ identity as Messiah. \u00a0However, have the words
\nhave echoed through the ages, and been passed on to each Christian at
\ntheir baptism, they have come to mean even more. \u00a0They have become
\nlike the words in Second Isaiah, an affirmation that God knows us,
\nsees us, claims us, and is with us. \u00a0These are words that tell us
\nthat we are LOVED, and that God also LIKES us. \u00a0They are words that
\ntell us of grace \u2013 that we are loved because God loves us and
\nthat’s the final answer \u2013 that our FIRST identity is \u201cloved by
\nGod\u201d -both as individuals and as a community.\n<\/p>\n
\nsecond identity, then, is to show God’s love. \u00a0In the United
\nMethodist Communion liturgy, the second question that is asked fo
\nparents of babies being baptized or of adults answering for their own
\nbaptism is, \u201cDo
\nyou accept the freedom and power God gives you to to resist evil,
\ninjustice, and oppression in whatever forms they present themselves?\u201d
\n \u00a0I have come to LOVE this question. \u00a0In fact, it has been MY cover
\nphoto on facebook for two years AND the church’s cover photo for a
\nyear and a half.
\n I’ve considered changing both, but it is too on point.
\n In these times, when the powers of injustice and oppression feel
\nlike they’re crushing in, both within the church and in the world, it
\nfeels liberating to hear that question again. \u00a0\u201cThe freedom and
\npower God gives you….\u201d \u00a0We do not have to be pulled into. \u00a0We
\ndon’t have to participate. \u00a0We can choose another path. \u00a0We are FREE,
\nbecause God frees us from the powers of evil, injustice and
\noppression.<\/p>\n
That’s some great stuff.
\nAnd Jesus is one of the examples of what a life can look like when it
\nis free from evil, injustice, and oppression. \u00a0\n<\/p>\n
\nbeloved, with whom I am well pleased.\u201d \u00a0It is easy to look at the
\nbabies we baptize and see how true those words are for them. \u00a0It can
\nbe very easy in adult baptism to hear the words echoing as well. \u00a0One
\nof the challenges is remembering that it keeps on echoing for all of
\nus, all the time. \u00a0In sacred moments, we see it, but it is
\nomnipresent. \u00a0Each person we meet is beloved by God, a child of God,
\none who God LIKES. \u00a0Each of us are beloved by God, a child of God,
\nliked by God \u2013 even when we aren’t able to like ourselves.<\/p>\n
\nbigger picture. \u00a0We, as a church, are a community of God’s, a Body of
\nChrist together (even as we are part of larger and larger versions of
\nthe Body of Christ in the world.) \u00a0We are not the entirety of God’s
\nbeloved community, but we ARE a beloved community of God’s. \u00a0Which
\nmeans that we are some of the recipients of the words in Luke as well
\nof the ones in Isaiah. \u00a0We are children of God, beloved, and with us
\nGod is well pleased. \u00a0Also,\n<\/p>\n
\nis a message to you from YHWH, who created you, from God, who formed
\nyou:<\/p>\n
\nnot be afraid. \u00a0You are in need of a family member to pay for your
\nfreedom,\n<\/p>\n
\nI have done so. \u00a0You are my family. \u00a0You bear my name.<\/p>\n
\nare God’s, together. \u00a0In fact, as a community, we come together
\nknowing ourselves to be an expression of God’s love, together. \u00a0We
\nare formed together by being people seeking God, seeking to
\nunderstand things of God, seeking to live out God’s ways in the
\nworld. \u00a0We are formed by the Divine stories, by Divine love, by
\nbuilding the kindom of God together. \u00a0We bear God’s name.<\/p>\n
\nmeans that God is with us in the ups and downs. \u00a0God was with us when
\nthis community was large, when Sunday School was overflowing and this
\nsanctuary was full every week. \u00a0God is with us now when we are fewer
\npeople, with just as much commitment to God’s ways. \u00a0God is with us
\nwhen new people are joining us, and God is with us when we gather in
\ngratitude for lives well lived. \u00a0God is with us when we are
\nstruggling to find our ways of being in this world and in this
\ncommunity, and God is with us when we know we’re up to just the right
\nways of being love in the world.<\/p>\n
\nare God’s. Thanks be to God. \u00a0Amen<\/p>\n
\n\tM. O’Connor, \u201cExegetical Perspective on Isaiah 43:1-7,\u201d in
\n\tFeasting on the Word Year C Volume 1<\/i>,
\n\ted. David L. Bartlett and Barbara Brown Taylor (Louisville, KT:
\n\tWestminster John Knox Press, 2009), 221.<\/p>\n
\n\tBruggemann, Isaiah 40-66<\/i>
\n\t(Louisville, KT: Westminster John Knox Press, 1998), 53.<\/p>\n
\n\t53.<\/p>\n