1. Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Heavenly Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. The message from God’s Word on this 5th Sunday after Epiphany is taken from Isaiah 40:21-31, it’s entitled, “Promises, Promises!” Dear brothers and sisters in Christ.
2. Promises make me nervous. Watching a police show on TV, I’ll see a detective promise the victim of a crime that he’ll catch the perpetrator and bring him to justice, no matter what it takes! Of course, in a TV show, the scriptwriters are “God”; they can write the story in such a way that the promise is kept. But in real life, none of us actually is God. All too often, even if we mean our promises in all sincerity, we simply can’t foresee and control all situations. Is 40:21–24 says, “21 Do you not know? Do you not hear? Has it not been told you from the beginning? Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth? 22 It is he who sits above the circle of the earth, and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers; who stretches out the heavens like a curtain, and spreads them like a tent to dwell in; 23 who brings princes to nothing, and makes the rulers of the earth as emptiness. 24 Scarcely are they planted, scarcely sown, scarcely has their stem taken root in the earth, when he blows on them, and they wither, and the tempest carries them off like stubble.”
3.
Promises like sponsors for baptisms, for
marriage and ordination vows must be made, but we always add phrases like, “by
the grace of God” and “with the help of God,” because he is in
control of all situations, and he is most certainly, most lovingly willing,
desiring only the eternal best for us, and he is able to give it to us in
Christ. Isaiah 40:28–31 says, “28 Have you not known? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable. 29 He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might he increases strength. 30 Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted; 31 but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount
up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary;
they shall walk and not faint.
4. Is there anything God isn’t powerful enough to do? Well, of course, we know God is omnipotent, almighty, so we know the answer is no. We might wonder this when we really need something, something that really matters, maybe something that does seem like a long shot, is God really able to help us? And, maybe even more, is he willing to help? Our text today gives us an emphatic yes to both! God, as God, is both able and willing to rescue His beloved people.
5. Even before it happens, God answers Israel’s wavering faith in his ability or willingness to keep his promises, to bring them back from Babylon. Isaiah preaches in Jerusalem a century before the Babylonian captivity, that is when the Babylonian empire conquers the Southern Kingdom of Israel and hauls them off into exile from their homeland into Babylon. But God prepares them for it. God’s people, who by their syncretism, their mixing of worship of other religions, and unfaithfulness are bringing upon themselves that horrible judgment, will now be tempted to doubt the Lord altogether.
6. It will seem, on the surface, that the Lord was actually defeated by the gods of Babylon, that he was not powerful enough to save his people. Or they will begin to think he simply abandoned them, that he isn’t willing to save them. So, God provides this answer to their weakness and doubts, reminding them that he is both infinitely able and lovingly willing to rescue them, bring them back to their homeland, and guard and keep them as his beloved, chosen people.
7. The LORD gently chastises and warns them in Isaiah 40:21–26. “Don’t you remember what I’ve been saying to you from the beginning? I am the Lord, the incomparable Creator of heaven and earth. The true King of all the kings of the earth. Of course I am able!” Then he encourages them in Isaiah 40:27–31. “Wait for me; trust in me! I will give you my strength. For, despite how it looks now, I have spoken: I will never abandon you. I already know, have set in motion, how I will carry out my promise to bring you back to Jerusalem”—initially, through Cyrus King of Persia. But the Lord promises his ultimate Servant Jesus—who will rescue and protect them forever, giving back “double” blessing for all their sins & iniquities.
8. Our dear Father in Heaven answers us in our weak and tempted faith. He is able and willing to rescue and preserve us, his beloved Israel, his Church. We, like Israel, face temptations to doubt whether God is able or willing to rescue and strengthen us.
9. It looks today as if the Church is failing, our congregations shrinking, our culture hostile to our message, God’s Holy Word!. For instance, in America the percentage of Christians who attend church once a week, is only 20%, that’s down from 32% in 2000. If we lower the threshold to once a month or more, the number of Americans in regular church attendance jumps to 41%. America feels ever more like a Babylonian captivity.
10. You probably also heard of the rise of the “nones.” (And here I’m not talking about Catholic women who wear a habit over their head, live in a Convent, and pray the rosary). The percentage of Americans who identify as religiously unaffiliated, often referred to as the "Nones," has been increasing. Many in this group may not necessarily identify as atheist or agnostic but do not affiliate with a specific religious tradition. This trend has contributed to a decline in the percentage of the population identifying as Christian. According to a new report from Pew Research Center, those who now describe themselves as atheists, agnostics or “nothing in particular” when asked about their religion constitute about 28% of all U.S. adults. They are larger than evangelical Protestants (24%) as well as Catholics (23%).
11. To put their rise into perspective, in 2007 they tallied only 16% of Americans. In the 1980s, they would have only made up around 5% of the population. While it is true that few go to religious services with any regularity, most “nones” believe in God or some other higher power. They consider themselves spiritual. But to be sure, if they believe in God, they will say it is not the God of the Bible.
12. It’s true, as sinners we are tempted to believe God needs the help of our “wisdom” or strength to rescue and revive his Church. We might even be tempted simply to give up to the culture around us. But God knew our need and prepared his answer from the foundations of the earth: through Jesus Christ. He gently chastises us for our lack of faith: “Do you not know? . . . Has it not been told you from the beginning?” He is the almighty Creator, whose Word is unbreakable. He is the true king, even of our own nation, whether he is acknowledged or not. He is able! And he rules over all, specifically for the sake of his Church, even us. In fact Jesus reminds us in Matthew 16:18 as He is speaking to Peter, "And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it." This verse is spoken by Jesus in response to Peter's confession that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God. The foundation of the Church is Jesus as its cornerstone. The phrase "gates of hell" or "gates of Hades" is understood to represent the forces of evil or death, indicating that the Church will ultimately triumph over all adversities of sin, death, and the devil.
13. Jesus comforts and strengthens us today, even in his own body and blood in the Sacrament. For he is the suffering Servant, Jesus, who paid for our sins through His death on the cross, who exchanged our weakness for his strength and our sin for his righteousness. For our sake, the Father did not rescue him, but rather let him endure the cross for us and our salvation.
14. Jesus is, therefore, able and willing to rescue us from every threat and need we face. So how do we reach those of the next generation for Christ especially with the rise of the nones I mentioned earlier? What are some of the marks of churches that reach Nones? For one thing, we need to move past the “if you build it they will come” mentality. Nones might like coffee, but they respond to a cause like poverty reduction, and they’ll come check out a community that invites them into one. For Nones it’s Cause –> Community –> Christ in order of interest. Still, when they do come, they need to experience grace and truth, the uniquely powerful truth of God’s grace in Jesus that sets apart the message of the gospel from all other religious systems. This can only happen if there is a community that puts a premium on the lived unity of the body of Christ instead of the sort of Christian infighting that turns nones off. Finally, in a more practical way to reach the “nones” of our culture, churches need to “open the front door.” In other words, pay attention to the church itself and the weekend gathering. Cultivate a friendly, open atmosphere. Keep things tidy. How you keep the church building demonstrates the reverence you have for the Lord. Develop a solid children’s ministry, because if their kids love the children’s ministry, they’ll stick around.
15. The promise is ours: “They who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength . . . they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.” Here, hidden in the midst of weakness and exile, but finally there in our homeland with him forever. Amen. Now the peace of God that passes all understanding, guard your hearts and minds, in Christ Jesus, until life everlasting. Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment