Sermon - Isaiah 60:1-6 - Be Radiant

Rev. Jeffrey T. Howard

Pitts Creek and Beaver Dam Churches

Sermon - Isaiah 60:1-6 - Be Radiant

Epiphany

January 6, 2013

Time never stops. Just as 2012 became 2013 last week so too does the church calendar keep moving. We have completed our celebration of our savior's birth. Today we celebrate Epiphany, the appearance of God on Earth. Traditionally the church has associated this day with the visit of the Magi, and the coming of Gentiles, non-ethnic Jews to belief in Jesus. In Jesus Christ, God has offered his son not just for the children of Abraham but to everyone on earth. And this is really good news. We will get to this, but first let's pray.

“Grant unto us, O Lord, to be occupied in the mysteries of thy heavenly wisdom, with true progress in piety, to thy glory and our own edification. Amen.” (John Calvin)

Towards the end of the sixth century before Christ the people of God were returning to Jerusalem after 40 years of exile in Babylon. The Babylonian empire had been crushed and Persia was the new power in town. King Cyrus of Persia told the Hebrews that they could return to Jerusalem to rebuild their city and their temple. Some of them preferred to stay in Babylon where they had built homes, farms and businesses. But many returned to their homeland to begin the rebuilding.

When they arrived in Jerusalem they found people living there. The city had been reduced to rubble by the Babylonians, and people were trying to eek out whatever life they could on top of a pile of rocks. The Babylonians had left behind in Jerusalem anyone they didn't want. So the poor, the sick, the aged, and the disabled were left to fend for themselves for forty years. The Jews coming home from exile also found aliens in their land. These people had come there as refugees from the wars of the sixth century. Some had brought their own pagan religions. Some aliens had begun worshiping God.

Many of the returning Jews wanted nothing to do with these people. They were poor, disabled and many were not even descendants of Abraham. Some had even been castrated to serve in the Imperial Government. So they were excluded from the religious and social life of the community. The returning Jews would live in gated communities and worship God by themselves. They thought that if they maintained their Sabbaths and fasted that God would bless them. But God was not happy with this and he sent a prophet to tell them what to do. And we have the writings of this prophet in the Book of Isaiah, chapters 56-66. Let's begin.

Isaiah 56:1-7 ^NIV Isaiah 56:1 This is what the LORD says: "Maintain justice and do what is right, for my salvation is close at hand and my righteousness will soon be revealed. ² Blessed is the man who does this, the man who holds it fast, who keeps the Sabbath without desecrating it, and keeps his hand from doing any evil." ³ Let no foreigner who has bound himself to the LORD say, "The LORD will surely exclude me from his people." And let not any eunuch complain, "I am only a dry tree." ⁴ For this is what the LORD says: "To the eunuchs who keep my Sabbaths, who choose what pleases me and hold fast to my covenant-- ⁵ to them I will give within my temple and its walls a memorial and a name better than sons and daughters; I will give them an everlasting name that will not be cut off. ⁶ And foreigners who bind themselves to the LORD to serve him, to love the name of the LORD, and to worship him, all who keep the Sabbath without desecrating it and who hold fast to my covenant-- ⁷ these I will bring to my holy mountain and give them joy in my house of prayer.

So God demanded radical inclusiveness. They must not exclude believers from other countries simply because they are not descendants of Abraham. They must not exclude believers who had served the imperial government simply because their bodies had been mutilated. All who believe in God, including the alien and the eunuch, must be admitted into the assembly if they believe in God and obey his commands. The temple that was to be built in Jerusalem would be known as a “House of Prayer for all Nations.”

The returning exiles thought they could hide behind their worship and fasting and still be able to cheat people in business and to not care for the poor. They would worship in the synagogues in Friday evenings and fast when they were told to, but when the sun rose of Sunday morning they could take away someone's home or farm on some technicality and ignore a hungry beggar on the streets. The prophet put it this way.

Isaiah 58:3-7 ³ 'Why have we fasted,' they say, 'and you have not seen it? Why have we humbled ourselves, and you have not noticed?' "Yet on the day of your fasting, you do as you please and exploit all your workers. ⁴ Your fasting ends in quarreling and strife, and in striking each other with wicked fists. You cannot fast as you do today and expect your voice to be heard on high. ⁵ Is this the kind of fast I have chosen, only a day for a man to humble himself? Is it only for bowing one's head like a reed and for lying on sackcloth and ashes? Is that what you call a fast, a day acceptable to the LORD? ⁶ "Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke? ⁷ Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter-- when you see the naked, to clothe him, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?

So inclusiveness was not the only thing God wanted. God wanted all people to receive justice and for the poor and needy, and the widows and orphans to receive what they needed. God demanded justice and righteousness for all people. But the returning exiles ignored what God wanted and fell into sin.

Isaiah 59:2-9 ² But your iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear. ³ For your hands are stained with blood, your fingers with guilt. Your lips have spoken lies, and your tongue mutters wicked things. ⁴ No one calls for justice; no one pleads his case with integrity. They rely on empty arguments and speak lies; they conceive trouble and give birth to evil. ⁵ They hatch the eggs of vipers and spin a spider's web. Whoever eats their eggs will die, and when one is broken, an adder is hatched. ⁶ Their cobwebs are useless for clothing; they cannot cover themselves with what they make. Their deeds are evil deeds, and acts of violence are in their hands. ⁷ Their feet rush into sin; they are swift to shed innocent blood. Their thoughts are evil thoughts; ruin and destruction mark their ways. ⁸ The way of peace they do not know; there is no justice in their paths. They have turned them into crooked roads; no one who walks in them will know peace. ⁹ So justice is far from us, and righteousness does not reach us. 

We look for light, but all is darkness; for brightness, but we walk in deep shadows.

So what's the solution to all this? Will we live darkness forever? We will unless a redeemer comes.

Isaiah 59:20-21 ²⁰ "The Redeemer will come to Zion, to those in Jacob who repent of their sins," declares the LORD. ²¹ "As for me, this is my covenant with them," says the LORD. "My Spirit, who is on you, and my words that I have put in your mouth will not depart from your mouth, or from the mouths of your children, or from the mouths of their descendants from this time on and forever," says the LORD.

The Glory of God will come and when we see it our sins will be forgiven and we will be free to welcome the outsider in our congregation, to act justly in all our dealings and to care for the poor. And so the prophet commands us.

^NIV Isaiah 60:1 "Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the LORD rises upon you. ² See, darkness covers the earth and thick darkness is over the peoples, but the LORD rises upon you and his glory appears over you. ³ Nations will come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your dawn. ⁴ "Lift up your eyes and look about you: All assemble and come to you; your sons come from afar, and your daughters are carried on the arm. ⁵ Then you will look and be radiant, your heart will throb and swell with joy; the wealth on the seas will be brought to you, to you the riches of the nations will come. ⁶ Herds of camels will cover your land, young camels of Midian and Ephah. And all from Sheba will come, bearing gold and incense and proclaiming the praise of the LORD.

Five hundred years later the Glory of God had come to house in Bethlehem. Magi from a far off country saw God's Glory light the heavens. They came to Jesus bearing gold and incense and praising God. Today the Glory of God is here with us on this Epiphany Sunday. And we are not ethnic Jews, descendants of Abraham. We are aliens who have benefited from the radical inclusiveness of the church. We are called to be a people of justice, treating others as we would want to be treated. We are called to be a people who cares for the poor in our community and around the world. And like the wise men who visited Jesus we bring our gifts to advance God's mission on Earth.

Let us pray. Father in heaven let your light shine on us this day. Help us to be the people we were created to be not just in worship but every day of our lives. Forgive our sin and lead us to new life. Help us to do your will on earth as in heaven. Amen.