The scripture for today is from the portion of Isaiah which scholars know as Deutero-Isaiah, or Second Isaiah - chapters 40 to 55. Those chapters certainly were not written by the eighth century B.C.E. prophet whose name it bears, but rather by an anonymous observer of the events in the closing years of Babylonian rule, and who interpreted the meaning of those events to the Jewish exiles in Babylonia. A momentous event stirred him to prophesy to the captives, and that event was the rise to power of Cyrus, who this prophet saw as the Jews’ ticket to freedom. Even more than that, he saw Cyrus as the instrument of God, for he granted the Jews freedom to return to their homeland. However, the people had become dispirited in their captivity and had lost the hope of ever returning. In fact the prevailing mind-set was to accept the inevitable, make the best of their situation, and to remain in Babylonia.
Thus the prophetic task was to rouse the people’s hopes and prepare them to take advantage of the freedom, which Cyrus granted them, and to return. The prophet had to arouse in them a renewed faith in God, and to stir in them longings and hope for a homeland. Before the exile there had been stern rebukes and warnings of doom and punishment. Indeed those earlier prophets had seen Jerusalem’s defeat and the exile as instruments of God’s judgment. But now the purpose of the prophetic word is to turn them toward a future filled with glorious promise, soon to be fulfilled.
He begins with words of comfort, with an older definition meaning to strengthen, rather than to soothe, and then he proceeds to recite the mighty power of God, whose supremacy is over the whole world. Nowhere else in the scriptures is the omnipotence of God proclaimed more eloquently than in these words:
Get you up to a mountain, O Zion, herald of good tidings;
Lift up your voice with strength, O Jerusalem, herald of good tidings,
Lift it up, do not fear;
Say to the cities of Judah, "Here is your God!"
See, the Lord God comes with might, and his arm rules for him;
His reward is with him, and his recompense before him.
He will feed the flock like a shepherd;
He will gather the lambs in his arms, and carry them in his bosom,
And gently lead the mother sheep.
- Isaiah 40:9-11
And then to the portion for today:
Have you not known? Have you not heard?
Has it not been told you from the beginning?
Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth?
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 live in;
who brings princes to naught,
and who makes the rulers of the earth as nothing.
- Isaiah 40:21-23
Sometimes even the best of opportunities appear more as problems. The Jews’ experience in captivity led them to conclusions other than what these eloquent prophetic phrases were telling them. They were convinced that Yahweh had failed to help them, and even that their God had been defeated by the gods of Babylon. They were downhearted and inwardly, at least, still a defeated and dejected people.
Still this Second Isaiah would not give up. He had learned a few things during those years of captivity. Some revelations had come his way that had not been known in Palestine before the exile, for he and the other captives had come to the greatest center of culture and knowledge in the whole world. While the familiar Jewish writings spoke of the creation of God, and the psalmists extolled the moon and stars as God’s handiwork, they knew relatively little about the heavens. But here in Babylonia, astronomy was quickly becoming a science, and it opened the mind of the prophet to wonders beyond his imagination. So now he met the people’s downcast visage with a triumphant and informed faith. To those who are feeling down he said, "Look up!"
Lift up your eyes on high and see: Who created these?
He who brings out their host and numbers them,
calling them all by name; because he is great in strength,
mighty in power, not one is missing.
What do you say, O Jacob, and speak, O Israel,
"My way is hidden from the Lord, and my right is disregarded by my God?"
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.
He gives power to the faint, and strengthens the powerless.
Even youths will faint and be weary,
and the young will fall exhausted;
but those 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.
- Isaiah 40:25-31
Deutero-Isaiah’s ebullient message is to downcast people of every age. Literally thousands in our midst are captive to hopelessness and misery. Their experience, like the exiles, leads them to believe something other than the hopeful message of the prophet.
On December 24th, nearly twenty years ago, a lovely young woman in her mid-20s appeared at the church in the morning and wanted to talk. I had the feeling it might take a while, and considered the fact that in the evening there was going to be a festive Christmas Eve service, and my part of the preparation was not nearly done. After expressing my dilemma aloud she suggested she would enjoy helping, and we could talk as we worked. So we talked and worked, and went out and talked through lunch, and talked and worked some more on into the afternoon. As it turned out I had known her as a little girl and had known her parents. She came from a fine family.
She was young and beautiful, and intelligent, and well educated, and articulate, and it would seem she had everything going for her. Yet she struggled with seasons of depression, and in between those she never really felt good about herself. In her late teens she had ceased having any participation in the church. But later on, thinking that religion might be the answer to some of her problems, she linked up with a small religious group. It was not much like the church in which she had grown up, and it didn’t help matters at all. They placed a lot of emphasis on sin and salvation, and she never seemed to be able to get beyond the sin part. She was convinced she was a sinful person and needed to be saved and born again, but she was unable to feel the forgiveness of God, or any release from the guilt that oppressed her.
I told her about the God of love I believe in, ready to forgive us if we will but accept it, and that we must also forgive ourselves. We talked of the things she hoped and dreamed of in her future, and the person she wanted to be. I reminded her of all the people who loved her.
We talked and worked together most of the day. At one point, she said, "You’re really a very happy person aren’t you?" I acknowledged that at least most of the time I am. "I wish I could be like you," she said. "And I hope I can feel that God loves me. I don’t feel that right now." "I believe you can," I assured her, "and I’ll do my best to help you."
By the end of the day I was exhausted - not from the physical work I had been doing - that was easy - but from the emotional strain of trying to lift the spirits of this young woman and help her look up and see an abundant life awaiting her. Before she left she said, "This has been a good day. In fact this has been the happiest day I can remember." She was smiling. Her speech was animated. "And you might even see me in church tonight," she said. We prayed together, and she hugged me and promised to come back to talk again right after Christmas, and then she went away.
I looked for her in church that night. She was not there. I looked for her again on Sunday morning, but she was not there. I never saw her again. I had no way to get in touch with her. Two weeks after our conversation I learned that she died alone beside a lonely road. She had taken her own life.
I could hardly get her out of my mind for the next several weeks. I think of her now nearly eighteen years later, and I have an empty feeling where a pleasant memory of her should be. I have often wondered what I could have done or said that would have made the difference, and how I wish I had another chance to try. My only consolation is that I helped her have one fine day of joy and hope.
One does not overcome a deep-seated and long-term feeling of despair in a few hours, or even in a few days. That is why anyone suffering from depression or that inward-spiraling feeling of worthlessness, or even lesser problems of self-image, should immediately seek quality counseling and stay with it on a consistent basis long enough to do some good. That young woman was not even able to believe in herself, much less could she believe in and trust the God-presence with her, or within her, to forgive and affirm her.
It is sad but true that many of the people who are captive to feelings of hopelessness are young people. "My way is hidden from the Lord, and my right is disregarded by my God." That’s a way of saying, "Nobody knows and nobody cares about me, least of all God," and many would add, "If there is a God." A surprising number of young people, with what should be the best of life ahead of them, are often so despondent that they commit suicide. Suicide among teens is increasing at an alarming rate. Hospitals and teen counseling centers broadcast telephone numbers on television and radio hoping that some of these, or their families or friends, will call. If you know such a disturbed young person, perhaps the most caring thing you can do is to put them in touch with such a place. There is no stigma attached to seeking help. In fact, rather than a sign of weakness, it shows strength and courage. This is a message that we must communicate to the downhearted and discouraged and despondent, to look up and see the evidences of the loving and redeeming God. Of course one of the best ways is to show them that loving, caring and accepting presence in ourselves.
At the counter of a coffee shop where I used to go rather frequently, I sat beside a man I had seen there several times before. He was always alone. So this time I decided it might be good to get acquainted. We learned each other’s names. His was Paul. After a little conversation we found we enjoyed each other’s company, and over the next three years until I moved, we met often and sat together in one of the booths to talk.
Paul was a quiet sort of man, and not given to talking much about himself, so it was several months before he told me he had been in prison. He hadn’t told me up to that time because he was afraid of rejection. It had happened many times before. I considered it an indication of great trust that he told me at all. "I’ve done some terrible things," he told me, "but, no, it wasn’t murder." He was nearly seventy when I knew him, and he had been out of prison for nearly twenty years, but up to the time he was fifty he had spent more than half his life behind bars. Now he was free, or at least his body was free. He could come and go as he chose. And possibly because he had spent so many years locked up, he would often ride for miles in the open country on his motorcycle. But Paul, like those to whom the message of Deutero-Isaiah was addressed, was still a prisoner of sorts. He was sure nobody would want to know him if they really knew about his past. He was afraid nobody would trust him, even though he had been a law-abiding citizen for years. He was haunted by his past - that part of his life he had wasted, and that had colored so much what he thought of himself.
I found out something else about Paul, though. He lived in a tiny house in a rather run-down area of the town inhabited mostly by older folks living on small pensions. Paul spent most of his time working for those people and doing whatever needed to be done - fixing a roof, repairing a faucet, digging a garden, or building a fence. He didn’t charge anything except for materials. He knew those people needed help with things they were unable to do for themselves. He said, "I guess this is a way I can make up a little bit for what I did earlier on in life. I’m really happy, and can forget the past for a while, when I’m doing something for somebody else." Part of Paul will always be the captive. Another part of him is still struggling and learning to be free. I like to think that what was shared in our friendship helped free him a bit more.
Now someone may say that doesn’t sound like much of a success story. Of course we like to hear those stories of how someone’s life is changed dramatically, and those happen occasionally. Most often our successes are small ones. You know it is strange the way we measure success. A baseball player with a batting average of .330 is a good hitter. However, if that is good we need to keep in mind that two of every three times he comes up to bat, he fails! That might even have been about what that ancient prophet’s average was, too. Despite his best efforts probably most of the exiles or their descendants stayed where they were - in Babylonia. We must never be discouraged for lack of dramatic success. Perhaps there is more impact on the lives we touch than is apparent.
Jesus had an amazing power to uplift people, in ways more than just the curing of bodies. I think that is why, when he healed someone, he was as likely to say "your sins are forgiven" as to say "rise up and walk." Jesus had the ability to free people from whatever power, real or imagined, kept them from living full and fulfilled lives. I am convinced we have that same healing quality. In fact Jesus himself indicated to his disciples that they would do even greater things than they had seen him do.
You and I encounter people every day who are downcast and have forgotten, if they ever knew, how to look up and behold the presence of God. They need to be strengthened (comforted) and lifted up. We may get only one chance. We may not always be remarkably successful. But the good news is that no situation and no person is hopeless, and that God can move through us with power and grace to redeem and renew life. To those who are weary of all hope we declare the God who "does not faint or grow weary." To those who are sure nobody understands, we proclaim the God whose "understanding is unsearchable." To those faint-hearted and afraid to try, we promise "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." Like Jesus we must embody those qualities of hope, and understanding, and acceptance, and love, and encouragement, and compassion just as Jesus did. And if anyone should ask us beyond that how we can be so certain that God is in charge of creation and cares for them, invite them out on a clear starry night and say to them some of the things that ancient prophet said to his dispirited people. "Look up. Who created these, and called them by name? Then how could any of us be absent from God’s care and love?"