"Isaiah 43"

by Revd Bruce Waldron - 19th February 2006

Isaiah 43:

Do not remember the former things, or consider the things of old.
I am about to do a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?
I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.
The wild animals will honor me, the jackals and the ostriches;
for I give water in the wilderness, rivers in the desert,
to give drink to my chosen people,
the people whom I formed for myself so that they might declare my praise.
Yet you did not call upon me, O Jacob; but you have been weary of me, O Israel!
You have not brought me your sheep for burnt offerings,
or honored me with your sacrifices.
I have not burdened you with offerings, or wearied you with frankincense.
You have not bought me sweet cane with money,
or satisfied me with the fat of your sacrifices.
But you have burdened me with your sins;
you have wearied me with your iniquities.
I am He who blots out your transgressions for my own sake,
and I will not remember your sins.

This passage from the book of Isaiah in the Old Testament is a part of the prophetic words that are given to the nation whilst it is in exile in Babylon.

The judgement has come upon Israel for its unwillingness to be faithful to God. The people are in Babylon, surrounded by powerful enemies. Their nation is in ruins – gone. And in the middle of this captivity, this desolation, this word comes to them, a prophetic word, holding hope for the future.

You sinned, and you can’t do a thing about it. That’s OK. God’s message is the sin is going to be taken away by God.

Israel’s looking back, miserable at all that has gone wrong. It’s past, says God to them,… leave it behind. God is going to do new things.

And all this talk about wild beasts and ostriches and the desert having water???? What’s that about????

If you go back to the foundation texts in Israel’s faith, the Genesis story, it talks of the dislocation between people and nature. When everything is right with God, the world is a garden and there is harmony and communication. When the people are out of harmony with God they are banished from the Garden and the land brings briars and thistles and there is death and contention between people and nature.

In this vision from the second part of the book of Isaiah, there is a harmony with nature and the landscape again. In unity with God there is unity in creation.

These promises that are coming to the people of Israel in their banishment to Babylon are all like Paul’s words to the Christians at Corinth.

For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, whom we proclaimed among you,(Silvanus and Timothy and I), was not “Yes and No”; but in him it is always “Yes.” For in him every one of God’s promises is a “Yes.” For this reason it is through him that we say the “Amen,” to the glory of God. But it is God who establishes us with you in Christ and has anointed us, by putting his seal on us and giving us his Spirit in our hearts as a first installment.

The gospel message is all “Yes, Yes, Yes.”

God isn’t in two minds about the gospel. It’s for us, not conditional, not if, or maybe. It’s all positive and intentional. Blessing is directed at us without any conditions.

What Israel forgot, before it had the judgement passed on it, was that it was a prophetic community and it is going to be again. Prophetic doesn’t mean telling the future. It means proclaiming God’s word, God’s intention.

That’s what the Christian Church is intended to be too. It is here to proclaim God’s intention, even when things are at their most discouraging, their most depressing.

So what we are to do, in the face of global warming, in the face of the increasing divide between the west and the east, the increasing lack of sympathetic community between Islam and us, the fear of violence that is growing, is to continue to be a prophetic community, proclaiming the good news of the gospel and God’s design for a world of peace, for a world that respects God’s creation.

There is an eternal optimism in the Christian heart that knows, like the book of Isaiah, that no matter what, God has not deserted creation.

Prophets were weird people in some ways. They wanted to show that the nation was in need of repentance – they would go and dress in sackcloth and ashes. When Hosea wanted Israel to know that it was behaving like a faithless wife, he went and married a harlot, and kept accepting her back with love every time she was faithless to him. When Jeremiah wanted Israel to know that God would restore the land, he bought a field in the middle of enemy territory where he couldn’t possibly have any rights to the land. Prophets lived the promise, the message.

As a church, if we are to be a prophetic community, we have to live the message. Like the prophets, we become a sign of God’s word to the world. That is the charge laid on each and every member of the Christian church. Together, as well as individually, we live, we become the message of God’s hope for the world. Good deeds are not just done because we need to do good, because we are “nice” people.

It is the message, the prophetic message to the world. Faithfulness to each other, to our church, isn’t about being good corporate citizens. It is the church, us, being a prophetic voice. This is at the heart of any theology of the church. We are the gospel, lived, and proclaimed.

When we sing this next song, please think about these words. In the dark times, and in the good times, just like God is always Yes to us, so we are always “Yes” to God.

Like the old prophets who would not accept the gloom and dismay that people had sunk into, we know that God is still with us, still for us. And the ups and downs of life won’t shake that conviction. Life has to have its lovely times and its really rough times. That’s simply about being mortal. Life can be pretty difficult at times, but that doesn’t mean that God isn’t still loving us. God will work God’s love out for us, not against us, even in the valleys, even in the valley of the shadow of death, as the psalmist put it. God still is for us, and will bring us home.

There’s a line in here that I struggled with for a while. I thought “I don’t want to sing this line. It’s rubbish.” The line goes, “You give and take away, you give and take away. My heart will choose to say Lord, blessed be your name.” The trouble is, I’ve always heard that used in the most horrible way, as though when we lose something, when we get sick, when a part of the body ceases to function properly, when someone dies, God has chosen to take it from us. I reject that idea out of hand. We are mortal and we must gain and lose all sorts of things as part of that mortality. When someone dies, it isn’t that God takes them at all. I do believe, by faith, that God receives them in grace and love. But that’s a very different idea. So I wasn’t keen on this part of the song.

And then the penny dropped. Here it is in Isaiah.

“I will take away your transgressions and remember your sins no more.”

You read it again in Psalm 103, V 12

as far as the east is from the west,

so far he removes our transgressions from us.

And suddenly I knew what I was singing “you give and take away” in a new way. I’m glad God takes away my transgressions. I’m glad God takes away my fear. I’m glad God takes away my lack of faith, my lack of hope. I’m glad God takes away my fear of death, my depression and loss of hope. I’m glad God takes away my maudlin pessimism that tomorrow will be only gloom and despair.

You give and take away. My heart will choose to say, Lord, blessed be your name.

Like Isaiah, the church is called to be a prophetic community, a group who lives the hope of the gospel. So like it says in another part of Isaiah, in Chapter 35

Strengthen the weak hands,

and make firm the feeble knees.

Say to those who are of a fearful heart,

“Be strong, do not fear!

Here is your God.

We are called to be a prophetic community, living out the word of God to our community.

Can we pray for this reality, and the integrity of our calling.

Lord and Saviour, help us to have the faith to know that you are there in the dark moments and in the good. We receive life from you, knowing that one day we must return it to you. We receive blessing from you, knowing that life cannot be full of only blessings. Trusting in your love, we bless your name in the darkness and in the light, in the morning and in the evening, in the joy and in the struggle, for you are always there.

Help us, we pray, to have the faith to know you are there with us, in all of life’s joys and struggles, its victories and its defeats.

Give us the faith to be your love to each other, and to all of your creation.

Amen