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Sermon - February 8th, 2009
On Eagles Wings
Rev. Gwen Drake
Scripture: Isaiah 40:21-31
I don’t know if you know it, but we live in exciting times. Right now is a good time to be alive. History is being made. Everything is being made new. The forces for change and the forces against change are at battle with each other. And the church is not exempt. Some people who spend form time than I do looking at trends, history, statistics are saying that the church is going through a huge upheaval where nothing can be taken for granted any more. Phyllis Tickle is one of those people and she has given me the gift of perspective. She says, a time like this, it happens once every 500 years.
The Christian faith is emerging into something new and we don’t know what it is going to be yet. Phyllis calls this once-every-500-years change “the great emergence.” Some of what this means is that what we have been doing in the past doesn’t work anymore. Our own notions of discipleship are exhausted. Our own ideas of success are bankrupt. Welcome to the great emergence!
What we can do during these times is glance back at our Judeo-Christian past, and see that we have already been through times of upheaval and survived. Not just survive! We thrived! Not in usual ways, either. Creativity thrived. The arts thrived. New thought thrived. Poetry thrived.
Today’s scripture reading was written in one of those once every 500 year upheaval times—the Babylonian exile. This part of Isaiah is known a Second Isaiah. Second Isaiah was a prophecy with great poetic imagination. The “known world” of Jerusalem had been assaulted and disbanded. The year 587 before Christ, was the pivotal year. The temple in Jerusalem was burned, the holy city was destroyed, the dynasty of King David was terminated, and leading citizens deported. Public life in Judah came to a screeching halt. The brightest and best were taken to Babylon and assimilated into that culture. This was a very odd situation for the chosen people of God.
The major prophets, Jeremiah, Ezekial, Isaiah spoke about this time theologically, helping their people enter into exile, be in exile, and depart out of exile. It was Second Isaiah who spoke about going back home, something that we would think would be welcomed news for the exiled. But it was not an easy task for a prophet; the exile had been long and Babylon was feeling like home.
So, Second Isaiah painted a picture with words, jarring his people away from of the seduction of Babylon. He created new hope by reaching into their memory of home. He did not give a picture of the past, however, he talked about a new reality. He told them about God’s promise of a new world waiting to be built back where they came from. He described a powerful God who would lead the way, making the “uneven ground level” and the “rough places” smooth.
This was not easy for the poet for he was speaking to a people in a crisis of faith. The old world of king and temple was taken from the people and replaced by the riches and power of Babylon. Their faith, too, was in exile--exiled by the gods of Babylon. The old world was gone; Babylon was home.
Second Isaiah is full of powerful poetic metaphors. He was not Moses leading his people out of bondage. Exile for the Jews did not mean they were in prison or refugee camps or slavery. They had been put to work. They had become assimilated. They had been seduced by Babylon. The poet had to reach into the recesses of their minds and pry them away from a life that had become comfortable in many ways. The poet had to remind them and disturb them and get them to want to go home. They needed to receive a new vision from God. And they did—or some did. Isaiah called the people home and Jerusalem was re-built.
Can you see some parallels? A new world is also underway—a new way of being human, being in community, of being the church. It’s being called the great emergence. And, I believe it is a God thing. We human beings, especially those of us who like to be in control, we need to get out of the way and receive. Is that easy? No way is it easy!
The great emergence is happening for a reason, lots of reasons. One of the prophets of our day, Old Testament scholar, Walter Brueggemann would name those reasons “exile”—exiled by the values of nationalism, consumerism, and other idols that have become our gods, our Babylon.
So, Second Isaiah said, the Lord God, the most powerful God in the universe would lead them to their true home, the mighty and everlasting God, who sits above the circle of the earth. “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.” Second Isaiah gave powerful descriptions of God and what God does for God’s people, and the futility of idols, and the introduction of the suffering servant. Second Isaiah reminded the people that they were in Babylon because of God’s judgment, and now God was calling them home, it was time for restoration and deliverance and homecoming.
The word of Second Isaiah can speak to us today. The Holy One has chosen us, has called us, named us, giving us mouths like sharp swords, making us like polished arrows. God is calling us to go out into the world like candles in a dark room. God is calling us to this extraordinary time to reflect of the Light of the World.
Second Isaiah, the poet, was calling people to a home that they were going to have to rebuild brand new, using God’s vision. He was lighting a fire under their feet, trying to get them to move off of dead center. Second Isaiah was their spark. He was given to his exiled world as a bright light leading them home.
I think this is happening now in the church… I agree with Phyllis Tickle, we are in a time of great emergence in western Christianity, perhaps globally. There are signs all over the place. And if this is disturbing you a great deal, then it is time to look at how much you have to lose. Or, maybe your whole world is crumbling around you, (one could feel that way if you watch the news too much) and you feel like the church, your church, is the one thing that needs to stay the same. Well, I’m sorry, I can’t promise you that the church is going to stay the same. I can promise you that God, as usual, is doing a new thing, bringing in a whole new world, a new Christianity is emerging, like it did 500 years ago with the Reformation, and another 500 years before that, and all the way back to the exile and the beginning of history.
Many of you know already that my life has been crazy lately. Emma eloped last weekend much to the surprise of her family. I knew about it six days before it happened, her Dad knew somewhere around 4 days before, and she finally told her sister Abbe the day she eloped.
Now there are a lot of ways I could look at this event, and I probably have looked at most of them—it’s probably been like moving through the stages of grief. The day after she told me her plans, I was walking on the beach at Manzanita. I love rocks and shells and other treasurers that you find on the beach and usually come home with my pocket filled with them. That day I wasn’t looking that hard for treasurers, I was walking and thinking (worrying). I picked up three things—two rocks and a piece of driftwood. The piece of driftwood was the most interesting. It fit in my hand perfectly. I think it’s probably a knot in a tree that was pushed out. My thumb fits into the indention like a kind of worry stone. But that day I just stuck it in my pocket and left it there. A couple of days later I found it again, and put it in my hand and started rubbing it. I remembered all the people who were praying for Emma, including me. More than anything I had wanted and hoped and yearned that Emma would find her way out of the exile she was in with a guy who was controlling, manipulative, and abusive. It suddenly came to me, even though Emma was the one making the choices, her decision to elope, well, I had to admit, maybe it was one of those “be careful what you pray for” answers to prayer. She didn’t elope with that guy. She eloped with a different guy, one she had been friends with in high school who was now in the Marines!
Now, those of you who know me really well, know that I have this crazy, unconventional relationship with God. One minute I wonder if God even exists and we made all this religious stuff up, and the next minute I’m seeing God in an oak tree, or I’m blown around by something someone said. Or, like last Sunday, those of you who were here were invited to receive a gift word. Some of you shared how significant the word was that you received. The word I received was “believe.”
I have to admit and believe that this decision Emma made could be an answer to prayer. When she and I talked, I heard her talking about freedom and opportunity and having a future and dreams and hopes. I heard the Emma whom I know and love. I heard her talk about coming out of exile.
It’s going to take work and there are no guarantees. He is a Marine in San Diego. They are good friends. He has seen Emma as her worst. I don’t remember who he is from her high school days and I’m his mother-in-law. His name is Cody. Emma’s name is now Emma Fleming—and you know something, that sounds kind of famous, Emma Fleming.
So, Emma, the church, the nation, the whole world are a time of great emergence. A time that comes around once every 500 years! We don’t know what the future holds—but we do know that what seems to emerging with the church is a community that is more inclusive, more devoted to the radical teachings of Jesus, a community that depends more on the internet, a virtual community. Yes, God is doing a new thing, again. And we are alive to witness it and be part of it. For that, I rejoice. Just as I am able to take a deep breath and rejoice with Emma and her new life. Amen.