Isaiah 62: 1-5 A Sermon Preached by Dan Johnson on 1/14/07 We continue our Epiphany worship series inspired by a report from GfK Custom Research about a 2005 study of various values that Americans hold dear. The report was intended to inform marketing strategies for businesses, but the list of values are intriguing expressions of what Christian living can create and cultivate. So, in worship during the season of Epiphany we’re looking closer at these values in ascending order of rank: Stable Relationships, Justice, Friendship, Health and Fitness, Freedom, Family and Honesty. If these are the top seven values Americans are seeking these days, how can our faith and our church provide the mentoring and the means we need to develop these values in our daily lives? I appreciate the input many of you are providing about these topics. Keep the cards and letters coming! We focus this morning on the theme of justice, and a daunting theme that is for this brief context. For example, the book War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy depicted the quest for interpersonal and societal justice in Russia during the Napoleonic Wars. Depending on the publisher and edition, this epic novel about justice is around 1,500 pages in length while this sermon is only 1,500 words in length! Obviously, this morning we’ll barely scratch the surface of this vast and complex issue. Even so, if we stimulate a few thoughts to continue pondering and more importantly, acting on this subject after we’ve left this sanctuary, then perhaps this message will have served its purpose. The book of Isaiah was most likely written in several different time frames by several different authors. Biblical scholars routinely divide the book of Isaiah into at least three parts, attributing chapters 1-39 to “First Isaiah,” chapters 40-55 to “Second Isaiah” and chapters 56-66 to “Third Isaiah.” This division is based on evidence of differing literary styles and dates of historical references. Give or take a couple decades, First Isaiah was written around 700 BCE during the reign of King Ahaz of Judah. Second Isaiah was written around 600 BCE during the Babylonian exile of the Jews. Third Isaiah can be placed around 500 BCE in the period of Cyrus King of Persia where God rescues the people from exile and restores them to health and home. Today’s scripture reading comes from Third Isaiah and promises a figure identified as the “Anointed One” – one who will offer vindication, salvation and new creation to God’s people (62:1-2). Each of these three biblical promises: vindication, salvation and new creation, offer important insights into our pursuit of justice today and are fleshed out in verses 3-5. Vindication is commonly defined as “cleared, defended, absolved, excused, and acquitted.” In the case of Isaiah vindication also involves the often challenging task of looking at the accused party with “the glimmer of dawn, the glory, the beauty, the hand of God in the other.” This is the way the accused and alienated Israelites were to be viewed. Dave Knutson from our congregation advocates for similar grace-filled justice, “…people confuse, misappropriate, and otherwise screw up by equating judgment with justice. The concept of justice means to be fair. The concept of judgment means to make a decision. It seems to me that this confusion easily allows our society to equate justice with retribution, punishment and the like. Nothing pains me more than to hear a discussion about capital punishment, and the lack of speed with which the ultimate punishment is inflicted, and the comments that the family of the victim needs the death of the perpetrator so ‘they can move on.’ It seems to me we are a very sick society when retribution must be inflicted on another human being before the person harmed can start to heal and ‘move on.’ In many respects, the American concept of justice is a ‘rush to judgment.’” Salvation typically carries the connotation of some kind of spiritual rescue from our sins. But it’s interesting that the picture Isaiah paints of salvation is not some individual other worldly escape from judgment, but the promise of respect and rights in the here and now. Roger Acton from our congregation points out a similar distinction, “I believe our system warts and all, does a pretty good job of enforcing the laws (dispensing justice). However, I don’t think we do a very good job of identifying and correcting social injustices, in our personal lives, our local government, our national government or in the world.” If we need convincing about the existence of social injustices and our collective need for salvation, listen to this. Ten years ago a teacher in New York asked her class on Martin Luther King Day to write about their dreams after learning about King’s dreams. This is what they wrote in one public school classroom: ”1. Michael dreams that the leukemia will go away. 2. Brandon dreams that some day he will have a dad, for real. 3. Amber dreams that some day she and her mom can be safe. 4. Marcia dreams that she can stay in this house, and the judge won’t make her go back to the one where you are always scared. 5. Cheri dreams of food - a lot and a lot of it. 6. Monica dreams that Daddy really wasn’t killed so Mom can buy something that isn’t food. 7. Jane dreams that no one kills me before 16 so I can drive away. 8. Chris dreams that he gets a new heart before this one stops. 9. Tim dreams that someday he can be an artist and not have to fight. 10. Perry dreams that people will stop selling drugs so the cops will stay away. 11. Ashley and Ralph don’t have time to dream cause ‘living’s hard work.’” By the way, these were the dreams for salvation from 6-, 7-, and 8- year-olds. What are our dreams for salvation? And thirdly, new creation. Isaiah promises that Israel and we will be so transformed by this work of vindication and salvation that we will be renamed -- created anew. Sheryl Leill from our church reflects on this transforming power of justice that has been at work in her life. “My opinion on economic justice has changed significantly over the past few years (perhaps the result of going to seminary….!). I used to believe that one just had to work hard to get ahead. I felt like we (Eric and I) were where we were in life because we studied hard in school, worked hard, saved money, etc. I just thought if everyone did that, then there would be no problem. That was so naïve that I’m embarrassed to even tell you about it. I’ve come to understand, though, the concept of privilege, and I thank Chris Smith of United Theological Seminary for making me really think about this. Being white, able-bodied, born to a middle class family, etc, has affected absolutely everything I have done. What I take for granted has been a struggle for others.... I have begun to see how big a role I play in the exploitation of the poor and the environment. I don’t actively or intentionally do this, but because of the demand I have for products and services, I am part of the problem. I have really been trying to think this through to see what I can do to change my habits. It’s so engrained in our society, that this will not be an easy task.... Just think of what could happen if we all started to make changes!” Isaiah asserts that in the pursuit of justice, the “Anointed One” “will not keep silent…will not rest.” (62:1) Martin Luther King Jr. feared the opposite: “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly… History will have to record that the greatest tragedy of this period of social transition was not the strident clamor of the bad people, but the appalling silence of the good people.” King’s fear of silence in the midst of injustice hasn’t changed much in the nearly four decades after his death. According to a massive survey of belief patterns among U.S. Protestants conducted by Search Institute of Minneapolis with a grant from the Lilly Endowment, only one third of U.S. Protestants have an integrated faith that brings together the vertical personal relationship with God and a horizontal commitment to social service and justice. One third of the 10,000 Protestants from the six major Protestant denominations scored low on both vertical and horizontal scales. Another third demonstrated a one-dimensional faith, usually leaning toward the vertical direction. (National and International Religion Report – 3/12/90). The call of Isaiah doesn’t let us remain one dimensional in our faith. Barack Obama, U.S. senator from Illinois and speaker for the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial groundbreaking service last November, shares these words: “The pundits like to slice-and-dice our country into Red States and Blue States; Red States for Republicans, Blue States for Democrats. But I’ve got news for them, too. We worship an awesome God in the Blue States, and we don’t like federal agents poking around in our libraries in the Red States. We coach Little League in the Blue States, and yes, we’ve got some gay friends in the Red States. There are patriots who opposed the war in Iraq, and there are patriots who supported the war in Iraq…. If there is a child on the South Side of Chicago who can’t read, that matters to me, even if it’s not my child. If there’s a senior citizen somewhere who can’t pay for their prescription drugs and has to choose between medicine and the rent, that makes my life poorer, even if it’s not my grandparent. If there’s an Arab American family being rounded up without the benefit of an attorney or due process, that threatens my civil liberties. It is that fundamental belief – that I am my brother’s keeper, I am my sister’s keeper – that makes this country work. It’s what allows us to pursue our individual dreams and yet still come together as one American family. E pluribus unum. Out of many, one.” (Keynote address to the Democratic Convention in July of 2004) Long before Barack Obama, was the prophet Isaiah whose call launched Jesus’ own ministry for justice; justice not only for one nation, but for all people. Like Jesus, may the recitation of Isaiah 61:1-2 inspire our ministry as well. Please repeat after me: “The spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me; he has sent me to bring good news to the oppressed, to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and release to the prisoners; to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” Amen In 1981, the very year he was near fatally wounded by an assassin, Pope John Paul II visited Hiroshima and at the site of that awful holocaust offered this beautiful prayer: To you, Creator of nature and humanity, of truth and beauty, I pray: Hear my voice, for it is the voice of the victims of all wars and violence among individuals and nations. Hear my voice, for it is the voice of all children who suffer and will suffer when people put their faith in weapons and war. Hear my voice, when I beg you to instill into the hearts of all human beings the wisdom of peace, the strength of justice and the joy of fellowship. Hear my voice, for I speak for the multitudes in every country and in every period of history who do not want war and are ready to walk the way of peace. Hear my voice, and grant insight and strength, so that we may always respond to hatred with love, to injustice with total dedication to justice, to need with the sharing of self, to war with peace. O God, hear my voice, and grant unto the world your everlasting peace.