Hilton Head Island, SC – November 27, 2016
The Chapel Without Walls
Isaiah 29:13-16; 17-24
A Sermon by John M. Miller
Text – “Therefore I will again do marvelous things with this people, wonderful and marvelous.” - Isaiah 29:14 (RSV)
The Old Testament prophets were a unique group of men. They greatly varied in personality, writing style, written content, and in their understanding of the God of Israel. They were also magnificent, mystifying, inspiring, irritating, charismatic, and caustic. They could and did speak words of immense comfort to their fellow Israelites, and they could and did fiercely reprimand them on numerous occasions.
As I have previously stated, my favorite prophet has always been Isaiah. To my mind, it was he more than any other who properly comforted the afflicted and afflicted the comfortable, who spoke truth to power and gave power to truth, who opened blind eyes to the word of God and allowed deaf ears to hear the voice of El Elohe Yisroel, God, the God of Israel.
Like most of the other prophets, especially the Major Prophets (the ones whose prophetic writings were longer than those of the Minor Prophets, whose books are shorter), Isaiah frequently took the people of God to task for their sins and shortcomings. He did not try to cover over their mistakes and errors; he told it like he saw it.
But he, along with all the other Hebrew prophets, never conveyed only doom and gloom to his fellow countrymen. As often as Isaiah assailed the people of Judah for their sins, he always came back with a message of hope. Regardless of how badly the Israelites has strayed from an acceptable level of commitment to God, Isaiah said that God still loved them, and that in the end, everything would work out all right. It might take time, it might take a long, long time, but because God is God, and because God is good, somehow they would get through whatever travails they faced. It would not occur mainly because of their efforts, however, but because of God’s abundant and healing grace. God has inexhaustible optimism regarding His children.
If we carefully read the prophets, we will discover that sometimes it is hard to tell who is doing the speaking in these books. Is it the prophets, or is it God? Whether rightly or wrongly, the prophets believed they were speaking directly for God, and sometimes they spoke as God. In other words, they wanted their listeners or their readers to realize that most of the time their words were their words, but on occasion they truly believed that God Himself had inserted words into their mouths, and by those words the people were to be divinely addressed.
In Chapter 29 of Isaiah, we see an example of this phenomenon. We are to infer that it is God, not Isaiah, who does the speaking. “And the Lord said” --- quotation marks --- “Because this people draw near with their mouth and honor me with their lips; therefore, behold, I will again do marvelous things with this people, wonderful and marvelous; and the wisdom of their wise men shall perish, and the discernment of their discerning men me shall be hid.”
Did God actually say that? And did He actually say it by means of the tongue and/or pen of Isaiah? If so, God sounds a bit cheeky, a tad sarcastic, a shade sharp in what He says. Let us listen more closely. “Because this people draw near with their mouth and honor me with their lips” (so far, so good) “while their hearts are far from me, and their fear of me is a commandment learned by rote” (is that a zinger, or what? And who would have anticipated it?) “therefore, behold, I will again do marvelous things with this people, wonderful and marvelous” (sounds very good; the best even) “and the wisdom of their wise men shall perish, and the discernment of their discerning men shall be hid.”
Did you get it? Did the sarcasm and irony and satire come through? This is a complicated divine observation, a complex proclamation from the Almighty One of Israel by means of his chosen prophet, Isaiah. The people of Judah say they are committed to God, and their mouths and lips convey that, but their hearts are far from God, and their purported fealty is a sham. And what is God’s response to all this? He doesn’t say, “Despite this, I will again do marvelous things with this people;” no, He says, “Therefore I will again do marvelous things with this people.” In other words, they will not get it right, but God will make it right! And He shall do that by convincing them that their wise men are foolish, and their men of discernment are themselves deceived!
The Irish poet William Butler Yeats lived during a very difficult period in the history of the Emerald Isle. For generations Ireland had been under the heavy thumb of England. Radicals wanted a revolution, reactionaries sided with England and wanted the old system to continue, and it was unclear what would happen. It was under those conditions that Yeats wrote his famous poem The Second Coming.
Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world.
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity….
The darkness drops again but now I know
The twenty centuries of stony sleep
Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches toward Bethlehem to be born?
Now for a personal confession. I needed to preach this sermon because I needed to hear this sermon. I am quite sure many of you need to hear it too, and I trust that it can be of benefit to everyone. It will probably come as no surprise to anyone who has heard me preach for the last few weeks, or years, or decades, that I was and am profoundly upset by the results of the presidential election. I do not say that to evoke sympathy, and certainly not to excoriate or chide anyone who voted for any candidate other than the one I voted for. The election is over, and nothing can change that. What shall transpire in the near future and beyond is yet to be seen.
I cannot imagine there is anyone who presumes that our national political life shall continue on as it always has. The nature of this election guarantees that for at least four years, and perhaps many years beyond that, the USA shall be very different from what it has been for the past 240 years. In many ways, it is the most consequential election of our lifetime. The election of 1932 was the last election of enormous consequence, but there is no one here who cast a ballot in that election. Whatever happens from now on, all of us need to understand that regardless of the chain of events by which our communal life shall be revealed, the nature of national and even world politics will be more altered by the meaning of the American election and the elections in other nations which have occurred or which shall soon occur and shall set the tone for the foreseeable future, however long or short this new world epoch may be.
We were visiting friends in Tucson, Arizona on the day of the election. Gary was a high school and college classmate of mine, and I officiated at the wedding of Gary and Phyllis in Chicago nearly fifty years ago. To my great surprise I discovered on election day that Gary no longer shares my political predilections as he had done for many years.
On the evening of November 8, we all went to a concert at the Music School of the University of Arizona. On the way, we were talking in the car about the election. I expressed both surprise and shock that my friend of more than sixty years no longer sees things essentially as his wife, my wife, and I see them. This was the first time, incidentally, that Phyllis realized for whom her husband had actually voted. When we got home from the concert, we watched the results. With a two-hour difference from the Eastern Time Zone, it was evident that the election had already been decided. Shortly thereafter, three of us went to bed, too upset to hear any more.
If, by the way, you think it is homiletically and professionally foolish for me to be saying any of this, please hear me out. This is a sermon for everyone, not just for certain “someones.”
The next morning, Phyllis came into the family room, dressed entirely in black. She told us, but especially her husband, that she was not intending to be melodramatic, but that her attire was an expression of how she truly felt. She had tears in her eyes when she spoke.
We returned from our trip to the West a week ago Friday night. Last Sunday I very briefly heard from several of you how you felt about the election. Last Sunday afternoon I spoke to a lady who said she did not emerge from her apartment for a full week after the outcome was clear, and she said, not meaning to be at all humorous, that she had started taking serious anti-depressant medication. A hundred-year-old woman told me she is determined to live another four years, hoping another woman will be on the 2020 ballot. I have heard numerous similar stories, if only because the story-tellers know my own not-secret political leanings. All Americans of every political stripe need to understand that however many Americans are truly ecstatic about the results of this election, far, far more are profoundly dejected because of it.
Almost all the political prognosticators, media pundits, and pollsters were wrong in what they predicted about the Election of 2016. But in one thing they all said they were absolutely correct, which was that however the election turned out, our nation would never be as it was prior to November 8. It is imperative that every citizen realizes that. This wasn’t just another election.
Because that is so, those who voted for any presidential candidate and those who voted for no presidential candidate (and voters and non-voters were about even) must bear in mind from now on that the American people are polarized as never before. This shall not be a passing phase, quickly dissipated. There are many reasons for the polarization, but it serves no purpose in a sermon to enumerate them. In any event, the majority of voters voted for their candidate with no overarching enthusiasm, but rather because they could not possibly touch the screen for the other candidate or candidates. Some were passionate in their votes; most were dispassionate and perhaps even disappointed. And thus the polarization was unpredictably greatly heightened.
But here is the point, and to clarify it, we return to Isaiah, prophet of Israel in the eighth century BCE. Isaiah believed that his world was turning upside down, and he reflected the thinking of his fellow Israelites, most of whom presumably felt the same way, but probably for very different reasons. Isaiah being Isaiah, he believed that many of his fellow subjects in the kingdom of Judah had lost their moral compass. It is a perennial prophetic proclivity.
Yet Isaiah also knew that no matter what would transpire as a result of the turmoil in Judah, God would not abandon His people. God never abandons anyone, including those who do not acknowledge or commit themselves to God. If we live, we belong to God, and He will never forsake us; never. “Therefore, behold, I will again do marvelous things with these people, wonderful and marvelous.”
If your politics run in one direction, you need to know that this is not the beginning of an entirely new world. If they run in another direction, you need to know this is not the end of the old world. This is still the same world as it was on November 7 of 2016, or on November 7, 1916, or 1816, or 716 BCE. Human beings have always shaped the world, but God is ultimately in charge: ultimately. That is what Isaiah told the people of Judah when his heart ached for them because of their blunders and their blindness. We can say with Katharina von Schlegel, a lady whose name suggests she might possibly be German, “Be still my soul, the Lord is on thy side.”
We are in for some major political and cultural shifts, but the Lord, as always, is on the side of all of us.
I can still hear it as though it were yesterday. It was in the Fourth Presbyterian Church of Chicago sometime in the early Seventies, and Elam Davies, the Boss, my main mentor in ministry, was preaching a sermon which I presume was somewhat like this sermon. Dr. Davies was born in Wales, and to solidify the sermon in the minds of those of us who heard it, he had the baritone soloist in the choir, who was a professor at the University of Chicago, sing an old Welsh hymn he had known growing up in South Wales.
The poetic text for the hymn was written by the Rev. Robert Rowland Roberts. The minor-key Celtic tune, called Moab, was composed by the Rev. John Roberts. The Welsh, incidentally, seemed to have trouble coming up with last names. Robert Roberts, John Roberts, Elam Davies, David Lloyd George, Dylan Thomas: all their last names are or are variants of first names.
Anyway, the University of Chicago professor sang “Far off I see the goal.” I remember the hymn better than I remember the actual sermon. I must admit it would be far better for a preacher to remember the sermons in worship rather than to remember the music, but this preacher for some reason tends to remember the music much better than the sermons. In honor of Elam Davies, Robert Rowland Roberts, and John Roberts, I shall finish this sermon by attempting to sing the hymn. I only ever heard it that one time, but I shall never forget it. The goal may be far off, but it is there, because God is there. God is always there.
Far off I see the goal; O Savior, guide me;
I feel my strength is small – Be Thou beside me.
With vision ever clear, With love that conquers fear,
And grace to persevere, O Lord, provide me.
When-e’er Thy way seem strange, Go Thou before me;
And lest my heart should change, O Lord, watch o’er me;
But, should my faith prove frail, And I through blindness fail,
O let Thy grace prevail, And still restore me.
Should earthly pleasures wane, And joy forsake me,
And lonely hours of pain At length o’ertake me,
My hand in Thine hold fast Till sorrow be o’er-past,
And gentle death at last For heaven awake me.
There, with the ransomed throng Who praise forever
The love that made them strong To serve forever,
I, too, would seek Thy face, Thy finished work retrace,
And magnify Thy grace, Redeemed forever.