Jwquaker's Blog
Sermon
Light in the Darkness
By Jared Warner
Willow Creek Friends Church
January 22, 2023
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Isaiah 9:1–4 (ESV)
1 But there will be no gloom for her who was in anguish. In the former time he brought into contempt the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, but in the latter time he has made glorious the way of the sea, the land beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the nations. 2 The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has light shone. 3 You have multiplied the nation; you have increased its joy; they rejoice before you as with joy at the harvest, as they are glad when they divide the spoil. 4 For the yoke of his burden, and the staff for his shoulder, the rod of his oppressor, you have broken as on the day of Midian.
There will be no gloom for her. This week’s passage is obviously connected directly to the previous chapter, but we are not going to read it. If you want to know everything that is going on I encourage you to read it for yourself. But the simplified version is, Israel has really messed up and things are going to get really bad really quick. And yet even though Isaiah has given this dire proclamation, he then says this. “But there will be no gloom for her who is in anguish.”
When we look at this I wonder if Isaiah understands what anguish is? I extensively researched this one word. I poured into it to better understand and in my google search I found that anguish means, “severe mental or physical pain or suffering” Or “[to] be extremely distressed about something.” I have to admit I did not extensively research the word. I just googled the definition and that was the first thing that came up, but the reality is that I do not need to look it up because anguish is something we all feel. We do not need a dictionary to tell us what anguish means. We just have to think about how we are going to afford college for our children. I feel it whenever my gas tank is nearly empty. Anguish is that feeling we have when we are at the end of ourselves and we have nowhere else to turn. It is extreme mental or physical pain or suffering. It is distress. It is the uncertainty of life.
I admit that most of my anguish seems superficial to the anguish that people face in other places. A few years back the running joke was, “this is a first world problem.” Which basically means that it is ridiculous to be distressed about this when there are wars, famines, and diseases raging throughout this world. But that does not change the emotions of the situation. To a toddler the fact that chicken nuggets and dino nuggets are of the same substance, the fact that dino nuggets are not on their plate is a tragedy that they may never recover from. We have goals, we have expectations, we have ideas and desires that we want to be fulfilled, and when those things do not turn out our world seemingly falls apart.
The Northern Kingdom, Israel, was going to fall. Not only would it fall but it would fall to one of the most notoriously vile empires of the ancient world. There is a reason Jonah jumped on a ship for Spain instead of going to Nineveh. Nineveh one of the prominent cities in Assyria was the complete opposite of everything Israel stood for. You would be counted lucky if you died in the battle, because to be taken captive was dehumanizing. Torture, genocide, and the eradication of culture was what they took pride in. When the northern kingdom fell under the dominion of Assyria, Israel disappeared. To this day we speak of the ten lost tribes of Israel. We speak of them because even in the days of Jesus, even though the people of Judah lived in the land promised to their fore fathers, many believed that they were still in exile because those lost tribes had not yet returned.
This is something that I believe we in our globalized world are losing. I know that this is one of those triggering words, globalization, but the real problem is not that China is taking our jobs. The real problem is that we lose home.
Globalization did not do this. This has been happening throughout human existence. Humanity in urbanization is losing connection to the land they were created to steward. What drove people west in America? It was not that there were jobs in the west, but land. They had an opportunity to have a place that they could call home. Land that they could tame to provide for their family. And something of lasting value that they could pass on to those that came after them. It is not globalization that is the problem, we have lost our home. We, myself included, have left the farms seeking opportunity in the shining cities. We leave the places that we once knew. We uproot ourselves, and we lose our identity. This is the anguish that Isaiah speaks of, homelessness. Not in the sense of not having shelter, but uprootedness. We are unanchored, adrift. Who are we?
I have thought a great deal about these things, because I guess I do not have enough to worry about so I contemplate weird stuff. There are times when I will look at scripture and think. What was the real reason for the flood during the days of Noah? If you read the first half of Genesis, not as a science text book but as a story of the human condition, something quite amazing happens. After the fall Adam and Eve have two children, Cain and Abel. Cain was a farmer, someone that tilled the ground and raised produce and Abel was a shepherd he domesticated livestock. Historically speaking this is a story of the start of civilization. The domestication of grains and livestock is what allowed civilization to emerge. We no longer had to chase after wild animals and forage for berries. Instead, we could raise our own food. But the story is not happy, jealousy quickly overtook our first siblings. Cain was envious of Abel, and killed him. Cain wanted the something that Abel had, favor. Cain was not content and he desired more, and he was willing to kill to obtain what he wanted. It was Cain’s descendants that built the first city. It was through Cain that urbanization began and the quest for more territory, more wealth, more and more took root.
Cain was unhinged, set to drift, and wander throughout the world. He feared for his life because of this. It was this fear that drove Cain to establish the cities where he could control and order life. We look down on Cain but so often that is who we most resemble. We want more, and we fear that someone else will take what we have. We are adrift, unhinged, living in discontent, homeless even though we have everything.
Israel lost their land. They, like Cain, were cast out to wander without a place to call home. They lost their identity. There is anguish there. I experienced this. As much as I love where I live, I am a simple farm boy. How can I become content in a foreign land? How can I live in a culture that is so different from what I once knew? Some of you are looking at me thinking that I do not truly know this feeling and you are right, the anguish I feel may not be as extreme as yours, but the emotions are the same. And yet Isaiah says to these people “there will be no gloom for her who was in anguish. “How can we have no gloom through the anguish we feel?
When Assyria conquered Israel, they came from the north east. We may know of a geological region within the Middle East called the fertile crescent. This crescent of land encompasses all of Israel from the Mediterranean Sea to just beyond the Jordan River, north to the Taurus Mountains in Southern Turkey, and along the Zagros Mountains just east of the Tigris river until the river empties into the Persian gulf. The Assyrians followed this crescent west. They conquered the land south of the Taurus Mountain range and pushed their way into Israel. And Naphtali and Zebulun were the first tribes to meet this invading force.
“In the former time he brought into contempt the land.” Isaiah tells us, “but in the latter time he has made glorious the way of the sea, the land beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the nations.”
Israel was a nation situated between the empires of the known ancient world. Egypt to the west and Mesopotamia to the east. Assyria was one of the great empires of Mesopotamia. We think globalization is bad today, but the reality is that what we know as globalization has been occurring as long as humans have existed. There was a trade route between these empires that followed the fertile crescent through Israel connecting Mesopotamia and Egypt. This route was known throughout ancient cultures as the way of the sea. This portion of this ancient trade route followed the Jordan River from the Dead Sea, past the sea of Galilee, and along the mountain range beyond the Jordan. The land beyond the Jordan that Isaiah is speaking of is what Israel knew as East Manasseh, because half of the tribe of Manasseh settled on the east bank of the Jordan. All this geography is important, even though it is dry because it speaks to the history of faith in the ancient world.
The Jordan we know is a sacred river to the people of Israel, like the Nile is important to Egypt, and the Tigris is to Assyria. Water is life. And the source of this water is often regarded as the mountain of God. It is in the land beyond the Jordan, from one particular mountain called Hermon that Israel’s sacred river began its journey to the sea.
I have spoken often about this particular mountain. It is believed that Mount Hermon is the very mountain that Jesus climbed to pray and while he prayed that day, his disciples saw his glory as he was transfigured before them. There is more to this one mountain. Jesus, on one of his journeys through Galilee traveled to Caesarea Philippi. This city was built at the base of Mt Hermon, and near this city is a cave that is referred to as the Grotto of Pan.
Pan according to Greek Mythology is god of the wild. But this cave was not only associated with the Greeks. Other religions throughout the ancient world found this one cave as being important. Even the religion of Israel. When we think of anguish and gloom, we often associate it with the fall of humanity in the Garden of Eden, but if we continue to read Genesis, we see that there was a second fall so to speak. Cain’s descendants wandered in the wilderness and eventually established cities. While Adam and Eve’s third son Seth followed his father and remained tending the flocks. Eventually we are told that the Sons of God found delight in the daughters of Men and had offspring with them. The children of these unions were called Nephilim, the mighty men who were of old, the men of renown.
If we were to study the writings of the Ancient Near East most cultures have a similar story. Babylon might say that their god’s and their kings were the men of renown that we read about in scripture. And the book of Enoch would tell us that the Watchers or the sons of God that found the daughters of man beautiful taught their offspring forbidden knowledge of war, and various forms of magic. “The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth…and the Lord regretted that he had made man .. . and it grieved his heart.” This is where Noah comes into the story and the flood. Noah was the only man that walked blameless in his generation. I bring this up because Enoch says that it was on the mountain known as Hermon that this second fall occurred. And Enoch goes on to say that God sent the Watchers to Tartarus, or hell, The Grotto of Pan to many in the ancient world was the gate to Hell. And it was in Caesarea Philippi that Jesus said, “upon this rock I will build my church and the gates of hell will not overcome it.”
Isaiah is reminding Israel of where the anguish originates. It is the fall of humanity. It is the wild chaos of jealousy and greed of our ancestors who sought forbidden knowledge to gain undeserved profits and power that causes our sorrows. But if we turn, if we remain faithful to the ways of our fathers there will not be gloom even in this chaos. Because in the later time he has made glorious the way of the sea, the land beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the nations.
Isaiah then breaks out in song. The poem that begins in verse 2 through verse 7 is a hymn of praise, and hope.
Isaiah 9:2–7 (ESV)
2 The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has light shone. 3 You have multiplied the nation; you have increased its joy; they rejoice before you as with joy at the harvest, as they are glad when they divide the spoil. 4 For the yoke of his burden, and the staff for his shoulder, the rod of his oppressor, you have broken as on the day of Midian. 5 For every boot of the tramping warrior in battle tumult and every garment rolled in blood will be burned as fuel for the fire. 6 For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. 7 Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end, on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this.
Today, on this third Sunday of Epiphany, we celebrate the revelation of this hope. We see this hope as fulfilled in Jesus, but the people that lived through the anguish that Isaiah described also found hope in these words.
Darkness often refers to hopelessness and despair. People that walk in darkness are those that cannot see hope. We live in dark times. We often look out at the world in which we live, and all we see is pain and suffering. There is pain. There is suffering. Some of us experience it, and we want to find someone to blame for this suffering. That is why words like globalism trigger many of us. We dwell in the darkness, we wallow in despair, but is this the life that Christ calls us to? The people who walked in darkness. Notice the past tense of the verb, walked. The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light.
Light is also a symbolic word. Fear lives in the darkness, the unknown. But when light enters it casts out all fear and what was once hidden is now revealed. In John’s gospel we are told:
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it…The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. But all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.
And the Word, became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth…For from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known.
I want us to consider John’s introduction to his gospel in light of Isaiah’s hymn of praise. I want us to consider what it means as we walk through our times of anguish and darkness. Where is our attention? Cain walked in fear, in jealousy, and in greed. He built a civilization on fear which led to the proliferation of tools of war to protect him against those that might take from him the things he did not deserve. It is not just history, but a story of our own life.
Two weeks ago we spent some time in reflection on the first Query within our faith and practice. In that query, one statement stands out, “Are you watchful not to be unduly absorbed by temporal affairs?” Unduly absorbed speaks to our attention. Where are we focusing our attention? Is our attention being directed by the twenty-four-hour news cycle? Is our attention focused solely on our budgets or our grades, or our work? What happens when those things fail us? Where do we stand? We are left like Cain wandering in fear and anguish, but “those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has a light shone.”
What do we do when the bottom falls out from under us? What do we do when our dreams deteriorate, and we are uprooted and live as strangers in a foreign land? We seek the light. We build a community around that light, and we establish roots. We focus on what we have instead of what we do not have. We praise God for the blessings instead of complaining about our lack. And we sow seeds of hope.
I am a farm boy living in exile. I am displaced but not in despair because I have a home. I have a community. I have friends with whom I can share life. I have a community that accepts me to be who I am and that encourages me to become a man loving God, embracing the Holy Spirit, and living the love of Christ with others. I have a home, and I pray that as you walk in a land of deep darkness you too will have a great light shone on you, and that you too will know God through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, the true light, the true Word, and our true hope.
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Behold My Servant
By Jared Warner
Willow Creek Friends Church
January 8, 2023
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Isaiah 42:1–9 (ESV)
1 Behold my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights; I have put my Spirit upon him; he will bring forth justice to the nations. 2 He will not cry aloud or lift up his voice, or make it heard in the street; 3 a bruised reed he will not break, and a faintly burning wick he will not quench; he will faithfully bring forth justice. 4 He will not grow faint or be discouraged till he has established justice in the earth; and the coastlands wait for his law. 5 Thus says God, the Lord, who created the heavens and stretched them out, who spread out the earth and what comes from it, who gives breath to the people on it and spirit to those who walk in it: 6 “I am the Lord; I have called you in righteousness; I will take you by the hand and keep you; I will give you as a covenant for the people, a light for the nations, 7 to open the eyes that are blind, to bring out the prisoners from the dungeon, from the prison those who sit in darkness. 8 I am the Lord; that is my name; my glory I give to no other, nor my praise to carved idols. 9 Behold, the former things have come to pass, and new things I now declare; before they spring forth I tell you of them.”
Today is the first Sunday after Epiphany. I do not know if you have ever had an epiphany or not, but if you have, or ever do, you will notice something spectacular. Things begin to make sense. All at once the struggles you faced, the classes you were required to enroll in, and even algebra suddenly come into focus and life makes sense for a moment. An epiphany is a revelation. In the church calendar we celebrate the great revelation on January 6. For centuries the church on the closing of the twelve days of Christmas, celebrate this revelation. We, with the saints of old, are reminded just who the baby born in Bethlehem is.
It is on Epiphany we remember the day Jesus was presented in the temple. That presentation we often overlook. By law the first male child born of a woman is dedicated to God. This means that by law the first born male is to be devoted to God, or belongs to God. This sounds odd but it was one of ceremonial laws in Torah that provided an image of a tangible reminder to Israel about their relationship with God. Since Jesus was the first born of Mary, Jesus belonged to God.
This dedication was to illustrate to the people that everyone in Israel has a place and responsibility to God. So the first born male of a woman would be taken to the temple and the father would redeem the son from God. Offering a ransom and a sacrifice, and once the sacrifice was made the child would be released from the obligation and their responsibility would be given to those within the tribe of Levi. The presentation of Jesus at the temple reminds us that our Messiah is a priest. But this presentation Is not the only Epiphany we celebrate on this day, we also celebrate the visit of the Magi.
Last year David, our clerk, presented a great message about the Magi when I was away due to COVID. The revelation of the Magi reminds us that the child was not an ordinary child, but a king. I want us to really contemplate this. Magi, wise men from the lands of the east, most likely religious leaders or scientists from the land of Persia traversed across the desert bearing gifts fit for a royal courts. They made their way to an ordinary town, visited an ordinary house, and fell l to their knees in honor and reverence to present these royal treasures to seemingly ordinary people. And they left these gifts there. I want you to really consider that image in your mind. They were not in the palace of a king and yet in their mind the child Jesus, was the rightful king of the people of Israel.
Even the royal epiphany does not fully encompass what we celebrate in this season of revelation, there is a third mystery. During the second temple period of ancient Judah, there was confusion or a diversity of thought around the messiah. There were some scholars that believed that there could be not one but three messianic figures. This comes from the concept of the three offices of power spoken about in scripture among the people of God. The priest, the king, and the prophet. The presentation of Jesus at the temple honors the priestly office. The visitors of the magi spoke to the royal office. But what about the prophet?
We often have a skewed understanding of prophets and prophecy in our contemporary era of church history. We believe that prophets receive messages from God that predict the future. This is one aspect of the office of the prophet, but it t is deeper than this. I do not believe that God is in the habit of baking fortune cookies. In the introductory verses of most books of the prophets there is a similar story, they have an experience where they are given a direct message from God and commissioned to a particular mission. Many of these stories speak of the prophet being transported in some manner to visit the very throne of God. Meaning the prophets are commissioned and anointed for a particular mission in the very presence of the Most High God. Jesus was anointed and commissioned for his unique mission when John baptized him in the Jordan. The season of epiphany is the revelation of mission and person of the Messiah.
Jesus is the Messiah. He is the one that was hoped for. He is the true priest, king, and prophet. He is the one on a mission from the Most High. Jesus is the light that will illuminate all people and nations. But what does that mean?
Today we read two passages of scripture. The first, from Mark, is a question from the religious scholars of that age of history. They ask what the greatest commandment is. We look at words like commandment, and our mind usually goes to sin and guilt. We regard the commandments as law. This is not wrong, but if we only look at the commandments as law we can often fall short of the beauty and richness of scripture. I often refer to life as a journey, and the commandments are in many ways the markers, or sign posts that direct us along the path. These scholars ask Jesus, what is most important. They ask this for a variety of reasons, but at the heart of the question is something we all ask. What is our purpose? What is the point of this life?
This is also the question that faced Israel in the exile. Isaiah wrote his oracles prior to this disgraceful point of their history. But within the words of condemnation there are songs of hope. Isaiah outside of the Psalms is one of the most quoted books of the Hebrew scriptures within the writings of the 2nd temple period, which also includes the writings within the New Testament. It is quoted because during the exile Israel lost everything. They lost their homes, their nation, their future, and worst of all they lost their God. I say this not because this is a reality, but emotionally. Their faith, their identity, their world hinged on the temple and it was in the temple that their God lived. How do you live? How do you remain a distinct people or nation when you lose it all? What is your purpose? You were once walking along the path and all of a sudden you find yourself lost in the thorns and weeds without a compass.
In the first half of Isaiah, we learn that God needs to send someone out on a mission to warn the people of the impending disaster. This is where Isaiah is caught up in a vision, standing before the throne of God. He saw God sitting on his throne with the shining ones singing and dancing around him, and Isaiah says, “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of Hosts.” Then all at once one of the Seraphim flew at him with a burning coal from the alter. Imagine what this man was thinking at that moment! If an angelic being came swooping in on me with a burning coal, I would probably think the end was at hand, it would not even have to be an angel swooping in. If you were running toward me with a fiery torch my fight or flight instinct would kick in. This angelic being touched his lips with the coal and said, “Behold, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for.” Immediately after this Isaiah hears the voice of God say, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” Isaiah saw something dramatic. He saw reality. He saw God’s commandments fully lived before his eyes, and he saw that he himself with all of his self-righteousness was lacking.
According to the kingdoms of men, Isaiah was good. He was a member of the court of Judah, he was a high ranking member within the government of the covenantal kingdom of God. He was righteous. But when he saw the throne, he knew that he fell short.
What is our purpose, the scribes asked Jesus? Who are we? The exiles of Israel asked as they wandered in Babylon. There is one commandment Jesus, our Epiphany says, “Hear O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.” He goes on to say the second is this, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
They are simple words. Words that we can easily memorize. Some of us may even have pillows on our couch that have these words embroidered on them. But if you were standing in the midst of angels before the throne of God could you say these words were incarnate in you?
This was the purpose of humanity from the dawn of our creation. This was the purpose of God calling Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. This was the point of King David, the purpose of the temple. This was all God wanted, and all God wants. And each step along the journey of life we have an opportunity to live into that purpose, but we tend to stumble off the path.
“Do you earnestly seek to maintain a life in fellowship with the Lord Jesus Christ?” The Faith and Practice of our Yearly Meeting asks, “Do you practice the daily reading of the Scriptures in your families, giving time for waiting upon the Lord? Are you watchful not to be unduly absorbed by temporal affairs? Are you careful to avoid all places and amusements inconsistent with a Christian character?”
“Behold my servant,” Isaiah writes here near the end of his teachings. In this first Servant Song. What he is saying here is, “Look at this!” It is not just fancy words, but it is like the emergency alerts that every cellphone receives at once. “Behold my servant!” And why does God want us to look at this servant? Who is it anyway?
Scholars have debated over this for years, even though history and tradition within the church has told us who the servant is. They debate, maybe the servant is Cyrus the king of Persia, maybe its Israel, maybe its us. Even 2nd century Jewish writings would tell us that the servant is the Messiah and not anyone else. Isaiah after he has borne witness to the devastation of Israel is telling them, “Do not lose hope, behold God’s Servant is coming.”
“Behold my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights; I have put my Spirit upon him; he will bring forth justice to the nations.” Justice is one of those triggering words in our contemporary culture. It grieves my heart that it is because it speaks to the very core of our faith. This one word is used three times in this song.
What is justice? Justice or Mispat can mean judgment, court, case, decision, justice, law, plan, share, or custom or practice. We can see this as a legal term, but it is more than that. God’s justice is Eden. It is the Edenic life where Humanity and Divinity walk together in the cool of the evening chatting about the day. God’s servant will bring forth or restore God’s original and only plan. That may not be exactly what you consider when you think of justice, but it goes back to the command Jesus gives in Mark. God wants us to love him, and our neighbor. That is the plan that God has always had, and it has never changed. What would our community be like if this was truly how we lived?
“He will not cry aloud or lift up his voice, or make it heard in the street.” When we look at these words at face value we do not get the fullness of the statement. He will not cry aloud, does not necessarily mean speaking with a loud voice, but is in reference to a cry out to God in Lamentation. Isaiah, God really, is saying that his servant will not just pray, “Lord help me.”, but will take an active role in the situation. When we pray, the answers to our prayers and the prayers of others are often ourselves. We pray, not just for God’s deliverance but for guidance and clarity. The servant of God does not utter empty words, but becomes the very words made flesh, willing to work.
Isaiah then continues by saying, “lift up his voice, or make it heard in the street.” Although this looks like Isaiah is repeating himself in English, these verbs are different. The first is despair and the second is protest. In ancient times the people of the city would often gather at the gates or a central location, to present their case before the elders. The elders would hear the case and make a judgment, and that judgment would be the law of the land. If you felt you were on the wrong end of the ruling what could you do? Nothing really, the judgment had been made. All that is left is screaming at the top of your lungs that you were treated unfairly.
I had an epiphany moment, during my study this week at this point. These are the things that God’s servant will not do. God’s servant will not cry out in despair, seeking pity but not lifting a finger to participate in the solution. And God’s servant will not protest about the injustices endured, without participating in activities to remove the opportunities for these injustice to occur. Pity and vain protest are empty words. They are vessels of brokenness and division, not true justice. When we participate in these empty words, we puff ourselves up thinking we have accomplished something, but in reality, all we have contributed to is more brokenness and suffering. As I read about these words I noticed my social media feeds were filled with stories about January 6th two years ago. I read this after listening to countless stories of rigged elections and pleas to take our country back. That is not justice, but a riot. And it is wrong.
Isaiah continues, “A bruised reed he will not break, and a faintly burning wick he will not quench; he will faithfully bring forth justice. He will not grow faint or be discouraged till he has established justice in the earth; and the coastlands wait for his law.”
To us these verses might just seem poetic, but there is more to these words than we might realize. This is why it is important to study and to learn to use tools available to us. The words used for bruised reed and grow faint or be discouraged, come from a similar root word that means splintered or broken. Isaiah uses this poetry to illustrate the true purpose of the Servant of God, and those that follow this servant.
Isaiah acknowledges that life will not be fair. Life is filled with suffering and will always be filled with suffering because humanity has diverted its attention away from the original plan of God and has instead replaced it with plans of their own. Russia states within their media, that Ukraine is filled with fascists and satanists. We say Russia is filled with fascists and communists. Ukraine is living in that no man’s land between two powerful entities and people like me are sitting in their recliners spouting off empty words of what they should do. This is not justice. Ukraine and so many other people groups and nations within our world are bruised reeds. They are splintered and broken. They like us are walking their journey through life attempting to find the path. And forces of human distraction are coming in telling them what they should do.
But God comes in through his servant. God reveals himself and instead of splintering the reed and increasing the brokenness the servant becomes a conduit of healing and encouragement.
“Thus says God, the Lord, who created the heavens and stretched them out, who spread out the earth and what comes from it, who gives breath to the people on it and spirit to those who walk in it: ‘I am the Lord; I have called you in righteousness; I will take you by the hand and keep you; I will give you as a covenant for the people, a light for the nations, to open the eyes that are blind, to bring out the prisoners from the dungeon, I am the Lord; that is my name; my glory I give to no others, nor my praise to carved idols. Behold, the former things have come to pass, and new things I now declare; before they spring forth I tell you of them.’”
What is our purpose? What is our point in life? To Love God and love our neighbors. To become a people loving God, embracing the Holy Spirit, and living the love of Christ with others. We are to join the Servant of God in restoring Eden to the earth. And this begins right here in this meetinghouse, in our families, and in our communities. As we go out this week let our life be filled with God’s justice. Love for him and those around us. And let us not perpetuate the brokenness of the human kingdoms with empty words and vain activities. May the love and light of Gods Epiphany, Gods revelation, illuminate the pathways of our life.
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Immanuel
By Jared Warner
Willow Creek Friends Church
December 18, 2022
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Isaiah 7:10–16 (ESV)10 Again the Lord spoke to Ahaz: 11 “Ask a sign of the Lord your God; let it be deep as Sheol or high as heaven.” 12 But Ahaz said, “I will not ask, and I will not put the Lord to the test.” 13 And he said, “Hear then, O house of David! Is it too little for you to weary men, that you weary my God also? 14 Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel. 15 He shall eat curds and honey when he knows how to refuse the evil and choose the good. 16 For before the boy knows how to refuse the evil and choose the good, the land whose two kings you dread will be deserted.This is another one of those weeks where I enjoyed just sitting with scripture in prayer. I often speak about the life of prayer, because prayer is central to faith. In our own purpose or mission statement we say, “Loving God, embracing the Holy Spirit, and Living the love of Christ with others.” This I believe is the best purpose statement a meeting can have. It encompasses worship, discipleship, and mission. And the best thing about that statement is that it came about during a trial where we as a community of Friends, took the time to wait on the Lord and listen for the Spirit to move. We waited, we listened, we discussed, and that simple statement became who we are. We are a people loving God, embracing the Holy Spirit, and living the love of Christ with others. Its a great statement, but what does it mean? Loving God is worship. Worship takes many forms. It is not just singing, although that is a large part of it. Worship is where we as a community come together to express our devotion to God. This can be in silence, in tears, in laughter, song, dance, in just about any expression you are led experience if it is done with others and devoted to God it is worship. Worship is not something that we can do singularly, it requires community. God said, “It is not good that man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.” (Genesis 2:18) We often regard this verse as speaking of only the creation of Eve, but it is a testimony of our nature. We are not meant to be alone. We need others with whom we can share life. The third aspect of this statement is, “Living the love of Christ with others.” This too speaks of community. We are not only supposed to worship together, but to work together and to encourage one another. How we live our lives among the people of the community outside this Meetinghouse will speak volumes more about our faith than memorized verses. This has been part of what Friends have taught from our founding, and it is something that saints of old have taught as well. St. Francis is credited with saying, “Preach the Gospel at all times and when necessary, use words.”Living the love of Christ with people, is our ministry and mission. And this mission is reared in worship within a community. It begins with worship and is fulfilled in mission, but there is something in between. Embracing the Holy Spirit. This is the part where things get a bit tricky. Worship is with others. Mission is with others. Embracing the Holy Spirit is intimacy. It is that thing that is shared with the closest of loved ones. This is prayer. Prayer is where we have conversations with God. Like spouses talk at the end of the day, when all the chores are completed and the children are put in bed. Prayer is central.I want that intimacy with God to grow within us each. And this intimacy comes when we allow scripture to direct our life of prayer. We can look at scripture as the answer book. Many wonderful ministries have been built on this, and there is nothing wrong with that. But if scripture was for deriving concrete and concise answers only, the structure is all wrong. Scripture is arranged for a conversation. And we do find answers through conversations, but we find more than answers. We find an experience. I study scripture a great deal. It is probably my favorite hobby, but there are days where I just cannot study. I will stare at the screen, yes I mostly use a screen of some sort to read lately, and I just cannot move my eyes. I have found that it is in those moments God is calling me to prayer. I also have found that when I wake up in the middle of the night for no apparent reason I am also supposed to pray. Only to later find that someone in the meeting needed the prayer at that time. As I began to study, I read the passage. I know this passage. We read it nearly every year either in the pages of scripture or in song. But for some reason, my eyes would not let me look to the good part of this passage. I could not move toward Immanuel and I desperately wanted to get there. I yearned for Immanuel, and yet my eyes kept getting tripped up by Ahaz.I would jump ahead to try to get to Immanuel, and I would find that after I blinked, my eyes were again fixated on Ahaz. It is my practice to use scripture to lead my prayers, so I was able to discern that I needed to stop and pray. I needed to let the Spirit speak to me about Ahaz. I know I do not often speak of these sorts of things in detail but I find it necessary today.“Again the Lord spoke to Ahaz.” I think this is where my scholarly stumbling began. I know who Ahaz is, I have read about him before, I have laughed with the kids as the video series we watch Sunday mornings sang a song listing him among the kings of Judah. Why am I tripping over this seemingly in consequential verse. To let you know just how odd it is, only one of my many commentaries I use gave more than a one sentence statement on this verse.Again, the verse says. This leads us to believe that Ahaz previously had conversations similar to the one in the following verses. Previously Ahaz spoke with God and was offered a sign, and yet the one thing that all the commentators had to say about it is that Ahaz did not listen. My scholarly traffic jam began to open a bit, I began to wonder about Ahaz. Ahaz was the third king of the four during Isaiah’s ministry, and he was the eleventh king of Judah after the division of the kingdoms. Just prior to the verses we read today we see Isaiah speaking with Ahaz concerning the invasion they faced. The northern kingdom (Israel or Samaria) and Syria allied together against Judah. I do not think we really grasp the reality of this invasion. Israel today is not a large nation. It is densely populated but as far as area, it is small, about the size of New Jersey in the United States. That is today, in Ahaz’s time, it was less than half that size because he was king of only the southern portion of Israel, Judah. Syria was over ten times the size of Judah. Ahaz is looking out the palace window and he sees the armies of Israel and Syria. These two kingdoms have joined together to take hold of Judah. And it is at this moment Isaiah comes to speak to the king. Take hold. Names in ancient times carried meaning. They often became a prophecy in themselves. I do not know if this is inspired or simply because people have a tendency to become what they believe they are meant to be, so if your name means something in particular you make it happen. My name means Ruler called by God, so if that is the case I guess I should run for president. Ahaz’s name is derived from a verb that means to take hold or grasp and was often used in reference to property. This does not necessarily mean that when used as a name it bears the same meaning, but when we look at the timeline I think it is important. Ahaz is looking out at the encampment outside of Jerusalem, and the prophet is there speaking with him. Isaiah tells Ahaz:It shall not stand, and it shall not come to pass. For the head of Syria is Damascus, and the head of Damascus is Rezin. And within sixty-five years Ephraim will be shattered from being a people. And the head of Ephraim is Samaria, and the head of Samaria is the son of Remaliah. If you are not firm in faith, you will not be firm at all.This is why I hit a road block in my study. As Ahaz looked out the window, seeing the armies of his enemies, God told him that they would not stand. Not only would they not stand, but within a generation they would all but cease to exist. And God is urging this king to take hold of that promise. Grasp onto the words. Have faith! God is crying out to the king of his covenant to trust the very God that gave him the land and entrust his life to him. Ahaz, I imagine, had the history of his people running through his mind at that moment. The signs of Moses, the parting of the Sea, the conquest of Joshua, the struggles during the era of the Judges, and the golden era of his ancestor David. How many times had his people been in a place very similar to this, and how many times did God remain true to His word? And God is asking Ahaz to believe.“Ask a sign of the Lord your God;” the Lord says to Ahaz, “let it be deep as Sheol or high as heaven.” God is pleading for Ahaz to trust him, he is just waiting for him to open the door and face the battle set before him saying, “as for me and my house I will trust in the Lord.” But that is not what Ahaz does.“I will not ask, and I will not put the Lord to the test.” Ahaz relaxes his grasp and lets go. Ahaz turns away from the God that had watched over his people for generations. He turned from hope and instead of having faith he grasped fear and this fear consumed him. He embraced any and every superstition, offered sacrifices to any deity whose priest claimed assistance and he even looted the temple so that he could pay a tribute to Assyria to save him from the invasion set before him. He put his trust in the kingdoms of men and he lived out his days in fear. “O house of David!,” God says to Ahaz, “Is it too little for you to weary men, that you weary my God also?” This sentence structure comes across odd in English. To weary is to annoy physically or mentally. But it can also refer to giving up, struggling, or becoming tired. Ahaz gave up on his own army, he gave up on his own people and God is asking if he is going to give up on him as well. Ahaz was offered anything he could imagine, and God looks at Ahaz’s response and he saw through the words. “I will not ask, and I will not put the Lord to the test,” were the words that Ahaz used. To us this might sound good, even pious. But what is he saying and what are we saying when we say these words?We see a form of this response all over. “I will not go to church until I have my life in order. Or if I step foot in church lightning would strike it.” These are things we often hear as excuses given by outsiders. But even people that claim to have faith say similar things. “The Lord does not give more than you can handle.” It sounds good, until you actually read scripture. How we word things often points to what our faith is in. In both the insider and outsiders’ response the faith is not in God but ourselves. When we are unwilling to take our concerns to God, we are telling God that we do not trust him. When we are unwilling to even trust the smallest things to God, when the armies come to camp outside our gates how will we trust God in that situation? We do not trust, we give up just as Ahaz did. We say things that sound good, but our actions speak differently. There is no intimacy, only empty words.But God knows who we are. God sees us, and speaks to us not from where we think we should be, but in the reality we are experiencing. God knew Ahaz. He knew that Ahaz was nothing like his ancestor David. He knew that Ahaz was more closely aligned with the enemies at his gates than the God that put him into the throne. And yet God encouraged Ahaz to ask for a sign. It is interesting what sign God encourages him to ask for, “let it be deep as Sheol or high as heaven.” God does not even care what he asks for at this point, only that he asks. God is willing to unleash Hell on earth if that is what it would bring Ahaz back to Him. We often do not know what we ask as we pray. Only after years of experience do we recognize the folly of our words, and yet often God does grant us what we ask. And there are times God leaves our prayers seemingly unanswered. The reason is not because God does not care, but it is because he does. Each of us is at a different place within our life of faith. Some of us are able to see the hand of God working in something seemingly insignificant where others require the dramatic. God will do what is necessarily from His own perspective to deepen your faith. Notice I said from his own perspective. Often, we pray for our own desires. And often we do not get what we ask. When we pray for healing and we do not see the results, it does not mean God cannot heal, it simply means that the influence of the Kingdom spreads in a greater way without the healing than with. I know that sounds crass. But I have seen it in my own life. I prayed that my little sister would be healed. And I was told that if I had enough faith she would be healed by many well-meaning Christians. She was not healed, and as I have matured God has shown me why in many ways. It is not about us personally, but the Kingdom. Yet God tells Ahaz, ask for anything, from the depths of hell to the highest heaven. What will it take for you and your nation to turn to God? He was given something that we could only dream of. He was given basically the same offer that God gave to Solomon, and instead of taking hold of it Ahaz let go. He let go, but that did not stop God. “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son and shall call his name Immanuel.” We know this prophecy well. Through Ahaz’s weary rejection of God, God does not give up, instead he doubles down. Immanuel. This is a compound word in Hebrew. El means God so it is a declaration or profession of a relationship with God. Remember this word for God is not only Hebrew, but it is the name for the Most High deity even among the idolatrous nations fighting against Ahaz. The next part that is of special interest is “im”. Im means to be with, or in some cases as good as if with. So, God with. And the last part is relational, “manu.” This is basically us. God with us. This could be taken in the literal sense or symbolically. By saying that this young woman would name the child Immanuel, is God telling Ahaz that though it looks dire right now the people of your land at this very moment are considering this, Immanuel, as a name.Stop and think about that for a moment. Remember these words were written to be encouraging at that moment, as well as providing future hope. A prophet’s writing would not have survived this long if there was not something important at that moment to glean from the words. We read this passage through 2000 years of church history and we clearly see this as a reference to Jesus, but what did it say to Ahaz and what could it say to us?“Behold the virgin.” If you have done any study on the internet at all you will find countless videos attempting to tell us that the word for virgin is referring to a young woman and not a technical virgin. Those internet scholars are not completely wrong, there is a word that could have been used to speak of an actual virgin, but instead Isaiah chose to use young woman instead. This is cultural. In ancient times, once a woman reached the stage of maturity they were given in marriage. Often these weddings were arranged years in advance, so the likelihood of a woman not being a virgin prior to conceiving is slim. This young woman is coming of age at this very moment. She is entering into her adult life with all of this turmoil going on around her, and as she bears her first child the name she urges her husband to choose on the day of presentation is, God with us. Remember this is not only a prophecy of the far future, but a word for the moment. Isaiah is telling Ahaz there are people alive right now, looking at this chaotic situation and instead of looking at it with dread as their king is, they are looking at it with hope. God is telling this weary king. Even though you may not grab hold of what God is offering you, your people will. With or without you God’s influence in the world will prevail. God will be with his people. Isaiah continues to tell us what God is revealing and says, “He shall eat curds and honey when he knows how to refuse the evil and choose the good. For before the boy knows how to refuse the evil and choose the good, the land whose two kings you dread will be deserted.”This child, Immanuel, will be born into a world filled with war. His formative years of development will occur under the ever-present shadow of terror and threat. When wars break out we often forget the toll it has on the children. The children of Ukraine at this moment do not go to school. Their schools are trying their hardest to offer online classes because they do not want to bring the children into one location because Russia has chosen to target the innocent in this war. Often children suffer during times of war. The children of the deployed worry about their parents. And so many children will never know the love their parents had for them because they gave their life in defense of their nation. Isaiah is telling Ahaz, this is war yes, but the emerging generation will name their children Immanuel, and these children will not eat the meals of the destitute, but they will eat the fruits of the land. When Moses spoke about the land God promised to Abraham, he described it as the land flowing with milk and honey. This is a phrase that alludes to abundance. In an age without refrigeration one does not just keep milk around. It spoils. So you make it into cheese. And if you have milk to make cheese, this means that the livestock are so well fed that there is more milk available than the offspring can eat. Isaiah is saying the boy will eat of the luxuries the land has to offer. Ahaz is dreading the war, but the people coming into adulthood at this moment will not be cowed by the threats of the godless. And God will be with them just as he was with their ancestors. Finally, Isaiah says “before the boy knows how to refuse the evil and choose the good, the land whose two kings you dread will be deserted.” Before the child is considered an adult, before he reaches adolescence or the age of majority, the land you dread will be desolate. God did fulfill this promise. Ahaz saw the land of Syria and Israel laid waste by the king of Assyria. But at that moment Ahaz did not trust God. He heard these words and they did not give him hope, but pushed him further into the dread that gripped his soul.These words do speak to us about our life of prayer. Prayer is intimacy with God. It is where we and God meet face to face, and God is with us. What is God telling us as we look at these words in prayer? Are we hearing the hope? Are we being called deeper to the point where we can entrust more aspects of our life to God knowing that he will carry us through? Are we assured that the trial that we face in this moment will not last forever?“Ask a sign of the Lord your God; let it be deep as Sheol or high as heaven.” God is calling out to us to trust him. He asking us to give him a chance to show us an immanuel life. I sat looking at this passage wondering where I might go since I could not seem to get out of the first verse. And I realize now that we made it all the way through, God is simply calling us to pray. He is calling us to remain in that place where we can Love him through our worship, where we can live the love of Christ with others, but most of all he wants us to remain in the center, and embrace the Holy Spirit in prayer. Will we grab hold of that life offered to us through Jesus the fulfillment of this prophecy? Will we take possession of his life and lifestyle here today? Or will we sell ourselves and our people out for the false securities offered by the kingdoms of men? Ahaz had a choice. He grew weary of God and instead grab hold of Assyria. He put his trust and his faith in the kingdoms of men. From that moment on, until a brief era in history the people of God were by all accounts ruled by an outside empire. The choice of one man changed the course of history. Will we choose Immanuel?
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