13th Sunday of Trinity: Isaiah 29:11-19

Aug 26, 2012; 13^th Sunday of Trinity; Texts: Ps 14, Isa 29:11-19; Eph 5:22-33; Mark 7:1-13; Hymns: 160; 400; 238; 278; Title: The Upside Down Cake Upside Up; Rev. Tim Beck

Grace, mercy, and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ

Our text today is from Isaiah. And what’s the message in his prophesy from God? The shortest explanation is “repent and believe in the gospel.” The long explanation is: because of rebellion against the Lord, the Northern Kingdom of Israel fell to Assyria. Meanwhile, Judah’s King Ahaz promotes idolatry, even burning his son as a sacrifice. But those many gods don’t seem to help, for Syria attacks Judah. So Ahaz strips the temple, paying Assyria to invade Syria; and he fills the Lord’s temple with images of Assyrian gods too, since they might help, at least politically. When he dies, his son Hezekiah bids Judah return to the Lord, but most only act as if they believe the God of the covenant. They no longer understand or care. Isaiah points out they cannot read the Scripture or they say it is sealed. What they man is they refuse o be shaped by it. Isaiah summarizes the sorry state this way: and the Lord said, “Because this people draw near with their mouth and honor me with their lips, while their hearts are far from me, and their fear of me is a commandment taught by men…”   

          They’d like to be saved from Syria and Assyria, but not by the Living God if that means trusting Him, relying on Him, believing only that God. To hedge their bets they go through the actions of Yahweh worship, despite 1,000 other gods before the Lord, despite twisting his word like a dishtowel. We ought to ask ourselves, when for fears do we do the same? Yet of Judah’s gross insult to the Living God we expect this: “OK guys your goose is cooked, you are duck soup, the game of chicken ends with a crash, there’s no sparing this sparrow.”  Surprisingly we hear… therefore, behold, I will do wonderful things with this people, with wonder upon wonder; and the wisdom of their wise men shall perish, and the discernment of their discerning men shall be hidden.” “The deaf shall hear the words of a book, and out of their gloom and darkness the eyes of the blind shall see. The meek shall obtain fresh joy in the Lord, and the poor among mankind shall exult in the Holy One of Israel.” The wonder is an opening of ears for the meek, and joy. Yes, the big-brain tricksters, twisting God’s word will perish. They will no longer stupefy people with pious sounding lies. There will be repentance; the repentant remnant will be forgiven and restored. Praise be to God.

          That’s the long of it. Now to say it another way, to show the message applies to you, to each generation: There is hope for you because Scripture’s message doesn’t change. Scripture’s message does not change; not only the law’s reproof of every sinner, but also grace for every sinner who repents. If we lose hope because in our sins we try to change God’s word, to make God be what we want, the Lord continues His call to repentance in order to restore us. For since the fall of Adam and Eve, that is the pattern. They turned away from the Lord, the law worked repentance, grace restored the penitent. We need that too, for in each generation a rebel race re-writes the Word, to worship tree trunks shaped as men, images of precious gold, or swollen heads full of pride. Yet the Living God love us by showing our errors in the calamitous results of our acts, calling us to restoration through the forgiveness of our sins. When the little boy b urns his hand after being told “don’t touch,” mother is there to comfort him for his tears.

          Seeing the errors of the past we sigh with Isaiah, “If only Ahaz believed, or Judah’s people believed they would not have been burnt by fire.” Then seeing the Lord’s mercy that followed, we rejoice that the Word kept a remnant faithful despite apostate kings and captivity in Babylon. Likewise, we sigh when Jesus says the word “corban” to the spiritual leaders of Judah; for by a good word they do an evil work in God’s name. The word “corban” means “given to God” but in practice meant “our tradition modifies the 4^th commandment.”  They said say “corban” (given to God) and deed all your wealth to the temple. We’ll let you live in your house until death while the temple meets every need, tax free. You’re on welfare, you’re retired, and you don’t have to care for anyone else. The temple “absolves” you from taking care of your aged parents, and for that matter the future of your children, so don’t ask us to look after them. “Corban” bought a false security, with God’s approval of course. So Jesus poked “corban” in the eye and pus ran out, spiritual eye disease revealed. Jesus spoke the law, revealing the dark wisdom of those hiding from God; and then everyone saw those he poked rise to do Him evil. Rejecting the Word, they cursed him with words, thorns and a tree; as Isaiah prophesied. They proved the law’s accusations true by killing their Saviour. And we sign for that evil, one we share, for has the law poked you, and you added to evil with disobedience, by every proud moment?

          But rejoice! What our race intended for evil Jesus turned to good. His death became eye salve, His very body and blood became the means to wash away our guilt. Being lifted high for all to see, He calls all to faith that He forgave all our sins. And the Holy Spirit, sent by Father, opens eyes to see and ears to hear. Some crushed by the law, confess. And Christ is quick to heal and restore. Christ, the Word, is constant. He gives the humbled the very life of God. His Word has power to change us through the forgiveness of sin.  This is the pattern of the Word for the world, and for the church kept by her Saviour. For example, early in the first and second centuries the Caesars and Roman governors persecuted Christians, because they attracted the losers, the riff-raff.  Christians gathered the old who were abandoned in the streets to die. They raised babies likewise dumped as refuse. They cared for the derelict. Christians, more than Rome’s touted free bread and circuses, took care of the poor, the sick, and the defeated and were loved by them in return. Therefore they were hated into the lion’s mouth and lit as torches for the night; yet they lived humble lives, trusting in Christ, their Saviour. And many who received the mercy of the church received spiritual sight, especially the weak, the afflicted, the tormented. And in time, Christian faith entered the households of emperors. What a glorious joy for the poor, the meek, those whom the Word saved.

          But you know our condition. When Constantine declared Christianity favored about 330 AD, guess what happened? For political expediency, those armed with the state’s edicts gradually combined the faith with pagan practices and called it the true church. And as barbarian invasions swept the Western empire, the church confused more the word and picked up more the sword. Like Israel and Judah of old, it is a story of closing eyes, although a remnant saw. The blindness grew: kings and people and popes found Scripture a sealed book. Either they could not read or would not read as it is written. Then all Europe was again threatened, this time by those who impaled infants on poles because they were baptized. That enemy aimed to wipe Christian faith out. Then too the reformation came, a return to the law’s morality and the gospel’s grace, a time of repentance and absolution. Once again Scripture was unsealed, unbound from traditions, legends, decretals, illiteracy and because of the corruption of the church, a vast religious apathy. In your Lord’s mercy, the sword of Islam did not prevail, and enough reformers were not burnt at the stake so the people again heard “saved by grace through faith alone.”

          Yet every generation feels compelled like a toddler who discovers ears have holes, to stuff them with moss, wax, beads, and anything that fits. In rationalism’s day, in the 1700’s, on Christmas Eve pastors preached the         wonder of reason and the proper care of cattle.  Germany’s once full churches emptied. The wise men wondered why. In romanticism’s day, in the 1800’s, pastors preached feelings of dependence and the wonder of nature. But the dying found little hope in puffy clouds or dark earth. And the discernment of the discerning wondered why. In existentialism’s day, in the 1900’s, pastors said make some meaning for yourself, embrace the Christ myth whatever that means. And the clay shaped the faith into a chamber pot. In our day, in nihilism’s day, the church agrees to follow your heart (that wicked thing) to seize what it can. But sin can only seize death.  You see the blindness in the official pronouncements of so called Christian churches saying, “We call the Trinity “Mother, womb, child.”  Or, “For justice we consecrate this bishop because she defies Scripture.” Or “Worship at the Lutheran church of our goddess.” Or “jiggle-dance to God’s glory!” These examples are real, as is the fall, the wisdom of hiding deep, the clay accusing the potter. Have you too asked “what to do with the Scriptures I don’t like?”  “What’s the least I need believe?  “What’s the least I need do? Can I do and not believe?”

          Our race is fallen and our wicked hearts wish to change the word, but thanks be to God, the Word does not change. The Word that made all things is constant. Wonder of wonders, He is constant so that He changes you. And wonder of wonders, you are here to listen, because the Holy Spirit opened your ears and your eyes. You are here since your Lord took the wisdom of the world, like the Forest of Lebanon, under whose cedar boughs nothing grows, and cut it down to make a fruitful field.  In doing so, the Lord reveals our need in order to reveal His great mercy and love, comforting the repentant with the assurance every sin is forgiven and every need for restoration shall be met. You come here because the Saviour takes water with the word to turn the upside-down right-side up. You come here because the Saviour preaches good news, taking blinders off eyes and rinsing out ear wax. You come here for this reformation: In that day the deaf shall hear the words of a book, and out of their gloom and darkness the eyes of the blind shall see. The constancy of the Word is written across history by the God who entered time and space, born in a stable to be lifted up for all to see, so that we see.  The Triune God effectively calls us into Christ, creating faith to restore hearing and vision in all generations.  So the church was kept alive in Ahab’s, Ahaz’s or Hezekiah’s day. So the church endured the Caesars and shall endure through each philosopher’s day. Despite our sins, despite the losses believers must endure, we shall endure because our Lord is the constant Word. He not only changes us, he forgave us. He promises: The meek shall obtain fresh joy in the Lord, and the poor among mankind shall exult in the Holy One of Israel.

          We say “What a blessing to be made meek, to discover our need of God, to be brought low by the law. There may yet be hope.” We say, “How joyful to receive the living God, He who meets all our needs, who gives life and salvation.” When Israel intentionally forgot the Lord, the constant Word led them to repentance and kept a remnant in the faith. When Imperial Rome was bested by the faith of the long suffering, that faith spread to the barbarians who burned Rome’s gates.  Then your ancestors cut down the sacred oaks and buried their swords, finding in Christ a greater glory than the glory of battle and victory. And when the church was corrupted in later years, Christian heresy and invading Islam did not destroy the remnant, for a reformation sprang up.  In our day, despite the same evils afflicting the church, blessed are those who believe in North and South America. And in Africa, the church swells. While the faithful suffer in the Muslim lands of the East, often forced to flee or die, they shine. And in China, the persecuted church grows.  Those who hide deep from the Lord he overthrows by the Word working in the lives of those He keeps.  The proud will be overturned. The meek will rejoice in the Holy One of Israel. By the constant Word we who believe see things as they are, and call the Almighty, “our Father” through the Lord Jesus Christ. That is what He accomplished for you through the law and gospel, summarized in the shortest proclamation: repent and believe in the gospel. In Christ, you receive forgiveness of sin, distributed in water and Word and by the Word in His body and blood.  So we exult in the Holy One of Israel by declaring His death until He comes. Our future is not with the world that perishes, but is in Christ the ever-living.

The peace of God which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus our Lord.