15th Sunday of Trinity: Isaiah 45:4-7a

Sept 9, 2012; 15^th Sunday of Trinity; Texts: Psalm 146; Isaiah 35:4-7a; James 2:1-10, 14-18; Mark 7:31-37; Title: What Does it Mean, “Your God?”     Rev. Tim Beck 

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

Grace, mercy and peace to those of anxious heart, proclaims Isaiah the prophet. He is commanded to say to those whose hearts are anxious “Be strong, fear not!” That’s good news… for some; for some because only some are given a reason for confident hope.  Are you given reason for hope? These words are spoken to those who await His coming, to all awaiting the Lord’s salvation. The command “be strong, fear not!” is for those who need hear these words, and whose strength and security come not from themselves, but from God’s promises.

          “Behold, your God will come…” He will come for you, for all who are distressed, for all who await the Lord’s coming. And we need that hope, since we often have cause for anxiety, worry, fear and turmoil. For a dramatic and contextual example, Isaiah’s day saw trouble indeed. The Northern Kingdom of Israel fell to Sargon II in 722 BC. Assyrian armies left a trail of impaled and flayed victims. Captives were forced to lie down, and then were run over with obsidian studded threshing sledges. Israel suffered death and exile, and captives of other nations were brought in, creating a hopeless confusion of languages, customs and gods. Assyria was on the move again. Judah was next. In 701 BC Sennacherib, Assyria’s general, took 42 of Judah’s fortified cities. Now he boasts before the gates of Jerusalem. Judah faced the same catastrophe as Israel. That’s the context of our text. Yet every generation has cause for anxiety.        Even now we worry about our nation, our state, our city, our church, ourselves. Likewise, many anxious hearts looked to God after Pearl Harbor. How many believing school children prayed during nuclear bomb drills, when school sirens sent them huddling under desks? What fears with prayer were yours when your car broke down in the wrong part of town, when unexpected bills arrived, when your children were ill or family members chose the wrong way?  We ask with Judah, can the Lord cure our fears? And we wonder how we can pray with the Psalmist from today’s introit, “I have trusted in the Lord without wavering?”

          Isaiah is given a Word from God, a sure prophesy, an eternal word, an enduring word. Is that word for us, is it for all fears? We know in what year Isaiah speaks. Yet he speaks not only to that generation. Who is addressed?  He speaks to all who hear these two words, “Your God.” These words are for the people of God, first heard in Judah but not just for Judah. How do we know that? The content of the prophesy goes far beyond Assyria’s armies and Judah’s present trouble. These words stretch from that day to the end of time. When you go home read the context and you will see. For now note these words are given to a people chosen by God, chosen for a purpose. From them the Messiah will come for all flesh, that all might believe in that Name. The promise is for all to whom this phrase applies: “your God,” your God in the only way any of us can call God our God, our Father, our Saviour… by grace through faith.

          Not all Israel by the flesh is true Israel, but only those of faith. After all, the nation of Israel was destroyed by unbelief although a remnant was preserved. The Lord warned that kingdom for hundreds of years, like Noah warned the world, like Moses warned Pharaoh, pleading for repentance and faith. Thank God Hezekiah of Judah believes this word that is for all who believe the scope of the prophesy. A promise is given the repentant. A promise is given to all who rely on grace from the first day of time until time’s end.

          It does ask a law word: “Who is your God?” Is it your appetites and desires, your reasoning and fears, your will or the will of an idol, a wish, or a myth? It also asks a grace word: Who is your God? Is it the true God, who spoke by the apostles and prophets and who became man to epiphany his divinity in the flesh? Who is your God? Is it Jesus Christ who died, rose, and ascended and who reigns with the Father and Spirit, one God? Then what have we to fear? This God revealed Himself in time and place, fulfilling His promises, leaving a record of faithfulness in each generation. This God, your God, comes with vengeance, with the recompense of God. He will come and save you.

          How does He come? He comes with vengeance…to set all things right, to stop evil and prevent evil doers. The WWII battle cry was Hitler must be stopped. He was responsible for butchering millions and causing the death of millions more. Do we need less from the Living God than to end all evil?  Those who experience great trouble understand why vengeance is important, so that justice prevail.  For vengeance is at first call a call to repentance before it becomes punishment for the unrepentant. This vengeance Isaiah promises is not man’s anger, but God’s work to end evil, to end what is caused by sin, including all the works of the devil. That is another reason the church asks God to take vengeance, lest we take it into our own hands and bloody them. God’s church should only know Christ’s blood. In times past when the church picked up the sword of vengeance how soon did she corrupt the faith? As for the church’s trials, the Lord knows what His saints can endure, and what we as sinners must endure lest we too become proud, and become objects of wrath. The Lord sends trials, testing and troubles to turn us toward Him.  He provokes us to ask, “How long, Oh Lord?” And He promises to end evil’s course, forever.       

          Does this apply to the petty thief who steals your purse at church, to the hit and run against your parked car, to small things? Does it apply to evils without a human cause, like memory loss, your body failing, feeling useless? How broad is God’s scope? Isaiah’s words stretch back to the beginning of time by virtue of the promise made about the end of time. Isaiah’s prophesy is cosmic, universal, ultimate, final, complete, and perfect. Our Lord shall give sight to the blind and hearing to the deaf and more. Nature’s futility shall be reversed. Where there were deserts soon will be streams and pools. What the curse caused for the sake of repentance, what the vengeance of God worked against sin and sinner, will be finished and is already done. Christ fulfilled the law – he trusted without wavering, and he did that for you. For you He died on a cross, cursed bearing your sins, bearing the vengeance of God against all sin and for every sinner. It is finished.  That final word is the hope Adam and Eve awaited; their deliverer. It is also for you, for all who wait to see the promises of our God.  He has even carried the price of your anxious fears. That word hears each believer’s prayer for justice and mercy, for preservation against enemies and for purity of heart. The Word hears each prayer for a paycheck, a medical diagnosis, a problem at work, your family at home and your spiritual struggles. That word applies to the small and to the great, as it did when Hezekiah was shut up like a bird in a cage before Assyria’s armies, and appealed to God. He was answered. Because that Great Day is coming and shall come, the Word applies today, for That Day will answer all our prayers. We will rejoice.

          Therefore, remember the prophets of old, and what the Lord gave through their hands for vengeance, for healing, for faith made courageous. Remember the apostles, their labor in the Word, as when Peter declared the gospel and 3,000 were baptized in one day. Remember the salvation of our Lord, when outside Judea in the Gentile land of the Decapolis, he made the deaf hear, the mute speak. Remember the vengeance he wrecked on the devil, on sin, and on death when He         rose victorious from the grave. In our God’s incarnation, His sufferings, His bloody sweat, His crucifixion, death and burial the vengeance against all evil was accomplished. The devil was cast down, our sinful race forgiven and bidden to receive by faith eternal life. To fulfill Isaiah’s prophesy our Lord declared us justified, and by baptism made us saints, giving us new life, adopting us into the family of God, of your God. He completed our salvation, although we await our Lord’s return. He is with you, while we await the visible manifestation of all He accomplished.

          Isaiah’s words shall come true, and in Christ they have come true. So it is no surprise we see hints of the coming universal, the cosmic, ultimate, and final good. After Adam and Eve fell, they received a promise by grace, believed, and were     saved. Noah preached repentance over 100 years, the flood came, but he and his household were saved.     Moses heard the wailing of Egypt for their first born, but Israel was spared by the Passover Lamb’s blood. David slew the giant Goliath with a stone from his sling, least in Israel but full of confidence in His God. Hezekiah saw Sennacherib’s massive army destroyed in a single night, 185,000 struck down by the angel of the Lord. God’s people were saved.   Jesus Christ bore our stripes and carried our burdens, so that the vengeance of the Lord fell on Him, that we might be saved, and so we are. He rose from the dead. So the church daily repents, and is daily assured that our sins are forgiven, giving    us the freedom to serve, give, care and love.

          That’s been the history of the church, from the first century until now. In each generation trials follow faith; yet Christ keeps the church. He preserves faith even when the lamp looks dim. He preserves His people. Although we may be anxious, He bids us “be strong, fear not!”  We have reason for courage. The Lord is faithful to the end, faithful to you. Your God will come and save you. The vengeance due you was absorbed on the cross. We who believe await what shall surely come to repentant sinners, even now sharing in the restoration. For we who are baptized and believe are also bid to taste the marriage supper of the Lamb, at once complete and yet delayed (Mk 7). As the Apostle John saw…  Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth… And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from before the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every ear from their eyes… and he who was seated on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” (Rev 21:1-5a)

          The salvation shall be marvelous. He comes to save you. The restoration that was completed on the cross will be “epiphanied.”   Our Lord shall not delay.  Let us pray, Maranatha, Lord, come quickly.

The peace of God which passes all understanding keep your heart and mind in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Amen)