Sermon Notes for January 1st
January 1, 2005
Isaiah 61:10 – 62:3
“A Crown of Beauty”
1. Many people are familiar with the words of the Prophet Isaiah. And if not, they may recognize them in George Frederic Handel’s the Messiah – which was first performed in 1742.
First the Tenor or Soprano sings
Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God. Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her, that her warfare is accomplish'd, that her Iniquity is pardoned. The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness; prepare ye the way of the Lord; make straight in the desert a highway for our God.(Isaiah 40 : 1-3)
Then another Tenor or Soprano sings
Ev'ry valley shall be exalted, and ev'ry mountain and hill made low; the crooked straight, and the rough places plain.(Isaiah 40 : 4)
Lastly the Chorus joins in withAnd the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see together; for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it.(Isaiah 40 : 5)
Well, this morning, on the first day of the New Year we will be considering the prophet Isaiah and asking some important questions:
A. What sort person is it … who can utter words such as this?
B. Secondly, what is it that made the prophets, like Isaiah, speak the way they did.
C. Thirdly, why were the prophets so passionate about social justice?
D. Lastly, how has organized Christianity tended to ignore or
avoid dealing with the prophetic message of the prophets and even Jesus, himself?
2. But first, some thoughts about New Years and the Christmas holidays. I don’t know about you, but I had a good time this past week visiting my daughter and friends in the Cities and I can say that they all seem to be doing well.
Two friends of mine who were college roommates got together at campus pizza at the University of Minnesota. We get together once or twice every year. Campus pizza is not a chain. It is not even fancy. But it is still there just like our friendship for over 40 years!
And every time we get together we talk about a fourth person … who we knew very well and liked… his name is Boyd … he now lives in Cleveland … he was a marine during Viet Nam … and saw a lot of action … and sometime after he came back … he got married, divorced, and moved away … and never came back. I called him once about 10 years ago … and he promised to visit when he came back to Minnesota … but he never did … Last year one of my other friends called him … and found out that his second wife had died rather unexpectedly. So, last week, I picked up my cell phone and tried again. To my surprise he was very happy to talk. And, this time, hopefully, we will all get-together sometime this summer. This will be a very good thing because we all miss Boyd at lot!
3. Which brings up the question as we begin the New Year. Will it be a Happy One? Was last year a happy one? And, of course, what is it that makes us happy anyway?
While on vacation, I read two essays (in the New York Times, of course!) about happiness. One of them said that in the olden days people did not expect to be happy. In fact, the idea of happiness does not really appear in the world until about 200 years ago. Actually, it is right in the Declaration of Independence. You know the words:
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.
Now, the truth is, happiness is a modern idea … as recently as 1843, Thomas Carlyle observed that “Happiness our beings end and aim is at bottom, if we will count well, not yet two centuries old in the world.”
In fact, the word “happiness” does not occur anywhere in the Bible except in the Apocrypha. Where in the book of Sirach it says:
Some companions rejoice in the happiness of a friend; but in time of trouble they turn against him.
4. Now the word “happy” does appear in some places in the Old Testament but never in connection with Jesus – never. He never uses the word happy. Mostly we find it occasionally in the Psalms and it is usually used in connection with one’s faith in God. Such as in:
Psalm 144:15 -- Happy are the people whose God is the Lord.
Or Psalm 128:1 -- Happy is everyone who fears the Lord.
According historian Darrin McMahon, as modern society began to develop in the 17th century …changes in religious and secular culture began to make the idea of happiness or the experience of pleasure or good feeling … not only morally acceptable but even commendable. This was, of course, in opposition to religious notions that consigned life in this world to misery and sin. Suffering, people began to believe, was not our natural state. Happy was the way we were meant to be.
5. Not everyone agreed. Carlyle, who was notoriously cranky, said “Every pitifulest whipster that walks within a skin has had his head filled with the notion that he is, shall be, or by all human and divine laws ought to be, “happy.”
Carlyle may sound a bit like uncle scrooge, but he does raise an interesting question. Which was that the new doctrine of happiness tends to raise expectations which can never possibly be fulfilled …
Sociologists, the article goes on, point out that the percentage of people who describe themselves as happy or very happy has not changed much in the last 50 years – ever since surveys began to be conducted in the 1950s.
Happiness is a tricky thing … the famous philosopher, John Stewart Mill said … “Ask yourself if whether you are happy and you cease to be so.”
Instead, Mill said, “Those only are happy who have their minds fixed on some object other than their own happiness … such as the improvement of society, some art, or other pursuit which is not a means but an end in itself.”
6. Another article on the same subject by a psychologist, points out that in a recent study … one group of people were asked to list the reasons that their relationship with their girlfriend or boyfriend was going well … and to rate how satisfied they were … and another group was just asked for a gut reaction with no analysis. Surprisingly, those who gave things no deep thought, were more predictive of the future of their relationship and those that analyzed things gave no accurate predictions. The point being that there are severe limits to what we can discover through self-reflection.
The author goes on to say … the answer seems not to try to think to deeply about things … but instead to act on what it is we hope to achieve. For instance, college students who were instructed to go out of their way to do a few acts of kindness one day a week ended up being happier than those who were not.
So, maybe, instead of going out and buying another self-help book on how to achieve happiness – just go out and do something for someone else that will cheer them up … and just maybe you will be cheered up as well.
In short, the author states that “being good to other is more likely to make us kinder, happier people … so long as we don‘t think about it too much.”
7. So, what did Isaiah have to say about happiness – not much really, but he did say this:
When the Spirit is poured upon us from on high, and the desert becomes a fertile field, and the fertile field seems like a forest.
16 Justice will dwell in the desert and righteousness live in the fertile field.
17 The fruit of righteousness will be peace; the effect of righteousness will be quietness and confidence forever.
18 My people will live in peaceful dwelling places, in secure homes, in undisturbed places of rest.
19 Though hail flattens the forest and the city is leveled completely,
20 how blessed you will be, sowing your seed by every stream, and letting your cattle and donkeys range free.
Wait a minute … there is no word happy in that passage … is there? Actually, the word happy appears in the New Revised Standard Edition of the Bible… and the one I just read … is from the New International Version … and it turns out that both the King James Bible and Peterson’s modern version … also use the word blessed.
Of further interest is the dictionary definition of “blessed” which says that blessed can mean A. holy, sacred, or consecrated; B. to enjoy great happiness; C. to bring comfort or joy; or D. eternal bliss – like in religious state of rapture or in heaven.
8. Isaiah also said in chapter 56:
1GOD's Message to us is to:
"Guard my common good:
Do what's right and do it in the right way,
For salvation is just around the corner,
my setting-things-right is about to go into action.
2How blessed are you who enter into these things,
you men and women who embrace them,
Who keep Sabbath and don't defile it,
who watch your step and don't do anything evil!
My message, or perhaps the biblical message on this New Year’s day …is that happiness is not just a secular thing … something you derive from the pursuit of pleasure … but rather a deeper … and even religious state of mind … which comes from being in harmony with God and your fellow man/women.
For, if we really try to act out what Jesus said about loving the Lord our God and our neighbor as ourselves … then, perhaps, we will achieve a state of blessedness … or be blessed – as it were.
And that’s right from Jesus’ own self-help book … called the New Testament.
9. Now Isaiah was no ordinary person … in many ways similar to Jesus … and yet, for many Christians … the prophets are not something we are accustomed to reading much about.
Mostly this is because, I think, since the coming of institutional Christianity … the desire has been to kind of modify or tone down the message of the prophets about justice. And probably to tone down Jesus words, as well. After all, there was nothing about justice in Mel Gibson’s move about Jesus crucifixion, unless you interpret it as an act of Divine Justice – something I will leave for later on during lent and Easter.
After all, Jesus was, we need to remember, quite concerned about justice, as we read in Luke, chapter 11 where he confronts to the religious leaders:
42"I've had it with you! You're hopeless, you Pharisees! Frauds! You keep meticulous account books, tithing on every nickel and dime you get, but manage to find loopholes for getting around basic matters of justice and God's love. Careful bookkeeping is commendable, but the basics are required.
Same thing with Isaiah, as we read in chapter 61 beginning with verse 8:
8 "For I, the LORD, love justice; I hate robbery and iniquity. In my faithfulness I will reward them and make an everlasting covenant with them.
9 Their descendants will be known among the nations and their offspring among the peoples. All who see them will acknowledge that they are a people the LORD has blessed."
And then Isaiah goes on in the passage we read from this morning from the lectionary:
10 I delight greatly in the LORD; my soul rejoices in my God. For he has clothed me with garments of salvation and arrayed me in a robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom adorns his head like a priest, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.
And he continues:
1 For as the soil makes the sprout come up and a garden causes seeds to grow, so the Sovereign LORD will make righteousness and praise spring up before all nations.
10. Now Isaiah’s and the words of the other prophets are not always comfortable … because they remind us that God does love justice … which is a problem because, of course, we do live in an unjust world … yet we would rather not think about it too much especially because it gets in the way of our pursuit of happiness – or so we are led to believe.
But, we can’t always put it out of our mind. As in the case of a good friend of mine who emailed me on Christmas day … and said:
Sitting here on Christmas morning eating garlic olives - to add to the family's atmosphere of joy - and reflecting on a c-span an interview with war correspondent Chris Hedges who was asked about the psychology of war and went into discussing Freud's opinion about humankind's need for Eros - creating life - and Thanatos -- the need to kill.
And he asked me the question …. does this prove that we as a race are doomed to keep fighting and killing our fellow creatures forever, or is there a chance mankind could ever live to the betterment of ourselves? In other words, should we as individuals keep struggling in our little ways to promote peace and understanding, or should we just sit back and enjoy our days here while enjoying our pumpkin pie (or garlic olives)?
(I should say that Paul has a particularly strong feeling about war because his brother has continued to suffer chronic mental and physical health problems from being exposed to the effects of Agent Orange – the defoliant that was used in Viet Name some 35 years ago.)
11.For the most part, the church (and society in general), instead of dealing with the question of justice, have tended to focus on the prophets as precursers to the coming of Jesus as the Messiah. Haley’s Bible Handbook, first written in l924 states that “by the time we reach the end of the Old Testament, the entire story of Christ has been pre-written and pre-figured.”
How can this happen? … the authors state that it is only through the superhuman or divine activity of God who supervised the writings of the Bible. As result, the prophets not only predicted that Jesus would be the Messiah but also prove that the Bible is of supernatural origin. It’s an air tight case, or so it seems. The whole purpose of the prophets, then, is to prepare us for the coming of Jesus … nothing more, nothing less.
This has been the conventional wisdom of many … although less so … in recent times … and is now more relegated to the fundamentalist and literalist interpretations today.
The actual truth is more likely that the Gospel writers, who widely read in the Old Testament, went back to the prophets as they sought to explain the sudden and unexpected reality of Jesus … and took passages from Isaiah and Hosea and the others to explain to their congregations who Jesus really was … and what his life and teachings meant. Nothing wrong with that … but it doesn’t have to mean that we simply ignore the reality of who the prophets were in their own times … and what they had to say about God in the life of the Hebrew people and about God’s desire for justice.
In fact, from my point of view, there would be no possibility of understanding Jesus … or of Jesus even happening … had not the prophets came before him … but that does not mean it was literal. God just does not work in such a simplistic way.
12.Who were the prophets? My favorite Jewish writer, Abraham Heschel said that they were men who had first hand real life … supernormal ecstatic experiences of God … just like Paul and Jesus, too … and as they lived within the traditions of Israel they sought to interpret for the people God’s living presence and how God expected them to live within the God given law which came down from Moses. And, they were passionate about social justice. Mainly, because God is passionate about justice.
Now, when we use the word justice, there are actually three ways it is normally understood.
For the past 10 years or so, I have been the chairperson of a small foundation named in honor of my former friend and mentor, the Rev. Vince Hawkinson. It is called the Vincent L. Hawkinson Foundation for Peace and Justice. Every year we give out an honorary award to some older person who had dedicated their live to some activity in promoting social justice or peace in the world. We also gave out $ 13,000 in scholarships to 11 college, graduate, and seminary students this past November.
I used to be on the scholarship committee before I moved to Bemidji. It was a most exciting activity. Because, if you think that kids today don’t care about what is going on in the world … I know differently. For these are some of the brightest and most committed young people you can ever hope to meet.
13.Well, one year a student applied for scholarship and when she came in, she said she was planning on going into criminal justice.
This made us stop and think. For, while she was well qualified, criminal justice, we realized, that while they are related in certain ways, criminal justice was not exactly the same as social justice – which was what the scholarship was supposed to be for.
Later, I read about the difference between criminal justice, procedural justice and social justice. The first is about protecting society against criminals and enforcing the law of the land. Very important and sometimes even dangerous and courageous work which can put police officers in harms way.
The second is about fair play. This is the work of politicians who we elect to make laws which provide for equal procedures for everyone under the law.
But, the third kind of justice, which the prophets were concerned about was social justice. This is a different matter. Because, as we know, a society can have very good legal procedures and strong law enforcement and yet also be a dictatorship. Or, like in America at the turn of the century, when large corporations could form monopolies, suppress competition, and unjustly rob the public even thought they broke no law at the time. Or, in the case of segregation laws which legally but unjustly discriminated against people of color.
14.In the end, what we are talking about here is a vision for humanity. Like the sign in the field on the road to my house which I drive by every day … Where there is no vision of God … the people perish.
But, where will the vision come from? Well, it must come from God.
And God’s vision came to the people of Israel through the prophets. And God’s way was not always the people’s ways. For God was often at odds with the people. God’s vision was greater and more powerful and more just than the people could stand. And, so, they closed their eyes and ears. Just as the scribes and Pharisees could not bear to hear what Jesus had to say … So, they tried not to pay attention to the prophets because they disturbed their sense of normalcy and threatened their power and position in society.
But, the prophets were fearless, driven by their vision, so they resorted to any means to get their point across … Isaiah, for instance, walked naked and barefoot through the streets of Jerusalem for three years … in protest of the nations desire to enter into a military alliance with Assyria which he believed would ultimate destroy Israel and allow the people to be carrying off naked and barefoot as prisoners of war – which is exactly what happened.
15.Then,later on, despite all the trouble, and the failures of his people, the prophet Isaiah turns around and confronts God …because he is impatient that God has not acted soon enough – and so this man torn between his vision from God and his love for his people and he speaks out of the agony in his heart:
1 For Zion's sake I will not keep silent, for Jerusalem's sake I will not remain quiet, till her righteousness shines out like the dawn, her salvation like a blazing torch.
2 The nations will see your righteousness, and all kings your glory; you will be called by a new name that the mouth of the LORD will bestow.
3 You will be a crown of beauty in the LORD's hand, a royal diadem in the hand of your God.
A crown of beauty … the people of Israel …
As one writer puts it:
The book of Isaiah begins with a vision that he saw, not a word that he heard. But the vision is translated, transmitted, in words. Moral instruction that follows out of the vision. Such, according to the prophets, is the only morality worth talking about or taking seriously. The implication is inescapable; the prophet has seen the vision, the hope of God for our human kind.
That is the blessed vision … for us this day … that we, too, may seek justice … and find happiness in the Lord our God.
Isaiah 61:10 – 62:3
“A Crown of Beauty”
1. Many people are familiar with the words of the Prophet Isaiah. And if not, they may recognize them in George Frederic Handel’s the Messiah – which was first performed in 1742.
First the Tenor or Soprano sings
Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God. Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her, that her warfare is accomplish'd, that her Iniquity is pardoned. The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness; prepare ye the way of the Lord; make straight in the desert a highway for our God.(Isaiah 40 : 1-3)
Then another Tenor or Soprano sings
Ev'ry valley shall be exalted, and ev'ry mountain and hill made low; the crooked straight, and the rough places plain.(Isaiah 40 : 4)
Lastly the Chorus joins in withAnd the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see together; for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it.(Isaiah 40 : 5)
Well, this morning, on the first day of the New Year we will be considering the prophet Isaiah and asking some important questions:
A. What sort person is it … who can utter words such as this?
B. Secondly, what is it that made the prophets, like Isaiah, speak the way they did.
C. Thirdly, why were the prophets so passionate about social justice?
D. Lastly, how has organized Christianity tended to ignore or
avoid dealing with the prophetic message of the prophets and even Jesus, himself?
2. But first, some thoughts about New Years and the Christmas holidays. I don’t know about you, but I had a good time this past week visiting my daughter and friends in the Cities and I can say that they all seem to be doing well.
Two friends of mine who were college roommates got together at campus pizza at the University of Minnesota. We get together once or twice every year. Campus pizza is not a chain. It is not even fancy. But it is still there just like our friendship for over 40 years!
And every time we get together we talk about a fourth person … who we knew very well and liked… his name is Boyd … he now lives in Cleveland … he was a marine during Viet Nam … and saw a lot of action … and sometime after he came back … he got married, divorced, and moved away … and never came back. I called him once about 10 years ago … and he promised to visit when he came back to Minnesota … but he never did … Last year one of my other friends called him … and found out that his second wife had died rather unexpectedly. So, last week, I picked up my cell phone and tried again. To my surprise he was very happy to talk. And, this time, hopefully, we will all get-together sometime this summer. This will be a very good thing because we all miss Boyd at lot!
3. Which brings up the question as we begin the New Year. Will it be a Happy One? Was last year a happy one? And, of course, what is it that makes us happy anyway?
While on vacation, I read two essays (in the New York Times, of course!) about happiness. One of them said that in the olden days people did not expect to be happy. In fact, the idea of happiness does not really appear in the world until about 200 years ago. Actually, it is right in the Declaration of Independence. You know the words:
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.
Now, the truth is, happiness is a modern idea … as recently as 1843, Thomas Carlyle observed that “Happiness our beings end and aim is at bottom, if we will count well, not yet two centuries old in the world.”
In fact, the word “happiness” does not occur anywhere in the Bible except in the Apocrypha. Where in the book of Sirach it says:
Some companions rejoice in the happiness of a friend; but in time of trouble they turn against him.
4. Now the word “happy” does appear in some places in the Old Testament but never in connection with Jesus – never. He never uses the word happy. Mostly we find it occasionally in the Psalms and it is usually used in connection with one’s faith in God. Such as in:
Psalm 144:15 -- Happy are the people whose God is the Lord.
Or Psalm 128:1 -- Happy is everyone who fears the Lord.
According historian Darrin McMahon, as modern society began to develop in the 17th century …changes in religious and secular culture began to make the idea of happiness or the experience of pleasure or good feeling … not only morally acceptable but even commendable. This was, of course, in opposition to religious notions that consigned life in this world to misery and sin. Suffering, people began to believe, was not our natural state. Happy was the way we were meant to be.
5. Not everyone agreed. Carlyle, who was notoriously cranky, said “Every pitifulest whipster that walks within a skin has had his head filled with the notion that he is, shall be, or by all human and divine laws ought to be, “happy.”
Carlyle may sound a bit like uncle scrooge, but he does raise an interesting question. Which was that the new doctrine of happiness tends to raise expectations which can never possibly be fulfilled …
Sociologists, the article goes on, point out that the percentage of people who describe themselves as happy or very happy has not changed much in the last 50 years – ever since surveys began to be conducted in the 1950s.
Happiness is a tricky thing … the famous philosopher, John Stewart Mill said … “Ask yourself if whether you are happy and you cease to be so.”
Instead, Mill said, “Those only are happy who have their minds fixed on some object other than their own happiness … such as the improvement of society, some art, or other pursuit which is not a means but an end in itself.”
6. Another article on the same subject by a psychologist, points out that in a recent study … one group of people were asked to list the reasons that their relationship with their girlfriend or boyfriend was going well … and to rate how satisfied they were … and another group was just asked for a gut reaction with no analysis. Surprisingly, those who gave things no deep thought, were more predictive of the future of their relationship and those that analyzed things gave no accurate predictions. The point being that there are severe limits to what we can discover through self-reflection.
The author goes on to say … the answer seems not to try to think to deeply about things … but instead to act on what it is we hope to achieve. For instance, college students who were instructed to go out of their way to do a few acts of kindness one day a week ended up being happier than those who were not.
So, maybe, instead of going out and buying another self-help book on how to achieve happiness – just go out and do something for someone else that will cheer them up … and just maybe you will be cheered up as well.
In short, the author states that “being good to other is more likely to make us kinder, happier people … so long as we don‘t think about it too much.”
7. So, what did Isaiah have to say about happiness – not much really, but he did say this:
When the Spirit is poured upon us from on high, and the desert becomes a fertile field, and the fertile field seems like a forest.
16 Justice will dwell in the desert and righteousness live in the fertile field.
17 The fruit of righteousness will be peace; the effect of righteousness will be quietness and confidence forever.
18 My people will live in peaceful dwelling places, in secure homes, in undisturbed places of rest.
19 Though hail flattens the forest and the city is leveled completely,
20 how blessed you will be, sowing your seed by every stream, and letting your cattle and donkeys range free.
Wait a minute … there is no word happy in that passage … is there? Actually, the word happy appears in the New Revised Standard Edition of the Bible… and the one I just read … is from the New International Version … and it turns out that both the King James Bible and Peterson’s modern version … also use the word blessed.
Of further interest is the dictionary definition of “blessed” which says that blessed can mean A. holy, sacred, or consecrated; B. to enjoy great happiness; C. to bring comfort or joy; or D. eternal bliss – like in religious state of rapture or in heaven.
8. Isaiah also said in chapter 56:
1GOD's Message to us is to:
"Guard my common good:
Do what's right and do it in the right way,
For salvation is just around the corner,
my setting-things-right is about to go into action.
2How blessed are you who enter into these things,
you men and women who embrace them,
Who keep Sabbath and don't defile it,
who watch your step and don't do anything evil!
My message, or perhaps the biblical message on this New Year’s day …is that happiness is not just a secular thing … something you derive from the pursuit of pleasure … but rather a deeper … and even religious state of mind … which comes from being in harmony with God and your fellow man/women.
For, if we really try to act out what Jesus said about loving the Lord our God and our neighbor as ourselves … then, perhaps, we will achieve a state of blessedness … or be blessed – as it were.
And that’s right from Jesus’ own self-help book … called the New Testament.
9. Now Isaiah was no ordinary person … in many ways similar to Jesus … and yet, for many Christians … the prophets are not something we are accustomed to reading much about.
Mostly this is because, I think, since the coming of institutional Christianity … the desire has been to kind of modify or tone down the message of the prophets about justice. And probably to tone down Jesus words, as well. After all, there was nothing about justice in Mel Gibson’s move about Jesus crucifixion, unless you interpret it as an act of Divine Justice – something I will leave for later on during lent and Easter.
After all, Jesus was, we need to remember, quite concerned about justice, as we read in Luke, chapter 11 where he confronts to the religious leaders:
42"I've had it with you! You're hopeless, you Pharisees! Frauds! You keep meticulous account books, tithing on every nickel and dime you get, but manage to find loopholes for getting around basic matters of justice and God's love. Careful bookkeeping is commendable, but the basics are required.
Same thing with Isaiah, as we read in chapter 61 beginning with verse 8:
8 "For I, the LORD, love justice; I hate robbery and iniquity. In my faithfulness I will reward them and make an everlasting covenant with them.
9 Their descendants will be known among the nations and their offspring among the peoples. All who see them will acknowledge that they are a people the LORD has blessed."
And then Isaiah goes on in the passage we read from this morning from the lectionary:
10 I delight greatly in the LORD; my soul rejoices in my God. For he has clothed me with garments of salvation and arrayed me in a robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom adorns his head like a priest, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.
And he continues:
1 For as the soil makes the sprout come up and a garden causes seeds to grow, so the Sovereign LORD will make righteousness and praise spring up before all nations.
10. Now Isaiah’s and the words of the other prophets are not always comfortable … because they remind us that God does love justice … which is a problem because, of course, we do live in an unjust world … yet we would rather not think about it too much especially because it gets in the way of our pursuit of happiness – or so we are led to believe.
But, we can’t always put it out of our mind. As in the case of a good friend of mine who emailed me on Christmas day … and said:
Sitting here on Christmas morning eating garlic olives - to add to the family's atmosphere of joy - and reflecting on a c-span an interview with war correspondent Chris Hedges who was asked about the psychology of war and went into discussing Freud's opinion about humankind's need for Eros - creating life - and Thanatos -- the need to kill.
And he asked me the question …. does this prove that we as a race are doomed to keep fighting and killing our fellow creatures forever, or is there a chance mankind could ever live to the betterment of ourselves? In other words, should we as individuals keep struggling in our little ways to promote peace and understanding, or should we just sit back and enjoy our days here while enjoying our pumpkin pie (or garlic olives)?
(I should say that Paul has a particularly strong feeling about war because his brother has continued to suffer chronic mental and physical health problems from being exposed to the effects of Agent Orange – the defoliant that was used in Viet Name some 35 years ago.)
11.For the most part, the church (and society in general), instead of dealing with the question of justice, have tended to focus on the prophets as precursers to the coming of Jesus as the Messiah. Haley’s Bible Handbook, first written in l924 states that “by the time we reach the end of the Old Testament, the entire story of Christ has been pre-written and pre-figured.”
How can this happen? … the authors state that it is only through the superhuman or divine activity of God who supervised the writings of the Bible. As result, the prophets not only predicted that Jesus would be the Messiah but also prove that the Bible is of supernatural origin. It’s an air tight case, or so it seems. The whole purpose of the prophets, then, is to prepare us for the coming of Jesus … nothing more, nothing less.
This has been the conventional wisdom of many … although less so … in recent times … and is now more relegated to the fundamentalist and literalist interpretations today.
The actual truth is more likely that the Gospel writers, who widely read in the Old Testament, went back to the prophets as they sought to explain the sudden and unexpected reality of Jesus … and took passages from Isaiah and Hosea and the others to explain to their congregations who Jesus really was … and what his life and teachings meant. Nothing wrong with that … but it doesn’t have to mean that we simply ignore the reality of who the prophets were in their own times … and what they had to say about God in the life of the Hebrew people and about God’s desire for justice.
In fact, from my point of view, there would be no possibility of understanding Jesus … or of Jesus even happening … had not the prophets came before him … but that does not mean it was literal. God just does not work in such a simplistic way.
12.Who were the prophets? My favorite Jewish writer, Abraham Heschel said that they were men who had first hand real life … supernormal ecstatic experiences of God … just like Paul and Jesus, too … and as they lived within the traditions of Israel they sought to interpret for the people God’s living presence and how God expected them to live within the God given law which came down from Moses. And, they were passionate about social justice. Mainly, because God is passionate about justice.
Now, when we use the word justice, there are actually three ways it is normally understood.
For the past 10 years or so, I have been the chairperson of a small foundation named in honor of my former friend and mentor, the Rev. Vince Hawkinson. It is called the Vincent L. Hawkinson Foundation for Peace and Justice. Every year we give out an honorary award to some older person who had dedicated their live to some activity in promoting social justice or peace in the world. We also gave out $ 13,000 in scholarships to 11 college, graduate, and seminary students this past November.
I used to be on the scholarship committee before I moved to Bemidji. It was a most exciting activity. Because, if you think that kids today don’t care about what is going on in the world … I know differently. For these are some of the brightest and most committed young people you can ever hope to meet.
13.Well, one year a student applied for scholarship and when she came in, she said she was planning on going into criminal justice.
This made us stop and think. For, while she was well qualified, criminal justice, we realized, that while they are related in certain ways, criminal justice was not exactly the same as social justice – which was what the scholarship was supposed to be for.
Later, I read about the difference between criminal justice, procedural justice and social justice. The first is about protecting society against criminals and enforcing the law of the land. Very important and sometimes even dangerous and courageous work which can put police officers in harms way.
The second is about fair play. This is the work of politicians who we elect to make laws which provide for equal procedures for everyone under the law.
But, the third kind of justice, which the prophets were concerned about was social justice. This is a different matter. Because, as we know, a society can have very good legal procedures and strong law enforcement and yet also be a dictatorship. Or, like in America at the turn of the century, when large corporations could form monopolies, suppress competition, and unjustly rob the public even thought they broke no law at the time. Or, in the case of segregation laws which legally but unjustly discriminated against people of color.
14.In the end, what we are talking about here is a vision for humanity. Like the sign in the field on the road to my house which I drive by every day … Where there is no vision of God … the people perish.
But, where will the vision come from? Well, it must come from God.
And God’s vision came to the people of Israel through the prophets. And God’s way was not always the people’s ways. For God was often at odds with the people. God’s vision was greater and more powerful and more just than the people could stand. And, so, they closed their eyes and ears. Just as the scribes and Pharisees could not bear to hear what Jesus had to say … So, they tried not to pay attention to the prophets because they disturbed their sense of normalcy and threatened their power and position in society.
But, the prophets were fearless, driven by their vision, so they resorted to any means to get their point across … Isaiah, for instance, walked naked and barefoot through the streets of Jerusalem for three years … in protest of the nations desire to enter into a military alliance with Assyria which he believed would ultimate destroy Israel and allow the people to be carrying off naked and barefoot as prisoners of war – which is exactly what happened.
15.Then,later on, despite all the trouble, and the failures of his people, the prophet Isaiah turns around and confronts God …because he is impatient that God has not acted soon enough – and so this man torn between his vision from God and his love for his people and he speaks out of the agony in his heart:
1 For Zion's sake I will not keep silent, for Jerusalem's sake I will not remain quiet, till her righteousness shines out like the dawn, her salvation like a blazing torch.
2 The nations will see your righteousness, and all kings your glory; you will be called by a new name that the mouth of the LORD will bestow.
3 You will be a crown of beauty in the LORD's hand, a royal diadem in the hand of your God.
A crown of beauty … the people of Israel …
As one writer puts it:
The book of Isaiah begins with a vision that he saw, not a word that he heard. But the vision is translated, transmitted, in words. Moral instruction that follows out of the vision. Such, according to the prophets, is the only morality worth talking about or taking seriously. The implication is inescapable; the prophet has seen the vision, the hope of God for our human kind.
That is the blessed vision … for us this day … that we, too, may seek justice … and find happiness in the Lord our God.
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