voices and vision

Another prophet

this time the profit is Isaiah. Isaiah, like Micah, is in the Southern Kingdom of Judah. Last week we heard from Micah, who was from the rural parts of Judah, he was telling the Southern Kingdom not to be too sure of themselves, because the judgement of God would fall on them the same way that it had on the northern kingdom.

In our journey through the old testament so far we have heard of how God liberated the Hebrew people, made a covenant with them, gave them kings and established them as a nation.  [Amy Oden working preacher] God also gave them prophets,  people who would speak God's message, and remind people of who they are as the people of God.

The Hebrew nation, even as a United Kingdom, was small, now in the time of the divided kingdom the nation of Judah is tiny.

Many small nations were vulnerable to the empires of the time. In this particular time the Empire is the Assyrian Empire. The Assyrians were known for their brutality, for the utter destruction that they wreaked on nations and cities.

So here we are about 700 years before Christ, Assyria is threatening Jerusalem, to level the city and to take the people into exile. The King has sent an envoy with a message for Jerusalem, which is basically: give up now, because you know we are bigger and stronger than you are. The people of Jerusalem are taunted; who is going to come and save you? You think this little army of yours can? Do you really think that God of yours can? No other army and no other God has been able to stand up against the might of the Assyrian army, so do the sensible thing and surrender.

The King has not been the most faithful God, but he does recognise that he needs to hear a word from the Lord, rather than just think about this in military terms.

I've been wondering this week about which other voices that we listen to. Who are the people we believe. Sometimes we learn things the hard way: a young child who won't listen when a parent says don't touch it is hot, some have to actually touch it and find out. When our friends say one thing and a parent says another, which one informs the actions.

Now that we are adults the questions become a little harder. There are destructive forces around us, there are voices that say surrender to drugs, to alcohol, to overconsumption, to higher status, to more pay….  There are voices that speak loudly in our community that tell us that some people are worth less than others. The unemployed, the chronically ill, children, those born in another country, those without children, and a whole range of other factors that mark people out as different.

We can listen to the voices that try and divide us, internationally, as a nation, and as a church.

The people of Judah had to choose between the threats and bullying of the Assyrian Empire in the word of God spoken through the Prophet Isaiah: don't be afraid, look and see what I will do.

A related issue I've been pondering this week is about vision. The voices that we listen to, that we take seriously, are the ones which frame our vision for the future.

Do we frame our vision for the future on the words of God?

The words of hope and peace, grace and forgiveness. This God also speaks words of judgement, demanding justice, compassion, inclusion, and generosity.
Are these the words that frame our vision?

There have been times in my life when I have doubted God's presence and wondered if God had any idea what was going on. And the voices in my head were telling me what I'd heard in other places - that this God religion thing was not real, that being part of the church was a waste of time. What I needed was for people to speak the worlds of grace and hope to me, and some did.

There are times in life when things are difficult, and there will be voices telling us that God is not real, that God can't help us, that we might as well give up, give up on faith, give up on God, because God just is not up to the task.

Then we need people who can speak words of faith and hope to us, people can remind us of God's promise to always be present with us. Do our words and our living give people a vision of a world filled with compassion and love?

At the recent Synod meeting there were questions and comments about the way the Uniting Church is dying, and I'm sure you've all read parts of Insights and been part of conversations that speak with despair at the current situation of the Uniting Church. This is part of the response to a question at Synod from Rev Kath Merrifield:

“ I don’t believe the Church is dying and I think we have believed our own press for far too long. Yes the numbers are going in the wrong direction. We have some great challenges…. “God has not finished with us yet and there is space for everyone who comes,””

Sometimes we ourselves are the people who speak the words of despair and hopelessness, rather than the words of hope and grace. Do we despair about the future of the church, do we keep our fingers crossed that there will still be a church for our funeral, or do we wait on God's spirit, do we live into the vision of what church can be?

Because the vison of the future that we hold gives shape to the way we live today. [working preacher podcast]

Listen now to the other part of today's reading which is in the second chapter of Isaiah”

“2:1 The word that Isaiah son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem. 2 In days to come the mountain of the Lord's house shall be established as the highest of the mountains, and shall be raised above the hills; all the nations shall stream to it. 3 Many peoples shall come and say, "Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths." For out of Zion shall go forth instruction, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. 4 He shall judge between the nations, and shall arbitrate for many peoples; they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more. “

[Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. ]

The vision that God speaks through Isaiah is not one of brutality, coercion, or despair.
The vision that God speaks through Isaiah is of all the nation's worshipping together.
The vision that God speaks through Isaiah is one where people come to learn from God, and seek to live in God's way.
The vision that God speaks through Isaiah is one of judgement and arbitration, where it is God who is doing the sifting not any one of us.
The vision that God speaks through Isaiah is one piece where tools are used for providing nourishment rather than destruction and death.

This is a vision that we can live into.
It may not seem realistic to us,
it may seem like an illusion,
and there are people who want us to think that way.

who do we listen to?

whose vision of the future do we live into being?