Readings:
Isaiah 40:21-31,
Psalm 147:1-12, 21c,
1 Corinthians 9:16-23 ,
Mark 1:29-39
Audio:
.mp3 |
podcast |
iTunes
Holy and Loving God, write a message on our hearts. Bless us, direct us, and send us out, living letters of the Word. AMEN.
Have you not known? Have you not heard? Has it not been told you from the beginning? Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth?
Very harsh words from the prophet Isaiah on behalf of God – someone most defiantly had on their grumpy pants. They are in reaction to Israel’s lament. A little background this morning – I appreciate your indulgence of this history major. We are in the sixth century before Christ, and Israel is in exile: captives in Babylon, separated from the land and from the Temple. Everything they had built, everything they had nourished, everything they had held dear was snatched away from them by a foreign power and they were forced to march off to imprisonment in a faraway, unfamiliar land. Israel’s heads were shaved and their beards plucked. They were made to build shantytowns buy the Chebar River and then left to weep over their lost Zion. Because of their separation from the land and the Temple, the people feel lost and alone, forsaken and unable to connect with God. Israel is beyond the sadness or depression. They have succumb to total despair.
Have you ever despaired? I’m not talking about a touch of melancholy. I’m not talking about being bummed or disappointed. I’m talking about full-blown, full-on, unadulterated, can’t get out of your sweatpants, nobody knows you when your down and out, despair. Despair can take many forms. Despair can be very active and hijack your entire life. You lay in bed, unable to sleep, unable to silence the mind, and what ever you are despairing turns over and over again, churning and heaving, like some sinful appliance invented by a demented Ron Popeil. You feel like you have no hope, no future, no worth – you are nothing. As the minor folk rock icon Edie Brickell once sang, “There's nothing I hate more than nothing / Nothing keeps me up at night.” Needless to say, it is a very bad place to be. But, as hard as it is to imagine, a far worse type of despair is the more passive, more insidious form. “Walking Despair” one might call it. You seem fine, you seem to be an upright, functional, productive member of society. But your despair marinates your soul and clouds your view of life. Nothing seems right, nothing is satisfactory, nothing is worth celebrating. Every encounter, every discussion has a negative undercurrent. Despair becomes a virus, infecting everything it comes in contact with, prohibiting any kind of growth, any kind of evolution, any kind of accomplishment, any kind of real happiness. Despair, active or passive, reduces us to a pile of worthless nothing. Nothing.
And yet, in the midst of our blackest nothing, the voice of the prophet still cries out, “Have you not known? Have you not heard? Has it not been told you from the beginning? Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth?”
My friend Eyleen recently introduced me to a Lutheran pastor and preacher named Nadia Bolz-Weber. Her parish is the House for all Sinners and Saints in Denver, Colorado. Last November she preached a sermon about nothing. Her text was the feeding of the five thousand and how, when Jesus turned to the disciples and asked if they had anything to feed the people, they turned out their proverbial pockets and said no, we have nothing. I am reminded of when I was a child and my dad would ask me what I did in school that day and I would say, “nothing.” Sounds rather despairing, doesn’t it? But then she made one of the more profound points I have heard in quite some time. She said, “[the disciples] forgot that they have a God who created the universe out of nothing! That can put flesh on dry bones out of nothing! That can put life in a dusty womb out of nothing. Let’s face it, nothing is like God’s favorite material!”
And that same God reached out to Israel in our Old Testament reading and spoke to them out of their nothing. The prophet says, “Have you not known? Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to the faint, and strengthens the powerless … they shall mount up with wings like eagles.” God says, I hear your nothing, I see your nothing, I know your nothing, and if you give it up to me, I will do something. I will take your nothing and make something you never imagined. With me, I will transform your nothing into accomplishment and effectiveness and worth and mission. Out of our nothing, God will create the new heaven and the new earth. Our God is an awesome God, or have you not heard.
In the Gospel today, Jesus has had a busy day. He has spoken with authority in the synagogue, as we heard last week, he has healed the sick, and cast out demons. I would imagine that in Capernaum, he is one popular dude. And it would have been easy to just be in Capernaum, to do good work, to perform a few miracles at parties. If Jesus had stayed there he would have made a difference, and we probably would never have heard about him. If Jesus had stayed, I am sure he would have been busy, but busyness for busyness’ sake seldom leads to anything, except dissatisfaction and even more busyness. Busyness can be an excellent cloak for despair. If Jesus had stayed in Capernaum, he might as well have done nothing. But the next day, after saying his prayers, Jesus girds his loins and says, “Let us go on to the neighboring towns, so that I may proclaim the message there also; for that is what I came out to do.” I can hear the disciples reaction now, “are you kidding me! We’ve got a great gig here! The people love us. That trick with Simon’s mother-in-law was awesome. We never have to pay for dinner. Why do we have to leave?” The disciples, like Israel before them, like us, forgot about what God can do. For with us, with nothing, God can do anything.
Have you not known? Have you not heard? Has it not been told you from the beginning? Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth? The nothing is so over. With God, a new something is just beginning. AMEN.
