The Dream Is Still Alive part 2 (by Bill Senyard on 12/09/12)

 

 

Lookout Mountain Community Church, Evergreen, CO
Sermon Text
Dr. Bill H. Senyard

The Dream is Still Alive part 1

Lookout Mountain Community Church

Dec 9, 2012

The Dream is Still Alive! But it is a strange dream really. This new thing, this new revolution is in so many ways counter-intuitive, upside down in contrast to what we usually can comprehend with our eyes. The prophet speaks in vast hyperboles. It is ultimately comprehensible only to poets. To Isaiah, the ad-venio is amazing, beautiful—so unimaginable to our imaginations. I am pretty sure that we miss its glory somehow. We hear the Christmas story so often, that we lose its scandalous story line. This ad-venio, we want to stretch the muscles that have been atrophied for so long. What we “see” will change us. What changes us, we will follow.

Today, I want us to remember, to become reinvested in its glory. Whether you choose to enter into the revolution or not, you surely won’t leave here thinking that it is dull or pedantic.

Last week we re-envisioned Isaiah’s great prophecy in chapter 64 as he foretold of the heaven’s tearing open and God coming to the sight of all humanity. This week, we look at another series of images from Chapter 40. This too was written hundreds of years before Christ.
3 A voice of one calling: “In the desert prepare the way for the LORD; make straight in the wilderness a highway for our God. 4 Every valley shall be raised up, every mountain and hill made low; the rough ground shall become level, the rugged places a plain. 5 And the glory of the LORD will be revealed, and all mankind together will see it. (Isa 40:3-5)

[qara’ speaks of crying out with a discernible word—could possibly be a cry in pain]

“Listen, someone is calling out.” Can you hear it? Really? Use your apocalyptic imagining. In the ancient world, great conquering Kings naturally demanded a great and glorious procession. Usually down the main street into the place of government- a palace, etc.

Here is an image of the ticker tape parade given for the World Champion New York Giants—Superbowl champs—until this year of course!!

But the procession that Isaiah sees is much larger. Unbelievable really. It will require that the entire landscape be changed. I conclude that the primary audience for these imaginings is the returned exiles of Judah. Remember the history? In 586 BC the Kingdom of Judah was destroyed as a just punishment for gross unfaithfulness to God. At their celestial trial, evidence was brought to light that they had become shockingly spiritually insensitivity to the things of God, disregarded the poor, the oppressed, the hungry, the beat-up. Instead they acted consumeristically to satisfy their own desires and longings—their focus was on their needs and wants and preferences–their own well-being and life-styles. Religion was all about tapping into God for their own self-interests.

Look, you can participate in religion religiously and still be rabidly independent from God. You can wear t-shirts “Yahweh is our God,” and wear bracelets, What would Yahweh do?– and religiously participate to the letter in the worship of Yahweh faithfully—at least according to the letter of the law—and not really trust Him.

6th ct Judah thought that they were “righteous” (remember, “right-with-God”). This self-deception happens so subtly. They thought that they were a nation under Yahweh. But nothing could be further from the truth for Judah.

God, the Judge, was clear though. They were vile hypocrites. They were His people in name only—in proclamation but not in reality. They didn’t really live like they trusted Yahweh—maybe they did on the Sabbath, but not on other days. They trusted their own capabilities, their own economy, and their own ability to defend themselves, their alliances with other nations, their own religiosity—sound familiar?

So God send the hordes of Babylon to destroy self-sufficient religious Judah. It turns out that they were not really so self-sufficient. The institutions that they thought were solid (government, economy, army, education, walls, and technologies), turned out to be very flimsy.

But after the 70 years of exile, they returned to the land, now the small Persian satrap of Yehud. So this remnant came back to the land, but it was very noticeable that the glory of God did not return. Very troubling. It was a serious identity crisis.

And this is the context then to hear this particular prophecy from the scroll of Isaiah. Here is what they might have imagined.
“Yehud, enough with the focus on yourselves and your plight. See! Hear the cry out? Yahweh Shabbaoth– the Lord Armies–is about to return to the chosen land and His chosen resting place. He remains as He promised long ago, not just the Holy One, but the Holy One of Israel (mentioned 25 times in Isaiah). He is returning and with Him a return of your value and distinction, worth, calling, commission to reach the nations, remembrance that you are God’s special child to all who truly trust him.”

So imagine with me, what might an appropriate procession even possibly look like? God returning to His people? Not just a standard parade on a colorfully decorated street down a major thoroughfare, as might be expected by Herod, or Caesar. No. This procession begins in Persia, continues across the desert ending in the Holy of Holies.
“OK, here’s what I want you to do. Take that mountain and use it to fill that valley. I want a huge highway between the Persia and Jerusalem—that’s right! Across the wilderness. I want the whole shebang, the ticker tape parade, the gigantic Snoopy Dog balloon, marching bands, PSY leading the dancing.”

But certainly this is heightened poetry. It can be embodied in multiple ways. It would also be very kosher to also hear,
“OK, I am coming back. I want all of your heart’s wilderness cleaned up— all of the muck. Any mountain in your heart—something that you are proud of, find value in apart from me, something that you worship and really, really need—tear it down. All the valleys, those areas where you are vulnerable to attack, to hopelessness—they must be flattened as well. The way must be made perfect—suitable for Yahweh Sabbaoth.

How do we know this? The pre-exilic people of Judah thought that God was going to reward them for their faithfulness when He came. (see Isa 5:18-19) Oooops. But imagine that the remnant that was in Yehud might see this prophecy as good news/bad news.
“We really want God to come and be Immanuel—but bad news, we are our own worst enemies. We are not godly people. We are prone to self-centeredness, spiritual insensitivity, consumerism, religion, independent and critical spirits—just to mention a few. At our core we rarely ever really live as if we firmly trusted in God and His goodness. So how do we prepare our hearts for God’s coming? This is frightening. Who can stand? “

This is not so far fetched for us today. Think for a minute of Yahweh of Armies coming to your heart today. What chaos and wilderness in your life will God cut a swath through—exposing only His glory. What mountains and valleys will need to be flattened. How would that change your day-to-day life? Would he flatten your relationships? Your hobbies? Your career? Your pride? Your unbelief? Imagine. He is coming now.

But I would suggest that the prophet’s words also had in mind another embodiment of the coming of the Lord. Imagine with me that he had in mind, not a glorious royal procession of His victorious armies, parading with ticker-tape down the main street. But rather the procession of a child through the womb of the virgin Mary. Hear it again with spiritual imagination:
3 A voice of one calling: “In the desert prepare the way for the LORD; make straight in the wilderness a highway for our God. 4 Every valley shall be raised up, every mountain and hill made low; the rough ground shall become level, the rugged places a plain. 5 And the glory of the LORD will be revealed, and all mankind together will see it. (Isa 40:3-5)

Imagine the empty void of Mary’s womb as a lifeless wilderness. God Himself in all of His transcendent glory arriving from such an inglorious wilderness into the adoring arms of Mary. To the acclaim of representatives from Israel and the nations (the shepherd and the wisemen). All of the popular ideas of how this would happen by all the religious and secular experts and poll takers were flattened. The birth of Jesus was indeed a glorious procession of a conquering General, the Lord of Armies.

You with spiritual imagination certainly will have many questions. Why was this ‘way’ chosen? Is this better than the way of Kings? The way of God’s glory into the tabernacle and later the Temple? How is Jesus, the new-born infant “the glory of the Lord revealed?” How did all men see it? Amazing mystery. But this is truth.

Isaiah is not yet done. In a few short verses he proclaims to Yehud
You who bring good tidings to Zion, go up on a high mountain. You who bring good tidings to Jerusalem, lift up your voice with a shout, lift it up, do not be afraid; say to the towns of Judah, “Here is your God!” (Isa 40:9)

Imagine the scene. In a regular procession the people would cry out, “Here is our King!” It was a celebration. The war is over, the conquering King has finally arrived. The defeated tyrant that ruled over His people, the usurper, has been toppled. This is huge! The heralds of the great victory accomplished already scatter throughout the land to make sure that everybody knows what went down. No one will miss the parade that is just over the ridge.

“Come and see the King. Come and see.” Imagine that they find the highest building, the highest hill to shout out the good tidings. Imagine—He’s coming! He is coming. Bring the whole family. Come out of hiding. Winter is over. Spring is here. Aslan is on the move. The White Witch has been defeated.

But in Isaiah, there are a couple of differences. First, there is a warning to not be afraid. Why would fear enter into such a victory celebration? This is a time of great joy.

Second, the other interesting eye-catching difference is that the proclamation is “Here is your God!” Now that’s a real head-trip for a Jew. The other times that God ‘came’ to His people, precisely to His temple, there was no record of the people crying out—it was plainly obvious—no words were needed to clarify that God had come in His Glory.

But in this case, the present earthly ruler did not bow or step down from the throne, neither Herod, nor Caesar. The High Priest did not give up his corrupt crown. This entry, this conquering King has had a procession before the conquering. This King, this God is shockingly only an infant. This takes great spiritual imagination.

Can you see? Isaiah expands the ad-venio even further? This King brings with him rewards.
10 See, the Sovereign LORD comes with power, and his arm rules for him. See, his reward is with him, and his recompense accompanies him. 11 He tends his flock like a shepherd: He gathers the lambs in his arms and carries them close to his heart; he gently leads those that have young.

In typical processions, the conquering King would distribute the booty to his faithful in order to firm up support and to begin a narrative of being a generous King. The entire procession is used as an image-producing commercial to define the narrative behind the King. And so it is with Jesus. You just have to use you imagination to see it. Twice the prophet urges us to “see.”

So now I urge us all to see again. Close your eyes to see the infant newly born King Jesus. This is your God. Don’t mistake it. Don’t be afraid to proclaim the truth, which admittedly at first blush looks a little far-fetched. This struggling, helpless fluid covered infant is your King, your God, in fact the King who is conquering all anti-Yahweh institutions and philosophies. His victory is so sure, the celebration happens first. But to proclaim it could cost you. No doubt. But truth is truth.

Imagine. With your physical eyes you see fragile tiny arms that would snap in two with such little force.

But no, nothing could be further from the truth. See, this infant’s arms are the arms of a ruler, immense authority and power—far more than Herod or Caesar, or any nation before or since. With your physical senses, you look and perceive that he came empty-handed.

But nothing could be further from the truth. This conquering General has with Him far more booty and prizes than any other conquering King has ever had. He brings with him and freely distributes glory, honor, name, value, worth, adoption and approval of Yahweh. Not to those who fought bravely by his side—before the procession. He gives booty to the unclean—shepherds and gentiles who did nothing to earn it before the procession. All the heavenly blessings are his and he freely shares it with those who come to adore and follow Him, who freely proclaim Him as their King and their God.

The narrative continues. This King is not just a powerful hulk who is self-centered, narcissistic, jealous, and who naturally crushes others (like Herod). No, the narrative that surrounds this stunningly, great and powerful Lord of Armies is that his heart is the heart of a mere shepherd. He is not caught up in guarding His own glory. He cares for the needs of His people. He is gentle. He is righteous, cares for the widows and orphans.

Do we really see? I had an OT professor lament that the church lacks poets today. We have lost the ability to “see.” We can read, we can study, but we have lost our spiritual imagination. I agree and lament that as well. This generation would appreciate a rebirth of such a prophetic imagination.

This week, re-read the Christmas story in Luke. Turn on your prophetic imaginations. Sit in the poetic glory. Allow your imaginations to dance. If you have forgotten how, let your children (if you have them) assist you. If you have no children, pretend you do. Remember you were a child once? These are powerful life-giving images. The Holy Spirit is a great poet.
The birth of Jesus as a glorious procession of a conquering King. Jesus revealed the glory of God to earth for the first time ever.

God employed an infant to demonstrate His strength.

The empty hands of a newborn to proclaim the vastness of His gifts for those who worship.

Take these images and run with them. This is not a mere children’s story. This was the tossing of the gauntlet to all the powers that claim authority not given to them by God.