2 nd Easter Isaiah 56: RUMC

Transcription

1 Today, we begin our new sermon series, this newspaper sermon series in which we read the news of the world around us and use the Bible to help us discern how we, as Christian people, should respond to the issues facing our world. When I originally planned this sermon series, I had every intention of focusing on the bad news, those hard, stressful stories that seem to dominate headlines. This week, there was certainly no shortage of bad news : increased tensions with North Korea; the arrest of members local oxycodone trafficking ring; various acts of random and senseless violence throughout the nation; issues stemming from budget cuts, furloughs, and the federal sequester. There was certainly no lack of bad news in the newspapers I read on Easter Sunday. And yet, in the midst of all of that hard, gripping news, I found myself returning again and again to a human interest story what some might call a fluff piece in the Easter Sunday edition of the Pocono Record. It was entitled Sensitive Easter Bunny Pays Visit to Stroudsburg Library. The article detailed an effort by members of the Pocono Mountain West High School Leo Club, an extra-curricular group focused on community service. These students hosted a Sensitive Easter Bunny program at the local library, aimed at meeting the needs of children with autism, cognitive disabilities, or a low threshold for sensory stimuli. For such children, a typical trip to the mall to visit the Easter Bunny complete with all of the sights, sounds, chaos, and crowds that the mall experience provides is just too much for them to handle. It s a difficult if not frightening experience. Instead, the members of the Leo Club offered children a calm, quiet, comfortable atmosphere that was more in line with the needs of these children, and gave them the opportunity to visit the Easter Bunny just like any other child might do. These same high school students offered a similar Sensitive Santa program to the community last December. Their goal was simple: to make sure that any child had the opportunity to participate in these cultural traditions, regardless of their conditions or disabilities. 1

2 Nice story, right? I was moved by it. I chose to use it for this sermon not because it troubled me like the articles about North Korea and drug trafficking and random violence and the federal sequester troubled me but rather because it inspired me. I hope it can inspire you perhaps even challenge us, too. Prayer I was inspired by this story, truly inspired. It is not just a story about the Easter Bunny. It is the story of a group of service-minded students who looked at their community and saw a problem. And what was that problem? That people children, really were essentially excluded from a widely-enjoyed cultural tradition because of their disabilities. These students sought to address that problem and meet that exclusion with compassion and ingenuity. They found a way to include those who had once been excluded. I was inspired by this story. I was also challenged by it. As I read it, I thought If a bunch of high school students can do this so that all children can experience the Easter Bunny, how much more should the church, the Body of Christ, seek to do this so that all people can experience the life-changing and hope-filled gospel of Jesus Christ? This article made me wonder are there perhaps people in our community who, for any number of reasons, are excluded inadvertently and unintentionally excluded, but excluded nonetheless from our church, our worship, our fellowship and service in Christ? If so, what would God want us to do about that? As I pondered these questions, several scriptures came to mind. One was the scripture passage we read earlier, from 1 Corinthians a wonderful passage that celebrates the diversity of the Body of Christ and affirms the importance of each and every member of it. Another passage comes to us from the prophet Isaiah: [Isaiah 56:1-8, NIV] 1 This is what the Lord says: Maintain justice and do what is right, for my salvation is close at hand and my righteousness will soon be revealed. 2 Blessed is the one who does this the person who holds it fast, who keeps the Sabbath without desecrating it, and keeps their hands from doing any evil. 3 Let no foreigner who is bound to 2

3 the Lord say, The Lord will surely exclude me from his people. And let no eunuch complain, I am only a dry tree. 4 For this is what the Lord says: To the eunuchs who keep my Sabbaths, who choose what pleases me and hold fast to my covenant 5 to them I will give within my temple and its walls a memorial and a name better than sons and daughters; I will give them an everlasting name that will endure forever. 6 And foreigners who bind themselves to the Lord to minister to him, to love the name of the Lord, and to be his servants, all who keep the Sabbath without desecrating it and who hold fast to my covenant 7 these I will bring to my holy mountain and give them joy in my house of prayer. Their burnt offerings and sacrifices will be accepted on my altar; for my house will be called a house of prayer for all nations. 8 The Sovereign Lord declares he who gathers the exiles of Israel: I will gather still others to them besides those already gathered. This prophetic passage begins, characteristically enough, by urging God s people to seek justice and do what is right. 1 This is what the Lord says, begins the prophet, Maintain justice and do what is right, for my salvation is close at hand and my righteousness will soon be revealed (Isaiah 56:1, NIV). It is by no means uncommon for God s prophets to call God s people to justice, to righteousness, to greater faithfulness to God s covenant. That s their job. That s what prophets do. This is a common theme throughout the prophetic books of the Bible. What is interesting about this passage is that before going on to specify what justice, righteousness, and faithfulness to God will look like, the prophet first addresses what the community of God the community that will practice justice, righteousness, and faithfulness will look like. In particular, the prophet describes the community of God s people as a community in which those who were once excluded are now included. Whether excluded because of holy law, cultural tradition, or common prejudice now, these individuals are part of the ever-widening circle of God s people. Two groups of excluded people are specifically mentioned here. The first group is the eunuchs, men who have been castrated (usually against their will and often as a tactic of war and imperialism). They are unable to father children, to make their names live on through descendants, to raise up heirs who will be faithful to 3

4 God s covenant all things that were highly valued in ancient Israel. The second group is the foreigners, those who come from other lands, follow other traditions, and worship other gods often in ways that were condemned the God of Israel. Both groups are on the fringes of Israelite society. Neither group has ever really fit in. Yet in the time since those laws and traditions were put into place, God s people have experienced unprecedented disaster and devastation. Israel, to the north, has been destroyed by the great and terrible Assyrian empire. Judah, to the south, has been attacked by the brutal Babylonians. God s Temple has been ransacked and destroyed, and God s people have been murdered, enslaved, or exiled. Now, some time later, the Persians have taken power and in an effort to control the people and stave off rebellion, they have allowed the Israelites to return to their ancestral homeland and rebuild God s holy Temple. Yet the effects of this devastating experience have had a profound effect on God s people. We see glimmers of that in this part of Isaiah. This passage was written by and for a people who have been forced to live in a foreign land among foreign people, who have watched invading kings take their daughters for their harems and turn their sons into eunuchs. This experience has been devastating. This experience has changed the ways they understand themselves, the ways they relate to others, the ways they relate to God. And God speaks God speaks to their situation God speaks beyond their situation to the lives of all people. Of the eunuchs, God says: to them I will give within my temple and its walls a memorial and a name better than sons and daughters; I will give them an everlasting name that will endure forever (Isaiah 56:5, NIV). Of the foreigners, God says: And foreigners who bind themselves to the Lord to minister to him, to love the name of the Lord, and to be his servants, all who keep the Sabbath without desecrating it and who hold fast to my covenant these I will bring 4

5 to my holy mountain and give them joy in my house of prayer. Their burnt offerings and sacrifices will be accepted on my altar; for my house will be called a house of prayer for all nations (Isaiah 56:6-7, NIV). And for all who have been excluded from life amongst God s people, God says: I will gather still others to them besides those already gathered (Isaiah 56:8, NIV). In this passage, it is clear that the story of God s people is now changing. What began hundreds of years earlier as a conversation between God and a man named Abraham has since expanded to a relationship between God and God s nation and now, that circle has widened even further. We are part of that ever-widening circle. This passage is not just about eunuchs and foreigners. This passage from Isaiah is, in many ways, our own story. In our New Testament scriptures, we read: Once you were not a people, but now you are God s people (1 Peter 2:10, NRSV). Once we were not part of the people of God but now we are part of the people of God. Once excluded, now included. We have become part of the circle that God is drawing ever wider. Yet because we are part of that circle, I think it s important for us to ask ourselves some hard questions. As the church, are we helping to widen God s circle? Or, as the church, are we excluding others? Inadvertently, unintentionally, perhaps but excluding them just the same? Are there ways that we can make our worship, our fellowship, our service opportunities more welcoming and more inclusive? Like those high school student volunteers we read about in our news article, can we make our church our worship, our fellowship, our service more sensitive and responsive to the needs of others? Do we, for example, have ways of making our church more accessible to those with disabilities? We ve already made a very good start. Our elevator, our worship screens, our microphone systems, our ground-floor restrooms, our large-print bulletins all of this helps us to be more accessible. But are we so accessible to someone who is legally blind or profoundly deaf? To someone who is illiterate or 5

6 highly dyslexic and can t read our hymns, our bulletins, our website, our announcements? To someone who doesn t speak English? As God draws God s circle ever wider, can we think of new and meaningful ways to include these individuals in God s circle in this place? Or do we have ways of meeting the needs of those who are hungry or homeless, those who might come to worship or to church events without having the opportunity to take a shower or eat a decent meal? How can we widen God s circle in this place as we show them welcome not only by including them in worship and fellowship, but also by helping them meet their basic needs and get back on their feet? Do we have ways of making our worship, our fellowship, and our service more accessible to children? How can we help them (and their families) to know that they always have a vital place amongst God s people? Could we, like those high school students, find ways to make our worship and fellowship and service more accessible to those with mental disabilities, those with attention disorders, those on the autism spectrum? How can we discern their needs, meet their needs, and help them find a real place in God s circle here? How could we respond to those who don t feel free to participate in the life of the church because they re embarrassed about their checkered pasts? How can we reach out in Christ-like compassion and genuinely communicate that this place isn t about what you ve done in the past, but rather about how you want to grow in Christ in the future? How can we widen God s circle in that way? I don t have all the answers but as your pastor, I really want to explore the questions with you. As the church, as the Body of Christ in this place, how can we help to widen God s circle by being more sensitive, more responsive, more welcoming? We re already a friendly church. I ve felt embraced in my first several months here. This is a great church! but how can we become even better? 6

7 The church is one of the world s few organizations that exists primarily for the benefit of those who are not yet inside its doors, who are not yet members or friends or affiliates. The church exists for the sake of those who are, as yet, outside the circle. How can we live that out? How can we widen God s circle with more sensitivity, more responsiveness, more inclusivity, more welcome more love? If a group of high school students can do it for kids who want to see the Easter Bunny, how much more can we, God s people, do it for those whom God loves, whose lives (like ours) can be transformed by the gospel of Jesus Christ? In my previous congregation, I once had a man come up to me after worship, hopping mad. Pastor, he spat out, I didn t like singing that new music during the second hymn. (We had done a contemporary praise song set in place of the typical second hymn that day.) I didn t like it at all! I responded with a big smile. That s wonderful! I said. (He wasn t too happy with me right then. He gave me this look, mixed with confusion and annoyance.) It s wonderful, I continued, because that means we had something in worship that connected to you, and something in worship that connected to someone who is different than you. That s wonderful! We made room for all sorts of people in worship today! I don t really think he liked my answer but I stand by it. I think it s a good way to think about all of the things we do in church our worship, our fellowship, our service. When we do church, are we intentionally trying to make room for those whose needs, likes, struggles, and experiences might be different from ours or are we just trying to take care of ourselves? Are we intentionally trying to find ways to be more sensitive, more responsive, more inclusive, more welcoming, and more loving or is that too much work? Can we truly seek ways to widen God s circle or are we happy with the circle just as it is? If a group of high school students can do it for kids who want to see the Easter Bunny, how much more can we, God s people, do it for 7

8 those whom God loves, whose lives (like ours) can be transformed by the gospel of Jesus Christ? Let s widen that circle, my friends. Prayer 8