Sermon Sept 16, 2007
Isaiah 35
This is Kibera [See Attached: pictures
of Kibera---1.2 million person slum on the edge of
Last week we looked at our world through the lens of Proverbs 24. The world and the hearts of its people, though once a garden has been overgrown by thorns and weeds, its walls of security broken down. Sin has done and continues to do its awful work.
Instead of the paradise in which the Creator and His creatures—His people-- walk together in perfect love and trust: We have a world in which people curse God, deny his very existence or create other gods that are hoped to be more responsive to people’s cries. We have a world in which people seek after things more than they seek after God and look to other places for help and comfort rather than to the One true God.
Instead of a world in which man and woman live together in mutual love and respect and service, we live in a world where there is distrust and betrayal, slander, gossip, malice, resentment, bitterness –just plain grouchiness infecting relationships from within marriages and families—to the national and international level.
Instead of a world in which the tree of life gave nourishment and vitality—where there was no suffering, no death; we live in a world with immense suffering and pain where death is a daily threat.
Once a garden paradise---the hearts of the people of this world are now desert wastelands. The Psalmist recognized this and knew it to be true:
O God,
you are my God, earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you, my body longs
for you, in a dry and weary land where there is no water.
[Psalm 63:1]
The Psalmist knows two things:
a) This is a dry and weary land with no water. The sea of humanity is really a vast desert. Because of sin in the human heart, there is no real life—only death—and nothing here that can truly satisfy.
b) But he knows that there is hope; he knows that there is yet life --and that life and hope are found in God. And he seeks, thirsts and longs for God with his whole being.
It is only God who can clear away the thorns and weeds, only God who can rebuild the walls of stability and defense. Only God who can bring water to dried up places; only God who can bring peace in the midst of anxiety and strife; life in the midst of death.
In fact, this was His plan since the world was first tainted with sin, since the first thorns grew and the first person died. The Prophet Isaiah gives us a glimpse, a picture, a view of the day of God’s intervention: “The desert and the parched land will be glad; the wilderness will rejoice and blossom. Like the crocus, 2 it will burst into bloom; it will rejoice greatly and shout for joy….Water will gush forth in the wilderness and streams in the desert. 7 The burning sand will become a pool, the thirsty ground bubbling springs. In the haunts where jackals once lay, grass and reeds and papyrus will grow.” [Isaiah 35:1-2; 6-7]
When God does His work---an oasis springs up in the very heart of the desert. When God does his work a garden grows in the midst of a garbage heap. When God does His work there is peace in the midst of strife, calm in the midst of fear, life in the midst of death. When God does His work he brings hope.
These words from Isaiah speak of that Great Day when everything will be transformed in the blink of an eye. When all will be changed. These words speak of that wondrous day when Jesus will return and make all things new. When pain and suffering, sin and death will be but a memory wiped away.
But they speak also of his first coming and of his work even in our day.
“Say to
those with fearful hearts, "Be strong, do not fear; your God will come…he
will come to save you." 5 Then will the eyes of the blind be
opened and the ears of the deaf unstopped. 6 Then will the lame leap
like a deer, and the mute tongue shout for joy.” Isaiah
35:4-6
With the coming of Jesus
there is a great reversal. The effects
of sin are overturned. Isaiah pictures
it in dramatic and poetic form—a desert becomes a lush garden! But he also points to the real events of
Jesus’ ministry---some 700 years before Jesus walked the earth! When Jesus came, the eyes of the blind were
opened, the ears of the deaf unstopped—the lame could walk and run and leap
again—the mute could truly shout for joy!
When Jesus came—paradise broke into the present. When Jesus came he brought healing to
people’s physical bodies as a sign of what is to come.
But he came to do even
more. Jesus, through his death on the
cross, cleared away the thorns, the weeds, the garbage of lives, taking our sin
on His shoulders. The weight and the
stench of our sins choked him and he died.
And by His death he destroyed the power of sin over us. And he came back to life and walked bodily
out of the tomb. And by His resurrection
he gives to all who will place their trust in him—the guarantee, the sure
promise of a life with him that will never end.
And he continues to come
today. While we await his final
coming---between his death and resurrection and the great renewal in the end of
days—Jesus still comes. Jesus still
works even today. Through His living
Word he plants as with seeds new life in the hearts of all who believe this
word. He waters it, and nurtures it and
causes it to grow, so that now, where there was only sin and death—weeds and
thorns and garbage ---now! There is new
life—His life.
John 5:24 "I
tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has
eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life.
2
Corinthians 5:17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new
creation; the old has gone, the new has come!
This life is available to
you today and to all who would believe in Him.
Through confession, set aside the sin that so easily entangles and fix
your eyes on, place your trust in Jesus.
He alone can make you new.
This is what Jesus is up
to in our day. This is His work. He still comes to bring life—to make things
new. ---But how does he do it? Have you seen Jesus lately? I mean—walking around bodily? Huh.
How does he do it then? What does
he use to make His love known? How does
He demonstrate his care for people? How
does he communicate His Word and plant the seeds of His Word in the hearts of
people today? What does He use?
The Church. He uses you and me.
(See attached picture of ELCK Church at edge of Kibera) (describe dreams: clinic—hospital, school, basketball court—even though, if I understood them correctly they had no one to teach THEM how to play. They desire to create opportunities to connect with the youth in the slums. They desire to meet and minister to the very real physical needs of people—like themselves-- in desperate poverty and in doing both—they seek to bring life in the midst of death. They seek to bring Jesus to the hearts and lives of others.)
Is this not the mission, the purpose of the church? Are we not called by our Lord, to, with acts of service, with His Holy Word—the Good News of who Jesus is and what he has done---Are we not called to bring new life and hope to the world? To plant gardens in the wasteland and to bring life to dead places?
Yes! This is what life is about! God using us to change lives—to plant the seeds of the Gospel so that new life springs up. The most satisfying, the most fulfilling, the most exciting work we could ever do. We have only to open our eyes, to see the needs of the people around us—and to step out in faith, going with Jesus and planting where he leads.
PRAYER