Isaiah 55:1-13
Rev. Rich Gelson, Fairmount Presbyterian Church
My daughters have been hooked for weeks on two current television talent shows – America’s Got Talent and So You Think You Can Dance. I wouldn’t call myself hooked on them too, but I enjoy watching when I can, especially when it’s in their cute company. We’ve seen some amazing dancing in several genres as well some wild, wacky and tremendously gifted performances. However, both the truly talented as well as the embarrassing fifteen minutes of fame grabbing contestants can only go so far in making for a good show. I find it’s the personalities of the judges that further energize and anchor these entertaining contests.
What they have to say about each contestant does have an impact on which performances television viewers choose when they call in or go online to vote. But what we most love to watch is when the characteristically cranky judge voices blunt criticism and when the Pollyanna personality judge puffs the air with praise. Viewers in the studio audience and at home do their own bit of judging, so the television producers wisely provide show judges that both qualify and exaggerate our assessments. The judging amuses us while also helping the contestant pool get reduced to a truly worthy remnant.
If you had to choose, would you rather be the judge or the contestant in a talent show? Would you be more comfortable shaping someone’s future by offering your opinion of them, or being subjected to criticism that can be either constructive or harshly dismissive?
Well, we don’t live our lives as contestants on a talent show. It would be a nicer world if judgments only happened in that entertaining context. We know, though, that judging and being judged is part of the everyday world we live in. There are plenty of cultural forces throughout every stage of our lives that push us to feel as though our talents and personalities are in competition with other people. We are judged on how smart we are, how attractive we are, how much money we have, how “good” we are as parents, how patriotic we are as citizens, and so forth and so on. We are judged for being a Phillies fan instead of Yankees fan. Just sayin’! We cope with it, and we also contribute to it. I have yet to meet a human being that does not do a fair share of rendering judgment toward other people – sometimes wisely and fairly, other times out of jealousy or spite.
I find it’s important to check in with your thoughts and feelings about judging others and being judged. What purpose does it all serve? Is it for breaking down or building up? Eradicating or creating a remnant? Checking in with yourself can help you prepare to answer a bigger question I have for you about life with God. What are your thoughts and feelings about the faithful fact that God is judging you?
According to our Scriptures, our Creator -- the Creator of all life -- holds every one of us accountable for our thoughts, words and deeds. Since God is omnipresent and the Holy Spirit is stirring upon, within and through us, we are under constant monitoring. Does this concern you? Trigger feelings of insecurity and unworthiness? Or do you understand that divine judgment is to be expected and is a necessary part of our walk with the Lord?
When considering why God judges us and how we should respond to this, there is perhaps no better part of Scripture to consult than the Book of Isaiah. Isaiah is clear about the fact that God judges the sin manifest in human hearts, minds and social systems. He speaks specifically of God’s judgment upon the ancient Israelites at a particular point in their history, a point when they were living in an epic mess. Their holy city, the city of David, Jerusalem, had been conquered several times over by foreign empires. This happened, in part, because Jerusalem was a much coveted urban center of the ancient world. It also happened, according to the earliest chapters of Isaiah, because the Israelites had disobeyed God’s good instruction and intention for their covenant community. Isaiah 1:4 addresses them as “offspring who do evil, children who deal corruptly” who had “forsaken the Lord … despised the Holy One of Israel.” The rebellious behavior – from hands bathed in blood to empty religious ritual and insincere prayer – had rightly been held accountable by God.
Cast out of Jerusalem and forced into exile, every Israelite had a critical choice to make. They could adapt to the pagan culture of their overlords, or they could accept God’s judgment of their rebelliousness and freshly hold fast to the belief that God would honor the long-held promise of renewal and restoration. They could choose to keep paying the high price of pagan life, or grasp the gracious free gift of God’s promise to return them to their homeland. They could choose to believe God judged their sins and then abandoned them, or that God judged, loved, had mercy and had a plan to save them.
This faithful dilemma isn’t just an ancient narrative. We have this choice to make as well, don’t we? Every day, we have the opportunity to prayerfully confess our sin and then freshly, faithfully trust in God’s promise to redeem us. Or we can be rebellious in heart, mind and action, opting instead to serve that which is foreign to God’s good instruction and intention for our lives and this world.
We can ignore God’s Word by not regularly reading the Bible, not having prayerful conversations with our Creator, not gathering with others for worship, fellowship and service. Or we can abide by God’s Word, which, as Isaiah beautifully preaches, is higher than all of our thoughts and which God promises does not produce an empty yield each time is it is sown into the very fields of our heart, mind and soul.
We can choose to feel as though we are in despairing exile from God, cast out because of our sin … or we can choose to believe that judgment is meant to lead us to repentance and back to being led to a lovely homecoming in the Lord.
Put in terms that shine the light of Christ, we can choose to stay with the suffering and death of condemnation and crucifixion, or live as God’s redeemed, resurrection people always faithfully on the move into God’s promised future.
Friends, always choose to hold fast to God’s Word! Cling to the powerful promise found in Isaiah 55, verses 11 and 12, where God, speaking through Isaiah, declares to every age, “So shall my word be … you shall go out in joy and be led back in peace.” When we trust in the promise of God to never abandon or destroy us, no matter how great our sin, our most appropriate daily response is joy! This very hour, are you suffering any thoughts and feelings of desolation and exile? From God? From family? From friends? If so, go out from it by grace and with faith, joyfully companioned by God’s holy promise of renewal!
This epic, holy Word of promise, completely fulfilled and embodied in the Good News of Jesus Christ, is right here, right now. Cherish the faithful fact that God prevails over all sin and continuously calls us to participate individually and corporately in the further fulfillment of holy and redeeming plans. As one prominent Bible scholar reminds us, “Isaiah focuses on the sovereign capacity of God to make all things new. That future, however, is not simply a divine gift. It is at the same time a human task given to people like us.”[i] This is the glorious, promised future where there will no longer be evil and exile, but only the full reign of the peace of Christ.
Isaiah 55 reminds us that honoring this faithful task means being active with two particular daily spiritual disciplines. By the grace and power of the Holy Spirit, we are to incline our ears to God so that we may receive God’s everlasting covenant of steadfast, sure love – the same love offered to King David and guaranteed forever through Jesus. We are also to seek and call upon the Lord. So, as you depart this sanctuary today, I invite you to reflect on these two practices. In what ways do you listen for the powerful promise of God’s love? Do you regularly hear it through Bible reading, faithful devotionals and blogs, music by Christian artists, frequent attendance in worship? What priority do you give to seeking and calling upon Lord in the midst of everything that makes demands upon your life? Do you go about doing this by praying daily? By discerning God’s presence in your life with faithful friends and family, with your pastor? Judge yourself, hold yourself accountable … but do so assured by the grace of God that is with you, always leading and welcoming you home. Amen.
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