“Stewardship for Exiles”
Isaiah 55
Allen Huff
Jonesborough Presbyterian Church
11/2/24
If you sit down and read all the way through the book of
Isaiah, you may feel as if the writer suffers some kind of multiple personality
disorder. Most biblical scholars would give you a wink and say, “Trust your
instincts.
At some point prior to and in the early years of Israel’s
captivity in Babylon, a prophet known as Isaiah speaks out. Laying claim to
divine authority, he pronounces judgment on the Hebrews. “Your misery is your
own fault,” he says. But here’s the rub: Like all ancient prophets and
teachers, Isaiah has students. And to claim credibility among their hearers,
these followers preach and teach under the name of their tutor.
According to widely-accepted scholarship, the original
Isaiah, First Isaiah, is responsible
for the first half of the book. He tears into Israel: “Ah, sinful nation,
people laden with iniquity…How the faithful city has become a whore! She that
was full of justice, righteousness lodged in her – but now murderers! Your
princes are rebels and companions of thieves. Everyone loves a bribe and runs
after gifts. They do not defend the orphan, and the widow’s cause does not come
before them.”
Later students of Isaiah dramatically change the prophetic
tone. They change it so much, in fact, that the First Isaiah school probably regards the Second Isaiah school as a bunch of revisionist patsies with no
appreciation for history and tradition, no sense of morality, and no real fear
of God. How else does one get from First
Isaiah’s teeth gnashing to Second
Isaiah’s, “Ho, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and you who have
no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without
price”?
I may exaggerate the case, but not much. There are
occasional words of assurance in First
Isaiah, but they speak of a redemption that lies in a distant future. It’s
a sad commentary on spiritual communities, but the more a group gets used to
screaming God’s judgment, the less they really expect from God. The only true
deliverance, then, is death. God’s satisfying and delightful hope are reduced
to some post-mortem reward for good behavior. In that economy, we act justly
and righteously for our own sake.
Second Isaiah
begins to turn things around. In an early version of “the kingdom of heaven has
come near” (Mt. 4:17b), the new prophet announces the arrival of God’s bright
new future. And it is a time and a place marked by a visible commitment to justice
and righteousness on behalf of widows,
orphans, and an equally vulnerable creation. In political life there will be no
more princes who trade bribes or chase gifts. They will not serve themselves
before serving the people who depend on them. Indeed, in all matters –
political, religious, economic, and social – there will be no more out-of-sight-out-of-mind
when it comes to “orphans and widows,” a term that refers to all people who
have no voice and no power.
For both First and
Second Isaiah, political abuse and
neglect of the community’s poor and forgotten constitute the fundamental
“wickedness” and “unrighteousness” from which Israel must turn. Self-serving
power and self-serving wealth are the most beloved and insidious other gods of first commandment infamy.
Aware of this, Second Isaiah pleads
with Israel saying, “Why do you spend your money on that which is not bread,
and your labor on that which does not satisfy?” He is calling them to Yahweh’s
economy of redemption which is guided not by laws of supply and demand, but by
intentional commitments to justice and righteousness.
Now remember, Second
Isaiah is speaking to a people who have been in exile for two or three
generations. Having been born in exile, most of Second Isaiah’s audience doesn’t really know the difference between
exile and independence. Babylon, you see, is an uncharacteristically
progressive conqueror. When the Babylonians vanquish a nation, they drive them
into wide dispersions, creating weakness through separation. However, the
conqueror then allows that same people to practice much of their faith
tradition, if they have one. To some extent, Babylon also permits the people to
thrive economically. On top of all that, Babylon is a wondrous place – wealthy,
powerful, a land of remarkable beauty and material promise. The Hebrews are, in
fact, safe in Babylon. These
realities make it difficult for Isaiah to convince a religious people that
spiritual renewal holds any real promise for them. They are cold to the idea that
they are captives not only to Babylon but also to their own economic comfort
and their own social well-being.
Second Isaiah
cannot extract Israel from Babylon. Nor can he improve any aspect of their
lives by pounding them with judgment. As a spiritual leader he can only model
the change he desires for the people. As Gandhi said, “Be the change that you
wish to see in the world.”1 To do that, Second Isaiah returns to the language of grace, of present hope. He
returns to the language of covenant. Using those familiar words that soothe and
console the way a mother cares for a hurt or heartbroken child, the prophet
says, “Comfort, O comfort my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to
Jerusalem, and cry for her.” (Isaiah 40:1-2)
By chapter 55, today’s text, Second Isaiah is saying to Israel, in effect, “Blessed are those
who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.” (Mt. 5:6) He
is also saying that wherever the people of Israel find themselves, they live in
the presence of a transforming Mystery whose thoughts and ways are incomprehensible
to the mind of Babylon. This Mystery operates according to a gracious purpose
and a fierce intent. “My word shall not
return to me empty,” declares Yahweh. “It shall
accomplish that which I purpose.”
Yahweh will send a sign to confirm this promise. “You shall
go out in joy and be led back in peace.” And all creation will join the
magnificent celebration. The image is one of both exodus and resurrection. The
people of God will begin a brand new way of life. They will live and serve as
the “everlasting sign that shall not be cut off.”
The community who lives and serves in justice and
righteousness lives and serves as an expression of God’s vibrant word which is
creating the new economy. In that economy, that which truly satisfies is given,
by grace, to everyone – no exceptions. And it is offered first to all who
hunger and thirst, and who have no means.
Is this not true gratitude – to live generously for the
sake of others? Will not all creation burst into song and clap its hands when
no one feels hunger, thirst, loneliness, prejudice, or fear?
When a Christian church asks its people to give, it dares
us to go against the grain of a world that places its trust in Babylon’s well-reasoned
power and wealth. Giving generously to God through the church is to live as
exiles in the world. As stewards in exile, we are a people on an exodus, a holy
journey in this very real world where physical realities must be tended to with
deliberate care, that is to say, with justice and righteousness.
As Christian stewards in exile, we are also a mystic people.
We walk in the light of resurrection. Our physical journey is absolutely
crucial because it serves as a metaphor for our greater, transcendent journey within
and toward the thoughts and ways of
God. What we give to this church in the way of money, time, energy, prayer, and
love makes our journey and everyone else’s more satisfying and delightful.
What will you give this year? How will you contribute to Jonesborough
Presbyterian Church and help make this spiritual community a tangible
expression of the challenging, liberating, and faithful word that God is always
speaking, a gracious and prophetic word that is always revealing something new?
1http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/24499-be-the-change-that-you-wish-to-see-in-the
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