Family,
I still have hope that this will become a conduit for conversation for the development of our community, but more than that, my prayer is that the Spirit of God will move through our connectedness and unite us in purpose, and we will see God moving in our midst. So as i strongly feel that Sunday's worship is a communal activity, where we all give ourselves as an offering to God, i have chosen to use this blog, weekly, as a means to bounce ideas off of you all. I will be posting the Scripture Focus and Message theme, with some basic ideas, and i ask for your feedback, input, ideas, thoughts, disagreements, revelations, and whatever God puts on your heart, so that we all play a part in developing the message as well.
I spent a lot of time reflecting while i was in Palestine/Israel, and i spent a lot of time wondering what God was going to do with me when i returned to "normal" life in Ohio. This weekly blog, with the message focus included, is part of that picture God is piecing together for our church. I ask that you immerse yourself in the Scriptures i offer and that you give honest input, so that, together, we can offer God a message that brings Him the glory. I begin with this Sunday's Scripture, which comes out of the book of Isaiah. Isaiah 40: 21-31 falls into what most scholars argue is the second book of Isaiah. We could debate a lot of issues on authorship, but i do not want to get bogged down with issues that really have little relevance to our topic. And after the second book ends, in chapter 55, book number three concludes this beautiful piece of writing.
We could argue authorship, but i won't. Not here. It is not for this blog to go into authorship, instead, i want us to focus on what it is the author wants the people to know, to expect, to feel, and to beleive. If the first book is a book that finds the author condemning the people for their sins, leading to their eventual exile, and book number three writes about a people that have discovered a new community, a new hope, and dare i say a new Zion, then book number two is the bridge that joins the two stories.
Book two, or Isaiah 40-55, spends its time trying to console a people lost in exile, dispersed from their beloved homeland and temple. These people are under the yoke of a foreign king. They have no hope that things will get better. They have no reason to beleive that God still hears their cries. They feel, as many people in human history have felt, that God has abandoned them to their fate. But the auther assures them that this is not so. In verse 28 of chapter 40, we read, "Do you not know? Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom..."
This is an important chapter, in Isaiah, because many people, throughout our story as a people, have held to the promise that God is everlasting. They have clung to the truth that the Creator of all things: Jehovah, Elohim, Adonai, Allah, Abba, Father, hears their cries and will respond. And it is true for those in American History who have known the sting of slavery or persecution. We will be celebrating the birth of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, NAACP, which turns 100 years old on February 12th.
The original group of brave souls, who formed the NAACP, faced death and many in the narrative of the NAACP have been martyred. And what makes the NAACP so powerful is that, even in its inception, it was a diverse group of liberators. The original members came from backgrounds such as several African-American leaders, but the creators were also a Jewish man, a white woman, (which in 1909 was so radical), a German born white, and a white man who was the son of a former slave-holding family. This was an eclectic group of movers and shakers who believed that God didn't want any of His children to know the pain of oppression and abuse.
That was their beginning. 100 years later, after all that has happened, they remain a steadfast human rights organization that chooses to "promote equality of rights" and wants to destroy "race prejudice among the citizens of the United States." At a time when a rival group, led by Marcus Garvey, wanted to return African-Americans to Africa, the NAACP chose inclusion, integration, and reconciliation.
But more than anything, the NAACP chose to believe that they would persevere. They believed that right would win out and that justice would reign down like a waterfall onto all of God's children. They were going to be audacious enough to have hope, even in the face of such blatant and overt racism and oppression. It is fitting that less than a century ago, our story, as Americans, illumines the power of what happens when a people hold to God's promise to "give strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak."
The author of Isaiah promised to the exiled Jews that God heard their cries and that God would strengthen them. So, too, 100 years ago, God heard the cries of men and women battling against Jim Crow segregation, and God strengthened them. More than that, God rose up a voice, as one crying in the desert, prepare the way of the LORD. This prophet, this man of God, had the gall to believe in a dream, a dream that one day all of God's children would be free and judged by "the content of their character, not the color of their skin."
Today we cling to King's dream and we honor the saints who paved the way for the NAACP to reach one hundred years, but we also cling to the promise that no matter what we face, what prison chains us, what burden overwhelms us, or what abuser longs to rob us of life, we cling to the promise that God still strengthens the weary and weak, just as He did in Isaiah, just as He did to the martyrs of the Roman Empire, just as He did to the voices of the reformation, which the Church of the Brethren emerged, and just as He did for King, Evers, Abernathy, Parks, and so many more. God still gives us wings to soar like eagles, if we only grant Him the access.
These are some thoughts i have. Read the Scripture from Isaiah 40: 21-31 and offer your own insights. What comes to mind? What stories flow from your memory? What illustrations work better for you? What songs emerge from the deepest part of your soul? Where does this text take you? How do you feel about "soar on wings like eagles?" I wait for your ideas, i long for your input, and i thank you for taking the time to help a dreamer who still believes God lifts His children up. Amen.
