Holy Mountain

Isaiah 65:17-25

In Luke’s Gospel, Jesus’ first public reading of Scripture comes from Isaiah 61. Just after his baptism and time of trial in the Wilderness he goes into a synagogue and reads, “The spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the LORD has appointed me; he has sent me as a herald of joy to the humble, to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim release to the captives, liberation to the imprisoned.” He would add to that ministry the healing of the sick, recognizing the overlooked, speaking up for the voiceless, restoring sinners and the outcast members of society to full participation in the community. In doing so he proclaimed a new kind of community where allegiance was pledged to God in heaven, not to the wealthy and powerful on earth. He taught his followers to pray for this community as the Kingdom of God, established on earth as it is in heaven. The kingdom, and the power, and the glory belong to God.

Why does Jesus choose to read from Isaiah at the first? The passage he reads from the 61st chapter, and our text from the 65th, are from a portion of the text believed to be written during the time of the Babylonian exile to those who were displaced from their homeland. This collection of prophecies are interwoven with a major theme of the hope of going home. “The text presents a concrete hope of deliverance from the bondage of exile and encourages the hearers to prepare to return to their homeland,” writes David Pleins (Pleins, 265).

But Isaiah also weaves in other themes, including the judgment for sin, which was the reason for their exile in the first place. But, as Pleins points out, “the purpose of this judgment was not to obliterate the nation but to purify its inhabitants (Pleins, 266).” God’s judgment is like a refiner’s fire which purifies and strengthens metal. As I mentioned in our call to confession: God wouldn’t be a loving God if God didn’t get angry about the things we think and say and do that cause damage to ourselves, others, and creation.

So Isaiah speaks of judgment and salvation. These two major themes combined create an important message: “You’re going home, but you’re not going back.” Jesus chooses to read from Isaiah to remind us that God is releasing us from captivity to sin, that God is calling us home...not the home of our past, but a home that is located in God’s shalom, a community that is whole and complete because all of its members are whole and complete.

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I wanted to take a moment to speak to something that happened last week that made me very uncomfortable The guest preacher asked for an opportunity to just “talk to the men” because, as he was quick to justify using Scripture, “men are the head of the household.” Scripture represents a history of God’s engagement with humankind over a long period of time. Reading and interpreting scripture within the context of history shows that there is a trajectory leading towards an ultimate purpose to God’s engagement with us. As Isaiah puts it, God is creating something new. Jesus called it the “kingdom of God,” and called his disciples to kingdom living, to live on this earth as God calls us to live in the new earth, even if everyone isn’t doing that quite yet.

Back to the original point, the text about “men being head of the household” engages with a society in which it was already understood that “men were in charge.” As such, the man’s authority was to be fully respected and never challenged. This model of authority mirrored the reverence subjects were expected to show their rulers. Punishment could be expected to anyone who stepped out of line within this social system, whether a subject to their ruler, or a wife to her husband. Such punishment was usually public, shameful, and sometimes even violent, often the punishment far exceeded the offense, just to hammer home the message of who was in charge and what would happen to anyone who stepped out of line. When the letter to the Ephesians included a line about “men being the head of the household” it did so within the context of a different model of authority: that of Christ to the church. It wasn’t affirming the current social model, but challenging it and seeking to offer rescue and relief to those who had been oppressed by it.

God’s engagement with us seeks to bring us through and past these types of social-norms to recognize and restore the dignity and worth of all members of society. So it feels like a step backwards and a detour from the trajectory of Scripture to insist on the authority of such texts without putting them in context. To wrap up my rant and bring us back to Isaiah: we are all subject to God’s love...we’ve come a long way and have a long ways yet to go, and the direction is up to the summit of God’s holy mountain, not back down into the valley. God is still engaging with us and calling us to pay attention to the “new things” going on in the world as a result of this engagement.

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“You’re going home, but you’re not going back,” God says to the exiles. “You’re not going back to the way things were. We’re moving forward.” That’s the theme of today’s verses. “I’m creating a new heaven and a new earth: past events won’t be remembered; they won’t come to mind.” Not only does God not want these people to move backwards, God doesn’t even want them to look backwards. “I’m not freeing you from captivity in order that you might return home and rebuild the same sinful community for which you were judged in the first place. I’m building something new, and I need your help.”

See, a transformed community is made of transformed people. So, what makes transformed people? In particular, what restores and replenishes people for full participation in God’s vision of life and community? I say this because I can think of a few things that transform people which do not lead to shalom: fear, anger, hatred. These are the captors from which we are being rescued. So how does God transform us and prepare us to participate in something new? Through faith, and hope, and grace.

Put yourself for a moment in the shoes of those in exile receiving this message from Isaiah: “You’re going back to Jerusalem where you will build houses and stick around to live in them; you’re going to be there long enough to plant gardens and eat the fruit that they produce.” This is what you hear. But what you see and experience on a daily basis is very different: your adversaries are winning. You are displaced. You have every right to be afraid and angry...how are these words about a “new heaven and new earth” doing anything to help. Paul Hanson asks the question, “is this not primary evidence for a Marxist analysis of religion as an opiate of the people? (Hanson, 245)” To this he offers up two models for religious imagination. In the first, “one dreams of shalom as an avenue of escape from real life with the effect of disabling people by breaking their will to act with courage and determination on behalf of God’s order of justice (Hanson, 245).” This is not the goal of faith, to dream about a “new heaven and earth” as a means of escaping this world. Hanson continues, “The other [model of religious imagination] envisions shalom as an act of defiant affirmation that no power will thwart the fulfillment of God’s righteous purpose (Hanson, 245-46).”

“The vision of the new heaven and the new earth fosters hope even as it [inspires engagement with what can sometimes feel like a hopeless reality].” I really like the distinction that Paul Hanson makes about using religion to either escape from or confront reality. And he points out that there are many programs engaging with real-world problems of hunger, poverty, shelter, sickness that outline attainable goals...against this calling to participate in God’s program with the seemingly unattainable goal of all-encompassing shalom. The summit of the holy mountain seems impossible to reach. This is why God descends to us, to reveal to us, through Jesus Christ, the faith, and hope, and grace by which we are being transformed into agents of restoration, reconciling creation with God’s intended wholeness. This is why Jesus read from Isaiah, healed the lepers, ate with sinners and outcasts.

I have mentioned before how our partisan culture has created the opportunity for each of us to feel like exiles, captives yearning to return home. No matter who controls the White House or Congress, there is a large contingency of “exiles” longing to go “back.” What if instead of going “back,” we spent the next year preparing to make our home in God’s shalom? There’s another verse from Isaiah 30 which always speaks to my hope for election years, “Whether you turn to the right or to the left, you will hear my voice saying ‘this is the way, walk in it.’” The coming year will offer many, many temptations to let ourselves be taken captive by fear, and anger, and frustration. People’s reputations will be slandered. You will be asked to support and share messages designed to break people’s spirits and weaken communities. You will have your own beliefs and opinions interrogated and insulted. There will likely come a time when you will want to escape rather than engage reality. Above and beyond what your political party calls you to do and think and believe and shout, is a God who calls you to be “agents of a love that is intended to restore the dignity and wholeness of every mortal (Hanson, 247).” This love is the unique gift of God which we, as members of the community of faith are called to share. It does not belong to the right or the left or the middle.

May our hope hold fast to that calling. “Easier said than done, preacher man.” Yes. I absolutely know. It honestly seems impossible. But what seems impossible for us is possible for God...do we trust this, or do we run to idols who promise us they can do something that our God cannot do. I don’t preach this because it’s easy...but because it’s necessary. It’s okay to seek communion within a particular political party, but we must be careful what we consume at that banqueting table lest we digest fear and anger and hatred and go back to captivity. This is the food of the serpent, the feast of the tempter. No matter our political party, our socio-economic status, our faith, our age, our race, our gender...we are all called to a greater banqueting table where we will be fed the food that strengthens us to serve as agents of God’s love. “The wolf and the lamb shall feed together, the lion shall eat straw like the ox; but the serpent--its food shall be dust! They shall not hurt or destroy on all my holy mountain.” Only through communion with God will the human community find the faith, and grace, and hope to be transformed for the journey home.

Works Cited

1) Pleins, David J. The Social Visions of the Hebrew Bible: A Theological Introduction. (Louisville, KY. Westminster-John Knox, 2001).

2) Hanson, Paul D. "Isaiah 40-66" from Interpretation: A Bible Commentary for Teaching and Preaching. (Louisville, KY. Westminster-John Knox, 1995).