Peel me off this Velcro Seat!
Text: Isaiah 40:21-31
I remember in high school learning about the First Law Newtonian physics that goes like this: “An object in motion tends to stay in motion, an object at rest tends to stay at rest.” That actually cuts the notion a bit short… the full principle is “An object at rest tends to stay at rest and an object in motion tends to stay in motion with the same speed and in the same direction, unless acted upon by an external force.” The word for this is “inertia.” Even with the advent of relativity and quantum physics, it’s still a sound principle.
Yet what does physics have to do with anything, especially coming from the pulpit this morning? After all this is a service of worship, not a high school science class! For those of you who have just come through your exams, I’m sure you’re probably wondering the same thing.
Inertia is not just a principle in physics, it seems to be true in a number of different settings… especially social ones. I was once at a General Assembly where it seemed the patronizing mantra given to the visiting Young Adult Representatives was that “big ships turn slowly.” It was a way of giving reasons why the church as a whole seemed so slow to respond to the needs of its members… particularly the young. It seemed to stick for a while, until one rather perceptive commissioner stood up and reminded the Assembly that the Titanic was a big ship.
Social inertia is nothing new. It’s that natural resistance to change that is common in human society. We make the claim “but we’ve always done it that way” when someone suggests altering the way we do things. Maybe because we’ve become comfortable in the way we do things, maybe we’ve learned something and want to stick with it, because for a time it seems to work. To be honest, we are very familiar with it in churches, after all, we’ve been around for 2,000 years! Yet doing something because it’s worked in the past is never a wise thing when it comes to adapting to a world that is constantly changing around us.
It may seem ironic, but ancient writings from Isaiah fight against kind of social inertia that can be so devastating to faith. We have much to learn from an early wisdom that tells us of the importance of looking ahead to the future.
Bits and pieces of the 40th chapter of Isaiah crop up at different parts of the year. At the beginning of Advent, I preached on the first eleven verses. Eight weeks later, we’re back at the last 10. These are powerful words to a people whose very faith hung in the balance. Written and spoken some eighty years after Jerusalem had been destroyed, the prophet was speaking to a nation living in exile for nearly four generations. No one had any living memory of what things used to be like… and yet they had become set in their ways, living as prisoners of the Babylonian Empire.
There was this overwhelming feeling of depression that their cultural heritage had been lost, that the worship of their grandparents had been part of meant nothing without the Temple. Israel as a nation was a memory, and it seemed to most people that it was pointless to give it any more energy. The people felt that there wasn’t much of a point, because nothing they would do would actually make a difference.
But there was a voice that tried to change all that… a visionary, who saw the world around them with optimistic eyes… and to give new voice to a faith that by all accounts was dead. For them, God was not simply tied to the old traditions and practices. God could and did exist beyond the now destroyed temple, and was far larger than anyone had previously conceived; considered to be one of the greatest prophets ever, their voice echoes from the latter chapters of Isaiah:
21Have you not known? Have you not heard? Has it not been told you from the beginning? Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth? 22It is he who sits above the circle of the earth, and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers; who stretches out the heavens like a curtain, and spreads them like a tent to live in; 23who brings princes to naught, and makes the rulers of the earth as nothing. 24Scarcely are they planted, scarcely sown, scarcely has their stem taken root in the earth, when he blows upon them, and they wither, and the tempest carries them off like stubble.
It is a reminder of scale. The Temple of God in Jerusalem had indeed been destroyed, but this reminded the people that God has long existed beyond the temple, and in fact didn’t need it… But because of traditions, because of the way they had always done it, the “popular” theology was that God lived in the temple alone. When the temple was destroyed, this kind of “fast food” theology died with it… The words from Isaiah reminded the people that they were thinking in a way that was far too small. God was much bigger than they had imagined, and God has much bigger plans.
This Prophet was fighting against this social inertia that had been built up not only over eighty years of living with defeat, but over five hundred years more of tradition putting limits on where God was and where God could act. It was no small feat. For too long, people had put their faith in buildings… in the physical trappings. These words from Isaiah seek to be that “external force” that will transform this unmoving object into a moving, living breathing faith.
While the prophet doesn’t come right out and say it, the implication is there… subverting The Babylonians saw their gods in the very stars of heaven. The great Marduk was the embodiment of the sun, and the rest of the stars as heavenly beings. Along comes Isaiah, reminding people in a very subtle way… “Okay… maybe so… but if that’s the case, remember who put them there.” This was incredibly bold in the face of exile, where people were not allowed to practice their faith. He reminded them that they didn’t need the temple, because the word of God would stand forever, even if everything else crumbled away.
Yet even so, there was this huge amount social inertia, this malaise that kept people from dreaming and working towards the future. Isaiah had to keep chipping away it, laying the foundation for a radically new theology.
As Christians in the early 21st century, we live in a world changed fundamentally from when many of us grew up. The church has gone from being a central social force in society, to one that is treated with apathy at best, and hostility at worst. Some of it is for good reason too… and the subject of many other sermons… Like the people that the prophet spoke to, it may be helpful to think of ourselves as a church living in exile. An entire generation, mostly people my age, have no idea what it is to live a life of faith. As Vancouver author Douglas Coupland once put it, “we are the first generation raised without religion.”
There is also this social inertia, that we expect that church life should be like it was fifty years ago… remembering it as the glory days… but it’s not. When it comes to matters of faith, people inside and outside of the church are stuck in a Velcro seat. Isaiah’s words, like they were to the people in exile, are trying to peel us off and get us moving. God is much bigger than we can imagine, and God has much bigger plans.
“Have you not seen? Have you not heard?” Isaiah’s words of hope, try to get us to see and realize that God is already in our midst, and calling us forward. Twenty-five hundred years later, the words are still the same. God is constantly challenging us to look for hope, to expect God in our midst, and to dream big! Yet to do so meant to let go of some dearly held beliefs, and get right down to the core of our faith: that God is the creator of all. God is in control and is not bound by the institutions that we hold dear. It means that God can show up in places that we never expect… and that’s renewing and life-giving! Amen.
With special thanks to Kylie (a teen in my congregation) and her love of Green Day's Songs
I remember in high school learning about the First Law Newtonian physics that goes like this: “An object in motion tends to stay in motion, an object at rest tends to stay at rest.” That actually cuts the notion a bit short… the full principle is “An object at rest tends to stay at rest and an object in motion tends to stay in motion with the same speed and in the same direction, unless acted upon by an external force.” The word for this is “inertia.” Even with the advent of relativity and quantum physics, it’s still a sound principle.
Yet what does physics have to do with anything, especially coming from the pulpit this morning? After all this is a service of worship, not a high school science class! For those of you who have just come through your exams, I’m sure you’re probably wondering the same thing.
Inertia is not just a principle in physics, it seems to be true in a number of different settings… especially social ones. I was once at a General Assembly where it seemed the patronizing mantra given to the visiting Young Adult Representatives was that “big ships turn slowly.” It was a way of giving reasons why the church as a whole seemed so slow to respond to the needs of its members… particularly the young. It seemed to stick for a while, until one rather perceptive commissioner stood up and reminded the Assembly that the Titanic was a big ship.
Social inertia is nothing new. It’s that natural resistance to change that is common in human society. We make the claim “but we’ve always done it that way” when someone suggests altering the way we do things. Maybe because we’ve become comfortable in the way we do things, maybe we’ve learned something and want to stick with it, because for a time it seems to work. To be honest, we are very familiar with it in churches, after all, we’ve been around for 2,000 years! Yet doing something because it’s worked in the past is never a wise thing when it comes to adapting to a world that is constantly changing around us.
It may seem ironic, but ancient writings from Isaiah fight against kind of social inertia that can be so devastating to faith. We have much to learn from an early wisdom that tells us of the importance of looking ahead to the future.
Bits and pieces of the 40th chapter of Isaiah crop up at different parts of the year. At the beginning of Advent, I preached on the first eleven verses. Eight weeks later, we’re back at the last 10. These are powerful words to a people whose very faith hung in the balance. Written and spoken some eighty years after Jerusalem had been destroyed, the prophet was speaking to a nation living in exile for nearly four generations. No one had any living memory of what things used to be like… and yet they had become set in their ways, living as prisoners of the Babylonian Empire.
There was this overwhelming feeling of depression that their cultural heritage had been lost, that the worship of their grandparents had been part of meant nothing without the Temple. Israel as a nation was a memory, and it seemed to most people that it was pointless to give it any more energy. The people felt that there wasn’t much of a point, because nothing they would do would actually make a difference.
But there was a voice that tried to change all that… a visionary, who saw the world around them with optimistic eyes… and to give new voice to a faith that by all accounts was dead. For them, God was not simply tied to the old traditions and practices. God could and did exist beyond the now destroyed temple, and was far larger than anyone had previously conceived; considered to be one of the greatest prophets ever, their voice echoes from the latter chapters of Isaiah:
21Have you not known? Have you not heard? Has it not been told you from the beginning? Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth? 22It is he who sits above the circle of the earth, and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers; who stretches out the heavens like a curtain, and spreads them like a tent to live in; 23who brings princes to naught, and makes the rulers of the earth as nothing. 24Scarcely are they planted, scarcely sown, scarcely has their stem taken root in the earth, when he blows upon them, and they wither, and the tempest carries them off like stubble.
It is a reminder of scale. The Temple of God in Jerusalem had indeed been destroyed, but this reminded the people that God has long existed beyond the temple, and in fact didn’t need it… But because of traditions, because of the way they had always done it, the “popular” theology was that God lived in the temple alone. When the temple was destroyed, this kind of “fast food” theology died with it… The words from Isaiah reminded the people that they were thinking in a way that was far too small. God was much bigger than they had imagined, and God has much bigger plans.
This Prophet was fighting against this social inertia that had been built up not only over eighty years of living with defeat, but over five hundred years more of tradition putting limits on where God was and where God could act. It was no small feat. For too long, people had put their faith in buildings… in the physical trappings. These words from Isaiah seek to be that “external force” that will transform this unmoving object into a moving, living breathing faith.
“Have you not seen? Have you not heard? Has it not been taught to you fromDo you not remember that God is not tied to a ruined building in Jerusalem… God is not subject to these gods of Babylon… In fact, and this is where Isaiah’s words become subversive:
the beginning?”
To whom then will you compare me, or who is my equal? says the Holy One.
Lift up your eyes on high and see: Who created these? He who brings out
their host and numbers them, calling them all by name; because he is great in
strength, mighty in power, not one is missing.
While the prophet doesn’t come right out and say it, the implication is there… subverting The Babylonians saw their gods in the very stars of heaven. The great Marduk was the embodiment of the sun, and the rest of the stars as heavenly beings. Along comes Isaiah, reminding people in a very subtle way… “Okay… maybe so… but if that’s the case, remember who put them there.” This was incredibly bold in the face of exile, where people were not allowed to practice their faith. He reminded them that they didn’t need the temple, because the word of God would stand forever, even if everything else crumbled away.
Yet even so, there was this huge amount social inertia, this malaise that kept people from dreaming and working towards the future. Isaiah had to keep chipping away it, laying the foundation for a radically new theology.
Why do you say, O Jacob, and speak, O Israel, “My way is hidden from theIsaiah’s question is genuine. Not only did he have to chip away at the credibility of their captors, he had to take on this sense that God had abandoned them. The prophet reminds them of what they have forgotten, launching into what are some of the most powerful words of encouragement in scripture:
Lord, and my right is disregarded by my God”?
Have you not known? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, theIt is amazing how powerful these words still are twenty-five centuries later. It’s amazing how much they speak to the future, to hope, and how much they rail against that human tendency to simply sit and complain about the world around us.
Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; his
understanding is unsearchable.
He gives power to the faint, and strengthens the powerless.
Even youths will faint and be weary, and the young will fall exhausted;
but those who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength, they
shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they
shall walk and not faint.
As Christians in the early 21st century, we live in a world changed fundamentally from when many of us grew up. The church has gone from being a central social force in society, to one that is treated with apathy at best, and hostility at worst. Some of it is for good reason too… and the subject of many other sermons… Like the people that the prophet spoke to, it may be helpful to think of ourselves as a church living in exile. An entire generation, mostly people my age, have no idea what it is to live a life of faith. As Vancouver author Douglas Coupland once put it, “we are the first generation raised without religion.”
There is also this social inertia, that we expect that church life should be like it was fifty years ago… remembering it as the glory days… but it’s not. When it comes to matters of faith, people inside and outside of the church are stuck in a Velcro seat. Isaiah’s words, like they were to the people in exile, are trying to peel us off and get us moving. God is much bigger than we can imagine, and God has much bigger plans.
“Have you not seen? Have you not heard?” Isaiah’s words of hope, try to get us to see and realize that God is already in our midst, and calling us forward. Twenty-five hundred years later, the words are still the same. God is constantly challenging us to look for hope, to expect God in our midst, and to dream big! Yet to do so meant to let go of some dearly held beliefs, and get right down to the core of our faith: that God is the creator of all. God is in control and is not bound by the institutions that we hold dear. It means that God can show up in places that we never expect… and that’s renewing and life-giving! Amen.
With special thanks to Kylie (a teen in my congregation) and her love of Green Day's Songs
Comments