Rev. Dustin ParkerThe Road, Illuminated
Concordia Lutheran Church
Fourth Sunday in Lent, April 3, 2011
The Road, Illuminated
Isaiah 42:14-21
† IN JESUS NAME †
As your eyes adjust from walking alone in the darkness of sin into God’s glorious light, may you be equally assured of God’s unavoidable presence, and may you grow in trusting His leadership!
Can You Imagine:
Helen Keller Video
Sometimes, we seem to be as blind, or as dumb..
Sometimes, I get frustrated by being that blind
A Little different start to the sermon this morning, as I have a short video from 1930 to show you… (show Helen Keller/Anne Sullivan Video)
Can you imagine for a moment the dark, sightless, soundless world in which Helen lived, until a patient, loving Anne showed up, and diligently mentored Helen, until she brought about the incredible smile you saw in that video? The transformation in her face was so remarkable, can you imagine the transformation in her life?
Too be able to communicate, to be able to experience, but even more, to know someone was there, who would love, and care, and be patient, and show love like you have never known?
There are times in life, where it may seem like we are stumbling around in the dark, unsure of where we are going. It is disconcerting, a like Helen, we are so isolated, feel so detached, yet we KNOW something is out there, going on without us. We strive to communicate our feelings, our thoughts, and it seems no one is listening, or is it perhaps that no one is capable of listening, never mind understanding.
Maybe we feel the darkness at work, as we struggle to appease those who we answer too, or those that depend on us. Maybe we stumble around in the relationships in our family, or perhaps we look at the world, and the unrest and revolutions and wars and disasters – so many we can’t count, or the economy, or the rampant drug use, or promiscuity, and we feel hopeless… lost… staggering blind.
I know I don’t like it, I know I struggle when the way seems… not right, and almost as if I am completely lost, and I might as well be groping about in the dark… and I hate it… if only there was a spiritual version of Anne Sullivan for each of us….
According to the blind man, there is something better. Isaiah tells us even more clearly, there is someone patient, loving, willing to diligently guide and mentor us, and be at our side, from the earliest days to the day we complete our journey arrive at home…with our Father!
God’s Provision
O how He had to be patient…
If Anne had to be patient in the early days with Helen, can you imagine how patient our Father in Heaven is with the world? Not just one sometimes violent, blind person incommunicado with the world, but 12 billion people so far. Knowing that there was something worth hanging around for, we have tested God’s patience in every way possible, and still do!
The words of Isaiah show us that the nature of this patience
14 For a long time I have held my peace; I have kept still and restrained myself; now I will cry out like a woman in labor; I will gasp and pant. 15 I will lay waste mountains and hills, and dry up all their vegetation; I will turn the rivers into islands, and dry up the pools. Isaiah 42:14-15 (ESV)
It may be hard for us to realize the frustration levels that God must have had with the people of Isaiah’s day, people who were in a relationship with Him, whom He not only instructed in life, but also in how to know God would repair the life. People, who had chosen the darkness, who chose the blindness, the deafness, and dumbness, and struggled; unaware of God’s presence in their life.
It would seem that God’s patience is at an end, as we look at the passage, as He no longer restrains Himself, as He bellows and gasps and pants as He if dealing with the pain of giving birth.
Apparently, that can be painful? Apparently, in the process of bringing forth life, there is a bit of pain and frustration and patience and….
That is what God is doing… He is bringing forth life… our life.
But this He does!
The Message’s Version
This isn’t about God’s patience bringing forth wrath, but stripping the world, so that with nothing else there, we realize He is. Verse 15 talks of destruction, of incredible power, now unrestrained, but even as we have to see it in view of verse 14, we must keep it in context of verse 16.
16 And I will lead the blind in a way that they do not know, in paths that they have not known I will guide them. I will turn the darkness before them into light, the rough places into level ground. These are the things I do, and I do not forsake them. Isaiah 42:16 (ESV)
Who is the blind here? Someone God is against? Or someone God for whom God is ready to assist, to intercede on their behalf, to love them and mentor them on a journey to unknown parts. Who puts Himself there, for us, with us. I love how The Message translates this verse!
16 But I'll take the hand of those who don't know the way, who can't see where they're going. I'll be a personal guide to them, directing them through unknown country. I'll be right there to show them what roads to take, make sure they don't fall into the ditch. These are the things I'll be doing for them— sticking with them, not leaving them for a minute." Isaiah 42:16 (MSG)
What a promise – our God doesn’t take vacations, well, unless we do! He doesn’t take coffee breaks, or leave us in the nights where our minds are so active we cannot sleep. He is there, incredibly even more than Anne was for Helen Keller, and He was there for both in that circumstance as well!
Our Challenge
Our challenge, then, is like Helen’s, to realize that the hand we feel on our face is God’s, that the vibrations and the movements of the prophets and apostles hands, are the very words being spoken through which we will learn we are neither dumb, nor alone, but loved.
You see we are on a journey, and there are times that are setbacks, where we forget the lessons, and hide within ourselves, where we are unsure of what is happening, where God is leading, why we must go this way, why we encounter that. Many wonder if God has abandoned them, even those who know His incredible love and have seen it at work in our lives. Can we just relax, and know His presence? It just takes…. A little faith!
Can we, in faith, understand the love and patience of God, that no one should perish? Can we realize that He is our Father, and desires every person we know to become part of His family, His people? Do we realize that even if God levels the road, and illuminates it, we still need His guidance, His love, His presence, to make sense of it, or to hold us, when we cannot grasp the challenge?
Christ’s Blindness… chosen for the Joy
At the end of the passage, there is a great praise of God. click Verse 21, 21 The LORD was pleased, for his righteousness’ sake, to magnify his law and make it glorious. Isaiah 42:21 (ESV)
We’ll talk about this in Sunday School, but here is what I find to be more accurate: 21 GOD intended, out of the goodness of his heart, to be lavish in his revelation.
Isaiah 42:21 (MSG)
The reason is found in the verses before, where God talks about the blindness and deafness of the dedicated servant messenger who God sends. For this is Christ, who doesn’t consider our sin, but the Father’s love, as He bears that sin, as He sets His face towards Jerusalem, as He journeys to the cross to give us life, to open our blind eyes, to help us realize He is there… CLICK Nothing would dissuade this love, this focus, and for the joy set before Him, through His suffering and pain and gasping, He birthed us at the cross, when from suffering and the shedding of blood came forth abundant life! Lavish indeed in this revelation! Lavish indeed is the grace of God… planned for us before we were born…revealed to us as God’s plan throughout all of scripture..
May we, as we stagger out of the darkness into His illuminated path…realize we walk the way in peace, guided by His hand, and His word… and sharing in His feast. AMEN!
Fourth Sunday in Lent, April 3, 2011
The Road, Illuminated
Isaiah 42:14-21
† IN JESUS NAME †
As your eyes adjust from walking alone in the darkness of sin into God’s glorious light, may you be equally assured of God’s unavoidable presence, and may you grow in trusting His leadership!
Can You Imagine:
Helen Keller Video
Sometimes, we seem to be as blind, or as dumb..
Sometimes, I get frustrated by being that blind
A Little different start to the sermon this morning, as I have a short video from 1930 to show you… (show Helen Keller/Anne Sullivan Video)
Can you imagine for a moment the dark, sightless, soundless world in which Helen lived, until a patient, loving Anne showed up, and diligently mentored Helen, until she brought about the incredible smile you saw in that video? The transformation in her face was so remarkable, can you imagine the transformation in her life?
Too be able to communicate, to be able to experience, but even more, to know someone was there, who would love, and care, and be patient, and show love like you have never known?
There are times in life, where it may seem like we are stumbling around in the dark, unsure of where we are going. It is disconcerting, a like Helen, we are so isolated, feel so detached, yet we KNOW something is out there, going on without us. We strive to communicate our feelings, our thoughts, and it seems no one is listening, or is it perhaps that no one is capable of listening, never mind understanding.
Maybe we feel the darkness at work, as we struggle to appease those who we answer too, or those that depend on us. Maybe we stumble around in the relationships in our family, or perhaps we look at the world, and the unrest and revolutions and wars and disasters – so many we can’t count, or the economy, or the rampant drug use, or promiscuity, and we feel hopeless… lost… staggering blind.
I know I don’t like it, I know I struggle when the way seems… not right, and almost as if I am completely lost, and I might as well be groping about in the dark… and I hate it… if only there was a spiritual version of Anne Sullivan for each of us….
According to the blind man, there is something better. Isaiah tells us even more clearly, there is someone patient, loving, willing to diligently guide and mentor us, and be at our side, from the earliest days to the day we complete our journey arrive at home…with our Father!
God’s Provision
O how He had to be patient…
If Anne had to be patient in the early days with Helen, can you imagine how patient our Father in Heaven is with the world? Not just one sometimes violent, blind person incommunicado with the world, but 12 billion people so far. Knowing that there was something worth hanging around for, we have tested God’s patience in every way possible, and still do!
The words of Isaiah show us that the nature of this patience
14 For a long time I have held my peace; I have kept still and restrained myself; now I will cry out like a woman in labor; I will gasp and pant. 15 I will lay waste mountains and hills, and dry up all their vegetation; I will turn the rivers into islands, and dry up the pools. Isaiah 42:14-15 (ESV)
It may be hard for us to realize the frustration levels that God must have had with the people of Isaiah’s day, people who were in a relationship with Him, whom He not only instructed in life, but also in how to know God would repair the life. People, who had chosen the darkness, who chose the blindness, the deafness, and dumbness, and struggled; unaware of God’s presence in their life.
It would seem that God’s patience is at an end, as we look at the passage, as He no longer restrains Himself, as He bellows and gasps and pants as He if dealing with the pain of giving birth.
Apparently, that can be painful? Apparently, in the process of bringing forth life, there is a bit of pain and frustration and patience and….
That is what God is doing… He is bringing forth life… our life.
But this He does!
The Message’s Version
This isn’t about God’s patience bringing forth wrath, but stripping the world, so that with nothing else there, we realize He is. Verse 15 talks of destruction, of incredible power, now unrestrained, but even as we have to see it in view of verse 14, we must keep it in context of verse 16.
16 And I will lead the blind in a way that they do not know, in paths that they have not known I will guide them. I will turn the darkness before them into light, the rough places into level ground. These are the things I do, and I do not forsake them. Isaiah 42:16 (ESV)
Who is the blind here? Someone God is against? Or someone God for whom God is ready to assist, to intercede on their behalf, to love them and mentor them on a journey to unknown parts. Who puts Himself there, for us, with us. I love how The Message translates this verse!
16 But I'll take the hand of those who don't know the way, who can't see where they're going. I'll be a personal guide to them, directing them through unknown country. I'll be right there to show them what roads to take, make sure they don't fall into the ditch. These are the things I'll be doing for them— sticking with them, not leaving them for a minute." Isaiah 42:16 (MSG)
What a promise – our God doesn’t take vacations, well, unless we do! He doesn’t take coffee breaks, or leave us in the nights where our minds are so active we cannot sleep. He is there, incredibly even more than Anne was for Helen Keller, and He was there for both in that circumstance as well!
Our Challenge
Our challenge, then, is like Helen’s, to realize that the hand we feel on our face is God’s, that the vibrations and the movements of the prophets and apostles hands, are the very words being spoken through which we will learn we are neither dumb, nor alone, but loved.
You see we are on a journey, and there are times that are setbacks, where we forget the lessons, and hide within ourselves, where we are unsure of what is happening, where God is leading, why we must go this way, why we encounter that. Many wonder if God has abandoned them, even those who know His incredible love and have seen it at work in our lives. Can we just relax, and know His presence? It just takes…. A little faith!
Can we, in faith, understand the love and patience of God, that no one should perish? Can we realize that He is our Father, and desires every person we know to become part of His family, His people? Do we realize that even if God levels the road, and illuminates it, we still need His guidance, His love, His presence, to make sense of it, or to hold us, when we cannot grasp the challenge?
Christ’s Blindness… chosen for the Joy
At the end of the passage, there is a great praise of God. click Verse 21, 21 The LORD was pleased, for his righteousness’ sake, to magnify his law and make it glorious. Isaiah 42:21 (ESV)
We’ll talk about this in Sunday School, but here is what I find to be more accurate: 21 GOD intended, out of the goodness of his heart, to be lavish in his revelation.
Isaiah 42:21 (MSG)
The reason is found in the verses before, where God talks about the blindness and deafness of the dedicated servant messenger who God sends. For this is Christ, who doesn’t consider our sin, but the Father’s love, as He bears that sin, as He sets His face towards Jerusalem, as He journeys to the cross to give us life, to open our blind eyes, to help us realize He is there… CLICK Nothing would dissuade this love, this focus, and for the joy set before Him, through His suffering and pain and gasping, He birthed us at the cross, when from suffering and the shedding of blood came forth abundant life! Lavish indeed in this revelation! Lavish indeed is the grace of God… planned for us before we were born…revealed to us as God’s plan throughout all of scripture..
May we, as we stagger out of the darkness into His illuminated path…realize we walk the way in peace, guided by His hand, and His word… and sharing in His feast. AMEN!
