Today we begin what is called the non-festival part of our church year. We have just completed the festival part of our church year which began at Advent and through which we celebrated the feasts of Advent, Christmas, Epiphany, Lent, Easter and Pentecost and ended last Sunday with Holy Trinity Sunday. For the next twenty-four Sundays we will be in the Pentecost season, our liturgical color will be green reminding us that this is the time of the church year that we are to grow in our Christian faith and life, which we do through our being in Divine Service and Bible Class.
Stephen R. Covey who wrote the best-selling book, The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, once wrote, “The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing.” This morning, the main thing of our text is the first two verses, “1I was ready to be sought by those who did not ask for me; I was ready to be found by those who did not seek me. I said, ‘Here am I, here am I,’ to a nation that was not called by my name. 2I spread out my hands all the day to a rebellious people, who walk in a way that is not good, following their own devices” (v. 1-2).
In our text, God, speaking through the prophet Isaiah, seeks to set the record straight. God’s promise of salvation was, is and always will be to all people. Beginning in the Garden of Eden before there was a Jew and Gentile, God’s promise was to all people and here in Isaiah, God’s promise continues to be to all people, and even to us today, God’s promise continues to be to all people. Certainly we rejoice because God’s promise of salvation is for us even today.
In our text, Isaiah speaks of “those who did not ask.” “Those who do not ask,” are the Gentiles. By the time we get to our text, the Jews have established themselves as God’s chosen people, yet they have done so in such a way that they have excluded the rest of the people of the world and the Gentiles know this, that is they know that they are not included in the Jewish world, let alone the Jewish faith or religion. In other words, the Gentiles simply have come to believe that they have no part in the Jewish Savior and so they do not even ask.
As for the Jews, God’s chosen people, the nation through whom the Savior of the world was promised to be born, they have become a rebellious people. Although God chose Abraham and his people to be the nation through which the Messiah would be born, they have rebelled against the Lord, against His commands, against His good gifts and blessings and have followed after their own devices. At this point we might say that God is not happy with either the Jews or the Gentiles and so His words are words of warning and a call to repentance and faith.
Let us look a little closer at these people, the Gentiles. The Gentiles were any people who were not of Jewish descent. Up until the call of Abraham, there really was no distinction, at least Biblically speaking, between any of the nation groups on the earth. Certainly there were the various culture groups which spoke different languages that spread out after the confusion of the languages at the tower of Babel, which we talked about a couple weeks ago, but Biblically speaking, all people were the same. It was at the call of Abraham that a Biblical distinction began to be made, and this distinction was not a distinction concerning who would be saved and who would not be saved.
As for the Gentiles, the Savior of the world was not promised to be born through their offspring. In essences, the Jews, the nation through whom the Savior was promised, became first class citizens, at least that is what they thought of themselves, and they regulated the rest of the world, the Gentiles to second class citizen status. I believe there is a cliche that says, “Pride goes before the fall.” With the Jews, perhaps it was their proud nature, thinking themselves as first class citizens and regulating the rest of the world as second class citizens which began their own fall as we will see.
As for the Gentiles, they knew God, not as the chosen nation, not from the great blessings the Lord bestowed on them compared to the Jews, but they knew God, through natural knowledge as well as through revealed knowledge proclaimed to them. Remember, God’s promise to send a Savior was never a promise to just a certain group of people, but was always a promise to all people of all places of all times.
And so, the Gentiles, not having the special status of the Jews, rejoiced in the good news. It is no wonder that when the Apostles finally recognized God’s favor on the Gentiles as well that the Gospel so easily took hold in the Gentile community.
As for the Jews, they were God’s chosen people, but not necessarily the way they believed themselves to be. The Jews were the people of the family line of Abraham. It was Abram, whose name was later changed to Abraham, who was chosen by God. Abraham did not choose God, but God chose him. And God chose him, not because of any deserving reason on his own part, simply God chose him.
God chose Abraham and made a promise, a covenant with him. God’s covenant with Abraham was that He would bless him, that He would make him a great nation and that the Savior of the world, of all people, of all nations, Jews and Gentiles alike would be born through his offspring. And God made Abraham a great nation.
As the nation of Abraham grew, as they became the nation of Israel, as they were forced into slavery and then delivered from slavery in Egypt, as they were brought into and given the promised land, you would think that with all that God had done for them they would be His loyal people. However, instead, they disobeyed God and went after other gods and idols. That is what the rest of our text for this morning is about, the fact that they were not and did not act like the people of God, the people God called and through whom God promised to send the Savior of the world.
As a matter of fact, as we look at the history of the children of Israel, we see that they were constantly disciplined by the Lord. Their history was rather a roller coaster ride of sin and rebellion, discipline and punishment, repentance and forgiveness, and then moving back and starting again with sin and rebellion, discipline and punishment, repentance and forgiveness. And this ride went round and round for many years, until the birth of the Messiah.
So, what does this mean? And what does this mean for us today? As I have said, time and time again, God’s promise to send a Savior was given in Eden, before there was a Jew or a Gentile and His promise was made to all people of all places of all times. If only those who continue to misread the book of Revelation would only go back to the beginning of the Book, they would see quite clearly that the Lord made one covenant with all people, not two covenants, one with one group and one with another group. And the covenant the Lord made was not a covenant of birth or genetics, but was a covenant of grace, of God’s doing, of God’s giving and our being done to and given to. It always, all begins with the Lord.
Again, if one would take the time to read God’s Word, from the beginning, and let God speak and actually listen to and believe what God says, one would realize that the fulfillment of God’s promise was narrowed so that His promise would be fulfilled through the line of Abraham. This narrowing of the line of fulfillment in no way took away from the fact that the Savior would be the Savior of all people of all places of all times, simply that the family line through which the Savior would be born would be through the family of Abraham.
From our text for this morning we are reminded of the misuses, the abuses, the misunderstandings, of those who imposed or attempted to impose their own will onto God and His covenant, gifts and promises. And certainly, as I have reminded you from time to time, we are no different today than the children of Israel of old. How often does God find us running after other God’s and idols who are not the Lord? How often does God find us breaking, not one, not two, but all His commandments? How often does God find us “interpreting” His Word according to our own sinful desires? If we actually read God’s Word and took His Word as His Word and took His Word seriously, our world would be a different world. Unfortunately, because of the sin in the Garden of Eden, where it all began, we live in a sinful world filled with sin and that will be the way it is until the Lord returns and recreates everything anew.
The key, how do we know we are getting it right? How do we know we are right and others, other religions, cults and sects are getting it wrong? Simple! All the religions, cults and sects can be classified under two headings: those who must do for their god, in order to appease him, please him or manipulate him, which is idolatry; and those who believe the God of Holy Scripture who runs the show, who does for us, who gives to us, who made His promise and fulfilled His promise to take care of our sin and be our Savior. Remember, it is a matter of who is running the verbs, who is running the show. And if God is running the show, if Jesus is the Savior for all people of all places of all times, then we are indeed children of God and children of the promise, not by birth, not by genetics, but by God’s grace, through faith, given to us, in Jesus Christ alone. Which is why we as Christian are so hated by the rest of the world, because of the exclusive claim of God that there is only one way to be saved and that is through Jesus Christ alone.
The best way I can summarize the Lord’s Word and the key to His Word is the fact that God gives and we are given to, God does and we are done to. It all begins with God. He created us. He gave us life at conception. He gave us new life through Holy Baptism. He paid the price for our forgiveness. He strengthens and keeps us in faith through His means of grace, His Word and His Sacraments. And we rejoice as He stirs in us a response of faith, to give glory to His Holy Name.
As we begin this non-festival part of our church year calendar, although we are about six months from again celebrating the feasts of our church, we do continue to gather each and every Sunday and we do celebrate each and every Sunday. Remember, for us Christians, we worship on Sunday because each Sunday is for us a miniature Easter celebration. We celebrate the fact that we get it right and we know we get it right by pointing to Jesus, who is God, who is the prime mover. We are reminded that none of us chose to be born and none of us chooses for God to give us faith, forgiveness and life, rather we celebrate that as the prime mover it is God who chose to give us life and new life through Holy Baptism. Indeed, as we said earlier, we want to keep the main thing the main thing and the main thing is that it is all about Jesus, just Jesus. God gives to us according to what He knows is best for us, according to His good and gracious will. God loves you so much and He has so much He has given to you and so much more He wants to give to you. Rejoice and be given the gifts God has to give to you for Jesus’ sake. Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.