No King But God

Rev. Dave Kovalow-St. John   V   1/15/12   V   Isaiah 53: Selected Verses

Let me tell you an almost true story:  fifteen years ago, my daughter (then a little girl) comes up to me after watching a scary movie. “Daddy, are you afraid of monsters?”

I tell her, “No, honey, not really.”

“Are you afraid of the dark?”

“No, darling.  I haven’t been afraid of the dark for forty years.”

“Are you afraid of long woolly worms?”

“Uh, I can honestly say I have NEVER been afraid of long woolly worms!”

“Wow, so you’re not afraid of anything except mommy!”

Like I said:  an “almost true story.”  Council members:  I have many dreams and prayers for you, but the most important would be based on Proverbs 9:10.  It says, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy One is the basis for understanding.”

Council, I hope – as you lead us into 2012 – you won’t be afraid of making mistakes, you won’t be afraid of getting overly involved, you won’t even be afraid of offending people (though I trust that won’t be your goal).  No, I hope the only thing you fear is letting God down, and not because God will squash you (God won’t), but because you love God so much and because God is the only One you want in charge. 

Randy Frazee, co-editor of The Story, introduces his discussion of this week’s chapter by reminding us that – much to the discomfort of Great Brittan’s King George – a motto often shouted during America’s Revolutionary War was, “No king but King Jesus.”  

Israel started out with the idea there would be no King but God, however they kept sliding away from it, and it always, always got them in trouble.

History: Now and Then

Well, I’m getting ahead of myself a bit.  Let me back up and acknowledge where we are.  The holidays are over; a new year has begun.  That makes this an appropriate morning to install our new officers and council. 

However, this is also week 16 of “The Story.”  That means we are looking at some of the most interesting – but also some of the darkest – times in Israel’s history; times when it seems like instead of, “No King but God,” their motto was “No King but Us.” 

Among the many things you could say about these stories, certainly one is Jesus would have known from his earliest childhood.  Today, kids in the U.S. are at least a little familiar with Washington and Lincoln.  Jesus, as a young boy, would have been no less knowledgeable of great kings like David and Solomon. 

Teens in the United States study the Revolutionary War, the Civil War, World War Two. Jesus would have learned about the wars David fought to create Israel and the Civil War that split that nation into Israel in the north and Judah in the south. Jesus also undoubtedly would have heard a teacher (perhaps with tears in his eyes) describe how both those two weaker kingdoms lost the equivalent (for them) of World War II.  The northern kingdom, Israel was wiped out by Assyria in 722 B.C.; the southern kingdom of Judah fell to Babylon in 597.

Young Jesus would have known all that. However – again, like youth today – he MAY have been less fascinated with history’s great events, than with heroes, celebrities, the people featured not in “Time” and “Newsweek,” but in “Entertainment Weekly” and “Sports Illustrated.” 

If so, we need to bear in mind that in the culture Jesus grew up in, sports were not a big deal. Paul used analogies to fighting and running when he wrote to Christians in Corinth, but they came from Gentile backgrounds.  (Greeks and Romans loved sports.)

“Prophet Cards”

Jews were into study, debate, the playing field of the mind; especially when it came to religion.  Ask a first century Jew to tell you his favorite celebrity; he might point to an eloquent rabbi who made the Word come alive, who told parables and stories that helped the world make sense. Or maybe he would mention a contemporary preacher who stood up to power and uncompromisingly laid out God’s will.  He would also look to the past and name a favorite prophet.

Broadly defined, a prophet is someone who understands history, who acts in the present, and who sets goals for the future ONLY in terms of divine concern, divine purpose, and divine participation.   To put it more simply, for a prophet, there is “No King, but King God.”

And to put the Jewish love for prophets in terms of a modern analogy: for every baseball card a Jewish kid might have of David slaying Goliath or Sampson bringing the temple crashing on top of the Philistines, that kid would also have one of the prophet Elijah standing up to Jezebel and the priests of Baal.  (We heard that story last week.)  On the back, instead of statistics, it might have a quote: Elijah, talking to the people of the northern kingdom (1^st Kings 18:21), “How long are you going to waver…?  If the Lord is God, follow Him!” 

Our hypothetical kid might have another card for the prophet Nathan standing up to King David and calling a spade a spade (or an adulterous murderer an adulterous murderer). 

MAYBE our kid would be one of those who doesn’t go for the super-popular guy (the one on the Wheaties box).  No, maybe our kid goes for a less popular prophet.  Maybe he likes Micah – the guy who warned Jerusalem when the north fell to the Assyrians that the same thing could happen to them.  “Don’t count on being the Holy City.”  On the back of Micah’s card would be the prophet’s most famous saying (some call it the “Magna Charta of Prophetic Religion”).  It’s Micah 6:8; our church sings it as a round five or six times a year:  “What does the Lord require of you?  To do justice, and seek kindness, and walk humbly with your God.”   …That’s a good card!

But I would also bet our hypothetical Jewish kid would have several cards devoted to the prophet Isaiah.

Isaiah

One would have a picture of the prophet as a young man caught up in the fantastic vision of Isaiah chapter 6.  It’s the vision that called Isaiah to ministry, a vision we will refer to when we sing our communion hymn in a few minutes. 

This is a paraphrase of that vision (of the dream Isaiah has of standing in heaven’s court). It’s from Frederick Buechner’s book Peculiar Treasures.  In the year King Uzziah (of the southern kingdom of Judah) died, Isaiah has a vision of the Lord:

There were banks of candles flickering in the distance and clouds of incense thickening the air with holiness and stinging (my) eyes.  And high above (me), as if it had always been there but was only now seen for what it was (like a face in the leaves of a tree or a bear among the stars), there was the Mystery Itself whose gown was the incense and the candles a dusting of gold at the hem.  There were winged creatures shouting back and forth the way excited children shout to each other when dusk calls them home, and the whole vast, reeking place started to shake beneath (my) feet like a wagon going over cobbles. (I) cried out, “O God, I am done for!  I am foul of mouth and the member of a foul-mouthed race….”

But then, one of the winged things touched (my) mouth with fire and said, “There, it will be all right now,” and the Mystery Itself said, (“Whom shall I send?”) and with charred lips (I) said, “Me,” and Mystery said, “GO.”

Mystery said, “Go, give the deaf Hell till you’re blue in the face and go show the blind Heaven till you drop in your tracks.”  And (I) said, “Do it till when?”

Mystery said, “Do it till hell freezes over; do it till the cows come home.”

Buechner ends his retelling of Isaiah 6 by saying, “That is what a prophet does… and… when he saw and heard all these things, Isaiah went and did it.” 

O, that would be a cool “Prophet Card” in our Jewish kid’s collection: angels flying everywhere; God asking, “Whom shall I send to call the people of Judah back to faithfulness; to tell them I don’t want incense and words, I want them to act justly and love kindness!”  And Isaiah (aware that he, too, is unworthy) says, “Here I am, Lord, send me.” Then, for the next forty years, even as the north falls to Assyria, Isaiah warns the people of Judah, “What’s happening to them can happen to us!  We need to repent.  We need to be the faithful, just, loving people God is calling us to be!”     

2^nd Isaiah

Now, if our imaginary kid was especially bright, especially in tune with what God is doing – and if he knew his prophets really well – he might have a card for the prophet modern scholars call “Second Isaiah.” This was someone inspired by Isaiah, writing in his name, but probably doing so long after Isaiah had died.

He knew Isaiah had spoken truth.  Some people, like King Hezekiah, listened and turned things around, but eventually, the Southern Kingdom of Judah fell – not to Assyria, but to Babylon.  From a worldly point of view, it happened because Babylon was strong.  However Isaiah (and those writing after him in his name) knew God allowed it to happen because Judah had become corrupt. 

But about the time the Jews of Judah were giving into despair (carted off to Babylon as slaves, Jerusalem destroyed), Isaiah starts talking about a “suffering servant,” someone God has chosen to bring justice to the nations. At times, it’s obvious this “servant” is the Hebrew people.  Especially when they’re in captivity, they aren’t much to look at, but God intends to save them and even (according to Isaiah 49:6) to use them “…as a light to the nations, so (God’s) salvation might reach to the ends of the earth.”

Oh, this card implies that God doesn’t only want to save Israel, God wants to save EVERYBODY! God will do it through the weak, often despised nation that knows about suffering and yet returns to faithfulness.  Isaiah sees that.  But as we heard in our reading, Isaiah further sees that this “Suffering Servant of God” will also be one man. This man won’t dazzle people with good looks; he won’t gain popularity with spectacular feats of strength.  In fact, he will be despised and rejected, familiar with pain.  But he will be pierced for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities; and with his wounds WE will be healed. 

Our first century Jewish kid might like that card – it could be his favorite – but he won’t know exactly what it means.

Happily, we do.

…Amen.