Finding your voice in the
world is one of the most important challenges we face in our lives.
For some, the discovery comes early on, as a child, not unlike some
of the three and four year olds in our day school who aren’t at all
afraid to tell the pastor what he needs to do. For others, the
discovery can take a long time, precipitated by a crisis in middle
age perhaps. For still others, it might even take a whole lifetime,
if at all. Like Rosa Parks who finally said “no” when told to go to
the back of the bus, being able to speak our minds, to convey our
true feelings, to help others understand our own unique perspective
is part and parcel of being fully human.
And yet if we speak of
finding our voice, it’s entirely possible to find ourselves in
situations where we lose our voice or can’t find it at all—like a
repressed minority living under the weight of a cruel, despot, the
woman who endures daily physical abuse at the hands of an alcoholic
husband or boyfriend, or the nearly six million people living on
earth who know nothing but the deathly pall of hunger and poverty
that knows no end.
Of course there are times
when we long to hear the voice of another even particular voice—a
loved one far away, the doctor who tells us that that there’s
nothing to worry, “everything will be okay”, the voice of a
liberator who has come to set free those who have been held
captive. In this weekend of remembrance we are reminded of the
distinctive voice of the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. whose gave
witness to his dream of a nation where justice would roll down like
mighty waters, where people would be judged not by the color of
their skin by the quality of their character and conviction. It’s a
voice that sadly yet needs to be heard still today.
For God’s people who had
returned from exile the silence was deafening. The long awaited
restoration of their beloved Jerusalem wasn’t proceeding as they had
hoped and expected. The rebuilding of the city, of the temple of
their lives had brought with it famine and poverty. As a result,
the neighbors were beginning to talk. “What kind of God is this,
who brings his people back and gives them only hardship?” The
unfolding of these unfortunate series of events was difficult,
heartbreaking for the people to see and experience and they were
beginning to despair. Where was God in all this? Would God keep
God’s word? Could God be trusted? So, they longed for a voice of
reassurance and hope, a voice that would proclaim an alternative
vision to the grinding reality that had come to define and shape
them.
And so, it is into such a
reality that the prophet speaks, that God’s Word comes in a vision
of what is to be, a reminder of who God is and what God promises to
be through three distinct images—a new name, Jerusalem as a crown of
beauty and marriage. Of course we know about the significance of
name changes in the Bible, Abram became Abraham, Sarai became Sarah,
Jacob became Israel and so on. A new name pointed to a new status
before God and in the world. In that way the name change for God’s
people bespeaks a new unfolding reality—from forsaken and desolate
to “my delight is in her”, from despair to hope. Earlier on, the
prophet had described God himself as a “diadem of beauty” and now
the image is extended to the remnant of God’s people, not so much
beauty in terms of physical appearance, but as a manifestation of
God’s presence and the working of God’s justice and salvation for
all people. The final image is that of marriage that God’s joy in
Jerusalem is like that of a bridegroom for his bride. Of course,
it’s important to recognize that a very different understanding of
marriage is at work here than the way we fundamentally think about
marriage now a days, an experience of communal joy and formation as
opposed to a private relationship between two individuals. Here we
have a picture, an image that speaks of God’s desire to reconcile
and restore that which is broken.
A lot has changed in over
two and a half millennia, but then again a lot hasn’t. There is
still plenty of fear and despair to around, plenty of reason to lose
hope and to feel utterly and completely forsaken—people who aren’t
sure where there next meal is going to come from, if there’ll be a
job when they go back to work tomorrow, whether a broken
relationship can ever be restored, how they’ll make ends meet, pay
the rent and buy groceries, people who watch and wait for a son or
daughter to come home and wonder if they ever will, people who
continue to suffer under the weight of prejudice and racism, those
who wonder if anyone will be with them when they die and the list
goes on and on and on. What is it in each and every one of us leads
us to despair and lose hope?
The good news my friends
is that God hears us, that God knows our despair and hopelessness
and is even now, in the hearing of the word God is leading us from
death to life. “When the poor and needy seek water, and there is
none, and their tongues are parched with thirst, I the LORD will
answer them, I the God of Israel will not forsake them.” Through
our baptism into Christ, God speaks his Word to us, a word of
promise that marks us as God’s own. “Child of God you have been
sealed with the Holy Spirit and marked with the cross of Christ
forever.”
And as God’s promise lays
hold of us, we are set apart for a purpose, “to bear God’s creative
and redeeming love into all the world.” The word, the voice that
has spoken to us becomes our gift to share as God’s people. Young
and old alike, ordained and lay, The Spirit compels us to proclaim
God’s love to those who know what it means to be forsaken, alone and
full of despair, to those who lose heart and can’t find their way
home.
We proclaim God’s love a
congregation in our support ministries like the Care Communities,
etc….
Pastor Brian Peterson
