Isaiah Comes Home

The spirit of the Lord is on me
for Yahweh has anointed me
to bring good news to the poor
to bind up the broken-hearted
to proclaim liberty to captives
and release to those in prison
to proclaim a time of God’s favor

     – Jesus from Luke 4 and Isaiah 61

Introduction

Most of the poetry in Isaiah 56-66 was written after the release and return of the Hebrews from Babylonian captivity. This happened in several waves of migration from the 6th to the 5th century BCE. They are rebuilding their religious and social structures. Perhaps we can think of this as a report about how the process is going. It might also be used as a critique of how the building of Christendom is going or how the development of America measures up. These poems, after all, are addressed to everyone.  As the first poem invites us, “Come to God’s holy mountain, it will be your house of prayer.” The format of these eight prophetic poems is Japanese renga.

All People Are Welcome

Isaiah reference / Chapter 56

Blest is anyone
who acts with justice, for God’s
salvation will come
  Even if you are different
  you will not be excluded

Observe the Sabbath
Abstain from every evil
Come into God’s house
  God will give you monuments
  better than daughters and sons

Become God’s servants
and cling to God’s covenants
you different children
  Come to my holy mountain
  It will be your house of prayer

For my house will be
a spirit center for all
making them joyful
  On my altar offerings
  will always be accepted


Sleeping Shepherds

Isaiah reference / Chapter 56-57

Sentinels are blind
Shepherds lack understanding
they love to slumber
  They are dogs that cannot bark
  who have turned to their own way

The righteous perish
and no one takes this to heart –
willful ignorance
  Dark clouds cover your vision
  your justice turns to vengeance

Why are you gleeful
Away from God is your bed
Lust is your domain
  Your fear led you to lying
  and Me you did not recall

Will your leaders save
Will you choose another way
Let the blind save you
  Or remove the stumbling blocks
  you put in the people’s road


Your Purity Counts for Nothing

Isaiah reference / Chapter 58

Call out with full throat
do not stint and raise your voice
Let them know my ways
  Say to my people their crime
  Tell them / Let God speak to you

Your praying this day
will not make your voices heard
You call this a prayer
  You opened with fear and hate
  to strike with a wicked fist

The prayer that I choose
is unlock all the shackles
and loosen the bonds
  Offer bread to the hungry
  Bring them all into your house

Set the shattered free
Help your fellow human beings
and break every yoke
  Then light shall break forth like dawn
  Your healing will be at hand


Breach Menders

Isaiah reference / Chapter 58

Keep the sabbath rest
You shall delight in Yahweh
The Lord has spoken
  If you stop mocking the poor
  your light shall dawn in the dark

If you call Yahweh
then He will say / Here I AM
Glory will guard you
  Offer bread to the hungry
  and keep holy the sabbath

Breach menders who can
restore your ruined houses
will find all a home
  Souls who hold chaos within
  give all courage to follow

The Fruits of Fear

Isaiah reference / Chapter 59
                        
Your deeds make a gulf
Your sins have hidden God’s face
God cannot hear you
  Your tongues murmur wickedness
  and your hands are stained with blood

You utter falsehoods
All rely on empty words
and conceive trouble
  Violence comes from your hands
  Your feet run to do evil

Wherever you go
there is havoc and ruin
and all is darkness
  A fair judgment never comes
  Salvation is far away


The Darkness and the Light

Isaiah reference / Chapters 60-61

Darkness covers you
but night will not be always
Soon your light will come
  On you Yahweh is rising
  Nations will come to God’s light

Cast your gaze about
Nations are coming to you
children coming home
  Your God will be your splendor
  and Yahweh will be your light

A new light has dawned
shining brightly in darkness
Now rise up yourselves
  You will find the beautiful
  Goodness will overtake you

God anointed me
Yahweh’s Spirit is on me
to bring the good news
  to soothe the broken-hearted
  and to proclaim liberty

Yahweh has sent me
to announce that there will be
time for God’s favor
  to provide for those who mourn
  and to give them a garland


Surprised by God

Isaiah reference / Chapters 63-64

Though Presence saved us
we vexed the Spirit of God
because we rebelled
  All of us shriveled like leaves
  crimes carried us on the wind

No one called Your name
so you gave us to our crimes
We thought we were lost
  Yet now you are our Father
  All of us are your making

We will remember
the faithfulness of Yahweh
and God’s acts of love
  God said / They are my children
  and I will always love them


Lifting the Shadow

Isaiah reference / Chapters 65-66

Exault forever
The God you trust shall bless you
also blessing Earth
  God will create a new heavens
  and bring to life a new earth

Plant gardens and eat
Build houses and dwell in them
Live and play on earth 
  Your children will grow and learn
  All of you live like the trees

In the days to come
the wolf and the lamb will graze
the serpent eat dust
  While you can speak I will hear
  When you call I will answer


The Mountains and the Hills– Homes for All People

As far as we can tell
Earth and sky meet at the top of a mountain
near the broken evergreens at the top of Turtleback Ridge
and the easy access of Mount Erie near Deception Pass
even the long ascent to and dangerous decent from Oyster Dome
Thank you for giving us such places to learn

Thank you for the Shark’s Teeth 
and other Sea Stacks at the ocean’s edge
for a vision in the snow at Hurricane Ridge
for freeing spirits at high places by the Salish Sea
and for journeys through time in ancestral lands
and for all the people who helped us to see

Reflections and Connexions

Almost 50 years ago now Mellie and I decided to go to church together intentionally. We had not been to church together for the then 6 years of our married life except for weddings of friends. Soon after our return one of the questions we got asked by our fellow church goers and other believers was, “When did you become a Christian?” Mellie was comfortable answering the question, but I was not. She had an adult experience of birthing our first child followed by spiritual formation and learning that she could explain. The best I could do was explain that I didn’t remember much about the Confimation slap I got from the bishop at age 11. What I didn’t understand about the question was its background in altar calls at Billy Graham crusades and evangelical churches. In that world one became a Christian almost instantly and one would remember the time and circumstances. I now think that the question came from an unusual time in church history when one could become a Christian very quickly. Especially in the early church becoming a Christian took a significant amount of time and learning was necessary.

Though the lesson was easily stated – Love God and love others – and a powerful experience of the Spirit could happen quickly, working out the social and communal implications could take more time. In the early church centuries thousands sought out the Desert Mothers and Fathers for new ways of learning and living. A few centuries later Irish monasteries, like Kells, Durrow, and Iona, became centers of learning and transformed Celtic culture into what a Christian society might be like. They were not perfect though they worked from a ground of loving God, loving others, and making books. Of the times when a community and society became Christian the Celtic one was probably the longest lasting from the return of Patrick in the 5th century to the Viking raids in the 10th.

The quest for a new heavens and a new earth and the good news of liberty and justice has been ongoing for over three millenia. Perhaps looking at Isaiah’s effort will help people living in the world now.