Does God Still Have Faith in Us?

Isaiah 1:10-20; Hebrews 11:1-3

 

        I am tired of waking up every morning and seeing the flag at half mast.

 

        I am tired of politicians blaming everyone and everything but themselves.

 

        I am tired of commentators claiming they are experts when they have no idea what they are talking about.

 

        I am tired of wearing out my knees praying to a God who seems to be absent.

 

        If the book of Isaiah had a preface these complaints would have been the laments of the prophet. Jerusalem was a mess. Assyria had destroyed Israel and appeared to be headed for Judah. King Uzziah, one of the most corrupt kings of Judah was on his death bed. The majority of the inhabitants of Jerusalem lived in poverty. The Temple was essentially closed for worship. And the few faithful that were left prayed to God for relief from their misery. The answer was hardly what they expected.

        The Book of Isaiah begins with these words. “Your prayers, your sacrifices, your worship is an abomination to me. You remind me of Sodom and Gomorrah.” You don’t have to be a biblical scholar to know that God was not happy. The text continues. “I can’t bear listening to your prayers. You have deceit on your lips and blood on your hands.”

        This is a dangerous text. The sacrifices of the people have been rejected. They went looking for God and found how risky that can be. The people cried out for salvation and were told, “You are the source of your pain. Are their forty or twenty righteous people among you? Is there even one in your midst who is faithful? Are you worth the energy it would take for restoration? Even if I did what you ask, what guarantees do I have you won’t return to your wicked ways.”

        Having released all that wrath God regained emotional control and declared to the inhabitants of Jerusalem,

        Wash yourself,

        Learn to do good.

        Seek justice for the poor.

        Stand beside the oppressed.

        Defend the orphan.

        Plead for the widow.

 

        If you do this, even though your sins are like scarlet, I shall make them as snow.

 

        When I read this text my initial thought was, “Can it really be that easy?” But then my suspicious mind wondered how often the folks in Jerusalem actually saw snow. Was this a once in a lifetime experience. To my great surprise I discovered it snows in Jerusalem three or four times each winter. Forgiveness was possible. The real question was, “How do you thaw a frozen heart?”

        I attend Sunday School every week. It was a habit I started as a child and I never got over it. I promise you a favorite topic of any Sunday School class is faith. The first question is always, “Do you have faith in God?” Nine out of ten folks will respond, “If I didn’t, do you think I would be here this morning.” Allow me to ask a different question. “Do you think God has faith in us?”

        That hardly seems to be a fair question. Isn’t faith all about what God will do for me? Didn’t God create me? Didn’t Jesus die for me? Didn’t God resurrect Jesus for me?  Did you ever consider that those questions are the beginning and not the end of our relationship with God?

        Here is another strange question. What if us getting into heaven was never God’s primary objective? What if God’s primary goal is helping us to make earth more heavenly?

Quoting the Book of Hebrews, “Faith is the assurance of things hoped for and the conviction of things not seen.”

Could it be that from the beginning God has hoped that we would have the conviction to:

       

 

 

Learn to do good.

        Seek justice.

        Stand beside the oppressed.

        Defend the orphan.

        Plead for the widow.

 

        That takes a lot of faith on God’s part because it seems our convictions toward those objectives are often lacking. Like those folks in Jerusalem we appear overwhelmed by the tragedies that surround us yet we continue to insist any solutions are too far difficult or constitutionally out of the question. So we pray to God for a miracle.

        Might I suggest you read Hebrews 11. After defining faith, the author takes us to Sunday School. Remember Sarah. She became pregnant at 90. Yes that is a miracle, but you think God raised Isaac? Sarah fed, bathed, and nurtured the child until he left home. Deb keeps our grandchildren for a week and it about kills me. How did Sarah manage? She had faith in God and God had faith in her.

        Moses saw a burning bush. Yes, that was a miracle. But then Moses took on Pharaoh, crossed the Red Sea, spent 40 years in the wilderness and every single day the children of Israel whined. Why did Moses sign up for all that misery? He had faith in God and God had faith in him.

        The walls of Jericho fell before Joshua. God pulled them down. But Joshua spent the rest of his life getting 12 tribes to act as one nation.

        The easiest thing David ever did was kill Goliath.

        God brought down fire on Mt. Carmel but that was only the beginning of Elijah’s work. Consider Jeremiah and all the prophets? They were ridiculed, jailed and murdered. But did they deny their faith? Maybe. Did God desert them? No!

        Finally the writer of the Book of Hebrews points to Jesus. We remember all the miracles like feeding the 5,000, walking on water, resurrecting Lazarus, restoring sight to the blind. We forget the majority of his work was teaching 12 illiterate men, lifting up the oppressed, standing beside children, recognizing the poor and blasting the religious folks for failing to be moral. Jesus consistently sang one son. “God loves you. So why can’t you have faith in one another?” Yes, Jesus had faith in God, but God also had faith in him.

        So where do we place our faith? Is it in God? Is it in an economic system? Is it in leaders who tell us they know what is good for us? Is it in dreamers? Is it in those incapable of dreaming? Is it in anyone? That question might be far too complicated. So let me ask another. What do you think God expects of us? Has God’s vision radically changed since the time of Isaiah?

        I like to think of myself as an optimist.  I have always believed America to be the land of the free, a land of justice and righteousness, a land capable of putting an end to violence, inequality, racism, and greed. But many Americans have never experienced the opportunities I had from birth.

        So I wonder, if God grows tired of waking up to the flag at half mast. I wonder if God is growing tired of everyone blaming everyone but themselves. I wonder if God is growing tired of talking heads that have no idea what they are talking about. I wonder if God is growing tired of our divisions and lack of moral integrity. I wonder if God is growing tired of waiting for us to have the courage to do more than pray.

        What are we waiting for? Snow in December?

                                        To God be the glory.   Amen.