ISAIAH 61:1-11
November 30, 2014
The
spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me; he has
sent me to bring good news to the oppressed, to bind up the brokenhearted, to
proclaim liberty to the captives, and release to the prisoners; to proclaim the
year of the Lord’s
favor, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn; to
provide for those who mourn in Zion— to
give them a garland instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning,
the mantle of praise instead of a faint spirit. They will be called oaks of
righteousness, the planting of the Lord, to display his glory.
They
shall build up the ancient ruins, they shall raise up the former devastations;
they shall repair the ruined cities, the devastations of many generations.
Strangers shall stand and feed your flocks, foreigners shall till your land and
dress your vines; but you shall be called priests of the Lord, you shall be
named ministers of our God; you shall enjoy the wealth of the nations, and in
their riches you shall glory. Because their shame was double, and dishonor was
proclaimed as their lot, therefore they shall possess a double portion;
everlasting joy shall be theirs. For I the Lord love justice, I hate robbery
and wrongdoing; I will faithfully give them their recompense, and I will make
an everlasting covenant with them. Their descendants shall be known among the
nations, and their offspring among the peoples; all who see them shall
acknowledge that they are a people whom the Lord has blessed.
I
will greatly rejoice in the Lord, my whole being shall exult in my God; for he
has clothed me with the garments of salvation, he has covered me with the robe
of righteousness, as a bridegroom decks himself with a garland, and as a bride
adorns herself with her jewels. For as the earth brings forth its shoots, and
as a garden causes what is sown in it to spring up, so the Lord God will cause
righteousness and praise to spring up before all the nations.
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Often when I prepare
for a sermon, I take time to read the passage and then sit in stillness, trying
to just get a sense of what stories, metaphors, or symbols a passage bring up
in me. I sat in this stillness this past week (which was hard because it was Thanksgiving),
and I thought, “What does Isaiah’s focus on bringing good news to the
oppressed, binding up the brokenhearted, proclaiming liberty to the captives,
and release to the prisoners make me think of?” In that stillness I remembered the experience
of a Jewish rabbi named Michael Weisser.
Weisser is a rabbi
in Lincoln, Nebraska, and back in the mid-1990s, he was the target of
harassment from the Grand Dragon of the Nebraska Ku Klux Klan, Larry Trapp. Trapp
believed that the Jews, among other minority races, had polluted Nebraska with
their false religion, and so he decided that his mission was to drive the Jews
out of Nebraska. He had targeted Weisser for intimidation, leaving a series of
hate-filled, anti-Jewish rantings on Weisser’s answering machine. He talked about how the Jews were only
half-human, and that someday people would rise up and finish what Hitler and
the Nazis started with the concentration camps.
Eventually Weisser had enough,
and tracked down his tormentor. He learned all he could about Trapp. He expected to
find a man who was evil to the core, but he was surprised to discover that
Trapp wasn’t a powerful, evil
figure. Instead, he was a broken, struggling man. He learned that Trapp had been abused both by
his family and in prison, and that he was confined to a wheelchair. He realized
that he couldn’t
meet hate with hate, but he had to find a way to speak God’s love to Trapp. So
he started leaving messages on Trapp’s answering machine.
He left a message asking Trapp whether he knew that among the first people
murdered by the Nazis were those with disabilities. He left a message telling
Trapp that one day he would come face-to-face with God, and what would he do in
the face of God’s judgment? He left messages
telling Trapp that God was love, not hate.
One evening, as he was in the
process of leaving Trapp another message, Trapp picked up the phone and yelled,
“What do you want?!
Why can’t you leave me alone?” Weisser paused for a second, and said, “Larry, I know that
you live alone. It can’t be easy. Do you
have enough food? Would you like me to get you some groceries?” Trapp paused in response, and then said, “No,… I’m
okay.”
A few days later, Weisser left
another message offering to help Trapp with transportation or anything else. He left more
messages offering help. Then one day Trapp surprised him. He called up Weisser
and said to him, “I can’t do this anymore. I
want to get out. Can you help me?” Why did he call Weisser? In an interview
years later, Trapp said, "When Michael started calling my racist
hotline, I could sense something in his voice that I hadn’t
heard before… something I hadn’t experienced. It
was love."
Weisser picked Trapp up and
brought him back home for dinner with his wife and family. He took off Trapp’s
swastika rings, and gave Trapp a silver friendship ring, telling him that among
Jews this was as symbol of friendship and love. Slowly Weisser helped Trapp
transform his life. Within a few years Weisser and Trapp began to travel around
the country, talking about racism and how to overcome it. Trapp was crucial in
helping people understand the mind of a racist. Trapp’s life was
transformed by Weisser’s
love. In fact, when Trapp fell ill a few years later, and was dying, he moved
in with the Weissers, becoming known to the children as Uncle Larry.
Trapp initially
lived his life like many people do, looking for the dark in the lightness, but
Rabbi Weisser looked for the light in the darkness. He wasn’t a Christian, yet he
was steeped in the words of Isaiah. Isaiah shared God’s promise that the
oppressed would be lifted up, the brokenhearted would find love, and the
suffering would find compassion. Weimar embodied the words of Isaiah.
The difference
between Larry Trapp and Rabbi Weisser is that Trapp looked for what was wrong,
seeing bad all around, but Weisser looked into what was evil and still saw
good. He understood the Christian and Jewish idea of looking for the light in
the darkness
How good are we at
looking for light in the darkness? I look around at our country today, and i
see a land of people who are immersed in light but see nothing except darkness.
I’m not sure why it
is, but all I hear and read about, when it comes to our country, is that
everything is wrong and bad. We live in a country where people are more blessed
than any people ever in the history of the world, but what most people complain
about is what they don’t
have. They look at everyone else and see darkness. The world is filled with
light and beauty, but all they see is darkness and ugliness.
The irony is that
the prophet Isaiah was speaking to people who were genuinely in darkness, yet
who were being told to look for light. They had been enslaved by the
Babylonians. They had been marched over 700 miles through desert to become
palace, house, and work slaves for wealthy Babylonians, and Isaiah was telling
them to look for the light. No matter how dark things were, God was present and
God was working to bring love, compassion, and light into their lives.
The problem today is
that so many people have embraced cynicism and pessimism, which are spiritual
poison. Why do I say that they are poison? Because they come out of
darkness. Cynicism and pessimism, and sometimes even skepticism, put us in a
place where we can only see what’s wrong—we can only see what’s dark. And when we
are in that place, we can’t
see God. We can’t
sense God’s presence. We can’t sense God’s love, light, and
grace because those would bring light. We have been poisoned by darkness.
What’s even worse is that
cynics and pessimists often drag others into darkness. You know what I mean.
Have you ever been in a conversation with people who are deeply pessimistic and
cynical? They start on their rant, and their anger gives them more and more
energy. The problem is that as they suck energy out of us. They become more
indignant, and we become more drained. The worst is when we can’t escape,… when we have no choice but to sit and listen.
They drain the light out of us. Now, contrast this with what happens when we
are around people who are hopeful and optimistic. They give us energy. They
spread their light and can actually cast out our darkness. They help us to see
light in the darkness, while cynics drive out the light with their darkness.
As Christians, we
are called to see what’s
light and what’s
right. I believe that this is how God looks at us. God is completely aware of
our sin, but God still focuses on what’s good. Too many Christians think that God is
only consumed with our sin, but I believe God is consumed with love, and that
love leads God to recognize sin, but to focus on what’s good. Why else
would God have constantly reached out to a Larry Trapp?
We are also called
to look at life with a focus on love and light, but to do so means
understanding the difference between analysis and discernment. We are steeped
in a world rooted in analytical thinking. Analytical thinking can bring about
great results. It is at the root of all of our technological and engineering
advances. It’s at the root of our
medical and scientific advances. And all of us have been trained to analyze.
Have you ever
wondered what it really means to analyze? When we analyze, we look for what’s wrong so that we
can fix it. We look for the problem. That’s our training. We learned these skills in
high school. When we read a book for English class, we were trained to not only
understand the plot, but to analyze it for what’s wrong with it. We learn how to listen to
another’s argument and to
see what’s wrong with it.
That’s the center of
debate. We are a nation of analyzers, and as a result we often only see what’s wrong, what the
problems are, and what needs to be fixed.
The Christian life
is based on something different. It is based on discernment, the prayerful
looking for what is right rather than what is wrong. It’s like panning for
gold. We sift through all the junk of life to look for what God is doing, what
God is calling us to do, what is good and right and blessed in life. There may
be some analysis involved in determining what isn’t of God, but the focus is on looking for what’s right rather than
for what’s wrong. This is
what it means to look for the light in the darkness rather than the dark in the
lightness.
Looking for the
light in the darkness requires looking for what’s right rather than what’s wrong. It requires
panning for God’s
gold by looking through all the junk to see what sparkles. It requires looking
for what God is doing, rather than what God isn’t doing. And it requires prayerfully paying
attention to God’s
light all around.
Amen.
