Please Let Me In!
“Shout out, do not hold back! Lift up your voice like a trumpet!” Did you hear how the prophet Isaiah begins this magnificent piece of art – this passionate piece of poetry that is our first lesson for today! One commentator likens this passionate piece of poetry that is our first lesson from Isaiah as a magnificent song, and that song begins with a sforzando. (I love that word…sforzando). A loud, sudden jolt that grabs our attention – and grabs the attention of the prophet who is addressed by God and told to shout, sound his voice like a trumpet.
Let me start again, “Shout out, do not hold back! Lift up your voice like a trumpet! Announce to my people their rebellion, to the house of Jacob their sins.” (And then God’s voice softens, diminishes to a mezzo-piano level.) “Yet day after day they seek me and delight to know my ways, as if they were a nation that practiced righteousness and did not forsake the ordinance of their God.” Do you hear the sarcasm in God’s message? It’s as if God is saying to believers, to those who worship God, “They say they want to know me. They say they want to follow my ways. They worship religiously yet they are not practicing what they preach when they are not in the temple. They are not putting into practice in their everyday lives what they say they believe.”
For example, let me tell you a story – story inspired by the bitter cold we just experienced where on Mt Washington a new record was set of the coldest wind-chill ever in the United States – 108 degrees below zero.
Do you remember the deadly blizzard that hit western New York in December that claimed over three dozen lives? And do you recall the story of the man whose heroic actions saved others who were trapped in dangerous conditions?
A man named Jay Withey had gone out in the storm to rescue a friend but quickly became trapped himself. Eventually he ended up huddling with others in their car after he had tried to help them. Just as their gas supply was beginning to run out, Withey discovered a school nearby. After smashing a window and opening the front doors of the school, he went back out into the blizzard and rounded up over 20 people who were stuck in their cars and led them to safety in the school. He saved the lives of over 20 people! He said this, “My mission was just to keep going and grabbing as many people as I can and to just keep going.
Now that’s only part of the story. The lesser known story is this. When Jay first realized he was in trouble, that he needed help, long before he huddled in a car with others, long before he found the school, he had gone door-to-door to about ten households asking if they would let him in – begging them to help him. In an interview he said this, “I pleaded with them, ‘Please, please can I sleep on the floor. I’m in fear for my life,’ and they say, ‘No, I’m sorry.’” And Mr. Withey said he even offered each of the ten homeowners whose door he knocked on for help, he offered each of them $500.00 and was still turned down.
The voice of the prophet, Isaiah grows louder in our first lesson as he echoes how other Hebrew prophets also bring their listeners back to the law – back to “sharing your bread with the hungry and bringing the homeless poor into your house – back to “offering food to the poor and help to the afflicted – back to fair wages and Sabbath rest The prophet’s voice swells to a crescendo, “Is not this the service I choose: to loose the bonds of injustice, to let the oppressed go free. Is it not to share your bread with the hungry, and bring the homeless poor into your house; when you see the naked, to cover them, and not to hide yourself from your own kin?”
Could not at least one of those ten households let him in? Could not one of those ten households see Jay as one of their own? Could not one of those households choose to take a risk based on their faith whatever it was – or even based on their values – the value of concern for a man caught in a blizzard with no place to go? Not one? Not one?
I’d like to share with you another image seared in my mind this week. And it came simply from reading the newspaper. I was reading a story about Pope Francis’ trip to South Sudan – which is the world’s newest country founded a decade ago with great fanfare and hope and celebration, but since then not one western leader has ever visited South Sudan – until Pope Francis arrived on Friday. He arrived from the Democratic Republic of Congo on an African tour intended to shine a spotlight on some of the continent’s most troubled and ignored countries.
In the capital city of Juba in South Sudan Pope Francis was met by the leader of the country, a Mr. Kiir, an ex-rebel who had been locked in a deadly rivalry with his arch enemy named Riek Machar who was also there to greet the pope. The two men were enemies until they came together to form a coalition government.
The last time these two men – once fierce enemies – had met with Pope Francis was at the Vatican four years ago. At that meeting – and here’s the image seared in my mind – at that meeting the pope laid down flat on the floor and kissed the shoes of these two men – these fierce enemies – pleading with them to make peace not war. This display of humility left an indelible impression and led to the enemy leaders forming a coalition government resulting in an end to their civil war that had cost 400,000 lives.
The rhetorical questions from the prophet, Isaiah keep coming until they reach an explosion of blessings. “Is this not what I chose – to share your bread with the hungry, and bring the homeless poor into your house; to let the oppressed go free, to loose the bonds of injustice?” Do you hear the excitement building? Do you hear the orchestra coming to life? Do you hear the goodness that erupts from these questions?
Isaiah: “Then your light shall break forth like the dawn. Your healing shall spring up quickly. Then you shall call, and the Lord will answer; you shall cry for help, and he will say, ‘Here I am!’
The prophet speaks directly to us this morning – this bunch of believers who gather regularly for worship because we have been chosen. We have been called – and at our annual congregational meeting right after worship we will once again answer that call. Isaiah: “The Lord will guide you continually. Your ancient ruins will be rebuilt; you shall raise up the foundations of many generations – of many generations.” That’s our mission. What doesn’t work anymore will be recreated and the inclusion of younger generations will be our calling
And, according to Jesus, we are called to be salty, saucy, risk-takers, turn-over-the tables kind of movers, trouble-makers – the good kind as John Lewis used to say. “You are the salt of the earth; but if salt has lost its taste, how can its saltiness be restored?”
You are the light of the world. A city built on a hill cannot be hid. No one after lighting a lamp puts in under the bushel basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all… In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.” Amen.