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Grace, mercy, and peace be unto you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, the text comes from that Old Testament reading that you’ve heard read to you. You may be seated. By now you have received a letter from one of your elders, and if not, you will receive it in the coming week. A letter that reminds you of God’s mercy toward you in Christ Jesus. A letter that tells you now is not the time to fret over our finances and say, “Woe is me, or woe are we.” A letter that says, now is the time, rather, to plant. There were service times mentioned of how you can be fed when they’re listed for Advent and Christmas, New Year’s and Epiphany. Plant with me. Invest with your brothers and sisters in Christ into your church and your school. God has given us a great opportunity. God has given us what we need in his word. God has given you what you need for him to work through you and in you here among your baptized brothers and sisters in Christ.
Now you may ask, Pastor, what does this have to do with Isaiah? Everything. The prophet Isaiah preached to a people. A Lutheran Christian sermon. It seems as if his word was more easily hallowed than it seems at this time. We have a lot in common with these people in Isaiah’s time. Isaiah preached to all people, but only a minuscule few listened, heard, and believed. That is just like the society in which you and I find ourselves. And nothing’s more grievous for us than to see our enemies outside the walls of this place, so smug and so confidently despising the word of God that you and I hold so dear.
And so, as Israel cried out through Isaiah’s prophecy, so we cry out, “Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down, O Lord. Fix this.” Kind of like when Ryan brings a broken toy and says, “Daddy, fix it.” I can’t. You’ve got to make it better. It’s kind of how you and I talk to our loving Father in heaven. Lord, this world seems to be getting worse and worse. Fix it. Come down. And as Isaiah said, “Make your name known.” Well, he is. He has. And he does it. He does it through you. That’s through whom he does it. He does it through you.
Now, you and I can think and sit back and say, “I am not up to the task, and I have nothing to offer.” And yet God says, “No, you have been fully equipped. You have been baptized. You have been brought into the faith. You have been fed the word of God. You believe in Jesus Christ. You are fully equipped.”
Well, just like Isaiah, as he preached to these people, they cried out with him, “Show us, O Lord.” And do you know what God did? What did he do? He took them away from the promised land of Israel and sent them to Iraq, to Babylon, for 70 years. And for 70 years, they stayed there. Then God brought them back. That was his answer. Because they needed to get the gospel message to the ungodly in Babylon. And they did. Daniel faithfully proclaimed it. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego faithfully proclaimed it. So God has done that to you and me. God has done that to you. In this place, at this time.
And as was said in Isaiah’s prophecy, for those who wait for him. The people that went over there, they died there 70 years. Their children were born there and possibly died there too. It would be their grandchildren that came back to the promised land. Just like your grandchild is right there and mine’s there. And those of you who have your grandchildren know they… And we wish to leave them something more substantial than pleasant memories. We wish to leave them that word of God that was left to us when we were somebody’s grandchild by the faithful who have preceded us in this faith.
For God’s will is that his word continue in this place and in that school because it’s his church and his school. But they had different ideas, Isaiah did. He kept thinking that God would come down and make it right by not allowing for them to be deported to Babylon and rather stay there in the promised land. And you and I may have ideas that, you know what, if only someone would donate to the church a half a million, that would solve it. You’re thinking way too small. Alright, pastor, then a million. You’re still thinking way too small. It’s not the amount of money. He wants you. Through you are people brought into the church. Through you do people come to faith. Through you does the greatest gift given to mankind is made manifest in their hearts by the Holy Spirit working. That is thinking great and big. But you and I think small.
How interesting. What did God do when the people cried out, “Rend the heavens and come down?” Did God send Rambo down? No. He sent a frail child born in a cave or a manger where animals had been defecating and where animals had just ate. Did God become man for you, for all? God works in ways that are far beyond our ideas. From of old. From of old. No one has heard or perceived by the ear. No eye has seen a God beside you who acts for those who wait for you. God comes and he will act, but he will not act in a way that you and I think.
And while we pray, we pray with anxiety, but God said very clearly through St. Paul, “And my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches and glory in Christ Jesus, for those who wait for him.” And as we are anxious in our prayer, we pray with desperation and various groanings as we do groan and are anxious. But finally, we close our eyes in faith and say, “Lord, make it right. Your name be hallowed among us.” Your faith that believes and trusts in God’s promises is a hidden wisdom. It’s a hidden wisdom that the world looks as folly, and quite frankly, you, yourself, and I do sometimes look at this faith of ours as folly. How will it make a difference? And God does. Because as the writer of the Hebrews wrote, “Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen for those who wait for him.”
Now, you can remember former times as a youth, and so can I. And you all have reminded me of days of yore in St. Paul’s past when it seemed less of a struggle here financially. Well, I have to ask you a question as I have to ask myself. Was I any less sinful when I thought things were better? No, guess not. Were the people around me any less sinful than they are now? Nope. So nothing has changed, has it? As Isaiah said, “We have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment.” He said, “But now, O Lord, you are our Father; we are the clay. We are all the work of your hand.”
Kind of like that banner up there, isn’t it? In the midst of your and my sin, in the midst of you and I coming here as sinners, God is present. And he doesn’t come to you today as anything other than your father. He doesn’t come today as anything other than your potter, who cares so much for you, his clay, that he would form you. And sometimes he has to form us again and again and again because he is a loving potter. And a loving potter continues to work with his clay. He doesn’t cast it away. We’re not the mire of the streets. We’re not the stuff that’s in the gutter. We are his clay. He is our potter. And he is present here as he has been for 120 some years and will continue to be because God’s will is that his word remain among us.
And God’s will is that he works through each of you to continue that, to pass it off to our grandchildren and our great-grandchildren, even if we may never see what God has done. Even in the midst where we question God and cry out, “Why, O Lord, are you afflicting us here at St. Paul?” He nevertheless remains—who? To you, our Father. He remains our Father even as we cry out, “Why? Why?” It does not change. He does not change. He is immovable toward you. Here there’s nothing but goodwill toward you. Here there is nothing but God’s joyful reflection upon you, his children.
Oh yes, he knows you better than you and I know ourselves. But we are the lump of clay, his clay. He is the potter, our potter. There was only one who was chastised in God’s wrath. And that was not you, was it? That was him who bore the sins and bore the wrath that you will never have to bear. He was damned for it, which you’ll never have to have. And he was raised again to justify you, that you may have his salvation, that you may become his clay, that he may continue to be your potter and your father.
For those who wait for him, your name, O Lord, shall not perish among us here at St. Paul. At our church or in our school. Because your will is that the name above every name, the name of which all must be saved, shall continue to reign here. And that others who do not know this name will be hearing that name through us, who bear the name because of our baptism into Christ.
Now’s the time to plant. Now’s the time to invest. Plant with me. Invest with me and with one another in your church and in your school that his name may continue among us.
In the name of Jesus, amen. The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and your minds on Christ Jesus to life everlasting. Amen.
