12 11 Isaiah 61 What God Loves

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Text: Isaiah 61: 1-11 Title: What God Loves Date: 12.11.16 Roger Allen Nelson My father was murdered in a church parking lot early on a Sunday afternoon. Sandi (my wife) and I spent the rest of that afternoon looking at mugshots and pacing the halls of a police station. Gutted, and reeling from shock, I remember thinking that it was all a knotted mess…. It was a knotted mess of drug addiction, poverty, access to health care, race and racism, a culture of violence, joblessness, education, guns, gangs, rage, hopelessness, affordable housing, prisons, etc. I remember a deep sadness for all of us ~ for we all intertwined. I remember a deep sadness that out that knot Clarence Hayes shot my father point blank in the side. It is tightly wound and there is little clarity about how to loosen the knot. You don’t know which thread to pull. To pull one thread to the neglect of others can seem pointless. The knot is too complex, too intractable, too tight, too big, too old, too knotty. Thirty-one years, and in Chicago better than 21,000 murders later, that image of a knotted mess stays with me. With the news of another senseless shooting, with the lament of another child gunned down, with the urgency of another prayer vigil, or renewed efforts at gun control and policing reform it feels frustrating and futile. Because of my calling as a pastor, or my place as a victim, I’m often asked about gun violence in Chicago: What can be done? How can we untangle the knot? Which string should we pull? What can we do to make a difference? And, to tell you the truth, I am often at a loss. I am sickened and numbed by the daily onslaught of victims who will be forgotten by the next day’s news cycle. On Friday the New York Times released a long colorful article detailing the shootings in Chicago over Memorial Day weekend: 64 shootings, 6 dead. There is no untying the knot…. It is overwhelming. Stay safe. Stay away. Not about me. Why bother? But then I read the prophet Isaiah and I’m reminded that the will and way of God is too loosen the knot. Out text this morning is littered with infinitive verbs: to bring, to bind up, to proclaim, to release, to comfort, to provide, to give. All of which culminate in the proclamation: For I, the Lord, love justice…

Dear friends, let there be no mistake, the deep desire of God’s heart is that creation know shalom ~ the webbing together of God, humans, and creation in right relationship and mutual delight. And, our journey through the Old Testament has shown again and again and again, through patriarchs and prophets, through poets and kings, through laws and acts of liberation that God keeps pursuing shalom and calling his people back to shalom. Well. “Justice” is the administration of that shalom. The Hebrew word here is mishpat and it has to do with how that mutual flourishing is shared, insured, and protected. What God loves is that shalom be shared, insured and protected for all. Therefore, to be faithful to the heart of God is to pursue justice ~ the administration of shalom. Listen to how Walter Brueggemann puts it: …love of God and love of neighbor are always held together in prophetic poetry. Covenant members who practice justice are to be active advocates for the vulnerable and the marginalized and people without resources. That becomes the way to act out and exhibit one’s love of God. So, love of God gets translated into love of vulnerable neighbors. And the doing of justice is the prophetic invitation to do what needs to be done to enable the poor and the disadvantaged and the neglected to participate in the resources and wealth of the community. Or, Cornell West summarizes justice this way: Justice is what love looks like in public. So, according to the prophets: justice is what God loves and justice is what God requires. Justice is central to the mission of God. It’s the way in which everyone, from the first to the last, shares in shalom. It’s the way in which love takes shape and becomes more than sentiment. Justice has to do with concrete practices, policies, and prescriptions in this concrete world. That’s where this all starts to get dicey. If the administration of shalom means practices, policies, and prescriptions that sounds political. And, that makes us nervous. That makes us want to push back. That doesn’t seem very spiritual, very comforting, very Christmassy. Dear friends, I don’t think scripture gives clear guidance about any particular political philosophy. I don’t think scripture cares one whit whether you are liberal or conservative or any label you want to attach. And yet, scripture is unequivocal about God’s concern for justice. Scripture is unequivocal about God’s concern for the poor, the widow, the orphan, and the sojourner, foreigner, or refugee.

Abraham Kuyper, in a speech in 1891, put it this way: When rich and poor stand opposed to each other, Jesus never takes his place with the wealthier, but always stands with the poorer.….. the Christ, and also just as the much his apostles after him and his prophets before him, invariably took sides against those who were powerful and living in luxury and for the suffering and oppressed. The mess just got knottier; or the knot just got messier. Surely God doesn’t take sides. Surely God is on our side. Surely scripture’s concern is spiritual justice not economic, or racial, or political, or social justice…. Again. I think we’d be hard pressed to read the grand sweep of scripture and not notice how God aligns himself, or takes up the cause, or looks out for the outsider, the oppressed, and the prisoner. I think we’d be hard pressed to read the narrative of scripture and not at least be unsettled that the administration of shalom is measured by how the last, the lost, and the least fare. We can spiritualize scripture all we want, we can make it about heaven and a salve for the sinsick-soul, but in doing so we also diminish what God loves. One month later Clarence Hayes was arrested two blocks down the street. When the case went to trial the state’s attorney sought the death penalty. After weighing the evidence, the jury verdict, the impact, the senseless nature, the criminal history, and the scales of justice, the judge sentenced Clarence Hayes to death. A few years later when the sentence was overturned on appeal we asked that he be sentenced to life without the possibility of parole. How is shalom administered? How is justice done? How is the knot loosened? I don’t have many answers. But, I think the mishpat of God is more than locking up one more criminal for a life time. I am not suggesting that Clarence Hayes should be released, or that biblical justice doesn’t include concrete consequences, but the justice that God loves is more than law and order and protecting the status quo. And, if you’ll allow me a little aside….. If there is one thread that we can pull to loose the knot of injustice I’d argue that it is education. There may be other ways to pursue justice with housing and health care and gun control, but Reformed Christians have long cherished and invested in education. Schools, teaching, and a commitment to children is a hallmark of this tradition. So, maybe the gift that we have to offer is a commitment to education in the city: to send our best teachers to public schools, to start new Christian schools, to invest in and encourage all manner of creative solutions for schools,

to support the work of Bright Promise Fund, or Westside Christian School, or Providence Saint Mel, or you get the idea…. I don’t know if it will untie the whole knot, but a good education can lead to good work, and a healthy worldview, and a commitment to the greater good. A solid education can create a solid career, and in turn, solid communities. It is not the only thread to pull, but it is one place that we might be particularly called and gifted. And it may make the biggest difference. One more thing. Listen to how this morning’s text surfaces in the story of Jesus. This is the translation that Eugene Peterson offers: He came to Nazareth where he had been reared. As he always did on the Sabbath he went to the meeting place. When he stood up to read, he was handed the scroll of the prophet Isaiah. Unrolling the scroll, he found the place where it was written, God’s spirit is on me; he’s chosen me to preach the message of good news to the poor, sent me to announce pardon to prisoners and recovery of sight to the blind, to set the burdened and battered free, to announce, “This is God’s year to act!” He rolled up the scroll, handed it back to the assistant, and sat down. Every eye in the place was on him, intent. Then he started in, “You’ve just heard scripture make history. It came true just now in this place.” And, with that Jesus stepped into our text as if God himself was holding open a coat. He claimed it, fulfilled it, and gave it a body. Last week we considered how hesed, the loyal-strong-merciful-lovingkindness of God, is embodied in Jesus. Jesus is hesed in the flesh. This morning, we celebrate how mishpat, the justice of God, is embodied in Jesus. Jesus is mishpat in the flesh. Jesus embodies hesed. Jesus embodies mishpat. Dear friends, in the pursuit of creation’s shalom God finally put skin in the game. From cradle to cross Jesus of Nazareth embodies the will and way of God. Therefore, even as we await his advent may we do mishapt, love hesed, and walk humbly with God. Even so, come Lord Jesus. Amen.