November 27, 2016
Sage Story | The Cry of God's People
- Isaiah 64:1-9
- Rev. Scott Shelton
If you didn’t know, this is the first Sunday of Advent – the coming of Jesus – the birth of Jesus. That’s why we sang O come, O come Emanuel. It will be part of our Christmas Cantata on Sunday morning, Dec. 18. As will a small orchestra – hope you can join us that day.
It’s so great to see all of you on this Sunday after Thanksgiving. Many ZPCers are traveling, including Jerry and his family; but many have traveled here as well – maybe some college students home to visit – and grandparents or cousins in town with you and here today – we’re glad you are here.
We just heard, “O come, O come Emanuel” - it is a call for Jesus to come to us. We want to Jesus to come to us because we need him.
Isaiah called out for God to come down from the heavens –it’s in our passage today in Isa. 64.
So we are using the Prophet Isaiah as our text the next 4 Sundays and Christmas Eve. We begin a new series today called “Sage Story.” The Sage is Isaiah and we will be looking at his call for a Messiah.
Well, he’s a prophet that speaks to the longings of the people of Israel for a messiah. We too want that – we need it – we’re longing for a savior when the world is messed up – we need help.
Since Isaiah is not near the gospels or the stories of Jesus’s birth – let’s figure out where Isaiah is.
Here’s a picture of the books of the Bible – 66 books – 39 in the Old, 27 in the new. did you know that if you take the 39 in the old – you multiply 3 x 9 you get 27, which is how many books are in the New. that makes 66 – pretty cool!
The Bible is not so scary when you break it down this way. The Israelites called it sometimes the Law and the Prophets.
Law is first 5 books – of Moses – then the history – here you have the Judges like Samson, Saul and David, then the kings of Israel and Judah.
Then Poetry – like Psalms and Proverbs – then Major Prophets – more well-known longer books, Minor Prophets – shorter, less well known.
Here’s Isaiah. You can also see the NT books here too. What’s the message of Prophets and Isaiah?
Many of the prophets are like parents, warning their children. If you want good results, do what I say, do the right thing. If you do the wrong thing, get ready for the consequences. You’ll get what you deserve. Isaiah and some other prophets also express a sense of crying out to God – when the people know they have messed up and need God’s help – as we read today in Isaiah 64 – near the end of the book…let’s read: ISAIAH 64:1-9 NRSV
This is the word of the Lord – thanks be to God.
Let’s pray. O Lord may the words of my mouth and meditations of all our hearts bring honor to you this day, in Jesus name, Amen.
So here’s Isaiah really praying to God – really crying out to God – to come – to come down – to tear open the heavens and come down. Pretty radical. Not the way we often pray today.
But the people needed God. This is around the time period when the Israelites were going into exile – or in exile - they were realizing really how far they had turned away from God – so through Isaiah they were confessing their sin and asking for God’s help.
Now I didn’t really want to talk about sin today. But it’s here…so, let’s dive in.
I think talking about the sin part gets us to where we need to be – when we acknowledge our sin – we realize we can’t do this life alone – and the only one who can really help us is God. We realize our need for God and can see and accept Jesus’s saving grace.
Isaiah makes a prayer of confession really for the people – saying we are all sinners.
He says in vs. 5, “You were angry and we sinned.”
In verse 6, he says, we are all unclean. And in vs. 7, there is no one who calls on God’s name.
We have sins of commission and sins of omission. Sins of commission are things that are active like thou shalt not kill or thou shalt not steal. They can also being dishonest in our words or actions, or gossip, or gluttony or being selfish or lazy or even our thought life on others, of which we can all be guilty. What about thou shalt not covet? We may not do anything but we might quietly wish we had a car like our neighbor’s car or a bigger house like that house we drive be every morning. When we idolize those things, they take the place of our desire for God, and that is sin.
Does the way we spend our time and money honor God? Do our priorities honor God? When they don’t, these may be sins of omission. Sins of omission are sins where we know the right thing to do but don’t do it.
So what does sin do to us?
It separates us from God – we read here that Isaiah says, “You were angry and we sinned. Because you hid yourself we transgressed.” Why would Isaiah feel that God had himself from the people?
The people had already pulled away from God, for generations. They were choosing themselves or other idols over their God.
When we sin, when we blow it, we pull away from God. God is always there, but when we choose to sin, we move away from God. You might say how does that work?
Well in our relationships - friendships, our marriages, or in parent to child relationships, when we get angry or hurt someone, we pull away. And it takes someone to say “I’m sorry” to ask forgiveness to repair the relationship. When something is broken – you can feel it – feel the tension – and want to make it right. We’re the ones who break fellowship with God – and we need to come to him to admit it.
So all of us have sinned. Isaiah even says , we have all become like one who is unclean, and even our righteous acts are like filthy rags – we can’t do anything on our own to earn our way to God.
So when we realize we sin, and we admit we sin, that’s good. Then we know we need help.
But here’s the good news - God can change us. We pray for Emanuel – God with us – and so Isaiah prays for God to tear open the heavens and come down – and we can pray to God that we need God – desperately.
I really like listening to a pastor I know from Waco, TX – where I went to college at Baylor. I have heard this pastor Jimmy Seibert speak a few times and heard him lead prayer at conferences.
Here’s a guy who’s been very successful in leading a large church, and he desperately needs God. When he prays, he says, “We need you, we need you, we need you, we need you!” I know him enough to know that it is not a show – he is a very genuine person. And I’m thinking if Jimmy needs Jesus that much – then I must really need Jesus. It reminds me that I truly need Jesus–and need to pray!
So, we acknowledge that we sin. None of us are righteous – our good deeds are not nearly good enough – we can’t earn God’s grace. We acknowledge we need God.
So what I’d like us to do is to pray. And we can pray different ways – individually – silently - but today I’d like you to pray together as the church body – since we’re together in this room – and to pray this prayer borrowing from the prophet Isaiah and the apostle John. So join me as I’ll read the Leader and you read the people:
PRAYER OF CONFESSION:
Leader:
The apostle John says, “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.” So, It is good and healthy for us to admit our need for God and to confess our sins to God. Let us pray together:
People:
As you are God, and we are not, we realize that we need you desperately in our lives. Together we confess our sins, sins of commission and omission, and bring them to you today.
We agree with Isaiah in saying, “Do not be exceedingly angry, O Lord,
and do not remember our iniquity forever.”
We humbly ask for your forgiveness and we turn our hearts to you, knowing that you are the Way, the Truth, and the Life.
Leader:
Hear the Good News! God has shown us how much He loves us. It was while we were yet sinners that Christ died for us.
People:
If we confess our sins, God is faithful and just will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
Leader:
Friends, believe the good news - in Jesus Christ you are truly forgiven. Amen.
Well that’s a great start. We sin, we confess, God forgives. But we don’t stop there. This is good news. But we can go a step further.
As John Ortberg says, “God loves you the way you are, but he loves you too much to leave you that way.”
So when we look at the next four weeks – we want Jesus to come because we can’t do this life on our own –we can try but we will fail. We need God.
So what do we say after confessing our sin and being forgiven? What’s our response?
Like Isaiah we say, “You are the potter, we are the clay.” Right here from Isaiah 64:8.
God can shape us and mold us where we are. But like pottery we are fragile. We can be easily broken by our own sin or by the fallen world around us – through disease, poverty, unemployment, or other people’s sin mixed with our own.
So I keep this piece of broken pottery in my office to know that I’m broken and need God.
But the good news is that God can fix the brokenness and even more use our brokenness when we’re fixed up – to help others in the same boat.
One of the places I see this around here the most is through Great Banquet. It’s a 3 day spiritual retreat with 15 short talks. Now pastors like me sometimes give talks. But a secret is that the best talks are not given by pastors but by lay people like you. Almost everyone, pastors included, share some way how they have been broken, and how God is making them whole again. It’s moving and life- changing.
Now once a month the Great Banquet community has a community gathering. So at this gathering just 10 days ago – I heard some public sharing of brokenness in this room – and how God had worked.
A woman from the GB in October shared how she had experienced broken relationships in her immediate family and lost a job. Then she was invited to the GB and said yes. On that weekend, after hearing of God’s grace, late on Saturday night in this room, she gave her life to Christ. Incredible!
Then a young man shared from the October banquet, who had a difficult childhood, rebelled as a teenager, struggled with addiction, had some brokenness in his family – and God through other men on the team at the GB – changed his life – and he shared that he’s a child of God – and how he now realizes that God has been with him all the way.
God works. Through the body – others – who have also been broken. But we can’t do it on our own. So here’s Max Lucado – explaining some of the mystery of this brokenness:
“The holiness we are to exhibit is not of our own, but the holiness of Christ in us. We are not holy, and we will not become holy humans. Christ in us can manifest His holiness if we will yield our flesh to him. This is not a human operation; it is a spiritual one. Jesus installs His holiness in us by grace. Not a once-for-all-time transaction, this is a daily, moment-by-moment striving to live more by the Spirit and less by the flesh.” Max Lucado
So it is not something we are doing but what God is doing in us and through us. God is changing us from the inside out. It is God in us – God with us – Emmanuel.
Paul says it another way like this:
2 Corinthians 4:7-10
“But we have this treasure in clay jars, so that it may be made clear that this extraordinary power belongs to God and does not come from us. 8 We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; 9 persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; 10 always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be made visible in our bodies.”
I have loved this passage. I have learned that God loves me where I am –but doesn’t want to leave me there. through his courage in me, and his guidance and I think prodding of the Holy Spirit – I can use my weak body – my clay pot – to carry the treasure – that is Jesus and – give that to others – maybe it is through compassionate listening – where I don’t even have to talk that much.
I keep this small clay pot – from Bethlehem 20 years ago – on my shelf in my office.
I keep it there because I can be fragile and small like this clay pot – but God can use me – when I let him. because I’m not selling myself – I’m selling Jesus grace – right – when I remember it’s not about me – it’s Jesus in me – and especially in you – to do God’s work –then it works.
So inside this clay pot – I keep a little cross – a wooden cross – bought in Israel –
This cross reminds me we have this treasure in jars of clay – the all surpassing power is not from us – but from God – to bring about life change.
So we started out saying we sin – and it separates us from God – sins of commission and sins of omission. But we don’t end with bad news – we move to the good news.
We can cry out to God – like Isaiah – God please come – like Pastor Jimmy – we need you, we need you.
And God is faithful, will hear our prayers – and when we confess our sin – he forgive us and lets us start over.
More good news – when we invite God in – realizing he is the potter, we are the clay – and he lives inside of us – we can be used to help others. We can even be broken and God can use us – maybe even more. Our broken lives can become beautiful because God puts them back together – and uses us for good stuff.
But I think I found something better than the broken piece of pottery.
In researching this passage and this idea – I came across the idea of Kintsukuroi "golden repair" is the Japanese art of repairing broken pottery with lacquer dusted or mixed with powdered gold, silver, or platinum. As a philosophy, it treats breakage and repair as part of the history of an object, rather than something to disguise.
So the brokenness is not something to pretend never happened – but to acknowledge and repair the pottery.
I wonder if the Japanese people got this idea from God? God repairs us with his grace and when we’re better – we can show God’s grace – from inside of us – coming out to show and share with others.
I’d like us to also respond to this message from Isaiah – when we serve him. Earlier we shared a prayer of confession and an assurance of pardon – so here now I’ll ask you again to share with me this response to God to today’s message from Isaiah:
Leader:
We believe as the prophet Isaiah says,
“O Lord, you are our Father;
we are the clay, and you are our potter;
we are all the work of your hand.”
People:
We claim together this truth from the Apostle Paul:
“But we have this treasure in clay jars, so that it may be made clear that this extraordinary power belongs to God and does not come from us.
We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed;
perplexed, but not driven to despair;
persecuted, but not forsaken;
struck down, but not destroyed;
always carrying in the body the death of Jesus,
so that the life of Jesus may also be made visible in our bodies.”
Leader:
Friends, believe the good news. Through Jesus we are forgiven. Through Jesus, we have God’s grace living inside of us.
People:
O Lord, You are the potter, we are the clay.
Shape us and mold us to be your people.
You are our treasure. Help us to share that treasure with our neighbor.
We ask you to come again to be Immanuel, God with us. Amen.
So, We have called on God together; and let me now close us in prayer.
Pray: God, you want us to call on You, acknowledge where we are broken – received his forgiveness – and be changed – knowing that he is the potter and we are the clay. God you making us into beautiful things. We thank you. Amen.
Benediction:
And now go from here – knowing that God forgives you – loves you – when you invite him in – lives with you – and we ask him to come into our lives again – invade our lives again at Advent – so that he can repair our brokenness – and make us new – to show all surpassing power is not from us –but from the treasure inside of us – so go with the Love of God the Father, the grace and forgiveness of Jesus, and the Courage and comfort of the Holy Spirit. Amen.