Emphasis Preaching Journal

Senator Daniel P. Moynihan of New York is quoted in an observation he made about the problems of our day and how they only appear political in nature. If our problems are primarily political in nature, then they must be resolved in the political arena. The real crisis in his estimation is religious. Senator Moynihan said, "It is a religious crisis of large numbers of intensely moral, even Godly, people who no longer hope for God."1 The consequence of this lost religious hope, in Moynihan's view, is that individuals begin looking to political solutions, and our religious hope is then transformed into a more secularized vision for the future. Religious devotion then is transferred to political devotion.

As the prophet Isaiah spoke to his people, he sought first and foremost to put the political events of the day in a religious context. As he emphasizes in verse six, he wants them to know that although their God is mocked for not protecting them, in the end they will be vindicated. They will be returned to the Holy City, and then they will be certain of God's providential care. Although apparently defeated, they were to be assured of God's redemptive activity.

Likewise, when God's justice is long in coming today, the prophet would say, "Don't desert your hope in God or your religious vision for the sake of some political cause."
1. "The Limits of Politics," The Wall Street Journal, June 20, 1969, p. 69.