A Vision Of Freedom
Sermon
A Word That Sets Free
First Lesson Sermons For Sundays After Pentecost (Last Third) Cycle C
Freedom is such a lovely word, a compelling image. What is freedom? How would you define it? What does it mean to you? Webster's New World Dictionary defines freedom as being exempt from control or from arbitrary restrictions. Freedom is said to be the ability to choose or determine one's own actions.
That was the sort of freedom, escape from foreign intrusion, which the Hebrews sought when our First Lesson was written. There is a lot of debate among Old Testament scholars about the circumstances of its composition. Most scholars agree that the book of Isaiah was written by at least two different authors, with only the book's first 39 chapters written by the historical Isaiah in the late eighth century B.C. The question is whether chapters 56 to the end of the book were written by a third author who is not the same as the Jew who wrote chapters 40 to 55 sometime after the end of the Babylonian Captivity.
Those who have concluded that there was a third author of Isaiah believe that he worked about the same time that Haggai did (sometime between 530 B.C. and 510 B.C.), sometime after the Jewish exiles in Babylon had returned to their Palestinian homeland. As we noted last week, this was an era of disappointment for the returning Jews. The golden age that they had anticipated was not happening (Haggai 1:5-6). Although free in the sense of no longer being under the rule of the menacing external control of the Babylonians, there was still a sense in which these Jews were not free. First, they were still under the thumb of a foreign power, Persia. Though these Persians were perhaps more permissive of their Jewish subjects than the Babylonians had been, whenever you are subject to some external power, you are not free.1 It does not matter if it is a good master or one who beats you. Either way you are still a slave. That was the Jewish condition.
Likewise, psychologists have observed that slavery leaves its mark on those enslaved. The experience of oppression keeps on oppressing, even after the external constraints are no longer in place. This was the situation that the Jews addressed by our text encountered. They were free. But in another sense they were really not free. The Persians ruled over them. Perhaps it was the scars of the Babylonian Captivity that still had them in bondage, had prevented them from restoring the Temple and fully exercising the freedom they thought they had. (After all they could not truly live out and celebrate their identity as Hebrews without that Temple and without restoring an heir of David as their ruler.) The Jewish exiles who had returned to Palestine may have thought that they were free. But in reality they were not.
How about you? Are you really as free as you think you are? "Of course I'm free," you say. "I'm an American." But how about those anxieties you feel or the regrets you have about the past? How about the old destructive bad habits which paralyze you? What of those desires, the egoism, that hold you in bondage? Are you really free?
Forget yourself for a moment, and consider the plight of your fellow human beings and of American society in general. Think of those trapped in poverty, addicted to drugs, victims of domestic violence, and war. Are they free?
We need to think about freedom in a new way. We need a new vision of freedom that will help us to appreciate how we are not free yet. We need this new vision to make us yearn for true freedom. And with that yearning, by the grace of God, we may be enabled to live in that freedom and be instruments of God to achieve it.
Our text today from the Old Testament has that vision. Let us hear its words again; the Lord God speaks through the text, and he says:
For I am about to create new heavens and a new earth; the former things shall not be remembered or come to mind. But be glad and rejoice forever in what I am creating; for I am about to create Jerusalem as a joy, and its people as a delight. I will rejoice in Jerusalem, and delight in my people; no more shall the sound of weeping be heard in it, or the cry of distress....
-- 65:17-19
They shall not labor in vain, or bear children for calamity; for they shall be offspring blessed by the Lord -- and their descendants as well. Before they call I will answer, while they are yet speaking I will hear. The wolf and the lamb shall feed together, the lion shall eat straw like the ox; but the serpent -- its food shall be dust! They shall not hurt or destroy on all my holy mountain, says the Lord.
-- 65:23-25
God will create a new heaven and a new earth, and we will rejoice. The wolf and the lamb shall lie down together, and there will be no more pain and violence. Isaiah's vision of freedom is not just a freedom for individuals. This is an inclusive vision, linking freedom to harmony, peace, and well being. Let's unpack this vision and see what it can mean for us today.
God says that he will create a new heaven and a new earth, and not remember former things. Of course we Christians believe that these words are prophecies about the coming of Christ and what he would accomplish. In Christ's death and resurrection, the ways of the world as we know it have been relegated to the past, and the future is open. All our sins, all our despair, all the scars of the oppressions of the past are gone. They belong to the former things that will no longer be remembered. When you get free of your old anxieties, your scars, and your self-seeking selfishness, it is like a fresh start, a new world. Are you hurting, anxious, or paralyzed by your past, by a destructive lifestyle, or by what society says you are? Our First Lesson points you to Jesus and proclaims that you have a fresh start. How's that for a new vision of freedom?
"Oh, but it is not quite so simple," you say. "I have known of Jesus and his resurrection my whole life, and I am still stuck in some of the same old destructive patterns." Is this text from Isaiah really relevant for you and me?
Martin Luther was lecturing on our First Lesson from Isaiah, and he dealt with the very questions with which we have been grappling. He wrote:
The Kingdom of Christ is not to be found there [while we live], but it rises to another place, where sense is not, but where faith is. So if I should feel sin, death, and evil and nothing good in my flesh, I must nevertheless believe in the Kingdom of Christ. For the Kingdom of Christ does not have its place in the senses.3
Do not be surprised if you still experience your old imperfections. The new "you" whom God is making is on the way, and so is the new society where oppression and injustice are no more.
Strengthened by God's promise that brand new possibilities are on the horizon, that "the former things shall not be remembered," Christians like you and me can "be glad and rejoice forever" (Isaiah 65:17b-18a). As Martin Luther put it: "To the extent that one is a Christian he is joy."4 Do you get that? The very essence of a Christian is filled with joy. How come so many of us, so many of our days, are sour, full of despair, aimlessness, and boredom? It is because we have not believed the words of our First Lesson. Believe them: Our Lord has promised to give you and me, this nation, this whole world, and all the universe a new start. We will be free from all the ugliness of the past that has bound us. Cling to that vision.
If you feel that your faith is too weak to believe this promise, the author of our lesson understands. The freed former Jewish exiles were asking those questions. Consequently in verse 24 of our lesson the prophet dreams of a day when, before we call, God will answer, and while we are speaking he will hear. Of course in Jesus Christ that day has already come. Again Martin Luther, when lecturing on our First Lesson, said it so well:
In the Presence of God our prayers are regarded in such a way that they are answered before we call. I wish that this promise were made use of to its utmost extent by all in all kinds of dangers ... In this state of despair we must cry to God, if not with our voice, then at least with our mouth. The prayer of the righteous man is answered before it is finished.5
Before your prayer is finished, God has an answer. God has a plan for your life, regardless of how strong your faith is, regardless of the mess that you and I have made of our lives to this juncture. What a glorious, joyful vision. No wonder a Christian is joy (as Luther put it). When you have that kind of assurance, that kind of an affirmation of who you are, you are really free. Despair, guilt, dire circumstances can no longer have their way with you.
The message of the assigned First Lesson is also that this freedom is for everyone! After all, it says, God is not just answering your prayers and my prayers. He is not just giving you and me joy, forgetting all the mistakes of the past. He is creating a whole new heaven and a whole new earth to enjoy all these wonderful gifts and the freedom that goes with it.
When will that new heaven and new earth come? In a sense, as we have noted, it has come, or at least will soon come. It was initiated with the incarnation of Jesus Christ (Mark 1:14-15). But we can better discern how it has already come and what impact this vision can have on us today if we take one last look at our lesson, at its final verse (v.25).
We have noted how the text says that the wolf and the lamb shall eat together, that the serpent shall not destroy, that there will be no pain and destruction any more. When Martin Luther lectured on this very verse in 1529, he wrote words that apply directly to our situation. Here is how he put it:
Through his Gospel God can make the supreme tyrants of the world subject to a simple man and preacher, even though these tyrants were lions and wolves. God can turn enemies into friends. They shall feed together ... The kingdom of peace follows. They shall not hurt. The sum of everything: There must be a reign of peace among themselves. There will be peace without sword or force or tyranny, because there will be love, they will have the same inheritance, and everything will be the common possession of friends.6
In this vision of the End, of the new heaven and the new earth, God turns enemies into friends. The institutions that have controlled us and American society as a whole will be subject to simple, ordinary people like you and me. There will be peace without forcing people to be at peace, because love will prevail. We will share the goods of the earth; wealth will be held in common. Do I hear the end of poverty and suffering prophesied? On that day all will be as free as you and I are, as free of anxiety as Christ has made you and me to be.
The Prophet is talking about "freedom" at this point, in its dictionary meaning. The peace to which he refers is freedom because there is no constraint, and recall (from the beginning of this sermon) that that is what the dictionary says that freedom is. This lesson proclaims, though, that real freedom is more than exemption from constraint. It includes community well-being; it includes harmony and peace; it includes love. The book of Isaiah (chapter 65) has given us a new vision of freedom.
When is that new freedom going to be realized? What does it have to do with us today? Can it help our nation? In the best traditions of the New Testament (because the first Christians expected the End to come soon and yearned for the New Jerusalem), the African-American church has believed that this new vision of freedom can make a difference how you live, even in the politics you hold. We all know of the dream that Martin Luther King, Jr., had at the famous march on Washington? But he had even more eloquent things to say about that dream and how it can change us and America. Hear him:
We shall overcome because the arc of a moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice....
Thank God for... [the] vision of a new Jerusalem descending out of heaven from God, who heard a voice saying, "Behold I make all things new -- former things are passed away."
God grant that we will be participants in this newness and this magnificent development. If we will but do it, we will bring about a new day of justice and brotherhood and peace. And that day the morning stars will sing together and the sons of God will shout for joy.8
With this vision of hope and freedom, a freedom for all linked with a peace that makes old enemies fellowship together, with this vision of Isaiah and Dr. King we can transform America. That vision will not let you and me be so comfortable with economic disparity or with the ethnic and class tensions which mar this nation and this community. The writer of our First Lesson believed that this vision would transform people to whom he wrote. Can you feel that vision, that recognition that your freedom has to include freedom and security for everybody? In that case your life, your actions, and your politics will never be the same.
When will this new vision of freedom be realized? When will it happen? It has already happened in Jesus Christ. And if you believe this vision, if it starts transforming your life, then it has already begun to come about in you. The freedom that God gives is a glorious thing, because it sets everybody free!
____________
1. Anderson, p. 154.
2. For these observations I am indebted to Karl Barth, Church Dogmatics, Vol. IV/1, pp. 311-312.
3. Martin Luther, Lectures on Isaiah (1529), in Luther's Works, Vol. 17, p. 388.
4. Ibid., p. 389.
5. Ibid., p. 392.
6. Ibid., pp. 393-394.
7. Martin Luther King, Jr., "I Have a Dream," Negro History Bulletin 21 (May 1968), pp. 16-17.
8. Martin Luther King, Jr., "Remaining Awake Through a Great Revolution" (1968), in A Testament of Hope, pp. 277-278.
That was the sort of freedom, escape from foreign intrusion, which the Hebrews sought when our First Lesson was written. There is a lot of debate among Old Testament scholars about the circumstances of its composition. Most scholars agree that the book of Isaiah was written by at least two different authors, with only the book's first 39 chapters written by the historical Isaiah in the late eighth century B.C. The question is whether chapters 56 to the end of the book were written by a third author who is not the same as the Jew who wrote chapters 40 to 55 sometime after the end of the Babylonian Captivity.
Those who have concluded that there was a third author of Isaiah believe that he worked about the same time that Haggai did (sometime between 530 B.C. and 510 B.C.), sometime after the Jewish exiles in Babylon had returned to their Palestinian homeland. As we noted last week, this was an era of disappointment for the returning Jews. The golden age that they had anticipated was not happening (Haggai 1:5-6). Although free in the sense of no longer being under the rule of the menacing external control of the Babylonians, there was still a sense in which these Jews were not free. First, they were still under the thumb of a foreign power, Persia. Though these Persians were perhaps more permissive of their Jewish subjects than the Babylonians had been, whenever you are subject to some external power, you are not free.1 It does not matter if it is a good master or one who beats you. Either way you are still a slave. That was the Jewish condition.
Likewise, psychologists have observed that slavery leaves its mark on those enslaved. The experience of oppression keeps on oppressing, even after the external constraints are no longer in place. This was the situation that the Jews addressed by our text encountered. They were free. But in another sense they were really not free. The Persians ruled over them. Perhaps it was the scars of the Babylonian Captivity that still had them in bondage, had prevented them from restoring the Temple and fully exercising the freedom they thought they had. (After all they could not truly live out and celebrate their identity as Hebrews without that Temple and without restoring an heir of David as their ruler.) The Jewish exiles who had returned to Palestine may have thought that they were free. But in reality they were not.
How about you? Are you really as free as you think you are? "Of course I'm free," you say. "I'm an American." But how about those anxieties you feel or the regrets you have about the past? How about the old destructive bad habits which paralyze you? What of those desires, the egoism, that hold you in bondage? Are you really free?
Forget yourself for a moment, and consider the plight of your fellow human beings and of American society in general. Think of those trapped in poverty, addicted to drugs, victims of domestic violence, and war. Are they free?
We need to think about freedom in a new way. We need a new vision of freedom that will help us to appreciate how we are not free yet. We need this new vision to make us yearn for true freedom. And with that yearning, by the grace of God, we may be enabled to live in that freedom and be instruments of God to achieve it.
Our text today from the Old Testament has that vision. Let us hear its words again; the Lord God speaks through the text, and he says:
For I am about to create new heavens and a new earth; the former things shall not be remembered or come to mind. But be glad and rejoice forever in what I am creating; for I am about to create Jerusalem as a joy, and its people as a delight. I will rejoice in Jerusalem, and delight in my people; no more shall the sound of weeping be heard in it, or the cry of distress....
-- 65:17-19
They shall not labor in vain, or bear children for calamity; for they shall be offspring blessed by the Lord -- and their descendants as well. Before they call I will answer, while they are yet speaking I will hear. The wolf and the lamb shall feed together, the lion shall eat straw like the ox; but the serpent -- its food shall be dust! They shall not hurt or destroy on all my holy mountain, says the Lord.
-- 65:23-25
God will create a new heaven and a new earth, and we will rejoice. The wolf and the lamb shall lie down together, and there will be no more pain and violence. Isaiah's vision of freedom is not just a freedom for individuals. This is an inclusive vision, linking freedom to harmony, peace, and well being. Let's unpack this vision and see what it can mean for us today.
God says that he will create a new heaven and a new earth, and not remember former things. Of course we Christians believe that these words are prophecies about the coming of Christ and what he would accomplish. In Christ's death and resurrection, the ways of the world as we know it have been relegated to the past, and the future is open. All our sins, all our despair, all the scars of the oppressions of the past are gone. They belong to the former things that will no longer be remembered. When you get free of your old anxieties, your scars, and your self-seeking selfishness, it is like a fresh start, a new world. Are you hurting, anxious, or paralyzed by your past, by a destructive lifestyle, or by what society says you are? Our First Lesson points you to Jesus and proclaims that you have a fresh start. How's that for a new vision of freedom?
"Oh, but it is not quite so simple," you say. "I have known of Jesus and his resurrection my whole life, and I am still stuck in some of the same old destructive patterns." Is this text from Isaiah really relevant for you and me?
Martin Luther was lecturing on our First Lesson from Isaiah, and he dealt with the very questions with which we have been grappling. He wrote:
The Kingdom of Christ is not to be found there [while we live], but it rises to another place, where sense is not, but where faith is. So if I should feel sin, death, and evil and nothing good in my flesh, I must nevertheless believe in the Kingdom of Christ. For the Kingdom of Christ does not have its place in the senses.3
Do not be surprised if you still experience your old imperfections. The new "you" whom God is making is on the way, and so is the new society where oppression and injustice are no more.
Strengthened by God's promise that brand new possibilities are on the horizon, that "the former things shall not be remembered," Christians like you and me can "be glad and rejoice forever" (Isaiah 65:17b-18a). As Martin Luther put it: "To the extent that one is a Christian he is joy."4 Do you get that? The very essence of a Christian is filled with joy. How come so many of us, so many of our days, are sour, full of despair, aimlessness, and boredom? It is because we have not believed the words of our First Lesson. Believe them: Our Lord has promised to give you and me, this nation, this whole world, and all the universe a new start. We will be free from all the ugliness of the past that has bound us. Cling to that vision.
If you feel that your faith is too weak to believe this promise, the author of our lesson understands. The freed former Jewish exiles were asking those questions. Consequently in verse 24 of our lesson the prophet dreams of a day when, before we call, God will answer, and while we are speaking he will hear. Of course in Jesus Christ that day has already come. Again Martin Luther, when lecturing on our First Lesson, said it so well:
In the Presence of God our prayers are regarded in such a way that they are answered before we call. I wish that this promise were made use of to its utmost extent by all in all kinds of dangers ... In this state of despair we must cry to God, if not with our voice, then at least with our mouth. The prayer of the righteous man is answered before it is finished.5
Before your prayer is finished, God has an answer. God has a plan for your life, regardless of how strong your faith is, regardless of the mess that you and I have made of our lives to this juncture. What a glorious, joyful vision. No wonder a Christian is joy (as Luther put it). When you have that kind of assurance, that kind of an affirmation of who you are, you are really free. Despair, guilt, dire circumstances can no longer have their way with you.
The message of the assigned First Lesson is also that this freedom is for everyone! After all, it says, God is not just answering your prayers and my prayers. He is not just giving you and me joy, forgetting all the mistakes of the past. He is creating a whole new heaven and a whole new earth to enjoy all these wonderful gifts and the freedom that goes with it.
When will that new heaven and new earth come? In a sense, as we have noted, it has come, or at least will soon come. It was initiated with the incarnation of Jesus Christ (Mark 1:14-15). But we can better discern how it has already come and what impact this vision can have on us today if we take one last look at our lesson, at its final verse (v.25).
We have noted how the text says that the wolf and the lamb shall eat together, that the serpent shall not destroy, that there will be no pain and destruction any more. When Martin Luther lectured on this very verse in 1529, he wrote words that apply directly to our situation. Here is how he put it:
Through his Gospel God can make the supreme tyrants of the world subject to a simple man and preacher, even though these tyrants were lions and wolves. God can turn enemies into friends. They shall feed together ... The kingdom of peace follows. They shall not hurt. The sum of everything: There must be a reign of peace among themselves. There will be peace without sword or force or tyranny, because there will be love, they will have the same inheritance, and everything will be the common possession of friends.6
In this vision of the End, of the new heaven and the new earth, God turns enemies into friends. The institutions that have controlled us and American society as a whole will be subject to simple, ordinary people like you and me. There will be peace without forcing people to be at peace, because love will prevail. We will share the goods of the earth; wealth will be held in common. Do I hear the end of poverty and suffering prophesied? On that day all will be as free as you and I are, as free of anxiety as Christ has made you and me to be.
The Prophet is talking about "freedom" at this point, in its dictionary meaning. The peace to which he refers is freedom because there is no constraint, and recall (from the beginning of this sermon) that that is what the dictionary says that freedom is. This lesson proclaims, though, that real freedom is more than exemption from constraint. It includes community well-being; it includes harmony and peace; it includes love. The book of Isaiah (chapter 65) has given us a new vision of freedom.
When is that new freedom going to be realized? What does it have to do with us today? Can it help our nation? In the best traditions of the New Testament (because the first Christians expected the End to come soon and yearned for the New Jerusalem), the African-American church has believed that this new vision of freedom can make a difference how you live, even in the politics you hold. We all know of the dream that Martin Luther King, Jr., had at the famous march on Washington? But he had even more eloquent things to say about that dream and how it can change us and America. Hear him:
We shall overcome because the arc of a moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice....
Thank God for... [the] vision of a new Jerusalem descending out of heaven from God, who heard a voice saying, "Behold I make all things new -- former things are passed away."
God grant that we will be participants in this newness and this magnificent development. If we will but do it, we will bring about a new day of justice and brotherhood and peace. And that day the morning stars will sing together and the sons of God will shout for joy.8
With this vision of hope and freedom, a freedom for all linked with a peace that makes old enemies fellowship together, with this vision of Isaiah and Dr. King we can transform America. That vision will not let you and me be so comfortable with economic disparity or with the ethnic and class tensions which mar this nation and this community. The writer of our First Lesson believed that this vision would transform people to whom he wrote. Can you feel that vision, that recognition that your freedom has to include freedom and security for everybody? In that case your life, your actions, and your politics will never be the same.
When will this new vision of freedom be realized? When will it happen? It has already happened in Jesus Christ. And if you believe this vision, if it starts transforming your life, then it has already begun to come about in you. The freedom that God gives is a glorious thing, because it sets everybody free!
____________
1. Anderson, p. 154.
2. For these observations I am indebted to Karl Barth, Church Dogmatics, Vol. IV/1, pp. 311-312.
3. Martin Luther, Lectures on Isaiah (1529), in Luther's Works, Vol. 17, p. 388.
4. Ibid., p. 389.
5. Ibid., p. 392.
6. Ibid., pp. 393-394.
7. Martin Luther King, Jr., "I Have a Dream," Negro History Bulletin 21 (May 1968), pp. 16-17.
8. Martin Luther King, Jr., "Remaining Awake Through a Great Revolution" (1968), in A Testament of Hope, pp. 277-278.
