December 4th, 2016
Isaiah 10:1-11
Isaiah 10:1-11
Ah,
you who make iniquitous decrees,
who write oppressive statutes,
2 to turn aside the needy from justice
and to rob the poor of my people of their right,
that widows may be your spoil,
and that you may make the orphans your prey!
3 What will you do on the day of punishment,
in the calamity that will come from far away?
To whom will you flee for help,
and where will you leave your wealth,
4 so as not to crouch among the prisoners
or fall among the slain?
For all this his anger has not turned away;
his hand is stretched out still.
who write oppressive statutes,
2 to turn aside the needy from justice
and to rob the poor of my people of their right,
that widows may be your spoil,
and that you may make the orphans your prey!
3 What will you do on the day of punishment,
in the calamity that will come from far away?
To whom will you flee for help,
and where will you leave your wealth,
4 so as not to crouch among the prisoners
or fall among the slain?
For all this his anger has not turned away;
his hand is stretched out still.
5 Ah, Assyria, the rod of my anger—
the club in their hands is my fury!
6 Against a godless nation I send him,
and against the people of my wrath I command him,
to take spoil and seize plunder,
and to tread them down like the mire of the streets.
7 But this is not what he intends,
nor does he have this in mind;
but it is in his heart to destroy,
and to cut off nations not a few.
8 For he says:
“Are not my commanders all kings?
9 Is not Calno like Carchemish?
Is not Hamath like Arpad?
Is not Samaria like Damascus?
10 As my hand has reached to the kingdoms of the idols
whose images were greater than those of Jerusalem and Samaria
the club in their hands is my fury!
6 Against a godless nation I send him,
and against the people of my wrath I command him,
to take spoil and seize plunder,
and to tread them down like the mire of the streets.
7 But this is not what he intends,
nor does he have this in mind;
but it is in his heart to destroy,
and to cut off nations not a few.
8 For he says:
“Are not my commanders all kings?
9 Is not Calno like Carchemish?
Is not Hamath like Arpad?
Is not Samaria like Damascus?
10 As my hand has reached to the kingdoms of the idols
whose images were greater than those of Jerusalem and Samaria
shall I not do
to Jerusalem and her idols
what I have done to Samaria and her images?”
what I have done to Samaria and her images?”
Sermon:
In 1954,
amidst the fear and terror of the Cold War, a German-Jewish exile named Herbert
Marcuse wrote that, "The defeat of Fascism and National Socialism has not
arrested the trend towards totalitarianism. Freedom is on the retreat - in the
realm of thought as well as in that of society."[1] It’s a
statement that refers to the many faces that dehumanization and horror can
take on. At that time the world was facing
the possibility of nuclear annihilation, a possibility and terror that we are
perhaps too eager to forget about these days. Ten years after writing those
words, Marcuse went on to express his fears about how interrelated productivity
and destruction are. The more we produce and consume, the more waste we
generate. Rather than encouraging schools to embrace curriculums that focused
on individuals we had begun to move towards a system where our hopes, thoughts,
and fears became attached to institutions like governments, mass media, and
corporate interests. The outbreak of the New Left and the student protests of
the 1960’s were largely a product of a search for individuality – of young
people crying out for a place for subjectivity – the ever-pressing question of “who
am I?” and “what does it mean to live an authentic life?”. And in the midst of
this also stood the same dark specter that we see in our world today – “misery in
the face of unprecedented wealth.”[2]
Much has changed, yet little has too. It’s a paradox of our contemporary life. Each of you can recount the thousands of ways your lives have changed over the years. Yet, if you think about some of the fundamental things, a lot has changed very little. The world still faces the abyss of nuclear annihilation, war, famine, and the existential angst of realizing that “our lofty ideals about the rights of the individual under democracy have in fact yielded a society in which ‘choice’ – at least for a certain demographic – is the difference between two forms of scented body wash.”[3] To put it another way, we’ve come to a place in the history of civilization where ‘uniqueness’ and ‘individuality’ have been commodified. So much so, in fact, that varying degrees of uniqueness are a privilege that come with geography, education, parentage, and exposure. As the sociologist, Pierre Bourdieu argued, we don’t choose our tastes so much as the micro-specifics of our class determine them.
All
of this can be encompassed under the realization that some things haven’t changed
for the better 1964. Some things certainly have, but many of the problems that
we faced back then still exist now. In some respects, they even exist in more
extreme forms. In the 1960’s young adults rose up in an attempted revolt
against many of the societal ills they saw around them. Other did not, but many
did. Today, millennials have a derogatory label that they sometimes throw at
people. If a girl wears a particular kind of outfit, behaves a particular way,
and gets a pumpkin spice latte from Starbucks every morning she might be
labeled “basic.” It’s a label that implies that she is boring and not creative
enough to be interesting. Now, I think that’s interesting not only because it’s
an incredibly dehumanizing thing to say about another person, but because it
also flips the behavior of the beatniks and hippies right on its head. Rather
than rejecting consumerism, wastefulness, or other extremes, today’s hipsters
judge people on the basis of the ‘authenticity’ or ‘uniqueness’ of their
purchases and hobbies. Classism and stigmas have not disappeared, they have
only taken on new – ever more consumeristic – forms. Our society still faces the
threats that Marcuse listed; they’ve only changed clothing.Much has changed, yet little has too. It’s a paradox of our contemporary life. Each of you can recount the thousands of ways your lives have changed over the years. Yet, if you think about some of the fundamental things, a lot has changed very little. The world still faces the abyss of nuclear annihilation, war, famine, and the existential angst of realizing that “our lofty ideals about the rights of the individual under democracy have in fact yielded a society in which ‘choice’ – at least for a certain demographic – is the difference between two forms of scented body wash.”[3] To put it another way, we’ve come to a place in the history of civilization where ‘uniqueness’ and ‘individuality’ have been commodified. So much so, in fact, that varying degrees of uniqueness are a privilege that come with geography, education, parentage, and exposure. As the sociologist, Pierre Bourdieu argued, we don’t choose our tastes so much as the micro-specifics of our class determine them.
Most of us probably assume that the book of Isaiah is paired with Advent and Christmas because he provides us with a lot of the foreshadowing, prophecies, and imagery we use for the Baby Jesus. I think that’s true. Yet, I also can’t help but notice the irony in pairing this particular prophet with a season that has become all that it has become for us as 21st century Americans. Let’s list out all of issues that the lectionary provides for us as we reflect on the theme of peace. Isaiah lists:
- Evil and unjust laws and political actions.
- Indifference and a turning away from the needs of the poor.
- Robbing the poor of what is justly theirs. In the context of ancient Israel, that would have included the right to basic things like food as well as fair treatment before the law.
- Isaiah, speaking for God, condemns those who prey on widows and orphans – the weakest in society. God is in the business of getting mad when people take advantage of those who are most vulnerable.
Today
we’re celebrating the coming of the true Prince of Peace and that’s a powerful
thing. It’s a title we probably think about less than we should. When we invoke
it, we might glance at it and just assume that it means that one day there won’t
be any more warfare. I think we miss something very fundamental to a biblical
conception of peace when we do that. Sometimes it’s helpful to really sit with
a biblical idea like peace and look at the contexts in which it is used.
Even if we think
about the usage of the term “holiness” what are we really referring to? Many of
us probably have a number of extrapolations as to what it means, but in the
Biblical context it’s really just a referral to God’s removal from the taint of
everything we’ve just been talking about. Holiness, when it is applied to God,
is a recognition of his transcendence; and in that respect, it is related to
the concept of righteousness and majesty. God is absolute and complete, totally
self-sufficient and non-contingent. As a consequence, God is not affected by
things like insufficiency. God is, in our faith, good and pure; and
consequently righteous – incapable of doing evil. We are obviously very capable
of doing evil. Holiness is really an issue of that distinction between us,
beings capable of atrocious things, and God who is not.
Today, we’re celebrating a different kind of future. We’re celebrating the opportunity to live into a different future – a future where each and every one of us strives to imitate Christ and make the world a more peaceful place. Jesus doesn’t just redeem us and offer us forgiveness. He demonstrates what a more perfect humanity can look like. Following Jesus is about following that example. May we strive to make the world a better place, to live lives of love, and to act justly. If we can do that, we can make the world a more peaceful place.
[1] Herbert Marcuse, "Epilogue," Reason and
Revolution, 2nd ed. (New York: Humanities Press, 1954), pp. 433ff.
[2] Herbert Marcuse, "Introduction to the First
Edition," One-Dimensional Man (Boston, MA: Beacon Press, 1991), p.
xlv.
[3] Anne Helen
Petersen, “What We’re Really Afraid of When We Call Someone ‘Basic’: Breaking
Down Why We’re Actually Dismissive of All Things Pumpkin Spice” (Buzzfeed,
October 20th 2014): https://www.buzzfeed.com/annehelenpetersen/basic-class-anxiety?utm_term=.mp4rN9jnP#.mmWVaYEZL
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