Feb 20, 2013    2^nd Wednesday in Lent    Isaiah 57: 1-13

Sermon series by Dr. Reed Lessing

"An Ever-Present Refuge."

Grace and Peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. The text for today’s meditation is Isaiah 57:1-13 This mystery is that the Gentiles are fellow heirs, members of the same body, and partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel. Many communities have what they call safe places. These safe places are for kids and teens when they find themselves in crisis or need a place to stay. In fact, National Safe Place is an outreach program designed to provide access to immediate help for all youth who are going through difficult times. Safe Place designates schools, fire stations, libraries and youth-friendly businesses as Safe Place sites where youth can access help and supportive resources. These locals function as asylums, sanctuaries, havens, and places of refuge. Isaiah knows what a safe place looks like. He writes in our text, "But he who takes refuge in me shall possess the land and shall inherit my holy mountain. (Isa 57:13). As we make our way through Isaiah 56-66 this Lent, tonight’s good and perfect gift is an ever-present refuge. Our context is one of idolatry. In fact, the Old Testament reading illustrates a combination of homage to Molech, Canaanite fertility sexual excesses, and worshiping the dead. This is the kind of community that perverse leadership creates; one that is attracted to pagan religious rites and enmeshed in numerous moral perversions. Because the exact nature of these actions was so repugnant, Isaiah refuses to state the ghastly details. We only catch a glimpse of all their ungodliness. We read in the beginning of the text that this worship involving fertility rites, ancestor worship, and child sacrifice merges together as sexual intercourse takes place "under every green tree", libations are poured out to the dead, and children are killed in creeks and river beds. The same threefold activity is again described in verses 7–9. Sexual imagery pervades Isaiah for example in verse 3 "sons of a sorceress", "offspring of an adulterer", "and she committed prostitution". And then in verse 5, "those who inflame themselves". Verse 7 "you make your bed" and verse 8 "you have uncovered yourself", "you have enlarged your bed", and "you have loved their bed". In the face of life’s anxieties, Israelites escaped into the dark world of idolatry. It is also easy for us to idolize pleasure and allow desires to run rampant until they consume our lives. We don’t have to bow down to statutes of wood and stone to participate in idolatry. Our sinful nature tempts us to wander away from Jesus and toward other people and things that we blindly believe will fill us with ultimate significance and happiness. Some of our favorite idols include money, pleasure, better jobs, and bigger churches. Our thoughts can travel down these sinful paths that we believe will charge our lives with meaning and success. Here is a quote from the book entitled "Breaking the Idols of Your Heart", "Control will always slip out of our grasp. Relationships will always disappoint. Work will leave us frustrated. Pleasure is always fleeting. Wisdom is never an adequate guide. Spirituality usually gives in to legalism. Life ends in decay and death." This is why Isaiah mockingly states in verse 13, "When you cry out, let your collection of idols deliver you! The wind will carry them off; a breath will take them away". It is as though he says, "When you are in deep distress, ask your idols for help. See how far that gets you." What appears to be so awesome is carried away by a simple breath! At the heart of our predicament is that we look to false gods and believe in their false salvations. Often an idol is not evil, in and of itself. It might be some God-given gift that we then use as a substitute for the real God. A false god is frequently something or someone of value, but we ascribe to it ultimate value. It becomes the final word on everything. Idolatry takes good things, vocation, money, love, ministry, health, and turns them into ultimate things. It takes valuable things and makes them into supreme things. Often the object of our worship becomes another person, a spouse, friend, or child. Our affection for them turns into adoration. It is easy to deify people or things until they become the center of our existence. And once they occupy the innermost part of our heart, we tell ourselves that we cannot live without them. Then we break God’s commandments, rationalize indiscretions, destroy relationships, and do significant harm to ourselves, just to get what we want. At that point we have become a slave to our god. Jeremiah 2 says; "You said, ‘It is no use! I love foreign gods, and I must run after them’". It is tempting to think that the pursuit of money, sex, and power will liberate us. But counterfeit gods always torment us and, if left unchecked, they will most certainly destroy us. But the most popular counterfeit god today is Eros. Our society elevates romantic love to the status of eternal savior. This idol, too, is bound to disappoint. Where is our safe place, our asylum, our haven, our refuge from all of these tempting idols? God provides us a safe place, a refuge from all of this darkness and death. Our text goes on to say in verse 13, "But he who takes refuge in me shall possess the land and shall inherit my holy mountain". Behind this metaphor of refuge stand the Old Testament cities of refuge, places for "the manslayer who kills any person without intent" (Num 35:11). There were six safe havens in Israel, three "beyond the Jordan [to the East], and three cities in the land of Canaan" (Num 35:14). Spread out over the Promised Land, cities of refuge were intended to be an ever-present help in times of trouble. How did this work? If someone in your family was killed, your relatives would call a meeting and somebody would be appointed as a "blood avenger" (Num 35:19-27). He was to find the killer and release his neck from the burden of having to carry a head. Admittedly, this was a bit crude, but it kept law and order. Of course, the major problem with such a system was an accidental death. Using Deut 19:5 as an example, a man goes into a forest with his neighbor to cut wood. As he swings his axe to chop down a tree, the axe’s head flies off, hits his neighbor, and kills him. Now what happens? The dead man’s family calls a meeting, and they appoint a blood avenger. And the orders are clear, "Chase the person with the loose axe head and kill him!" We probably respond, "That’s not fair. He didn’t mean to kill his neighbor. He just had a loose axe-head." But no one knew what else to do. No one, that is, except Yahweh. It is in his heart to provide refuge. In the battle hymn of the Reformation, "A Mighty Fortress is our God," Martin Luther describes the one chasing us. "The old evil Foe, now means deadly woe." "Tho’ devils all the world should fill, all eager to devour us." "This world’s prince may still, scowl fierce as he will." "With dread craft and might he arms himself to fight. On earth he has no equal!" He comes to kill and steal and destroy. We see him in our rear-view mirror. We feel his hot breath on our necks. We know what it is like to run for our very lives from all of the idolatry he throws our way! As tempter he chases us screaming, "Whatever it is you want to do, just do it. Have some anger? Act it out. Have some sexual fantasies, go ahead, full throttle. Have some juicy gossip? Let it fly." As deceiver he continues with these lies, "There are no limits, no consequences, and no responsibilities. Ready, set, go!" When we give in to his temptations and deceptions then, as accuser, he plants his foot upon our necks and says, "Now that you said this, thought this, did this, or drank this, God is finished with you!" This adversary prowls around like a roaring lion, looking to devour us (1 Pet 5:8). We are sitting ducks for the roaring lion. His strategy is clear, "I’ll chase you until I kill you!" No one knows what to do, except Yahweh, the God of Israel and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Remember, it is in his heart to provide a refuge that is an ever-present help in times of trouble. For the forgiveness and love and mercy and salvation that was accomplished at Calvary is now present for you, forever. Jesus Christ is God’s final expression for a safe-place, an asylum, a sanctuary, a haven, and a mighty fortress. "God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in times of trouble" (Ps 46:1). So we do not run aimlessly, hopelessly, or desperately. We run, rather, to the Refuge. And we are safe in his love, forever! Amen.