Isaiah 12:1-6 | Göttinger Predigten im Internet

The Fifth Sunday of Easter | 7 May 2023 | Isaiah 12:1-6 | Samuel D. Zumwalt |

You will say in that day:

“I will give thanks to you, O Lord,

for though you were angry with me,

your anger turned away,

that you might comfort me.

2 “Behold, God is my salvation;

I will trust, and will not be afraid;

for the Lord God is my strength and my song,

and he has become my salvation.”

3 With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation.

4 And you will say in that day:

“Give thanks to the Lord,

call upon his name,

make known his deeds among the peoples,

proclaim that his name is exalted.

5 “Sing praises to the Lord, for he has done gloriously;

let this be made known in all the earth.

6 Shout, and sing for joy, O inhabitant of Zion,

for great in your midst is the Holy One of Israel.”

The word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.

HOLY COMMUNION: THE HOLY ONE AMONG US

Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

You Were Angry with Me, O Lord

Outside of this room, it is so easy to be all wrapped up in yourself. Yes, sometimes, it happens to preachers. Perhaps a little voice whispers in the ear: “You’re the one who’s right.” From there it spirals out of control. It’s called self-justification: “I have a right to do this, to say this ….”

But, then, when we cross the threshold to this nave (or perhaps when we begin watching online), we enter into reality: the presence of the LORD God, the Holy One, who sees all and knows all. It’s like coming home knowing that a parent is waiting to speak with you. Perhaps, like the younger son in Luke 15, we even start rehearsing what we are going to say to our Father. He already knows. We have no secrets from Him. No unknown thoughts, words, or deeds. Perhaps, one might even say, “I’ve never been angry with God.” Nonsense, child! But when you are not the center (and you aren’t and I’mnot), then the question is: “How angry is God with me?”

Many years ago, a person embezzled some money. It was so heartbreaking, not only because of the broken trust, but, on account of the bold-faced lying and the self-justifying that went with it. Yet deep inside that person knew to the penny how much he had stolen. The anger those around the man felt was more than hurt, more than fear, it was betrayal… like that of Judas and Peter. Like that of all the disciples except John, who with the Virgin and Mary Magdalene and other women stayed at the foot of the cross. Yes, it was like the betrayal of which you and I are guilty when we break God’s heart by our indifference to Him and by our selfishness toward others.

When we cross that threshold, it is like coming home to a waiting parent, who has been angry with us, because we have not been the people He created us to be. We have not been the people we thought we were and declared that we are. We have not loved Him or our neighbor with heart, mind, body, and soul. And stubbornly, perhaps, some have stayed away, which only did damage to one’s self. For the LORD God’s love for us is far better than even the most loving parent’s, spouse’s, or friend’s. He grieves when we forget who and Whose we are. Like any good parent, He sees and knows what He created us to be and indeed what we are capable of with His help. Crossing the threshold into this nave, we have come home to His immeasurable love.

We never have to be afraid to come home, because the One who is waiting to welcome us, has mercy for you, for me, and for everyone. You were rightly angry with us, O Lord. Have mercy.

I Will Trust and Not Be Afraid

The earth is the LORD’s and the fullness thereof (and everything in it), but that is so easy to forget outside this room where the unholy trio of sin, death, and the devil tell their lies of ownership. In this age of national and even ecclesiastical surrender by many to the devil’s empty promises, we hear of tribal claims to land as if the descendants of the first immigrants across the land bridge from the Asian continent suddenly had a right to what is not theirs… or as if the descendants of those sold into slavery many decades or even hundreds of years ago suddenly have a right to what is not theirs. Doing evil, however politically costumed and marketed to the gullible, is not the answer to evil done in the past by some but not all of the generations before us. That lying politicians will say and do anything for power is a shock only to naïve and willing pawns. That anyone claiming to speak in God’s name would call it justice to break the immutable commandments of God at their most basic level of meaning is prima facie evidence of apostasy. They do not fear, love, and trust God above all else, rather fashioning a god out of digital dung.

It may be beyond the ken of wayward sheep that our confession of faith does not believe, teach, and confess a trinity of diversity, inclusion, and equity. Our congregation’s confession of faith believes, teaches, and confesses one God in three persons, properly named Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, whose pronouns have always been He/His. That Christ’s Church has once again been corrupted by false gospels is as old as the rebellion in the Garden and of the much later hubris of Queen Jezebel’s 400 prophets of Baal on the eve of their destruction (1 Kings 18). The only reason hucksters, hustlers, and heretics get away with nonsense both in Christ’s Church and in our land is a fear of being swept away by the behemoth machine’s prevailing winds. Do you not yet understand? They do not fear, love, and trust God above all else. They fear their naked mortality.

The prophet Isaiah speaks judgment to the fearing, loving, and trusting of anyone or anything other than the LORD, who is Maker and Owner. He is the only One who can save, who will deliver, and who promises rescue to those who fear, love, and trust Him above anything else.

Those comfortable pullers-of-strings and their political puppets have a terrible day of reckoning coming. And those in Christ’s Church who have willingly traded their baptismal birthright for a mess of patron’s pottage and the putrid crumbs from benefactors’ tables will indeed stand naked alongside those to whom they kowtowed and acquiesced. In that day, they will know God’s justice means getting exactly what you deserve. Sadly, the LORD God will let their will be done.

God’s liberating Word through two testaments is: “Do not be afraid!” When our LORD Jesus Christ, God’s Son in human flesh, was being nailed to the cross by Rome’s lackeys with the approval and consent of most of God Incorporated’s stakeholders in Jerusalem, He trusted His Heavenly Father. His final cry from the cross is victory: “It is accomplished!” God’s salvation, deliverance, and rescue was purchased by the Blood of the Lamb of God. Redemption is not found in anyone or anything other than God’s own Son, Jesus Christ. Trust Him and no other! Fear and love the one true God in three persons and not princes, provocateurs, or politicians.

Shout and Sing for Joy

Joy is not happiness. You can be very joyful in the midst of terrible times of unhappiness. The so-called social gospel mockingly speaks of pie-in-the-sky while offering earthly rewards from a cross-less christ. The so-called health/wealth gospel likewise promises an earthly paradise to those who will trust in a cross-less christ who bears only a passing resemblance to the Word made flesh in the Virgin Mary’s womb. Those temporarily blinded by the gods of this world will shrink in horror when the brilliant Light of the Crucified and Risen LORD, Jesus Christ, reveals who and what the false prophets actually are. Happiness is very fleeting. Joy is everlasting.

When you cross the threshold of this room, you are on holy ground. When you cease conversation and listen for the Word of God speaking to the chaos, confusion, and chatter of this world, you enter into God’s time, the eternal now, where His enemies are shown to be false and powerless. For Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia!

You can enter this room and this worship with a broken heart, with flooding tears, with crushing anxiety, with the weight of guilt or shame pressing down on your chest like a sitting elephant. Your grief may feel unbearable. Your hurt may seem forever. Your loneliness may feel unending. The laughter of your enemies may be ringing loudly in your ears. And you may feel unloved and unlovable. Your litany of losses may be leaving you listless and laden with sorrow. You may be so ashamed that you believe yourself to be beyond forgiveness. It is the ruminating on these things that is the very real source of your unhappiness. But none of these can have the last word!

Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia! So, here we shout and sing for joy, because the victory has already been won. This life and seasons of happiness are fleeting. Eternal life for those who have been buried and raised with Christ in Holy Baptism is guaranteed. It has already begun. When the baptized come to the altar with empty hands, we know there in Host and Cup the Holy One is among us, not spiritually as Gnostics believe, but there in bread and wine. The Holy One who became flesh in the Virgin Mary’s womb still becomes incarnate in earthly stuff, promising, “This is my Body… This is my Blood given and shed for you for the forgiveness of sins.”

We shout and sing for joy, because here we share in the eternal life and love of the one true God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Because here we know who and Whose we are. And here we know the reign of death has ended, the father of lies is doomed to fiery failure, and no sin of ours once contritely confessed has the power to separate us eternally from the love of God in Christ Jesus.

Having slaked our deep thirst from the great well of salvation, Jesus Christ, we can go out with joy, refreshed, renewed, and redirected to live the lives of limitless, humble service to neighbors near and far for which we were born and reborn. For Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia!

In the name of the Father, and of the +Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

szumwalt@bellsouth.net

St. Matthew’s Evangelical Lutheran Church

Wilmington, North Carolina USA