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Sermon 378 St. Martin’s 134 (Riverway) 1/12/25
Thus says the Lord, he who created you, O Jacob,
he who formed you, O Israel:
Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine.
When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you;
when you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you.
For I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior.
I give Egypt as your ransom,Ethiopia and Seba in exchange for you.
Because you are precious in my sight,and honored, and I love you,
I give people in return for you,nations in exchange for your life.
Do not fear, for I am with you; I will bring your offspring from the east, and from the west I will gather you;
I will say to the north, "Give them up," and to the south, "Do not withhold;
bring my sons from far away and my daughters from the end of the earth--
everyone who is called by my name, whom I created for my glory, whom I formed and made.
Isaiah 43:1-7
Loneliness
I recently had a conversation with my grandfather who is 101. Since he turned 90, I feel like we’ve been asking him what is the key to aging well for over a decade. So, either he’s getting tired of us asking that question, or we just haven’t learned the lesson.
Up until recently, I had to get on his calendar to visit him. He was always going off and doing something in his retirement home. He was grabbing lunch with someone, taking part in a Bible study, or doing PT because...at the age of 100 he was trying to walk again. Even now he’s taking a class on Zoom about the Early Church.
But one of the issues he’s faced since moving to a part of the campus that offers more daily assistance is that he is now not allowed to move about as freely as he once did. He can’t always go to the dining hall, or take part in all the events happening on the other side of campus. There are not as many options for Bible studies or lectures, let alone general socializing.
He is well aware that isolation is not good for a person’s health, especially someone his age. He has even gone to the “higher ups” asking for more opportunities to do community building.
The man is on a mission, and if I’ve learned anything from someone who has lived longer than a century it’s that community is a key ingredient to living well and living long.
But this isn’t a new topic of conversation. Over the past 6-8 months a common theme has come up in many of my conversations with folks here at St. Martin’s and in my life in general. People are lonely. Many people I chat with desire a deeper sense of community with their peers, especially with those who also call St. Martin’s home.
Some of the folks I’ve talked to are caught in a stage of life that the church has historically not been good at caring for: namely single adults. Many times they feel left out or left behind.
But it also applies to people who don’t fit into one of our nicely packaged programs because of their work schedule, stage of life…you name it.
I had a conversation with a friend of mine this week who is starting a 30s group at her church because she is tired of the church not offering something for people in her age demographic who are single. She looked around and saw a need and was determined to do something about it.
I’ve had conversations with a number of people here about a 40s ministry, a divorced support group, widows’ groups, and college ministry. Honestly, the sky is the limit, and yet the laborers (and hours) are few.
Married people are not immune to feeling isolated, but I recognize we have Moms’ groups and Dads’ groups that offer a community for parents, but it also clearly states in the name who can attend and who is left out.
We do offer a ton of options for people to get involved, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t hard to find connections and meaningful relationships whether you are single or married when you join one of our groups.
It is just plain hard to be an adult and to make new friendships…and the data backs it up.
In the U.S. 36% of adults report that they feel lonely frequently or almost always, and this is particularly prevalent in young adults, people who are single, and lower income.
Worldwide, the numbers aren’t any better. Almost a quarter of the world’s population says they’re lonely, and ironically, it’s more prevalent in high-income countries like ours. (That’s a mind-boggling number. A quarter of the world.)
If the stats are right—and I think they are after my recent conversations—in this church right now someone in your row (or someone you’ll shake hands with at the passing of the peace) is lonely.
Houston, we have a problem.
Edward Hopper One of my favorite artists, Edward Hopper was known for capturing the stark reality of human isolation in many of his paintings. It was a feeling that resonated with Hopper's original audience in the early-to-mid 20th century, but I think his work has aged well because we are still a lonely bunch.
Even in the café or on the train we are in our own little worlds. Even when we are connected to the world on our phones and surrounded by people…we are somehow…alone.
But when God said to Adam, “It was not good to be alone.” He was not simply talking about marriage but about the desire in every human being for deep, meaningful relationships.
And this is the point in the sermon when you begin to say, “Yes, yes, that’s all well and good, but what is the point?” The point is we may have been exiled from Eden but we were not exiled from one another. And of course, the relationship drastically changed when sin entered the picture, but even so, we were not exiled from God completely.
Isaiah 43 And that was the message the Prophet Isaiah was trying to communicate to the people of Israel and Judah who found themselves in actual exile.
This traumatic experience was not a one-and-done process, as we sometimes think. Exile happened in stages, though some were left behind to pick up the pieces of their beloved homeland, others fled for the safety of Egypt, yet many others were forced to migrate to their captor’s territory. The people of God were estranged from their sacred sense of place, and the Temple in left in ashes was a fair representation of their faith.
In the previous chapter, chapter 42, Isaiah rebuked Israel’s blindness and the judgment that came upon them for their unfaithfulness. And yet, that is not the end for God’s people — though it very well could’ve been. The temptation to assimilate into the Babylonian way of life would’ve led to more opportunities and a quicker way out of their dire circumstances.
No one is more lonely than a person in exile who is wondering if God has forgotten them, or worse, that God is so angry with them that he has forsaken his people altogether.
Exile=Existential Crisis.
Was the man who received one talent in Jesus’ classic parable right? “Master,” he said, “I knew that you were a harsh man, reaping where you did not sow and gathering where you did not scatter, so I was afraid, and I went and hid your talent in the ground.”
Was the God who allowed Judah to be sent into exile truly an unrelenting taskmaster? Was he yet another angry god, like all the others?
Isaiah 43 says emphatically, “No.” In fact, this chapter is God’s love letter to his exiled people.
“Do not fear,” God says, “for I have redeemed you; I have summoned you by name; you are mine.” The images of the fires in LA and the snow on the East Coast make the next verse even more powerful. “When you pass through the [chaotic] waters [of life] I will be with you…When you walk through the fire you will not be burned.”
The all-consuming and destructive power of water and fire can also be the elements that cleanse and purify.
“For he is like a refiner’s fire.”
“I baptize you with water but there is one greater who will baptize with the Holy Spirit and fire.”
Why will you not be consumed by flood, fire, or exile itself? Because “I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior,” proclaims Isaiah.
The people of Israel may have gotten themselves in this mess by not living up to their side of the Covenant, but God would always and forever be faithful.
If I had a title for today’s sermon it would be “The Enduring Nature of God’s Faithfulness.” God’s chosen people were not going to be able to save themselves; they hadn’t even chosen themselves to be God’s vehicle to bless the world…God had done that. They hadn’t rescued themselves from slavery in Egypt…God alone broke them free.
Salvation, redemption, and ultimate reconciliation could only be the work of God.
And Isaiah was reminding them that they shouldn’t think of themselves as forsaken but redeemed—they were redeemed even when they were in exile—because God was faithful—what he promised did not have to be a future hope but their present reality. The exiles could live in Babylon with the sure confidence that they were going to be redeemed because they already were.
Isaiah 43 is God’s love letter to anyone who has felt alone, unloved, forgotten, or in some form of exile. It is a grand reminder that you are of immense worth not because of anything you do, but as verse 4 says, “[Because] you are precious and honored in my sight, and because I love you.”
God’s love then fortifies us for what we will face in this life…because as you know…life is not a bed of roses.
John Calvin said, “The Lord has not redeemed you so that you might enjoy pleasures and luxuries…but so that you should be prepared for enduring all kinds of evils.”
God doesn’t promise to shield us from what this life brings but that we will be preserved through the trials by his grace. Though it may feel otherwise while in exile, you are not abandoned. God has a plan; you will be preserved, but preservation does not negate the calling to endure. It gives us hope while we endure.
Baptism We shouldn’t feel like we must endure alone. Baptism is a Sacrament that reminds us that we belong; we are not isolated, forsaken, or abandoned. It is the Sacrament where we proclaim with confidence that God has called us—called these two beautiful baby girls—to be a part of God’s family that spans across every culture, country, and generation.
And when we’ll say together moments after they have been baptized, “We receive you into the household of God. Confess the faith of Christ crucified, proclaim his resurrection, and share with us in his eternal priesthood.” It is us, the baptized, who are already in the house, already sharing in Jesus’ eternal priesthood who have the privilege to say to the newly baptized, “Come in, this gift is ours, but it is for you as well.”
And so, the Church is where we come to be reminded that we are God’s beloved…that we are redeemed.
May God forgive us if we have made the Church into something…anything other than a place of reconciliation, restoration, and renewal. The church is to be a Community of Delight—and our delight comes solely from the God who brought about our salvation from the cross and the grave.
It's God’s action but our gift to receive with wonder and delight. Another word for that is “faith.” We receive God’s action on our behalf with faith.
So…as Isaiah said all those years ago, “Bring your sons from afar and your daughters from the ends of the earth—everyone who is called by his name, whom he created for his glory, whom he formed and made.”
My friends, that is you…that is us…may we never forget it.
1st Sunday after the Epiphany. Year C. Isaiah 43:1-7. Luke 3:15-17, 21-22.
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