C249 Pentecost 23

[00:00:05] Speaker A: You're listening to by the well, a lectionary based podcast for preachers recorded on the land of the Wurundjeri people. [00:00:18] Speaker B: Hello, I'm Brendan Byrne. [00:00:20] Speaker C: And I'm Howard Wallace. [00:00:21] Speaker B: And this is by the well. And for this episode we are looking at readings for Pentecost 23, the final week in Pentecost before Reign of Christ Sunday. And for this week we will be looking at readings for from Isaiah 65 and using as our reading from the Psalm Isaiah 12. And our gospel reading will be Luke 21. So without any further ado, Isaiah 65. And Howard, this is a reading from a part of the text attributed to Isaiah that comes from a later stage, a post exilic stage. [00:01:09] Speaker C: Yes, we're in the second last chapter of what's normally called third Isaiah, those chapters from 56 through to 66. [00:01:19] Speaker B: And in this passage today, the prophet is talking about the bringing of a new creation. So within the context of the return of the people from the exile and how the writer of third Isaiah shapes that event in the sacred history of Israel, what's this reading speaking to? What's it telling us? [00:01:47] Speaker C: Well, nominally it is sort of a focus for the people coming back from exile, although other scholars would sort of argue that it actually functions in a greater way than just being there. Part of the conclusion to third Isaiah. Some have pointed out quite fairly strong parallels between this, this chapter in particular, but also including chapter 66 with back with Isaiah 1. So it may well be in some ways a sort of conclusion to the whole book in the way it's been finally edited. And that would bring together the sort of sense of creation being fulfilled at the end of, well, what Isaiah has been saying along the way. But the other thing to notice is that it, in its sort of theme of a new creation, etcetera, builds on other elements of Isaiah itself, especially chapters 40 to 55, which are usually seen as ones that are during the exile, written during the exile itself. So earlier than this. But the theme there of a newness, God doing a new thing, et cetera, is quite strong in those chapters. So here we come to that new heaven and new earth, the final newness, if you like, of the whole of creation. And it's picking up the image that was there, the lamb and the lion lying down together from Isaiah 11, but also beyond that, even picking up some, especially in verse 23 of 65, which says that they shall not labor in vain or bear children for calamity, for they shall be offspring blessed by the Lord. It's alluding to the curses of both the man and the woman in Genesis chapter three as well. So it's rounding out a whole host of stuff in relation to a newness of creation, a new sense of relationship and a way of all those things which have prevented, I think, God's creation coming to its fullness of, of doing just that. So an end to corruption, terrorism, war, military power, deception, political deception, selfishness, exploitation, etc. Etc. [00:04:19] Speaker B: So it's. So it's not a new creation necessarily in that apocalyptic sense that we think of new creation, but it's in fact the renewal of the, the world now. [00:04:31] Speaker C: Yes, exactly that. And, and I mean, it's interesting when it, when it, it's not sort of envisaging something entirely new, brand new, if you like, unexpected in, in that sort of sense. It's actually the things coming to fruition, what they were intended to be right from the start. And it also is a way of creating life in the present because it's not sort of, we might say, pie in the sky when you die type of thing. It's something which is meant to shape the way you live now and doesn't, certainly doesn't ignore the experience that the people have been through. [00:05:14] Speaker B: And there's a, there's a passage in verse 21 where it says they shall build houses and inhabit them, they shall plant vineyards and eat their fruit. And that seems to me to be juxtaposed to an earlier voice in Isaiah that talks about the avarice of those who join field to field and, and leave no room for others, and their houses will be left desolate. And. And yet this is, this is, as it were saying, you know, that will be set aside and there will be a new fruitfulness and a new fullness. [00:05:50] Speaker C: So it's an overcoming of, of corruption, exploitation in that context. But also I think they're remembering the, the pogroms that went on when the Assyrians in particular and the Babylonians of. The Babylonians overtook the land and just decimated it. [00:06:11] Speaker B: So this is not wiping the slate clean, as it were. There is a memory of those former things, but that memory no longer speaks into the new reality that this is bringing about. [00:06:26] Speaker C: Yes, I think it's important just to understand when we find here in verse 17, I'm about to create new heavens and a new earth. As I said before, it's picking up that theme of newness. God is about to do a new thing from Isaiah 40 to 55 in the center of the book. But you need to ask the self the question of, you know, what does it mean by new in that context? As already said, it's not something that's brand new, unexpected, but it means in talking about the other, the other side of it, the former things not being remembered. What is in the past is not going to determine what the future will be. The future has its own sort of direction, and that's what God is pointing towards. But not entirely future, not a future that's entirely separated from past experience. [00:07:21] Speaker B: So I'm engaged by that idea of a consciousness of the past that nonetheless doesn't hold sway in the present, so that, you know, things are genuinely made new and renewed. And I think that that will carry over into our next reading. [00:07:38] Speaker C: Yes, well, just before we get there, too, I think it's important also to realize that this reading from Isaiah was an alternative reading for Easter Sunday as well. And I think that for us, at any rate, sort of brings this whole notion of Christ's crucifixion and resurrection into this whole sense of new creation, that it already is beginning. Yes, Begun. [00:08:01] Speaker B: Yes, yes. It's that thing about the kingdom that is arriving but is already here. [00:08:06] Speaker C: Yes, yes, definitely. [00:08:08] Speaker B: Exactly. All right, let's go on to our next reading. [00:08:18] Speaker C: Well, it may seem strange to have as a psalm set for the week Isaiah chapter 12, a very short chapter just for six verses, but it is a song, it is a psalm, and there are other psalms through scattered throughout the various books of the Old Testament. This is what scholars would classify as a song of thanksgiving. Something has happened and they're giving thanks to God for some sense of deliverance in that context. We don't really know specifically the circumstance that led to the composition of this psalm, but we do know where it's placed in the book of Isaiah. It possibly was two Psalms originally, two very short ones, because if you look at verses 1 to 3 and then 4 to 6, you notice that they both begin in the same way, one sort of speaking about God's anger against the people and the other God's comfort. So they're precisely the things that maybe I should have said a moment ago about Isaiah 65, because you do need to see that in context. And verse 15, sorry, 17 of Isaiah 65 reflects on God's anger, which is at the beginning of that chapter. Then God relents, and then the vision of the newness comes upon that and similar things going on here in Isaiah 12 in the Psalm. All the psalmist can do in this context is trust in God, which is stressed in verse 2. Surely God is my salvation. I will trust and not be afraid. This is not a disembodied trust that just sits in midair. If so to speak, you like, because you need to sort of see it in the context of the chapters that have gone before this, especially chapters five in Isaiah through to chapter 11. And it's been placed at the end of this first major section of Isaiah, precisely to sum up what has been gone before. Now, what happens in those earlier chapters is that the king of Judah in Jerusalem, Ahaz, is caught in a rather difficult political situation. There are a number of smaller nations around about who wish to rebel against the Assyrian Empire and break free of it. And he is being persuaded or cajoled into joining that rebellion. So he has the choice, so he joins the rebellion to fight against the Assyrians and risk the life of his people context, or to side with the Assyrians and make peace with the superpower of the day and bear the brunt of charges and attack by the local neighbors. And so he's caught in this twixt and between sort of situation. So it's not a call for trust. That is sort of empty in that sense. And I think one of the verses that's crucial in that is back In Isaiah chapter 7, at the heart of the decision that Ahaz has to make. What Isaiah says to Ahaz, that if you do not stand firm in faith, you will not stand at all. And that's his option. A third option beyond the two political choices, one of trusting in God, which is not an empty response given the context and the evils of the world time. [00:11:53] Speaker B: And I'm. I'm struck, and you've mentioned it, but I'm struck by the placement of this passage, as you say, at the end of this first part of what is commonly called first Isaiah, because it talks about both God's anger, but also God's redemption. And occurring at the end of this first part, which talks about God's judgment upon the people and upon things like the political situation and the corruption involved there, it seems to me almost to suggest that even within God's judgment upon the people, there are the seeds of God's redemptive love that will ensure that the present context doesn't become their defining context and that it will eventually, under God's sovereignty, be redeemed and renewed. [00:12:55] Speaker C: Yes. And the whole decision, if you like, is really one that takes place in the heart of God. And that's true in Isaiah 65 too. God is the one who decides to relent on his anger, which is justifiably against those who have acted against him. [00:13:16] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:13:16] Speaker C: Of his own people. [00:13:17] Speaker B: Yeah, and, and, and, and, and so the, the specific situational context in which we find ourselves, however terrible or oppressive or depressing, they may be, nonetheless ephemeral and, and subject to the ultimate sovereignty of God, which has the final word. [00:13:39] Speaker C: Yes, definitely. [00:13:40] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah. So again, I think, I think we've got a link into our next reading and we'll go to that now. So our final reading this week that we are looking at is the reading from the Gospel According to Luke, chapter 21, verses 5 to 19. And it is, is the passage in which Jesus talks about the destruction of the Temple. Now, the temple, of course, was built or largely completed by Herod the Great and was as much about his political ambition and a statement of his political power as it was anything else. And yet Jesus is not impressed by this? [00:14:33] Speaker C: No, no, not entirely. Although he's probably a little more impressed in Luke's Gospel than he is in chapter 13 of Mark, which is the well lies behind the Luke 21 passage. Luke has Jesus doing a number of things in his last week in Jerusalem. He teaches in the Temple itself all along. And the Temple, according to the book of Acts, is the place where the disciples go to gather after the resurrection and the events of that week. So he's got a stronger sort of attention to it. But he's also aware, of course, that in the year 70 CE, and Luke is writing beyond that, the Temple was destroyed along with part of Jerusalem by the Romans. So Jesus is sort of predicting in inverted commas, the demise of that structure in this context. [00:15:30] Speaker B: So Luke is writing in his own context of multiple levels of conflict and uncertainty, conflict within the early Christian community, conflict between the early Christian community and the wider Jewish community, and conflict within the wider Roman Empire as the early community begins to attract the unwelcome attention of the Roman authorities. [00:16:00] Speaker C: So, and I think he's also quite critical, at least the way Jesus starts off this, the section that's set for us. He's quite critical of those who want to put too much trust in the Temple and other institutions like that. [00:16:16] Speaker B: Yeah. And there seems to be something almost idolatrous about the way that the Temple is portrayed, which sort of references back to my earlier observation about Herod's own view of the Temple. And of course, we see that in our political culture today, in our economic culture, in our social culture, where that kind of idolatrous elevation of earthly powers and then their collapse or their instability causes fear, causes uncertainty. And there's certainly a Fair amount of fear and uncertainty in this passage. [00:17:01] Speaker C: Oh, yes, there is. And I think, to me, at any rate, the basic sort of message that tends to come through towards the end of the reading that's set is, well, do not panic. Which can be said quite flippantly, but not intended here. I mean, this is an expression, if you like, of the sort of trust that isaiah in chapter 12 and in 65 are pointing towards. Not panicking because, you know, who's in charge in this context. And it says that, you know, God will give you wisdom in your own time. We might think of that in terms of the Spirit, of God's spirit. There's a quote that I picked up from Bill Loder commenting on this passage. He says that there is something irresistible about love, even when it's crucified. So he's pointing towards that love as compassionate, as peaceful being, that which conquers in that sort of sense, because it comes from God. [00:18:11] Speaker B: And as you say, there's nothing flippant about this passage. It is quite realistic in the sense of the troubles and the disturbances that it describes. But as you say, it says, it's a central message, is don't panic. Trust in God and in the sovereignty of God. And that seems to me to be particularly relevant today when our news is so full of the supposed unprecedentedness of our times and the instability in the global order. [00:18:45] Speaker C: Yes. And we're just sort of stepping back into, well, the dilemma that Ahaz had in a way, which. Which power structure do you put yourself with, which I think Isaiah and Luke want to speak against in their own way, as did Jesus. [00:19:01] Speaker B: Yeah, indeed. Indeed. So it seems to me that across these three readings, we have this narrative thread of hope that that is realistic about our situational context, but which ultimately says all these things will not have the final word in human affairs, that it is the sovereignty of God that prevails. [00:19:24] Speaker C: And, you know, I think they also want to stress in their own way that this is not just sort of some vain hope to sort of COVID up our anxieties, but rather something that is real and shapes our life in the present as we live in the present context. [00:19:40] Speaker B: And it's a hope that has the power to renew our lives in the present. Yes, yeah, absolutely. All right, great. Well, thank you very much, Howard. So There are our three readings for Pentecost 23, Isaiah 65, Isaiah 12, and Luke 21. [00:20:02] Speaker A: By the well is brought to you by Pilgrim Theological College and the Uniting Church in Australia. It's produced by Adrian Jackson. Thanks for listening.