Sermons from Park Hill Congregational UCC Denver, Colorado Rev. Dr. David Bahr [email protected] December 8, 2019 “When Nothing is Wrong, Nothing Can Be Made Right” Isaiah 35: 1-10 – Common English Bible The desert and the dry land will be glad; the wilderness will rejoice and blossom like the crocus. 2 They will burst into bloom, and rejoice with joy and singing. They will receive the glory of Lebanon, the splendor of Carmel and Sharon. They will see the Lord’s glory, the splendor of our God. 3 Strengthen the weak hands, and support the unsteady knees. 4 Say to those who are panicking: “Be strong! Don’t fear! Here’s your God, coming with vengeance; with divine retribution God will come to save you.” 5 Then the eyes of the blind will be opened, and the ears of the deaf will be cleared. 6 Then the lame will leap like the deer, and the tongue of the speechless will sing. Waters will spring up in the desert, and streams in the wilderness. 7 The burning sand will become a pool, and the thirsty ground, fountains of water. The jackals’ habitat, a pasture; grass will become reeds and rushes. 8 A highway will be there. It will be called The Holy Way. The unclean won’t travel on it, but it will be for those walking on that way. Even fools won’t get lost on it; 9 no lion will be there, and no predator will go up on it. None of these will be there; only the redeemed will walk on it. 10 The Lord’s ransomed ones will return and enter Zion with singing, with everlasting joy upon their heads. Happiness and joy will overwhelm them; grief and groaning will flee away. Once upon a time there was a very greedy king who had lots and lots of gold. Gold covered every surface of his palace, but he wanted even more. The king called all his soldiers together and told them to attack the neighboring kingdom. He told them, “We need that gold so we can sell it to feed our own hungry countrymen.” So, off to battle, swords and shields lifted high. But the soldiers were not gone long before they began returning – not one of them carrying a sword or a shield. “What happened!” demanded the king. “I told you to go fight a battle and bring back that gold!” One soldier replied, “We were on our way when we came across an apple tree and the tree spoke to us. It said: ‘Be wise and lay down your shields. Let the truth be your sword and study war no more.’ It seemed to us that the tree made sense. So, we did what it said.” The king was furious and vowed to get rid of the tree that had ruined his plans. He waited until midnight and then walked to the field until he came upon the apple tree. The king took out his axe and chopped down the tree. But he was still so mad that he stomped on the fallen tree until it was crushed down into the earth. Satisfied, the king walked back to his castle with a smile on his face. The next day the king called his soldiers back to the courtyard. He told them the kingdom was at risk of attack by their neighbors. “We have to take their gold so they can’t attack us.” He gave them new swords and shields and told them to obey his orders to attack the neighboring kingdom. The soldiers went, but not long after, they started returning without their swords and shields. The king was furious. He shouted, “I told you to go fight a battle and bring back that gold!” “We were on our way,” said one of the soldiers, “but when we came to the spot where we saw the apple tree yesterday, you wouldn’t believe it. There are twenty apple trees there today. And the trees all said the same thing: ‘Be wise and lay down your shields. Let the truth be your sword and study war no more.’ “And the trees made sense to us, so we did what they said.” The king was red with anger. “Those blasted trees!” he thought. That night he went out from his castle and chopped down every last one. But afterward he was still so mad that he jumped up and down on them until they were completely crushed into the earth. The next day the king called all the soldiers to the courtyard and gave them new swords and new shields and ordered them once again to attack the neighboring kingdom. This time, instead of telling them that their fellow citizens were hungry, or that the kingdom was at risk of attack, he told them that they stole the gold from us first, so we have to get it back. “It’s about our honor. Do not come back until you have carried out my orders.” But the soldiers had not been gone long when they began returning without their swords and shields. The king screamed, “I told you to go to battle! Why do you keep disobeying me?!” “Well,” said one of the soldiers, “you wouldn’t believe it but in the same place where there were twenty apple trees yesterday there is now an entire forest of trees and they’re all saying—” The king didn’t wait to hear the rest. He just grabbed an axe and ran until he came upon a forest of trees that stretched as far as the eye could see. The king let out an exasperated scream because he knew there was no way he could chop down so many trees. He finally calmed down and muttered, “Can it be that a powerful king like me can be stopped by a few trees!” “Are you asking me?” The king was startled by the voice. An old woman with long gray hair stepped out from behind the trees. “Well ok,” said the king. “If you have an answer, tell me.” She agreed with him. “It seems to me that you are a very powerful king.” “You bet I am!” he said, standing up straight, tall and proud. “And, since you are so powerful, you can take down any tree that offends you and chop it into little pieces and crush it into the ground.” “You bet I can,” he replied. “But,” the woman said, “apple trees speak truth. You may be a powerful king, but there is no one on earth more powerful than the truth, for truth crushed to the earth shall rise again.”[1] That’s a line from poet William Cullen Bryant: “Truth, crush’d to earth, shall rise again. Heed not the shaft by hatred cast, the foul and hissing bolt of scorn; for with the right shall dwell at last, the vict’ry of endurance born.”[2] Martin Luther King, Jr., quoted this line in a speech from the steps of the Alabama state capitol after Bloody Sunday and the long delayed but finally successful march from Selma to Montgomery in 1965.[3] Listen to a few excerpts: “Last Sunday, more than 8,000 of us started on a mighty walk from Selma. We have walked through desolate valleys and across the trying hills. We have walked on meandering highways and rested our bodies on rocky byways. Some of our faces are burned from the outpourings of the sweltering sun. Some have literally slept in the mud. We have been drenched by the rains.” “They told us we wouldn’t get here. And there were those who said that we would get here only over their dead bodies, but all the world knows that we are here, and we stand before the forces of power saying, ‘We ain’t goin’ let nobody turn us around.’” I was struck by Dr. King’s description of the road to Montgomery. Desolate valleys. Trying hills. Rocky byways. Not like the vision of Isaiah’s road to Zion. By contrast, “The road ahead is not altogether a smooth one. There are no broad highways that lead us easily and inevitably to quick solutions. But we must keep going.” And here it is: “We must come to see that the end we seek is a society that can live with its conscience, a [nation] at peace with itself.”[4] He said, “I know you are asking today, ‘How long will it take? How long will prejudice blind the visions of men, darken their understanding, and drive bright-eyed wisdom from her throne? When will wounded justice, lying prostrate on the streets, be lifted from this dust of shame to reign supreme? When will the radiant star of hope be plunged against the nocturnal bosom of this lonely night? How long will justice be crucified, and truth bear it?” Aren’t those questions we are still asking today? Aren’t those questions we are especially asking today, with truth on trial in Congress? What is truth? At the end of April, the president had racked up 10,000 false or misleading claims during his term in office.[5] That was the same week he lied to Sean Hannity 45 times during a 45-minute interview.[6] To be fair, those are not 10,000 unique lies. Every time a lie is repeated, it is counted again. So, one lie repeated 190 times counts for 190 lies. By October, the count had been raised to more than 13,000. I don’t like euphemisms such as “false claims” or “inaccuracies.” These are nothing but assaults on facts and reality. Deliberate. As Peter Wehner wrote in The Atlantic magazine, the president is “not simply a serial liar; he is attempting to murder the very idea of truth.”[7] Remember his speech to the Veterans of Foreign Wars: “What you’re seeing is not what’s happening.”[8] As Dr. King said, “I know you are asking today, ‘How long will it take? How long will prejudice blind the visions of men, darken their understanding, and drive bright-eyed wisdom from her throne? How long will justice be crucified, and truth bear it?” His answer? “How long? Not long.” Because the Bible says, “you shall reap what you sow.” How long, not long, because “no lie can live forever.” Dr. King then quoted William Cullen Bryant. Because “truth crushed to earth shall rise again.” In my opening story about the petulant king, when he angrily chopped down the apple trees and trampled them into the ground, that only produced more trees in their place. Fortunately, in the last few months, truth crushed into the ground by our petulant president has produced new trees too: civil servants and military officers and professors of constitutional law rising up from the ground in increasing numbers to tell truth.[9] Why is truth so important? Rev. Daniel Smith said, “No truth means no accountability. No accountability means no justice. No justice means no healing, no mercy, no peace. No truth means no grace for any of us to face and accept our human failings.”[10] Why is truth so important? Because without it, we will not be at peace with ourselves. And the nation cannot be at peace with itself. Why is truth so important? Because when nothing is wrong, nothing can be made right. Our Thursday Noodles and Company lunch crowd was in no mood for our text from Isaiah today. Instead of finding it inspiring, many reacted negatively. This is unrealistic, they said. This is just flowery language. It’s not real. They were in no mood for optimism. I get it. These are times for healthy skepticism. So, then, what were the times like for those to whom the Prophet Isaiah was speaking? It sounds like Isaiah is encouraging the exiles. Exiles are forced from their land, taken from their homes and all that is familiar, now living as captives in the land Babylon. The chapter before today’s reading, chapter 34, speaks of absolute desolation. A vivid description of a place full of screech owls, crows, hyenas, and snakes. A dwelling for jackals with streams dried up into sulfur dust. A frightening dystopian world. But chapter 35 is a beautiful hope-filled vision. The prophet proclaims that one day you will return to Zion, to Jerusalem, on a highway through the desert so broad that not even fools will get lost. He speaks of the desert in glorious bloom. Burning sand that has become springs of water. But here’s something weird. These texts were written long after they were already home. They were back in Jerusalem. I’m not sure their way back to Zion was full of people singing and everlasting joy shining upon their heads. If it was, that was long ago, and their lives now were one big disappointment. Their Temple still lay in ruin. Why prophesy something in the future that has already happened? Or rather, did not happen. All that flowery imagery was just as unrealistic as our crowd at Noodles and Company felt about the text in our times. And why not? If they weren’t in the mood for optimism either, why should we? We have lost trust in institutions that once held us together. Many times, for good reason. For example, when religious leaders protect sexual predators instead of vulnerable children and adults, what is left of their integrity? When we read posts on social media, are they from real people or Russian trolls? When police unions protect their own instead of people of color, what happens to truth? No truth means no accountability. No accountability means no justice. No justice means no healing, no mercy, no peace, no grace. When nothing is wrong, nothing can be made right. But what about the lies we tell? Privilege can only be maintained on a series of lies we accept as true. That somehow we have any right to be on the land we stand upon today. That after Dr. King proclaimed a dream, it actually came true. That people of color or migrants or people who are poor actually fared better than they do now. The lie that everything used to be better and that the current administration is an abnormality. And yet there can be no doubt, these are particularly egregious and terrible times. I was struck by the vision of Dr. King from his speech of a society that “can live with its conscience.” What an image. And he wasn’t describing a world no longer at war but a nation at peace with itself. What a beautiful prophetic vision. Impossible? But here’s my truth: I may grieve this time we live in, I may be perpetually angry, but we are people of faith. And with faith, we persist in difficult hope. I take inspiration from the words of Paul to Christians who feared death before Jesus came again. He told the Thessalonians, “We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers and sisters, about those who have died, so that you may not grieve as others who have no hope.”[11] Sometimes this is taken to mean, “You are not allowed to grieve because you’re supposed to have hope.” But grief and hope are not opposites. I grieve and I have hope. That’s why, year after year, we keep lighting these Advent candles. To proclaim: “Truth, crush’d to earth, shall rise again. Heed not the shaft by hatred cast, the foul and hissing bolt of scorn; for with the right shall dwell at last, the vict’ry of endurance born.” Ah, yes. Endurance. Through this time that we grieve 13,000 lies and counting, the key is endurance. And instead of losing faith, Paul tells the Romans that “endurance produces character, and character produces… hope.”[12] So my question is: Though we may grieve, will you endure with me the beautiful – and difficult – hope of a society with a conscience, the vision of a nation at peace with itself? When that which is very wrong, is made right. [1] https://www.uua.org/worship/words/story/truth-crushed-down Adapted from a story by Christopher Buice [2] https://hymnary.org/text/truth_crushed_to_earth_shall_rise_again [3] https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/our-god-marching [4] In the actual speech, the order is reversed [5] https://www.politifact.com/personalities/donald-trump/statements/byruling/false/ [6] https://theweek.com/speedreads/838161/trump-made-45-false-misleading-claims-single-45minute-sean-hannity-interview [7] https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/06/donald-trumps-sinister-assault-truth/591925/ [8] https://www.cnn.com/2018/07/25/politics/donald-trump-vfw-unreality/index.html [9] https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2019/11/15/bureaucrats-arent-joining-resistance-theyre-doing-their-jobs/ [10] https://www.firstchurchcambridge.org/media/the-truth-crushed-to-earth-is-rising [11] 1st Thessalonians 4:13 NRSV [12] Romans 5:4
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