Comments for Jim

Sunday, December 12, 1999
Rev. James A. Todhunter
FAINT SPIRITS OR GLAD TIDINGS

Isaiah 61:1-4, 8-11
1 Thessalonians 5:16-24
John 1:6-8, 19-28

There is some breathtakingly beautiful poetry in the Bible, and the Book of the Prophet Isaiah has some of the most beautiful. Poetry, like all great art, communicates directly with the heart. Isaiah 61 is a song of pure joy. After a generation of sorrowful exile in Babylon, God is bringing the people home. There they will rebuild their holy city, Jerusalem, and rebuild their individual lives. This poetry is powerfully charged with anticipation. All that God has promised is now about to happen.

You don’t analyze great poetry; you immerse yourself in it. You catch the spirit of it. The prophet says:

These were words of comfort to the returning exiles of 530 B.C. And nearly six hundred years later, Jesus of Nazareth, as his first public act of ministry, would pick up the scroll of Isaiah in the synagogue of his home town and read these same words. He said the vision of Isaiah was the mission of the Messiah and it was even now being fulfilled. What does the magnificent poetry of Isaiah 61 tell us, even as we are invited into the joy it bears? Let me suggest three things.

First, the salvation the Messiah brings is both for the individual and for society. For the people of Israel and for Jesus, there is virtually no distinction between individual piety and social justice. Bad individuals can hurt a society. An unjust society cripples individuals. The salvation that is to come will free oppressed and imprisoned individuals, comfort mourners, and uplift the faint hearted. And, at the very same time, the glory of God will be displayed in the building up of ancient ruins and former devastations, and the repairing of ruined cities. Individuals will be treated with justice and mercy and the entire society will be renewed.

This is critically important to the vision of the Messiah. And it is timely. It seems to me there are two approaches to rebuilding our society. In New York City, the mayor has been applauded for reducing crime and cleaning up the city. But there are many who have decried his tactics. We have heard to the violence visited upon minorities by some police officers, themselves now brought to justice. And we have heard of his attempts to designate the homeless as criminals. This is a vision of urban renewal built upon simply getting rid of the people you feel are in the way. You put them in literal prisons, or prisons of poverty and exclusion.

But what the Messiah brings is another vision. The prisons are opened, the oppressed are liberated, and the mourners are healed. Think of Silver Spring ten years ago. Everyone seemed to be at each other’s throats, arguing about how to best proceed with economic and cultural redevelopment. The homeless were being blamed as the cause not the victims. But eventually the community began to truly work together to build a new downtown Silver Spring. I hope you all read the outstanding article on Silver Spring’s redevelopment by Susan De Ford of our congregation in the Washington Post last week. It is an excellent history and update. There have been many efforts, long-term and short-term, created not only to build gleaming office buildings and create retail opportunity, but to empower and include the least among us. Shepherd’s Table, Progress Place, The Silver Spring Community Leadership Initiative, Friends in Action, Four Corners Sharp, and more are all examples of a vision that says we cannot afford to dispense with anyone. A true community creates a place for the least ones among us. We do this not out of pity or self-righteousness, but out of the recognition that every single person has gifts to share, gifts that are truly needed. It is tragic that those firefighters lost their lives in Worcester, Massachusetts last week. The fact that they died believing there were homeless people still in the warehouse, perhaps even responsible for the fire in the first place, is a tribute not only to the tremendous bravery of those firemen, but also to a felt connection between such people who routinely lay their lives on the line, and those most destitute and abject in our society. It is also a sad reminder that people who are so removed from society, perhaps mentally ill, cannot live in warehouses. It is too dangerous. That tragedy could have happened in Silver Spring ten years ago. I don’t think so now. The vision of community of the Messiah is whole, a true realm of Shalom.

Secondly, Isaiah’s poetry shows us that our individual salvation is of the whole self. The poet says "I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, my whole being shall exult in my God." We moderns continually compartmentalize ourselves. I am mind. I am body. I am soul. I am worker. I am consumer. I am man. I am woman. I am single. I am married. I am gay. I am straight. I am black. I am white. For the Messiah, salvation is not simply psychological health. It is not simply physical health, or spiritual health, or gainful employment, or a healthy relationship, or sexual fulfillment, or a place at the table as a minority person. When we pigeon hole salvation in such a way, we are really trying to pigeon hole God. Which doesn’t work. We are not spirits inhabiting bodies. We are bodies which inhabit spirit. Someone was telling me last week of a conversation they had had with a friend, telling them about Referral and Service at CCC, the group of people here who drive people to doctors appointments, bring food, do receptions, and so much more. She was surprised to hear her friend say that they really did no such thing at their church. That is unfortunate. We need prayer and this kind of help, too. Why? Because we are body, spirit, mind all wrapped up in soul.

The third thing the poetry of Isaiah evokes is the tremendous glad tidings that it is God who accomplishes this vision. The healing of body, mind and spirit of all that is oppressive is nothing short of a miracle. The creation of a community that embodies peace and justice and the encouragement of the very least among us is itself nothing short of a miracle. We all know why these things feel impossible to achieve.. We are well acquainted with the barriers to health and the barriers to true human community. We know the randomness of suffering and the intransigent evil of the human heart. It is enough to depress anyone. But yet the poet has the audacity to say that we are offered the mantle of praise instead of a faint spirit. And there is a crucial distinction here. The glad tidings of God are never, ever about simply cheering folks up when they are down. The Messiah is not a morale officer. The glad tidings of God are never, ever about trying to wipe out despair by layering it over with optimism. The concept of optimism does not even appear in the Bible. Instead the Messiah tells us to receive the glad tidings that God is God, God is good, God is coming, and God’s promises will be fulfilled. You are going home to a sacred environment of justice and peace, and to healing and wholeness for your total soul. You can count on it. It’s going to happen. Is that a miracle? You bet it is. And what is a miracle? A miracle is God doing what God promised. It is God saying that if we trust in God, give it our absolute best shot, place it is God’s hands, pray and let go, that miracle will happen. Just be patient and remember that God’s time is not our time. And God’s timing is always right.

I can’t tell you what the outcome of our Capital campaign is going to be exactly. But the miracle has already started. If a year ago you had told me that through the Building Design and Keystones Capital Campaign effort so many people of this congregation would be so involved, working so hard, taking it so seriously, doing such consistently high quality work, be so excited, so hopeful, going to so many meetings, and even having such fun with it - if you had told me that I don’t think I could have comprehended it. It would have been a dream. So I hope you feel with me profound appreciation for the tremendous capacity of this congregation, but also stand in awe before the power of a vision – in our case, the vision embodied in this Facilities Master Plan. It is not just a dream, but it is an expression of our trust in God.

If there is some faint heartedness lingering about this vision, let us don the mantle of praise, and trust the vision even more. If we are uneasy in considering generous and sacrificial giving, let us just clothe ourselves in the garments of salvation and the robes of righteousness. If we are tempted to think that buildings aren’t that important to God’s mission, let us remember that we are called in our whole beings to use all our resources to shape a mission to heal souls and restore communities. We are called to build an institution in the best sense, honoring our founders and providing for our successors. Let us proclaim those glad tidings, not with faint spirits, but with powerful praise. Let us, ourselves, be those glad tidings to our community and our world. Amen.

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