Isaiah 43:1-3a *
Dear Friends in Christ,
The devastation is so immense that it’s taken on an almost
surreal quality. Like the event which
took place exactly 4 years ago on
Hurricane Katrina has left her mark. It’s been two weeks, yet a good deal of
As we ponder the images, we are given to personal reflection. We wonder: could something of this magnitude ever happen here? And if it did, how would we react? What if we were the ones trying to wave down helicopters from the top of buildings or wading through flooded streets floating what’s left of our worldly possessions on a makeshift raft? Could we handle it? What would we cling to – emotionally and spiritually?
And without minimizing an event that can never be minimized, what about Katrina as a metaphor or symbol of the smaller scale but no less real personal tragedies and difficulties that come into our lives?
It is against the backdrop of this unprecedented natural
disaster and the questions and emotions it raises that today’s text has been
chosen. Unity Sunday is our annual
opportunity to rejoice in our oneness as a gathered body of believers known as
But today, in view of Katrina and 9-11 four years ago, perhaps we can best be served by simply remembering what God has to say to us especially in times of national or personal uncertainty. Today, together, let us take heart in words our Heavenly Father directs to us through His prophet Isaiah. They provide us with
A COMFORTING REMINDER
1. Of who we are
2. And what this means
But now, this is what
the LORD says— he who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you, O
God takes up the matter of our identity. Who are we? If you listened closely, you heard God describe us in four specific and significant ways. Let’s take a closer look…
But now, this is what
the LORD says— he who created you, O
Jacob, he who formed you, O
Think of the implications of this. At some time in your life, did you ever wish you were someone else? Did you ever wish you had the natural talent or the personal charisma or even the physical qualities of someone else? I would guess that most of us have.
Here God essentially is telling us that if he wanted us to be someone else, He would have made the change Himself. But God has created each one of us to be ourselves. We aren’t what we are by the luck of the draw. We are what we are by design. Unique. Each with our own personality and nationality and physical traits and spiritual gifts. To put it in artistic terms, none of us are mass productions. We are all originals.
And the beauty is that, in a Christian congregation like
this, we all compliment each other. God
has created and formed each of us separately so that together we can accomplish
His purposes – the building up of each other in faith and the proclamation of
the Gospel message of Jesus Christ. Different
gifts and personalities, yes; but one single mission to be carried out by each
of us in our own way. This is just as
God intended it to be when he “fearfully and wonderfully made”
each one of us as the individuals we are.
But now, this is what
the LORD says— he who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you, O
Redemption means to free someone from bondage or some other miserable circumstance. It always involves the payment of a price.
There’s a story making its way around the internet. It’s been sent to me a couple of times, so maybe you’ve already heard it. It’s about a country boy who had trapped a couple of ordinary field sparrows and was carrying them around in an old battered bird cage. He met up with a preacher who asked him what he was going to do with them. The boy said that he’d probably play with them for a while and then feed him to his cat.
The preacher offered to buy them for an amount of money which seemed far beyond their value. The boy was puzzled. He told the preacher they weren’t worth it, because after all, they were just ordinary birds that couldn’t even sing. As the boy saw it, they had no redeeming qualities. But if he wanted to part with that kind of money, it was a deal.
So the exchange was made. The boy went away whistling at his great fortune, while the preacher went to the back of his church, opened the battered old cage and let the birds fly away to freedom.
The next Sunday he brought that birdcage to church and used it to talk about redemption. The point he made is not hard to understand. What the preacher had done for those birds, Christ has done for us. We were the ones who had been caged in a prison of our own sin and death. Jesus said those who sin are slaves to sin. And that’s what we were. Slaves. Trapped. “The wages of sin is death” we are told in Romans 6, and we were in line to have those wages paid; powerless to free ourselves from sin’s damning consequences.
But all that has changed. Because Jesus Christ has redeemed us. Now we are heaven bound. The price He paid was very, very steep: His own perfect life sacrificed in our place. “For the Son of man came not to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many” says Jesus. And the scars on His hands and feet testify to the depth of His love for us.
Because of Jesus Christ God has given us a new
identity. No longer are we on the voyage
of the damned. Now we are enlisted in
the ranks of the redeemed.
But now, this is what
the LORD says— he who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you, O
To be summoned means to be called. Stated here is this remarkable truth: God has called each of us personally. Individually.
By name. And you know when that
happened, don’t you? It happened the
moment we came to faith. For many of us
this happened at our baptism; for others, baptism confirmed the faith God
placed within us. Through water and the
Word, God summoned us by name.
Which means we are His. And that is God’s final and summary answer to the question of our identity. He simply says: “You are mine. In other words, we are His possession. He owns us. Satan doesn’t own us. Sin doesn’t own us. God owns us. Restored into a right relationship with Him through the forgiveness of sins accomplished by Jesus Christ, we belong to God.
So who are we? We are those whom God has lovingly and individually created and formed for His purposes. We are the redeemed. We are those who have been summoned by name through the waters of baptism. In short, we are God’s.
And as our text goes on, all this is not just academic; it has a profound effect on the way in which we navigate life. Because when we know who we are and whose we are and what we are and where we’ll be spending our eternal future, we can deal with the ups and downs of the present. We can face life with no fear.
You know, when God’s people were originally given these words of comfort by Isaiah they had never experienced anything like hurricane Katrina or 9-11. Truth be told, in terms of loss of life and terror and disruption, they experienced worse – and the end was not in sight. Isaiah wrote these words to people who were far from home, still dealing with emotional fire and deep waters, with many more trials to face before their final rest.
And yet, because of who they are, God tells them to “fear not.” Then he offered them and us a wonderful
promise: 2 When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and
when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk
through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze. 3
For I am the LORD, your God, the Holy One of
Waters and rivers and fire are just different ways of talking about the ordeals and difficulties of life. Did you notice that it doesn’t say “if” you pass through them, but “when.” In other words, they are to be expected. Into every life some rain will fall; in some lives more than others.
So God, through Isaiah, is not offering a quick fix or the promise of peace from trouble. Rather, by reminding us of who we are and what this means, He is offering us peace in the midst of troubles. He does not offer us the absence of pain, but the presence of His strength.
What is God’s promise to us here? That He will never leave us or forsake us. That no matter how dark the way, there is always light at the end of the tunnel. That no matter how difficult the road, it will eventually lead to a safe destination. Troubles may shake us, but they will never overtake us. Most importantly, we have the promise that in every trial – whether physical, emotional or spiritual in nature doesn’t matter – He is the God who is there and we will never, ever be left alone. And that’s a wonderful place to be…
Let’s return to our original thought. As a nation we have once again experienced a tragedy that will likely be burned into our consciousness for a long time to come. We are saddened and troubled. But we should not be surprised. It is one more reminder of what God tells us in this text as well as Jesus’ proclamation in John 16 that in this world there will always be trouble in one form or another.
But in troublesome times, it is important for God’s people to remember. Specifically we must remember who we are – individuals lovingly fashioned by God, redeemed by Christ and summoned by God to be His very own. Then we must remember what this means. Because we are His, we have His promise to never leave us or forsake us regardless of the circumstances He may ask us to endure.
On this Unity Sunday, let us rejoice in the fact that God
has brought us together into a single Christian family known as
May God always preserve and strengthen us in these blessed truths. And may God always preserve and strengthen this blessed fellowship. Amen.