Overwhelming Righteousness

This is the message given in the Sunday night service in the Gettysburg United Methodist church on April 18, 2021.  The Bible verses used are Isaiah 51:1-16.

            Do you ever just kind of feel overwhelmed by everything?

            I do, sometimes.  I think we all do.  It just seems like life comes at us fast and hard sometimes.  And these days, that seems to happen a lot.  COVID.  Riots.  Violence.  Injustice.  Societal unrest.  And just in the lives of people around us, or maybe in ourselves, we have all kinds of things going on.  Health issues.  Financial issues.  Relationship issues.  The pressures of work or school.  

            It just seems like it never ends.  And if affects us.  It has to.  We lose patience.  Our mood gets sour.  Our tempers get short.  We feel like we just need a break, a chance to refresh ourselves, a chance to just catch our breath.  And it seems, sometimes, like we never get one.  Every time we think we’re going to, here comes something else to knock us back.  It feels like we’re running as fast as we can just to stay in the same place.  And we get tired.  And it’s hard.

            The churchy thing to say, of course, is to trust God.  Find our rest in God.  And of course, that’s absolutely right.  But how do we do that?  How can we find our rest in God?  How can we learn to trust God when it seems like life is coming at us faster than we can deal with it?

            God knows it’s hard for us to do that.  And so, God gives us some help with it.  God, speaking through the prophet Isaiah, tells us how to handle these situations.

            God starts out by telling us to look to the past.  Think of your ancestors, your parents, grandparents, and so on.  God reminds us that they had some hard times, too.  And yet, God was always there for them, and God got them through it.  After all, if He had not done that, you and I would not be here.  So, if God did that for them, God will do it for you, too.

            In Isaiah, God references Abraham and Sarah.  But you and I don’t have to go back that far.  Most of us don’t have to go back that many generations to get to the generation that first came to this country.  In my case, it’s just two generations, to my grandparents.  For a lot of us, our ancestors came here with very little.  They endured all kinds of hard conditions.  They went through things most of us can only imagine.

            And yet, they made it.  They made it because they trusted God, and God was there for them.  God was with them, and God helped them get through it all.  

            I don’t mean to minimize the problems we have now.  They’re serious, and we need to take them seriously.  But it’s a human trait for each generation to think that they have things worse than anyone ever has.  It’s not true.  Every generation has serious problems.  And every generation needs God’s help.  And if we turn to God, and we ask God for help, God will be there for us.  God was there for Abraham and Sarah.  God was there for our ancestors.  God will be there for us, too.

            But God does more than just help us survive.  God helps us live life abundantly.  God says he will “make [the] deserts like Eden, her wastelands like the garden of the Lord.  Joy and gladness will be found in her, thanksgiving and the sound of singing.”

            Sounds good, right?  But sometimes we think, yeah, well, I don’t see much of that around here.  I don’t see that “abundant life” I’m supposed to have.  I see problems.  I see all kinds of bad stuff going on that I don’t like and that I don’t seem able to do anything about.  That “joy and gladness” must have been shipped to the wrong address, because I sure don’t see much of it here now.

            I wonder if that’s the reaction the people of Isaiah’s time had, too.  Because the next thing God says is “Listen to me, my people.  Hear me, my nation.”  In other words, if what I’ve said is not enough, listen up, because I have more to say.

            And here it is:  “My righteousness draws near speedily, my salvation is on the way, and my arm will bring justice to the nations.  The islands will look to me and wait in hope for my arm.  Lift up your eyes to the heavens, look at the earth beneath; the heavens will vanish like smoke, the earth will wear out like a garment and its inhabitants die like flies.  But my salvation will last forever, my righteousness will never fail.”

            Listen to the things God promises in that statement.  Righteousness.  Justice.  Hope.  And most importantly, salvation.

            God’s righteousness will never fail.  The time will come when God makes everything right.  I don’t know when that will be, but it will come.  

            But even now there are times when God’s righteousness prevails.  Not always--the world is not yet as it should be or will be.  But there are times.  There are times when what is morally right does happen.  And there are times when justice is done.  

If you look past the headlines, you can see those times.  You can think of those times.  Times when someone did something good for someone, with no thought that they’d get anything in return.  Times when someone did the right thing with no thought of any reward, just because it was the right thing.  Times when people showed love to each other, even if there was no one else around to notice.  Righteousness does sometimes happen.  Justice is sometimes done.

And that should give us the hope that God promises.  For one thing, they help us recognize that righteousness and justice do exist, even if they don’t prevail all the time.  But God has placed enough of a sense of righteousness and justice in human hearts that we’re willing to act that way sometimes, then with God’s help we can act with a sense of righteousness and justice more of the time.  Maybe all the time.  Things can get better.  With God’s help, they will get better.  We can see a day when God’s righteousness and justice prevail.  That’s the hope you and I have through the Lord.

And it’s what God promises us.  God says, ““Hear me, you who know what is right, you people who have taken my instruction to heart:  Do not fear the reproach of mere mortals or be terrified by their insults.  For the moth will eat them up like a garment; the worm will devour them like wool.  But my righteousness will last forever, my salvation through all generations.”

When the bad things are all around, when life seems ready to overwhelm us, this is what we need to remember.  Don’t worry about what mere mortals can do.  They’re not going to win.  God’s going to take care of them.  God’s righteousness and justice are going to prevail.  And when they do, it will be forever.

And when God says forever, God means forever.  Literally.  Not just here.  Not just in our lives on earth.  God’s righteousness is forever.  God’s justice is forever.  And our salvation, through our faith in Jesus Christ, is forever, too.

God makes that point again a little later on.  “I, even I, am he who comforts you.  Who are you that you fear mere mortals, human beings who are but grass, that you forget the Lord your Maker, who stretches out the heavens and who lays the foundations of the earth.”

God says, why are you so worried about what human beings are doing?  Whatever they do, it won’t last.  And it certainly won’t prevail against God.  God is the one who created everything.  And not just everything on earth--God created the stars and the planets and the entire universe.  Think of how powerful, how awesome, how incredible, God really is.  And that same powerful, awesome, incredible God created you.  And created me.  That God is not going to allow us to be overwhelmed by mere human beings and mere human concerns.  God’s righteousness, God’s justice, and God’s salvation go way beyond anything mere humans can do.  God’s righteousness, God’s justice, and God’s salvation will always prevail in the end.  They will prevail on earth, and they will prevail in heaven.

It’s okay if life seems overwhelming sometimes.  It happens to everyone.  But when it happens to you, stop for a minute.  Remember all the times God has been there in the past.  All the times God has been there for your ancestors, and all the times God has been there for you.  Know that if God has been there in the past, God will be there in the future, because God is the unchanging, everlasting God.

The concerns of this world gets overwhelming because this world is all we know.  But God knows eternity.  God is bigger and stronger and better than anything in this world.  So trust God’s strength and God’s goodness.  Know that God’s righteousness and God’s justice will win.  And know that, if we stay close to God, God’s salvation will be there for us.