In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Boys and girls, did you know that when the Holy Spirit inspired the writers of the Bible, they were prompted to write down words and letters, but no punctuation? No periods. No commas or semicolons, and certainly no quotes. I still like the fact that the old King James Bible doesn’t bother with trying to put in quotes. I think they can be misleading, and today’s reading from Isaiah 40 is a case in point.
I’m thinking particularly about the ending of the reading. Suddenly the prophet hears a voice. The voice says: Cry! But the prophet, no doubt in a bit of a discouraged tone, answers back: And what exactly am I supposed to cry out? And then I believe it is the prophet who goes on, explaining his frustration: All flesh is grass, and all its beauty like the flower of the field. He means, of course, none of us last very long. Just like the grass can be burnt to a crisp in the heat of a dry summer afternoon, and fade from vibrant green to dead yellow and brown, or just like one day you see a pretty dandelion standing there like a little sun, but the next day it’s nothing but a puff head of spores, and then when the wind goes over it, it’s just a bare stalk.
The prophet was thinking that’s how it is with US. So he adds on: The grass withers, the flower fades when the breath of the Lord blows upon us. Surely the people is grass.
I think his point, answering the voice of God telling him to cry out, was: “What’s the use? We’re all here for such a short time and before we know it, our life is cut off and we’re gone. What is there then that’s WORTH crying out about? What’s the point of preaching when everyone you’re preaching to is headed to the grave: some sooner, some later, but all of us worm food in end. What’s the point of preaching? Why not just shut up and be sad.
But GOD has answer for his reluctant prophet. He agrees with him that it is true that grass withers. It’s true that the flower fades. It’s true that the human life span can seem so very painfully short. Maybe some of you have already had to say goodbye to people that you very much loved, but whose earthly time had come to an end. It’s hard. And what goes for people goes also for nations. Isaiah had made no bones about it: Israel, the nation, was going to come to pieces and be swallowed whole by the Babylonian empire. Nations come and nations go just like people do. The grass withers. The flower fades. And then God speaks His great adversative: BUT. But? Have you ever noticed how but wipes out what came in front? BUT there is something that doesn’t wither. BUT there IS something that never fades. BUT The Word of our God will stand forever.
When Israel went into Exile, the people carried not much besides their scrolls. They would gather in Babylon and read the beautiful words and the weirdest thing happened as they listened to God’s prophets and His promises. Hope was rekindled, faith was born in them, despair was chased away. They couldn’t figure out for the life of them HOW God was going to save and rescue them, but when they read and proclaimed to each other the promises, they were comforted and came to believe that what God said would indeed take place, no matter how impossible it seemed. His word, the only thing they carried with them into exile, the only thing that the Babylonians didn’t take away from them because they didn’t think it was worth anything, would prove to be the one thing that really lasts. People come and go. Nations and rise and fall. And here we sit 2,700 years AFTER Isaiah’s time and we’re still listening to the Words and they still do the job. They go into us and give us faith. They point us to our Jesus and His promise that though heaven and earth pass away, these, His words (and Isaiah’s words ARE His words) will NEVER pass away.
What’s more ephemeral than a word? You speak and it’s gone. But that’s just our words. God speaks a word and what He speaks He causes to be.
God says: Let there be, and it was. God says: this bread is my body and His word causes it to be His body. God says: this wine is my blood that was shed for you for the wiping out of your sins, and His word causes it to be the blood that atoned for the sin of the whole world. His words says: Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved. And it causes what He promises to be. You, who have been baptized into Him, HIS word will not let you down. It will give you everlasting salvation.
So, when the preacher is bumming about the way things are going, and is worried, God reminds him: DUDE, YOU have the Word that I have put into your mouth. It will stand forever. And so when you give it to the people, you are giving them that by which they can live forevermore! Think of it. Every promise of God’s Word to you is an eternal promise. It will come true. Heaven and earth will pass away; but the Word of the Lord endures forever.
How wise our Lutheran forebears were at the time of the Reformation to make that be their sort of motto. VDMA. Verbum Domini Manet in Aeternum. The Word of the Lord endures forever. And THAT my friends is worth crying out about. God’s Word is our great heritage and shall be ours forever. To spread its light from age to age shall be our chief endeavor. In life it guides our way. In death it is our stay. Grant, Lord, while worlds endure, we keep its teachings pure throughout all generations.
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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