A City on a Hill?
Isaiah 62:1-5
I hate going grocery shopping. It is always such a hassle. I never have the time to actually make a list and I certainly never manage to clip any coupons. The store is always so crowded and the temperature changes from cold to hot, depending on what section I am in. Some people are too slow. Some people are too fast. It is just such a horrible experience. Memories make grocery shopping even worse. Each time I enter a grocery store one particular day 19 years ago hovers around in the back of my mind. My mother had dragged me to the store for what to me was unbearable torture. She cut my time with the lobster tank short and she spent too much time with the vegetables. I didn’t even want to think about eating rabbit food so I left my mother’s side to check out the bakery. I have always enjoyed frosted donuts with sprinkles. This store had so many different colors of frosting, white, brown, pink, green, blue, orange, red. It made this kid in a grocery store feel like a kid in a candy store. I visualized each donut that I wanted in a bag and turned to go annoy my mom until she would allow me to get them all.
Yet, when I returned to the produce section she was gone. Panic set in. I scanned the area around me and she was nowhere to be found. I ran to the front of the store and looked down each aisle. I still could not find her. My eyes filled with tears as I thought of never seeing my mom again. Who would feed me and love me? Where would I live? What did I do to deserve this? Then I wiped my tears out of my eyes and stood up straight. I walked over to the counter and asked them to call my mother over the speaker system. It seemed like an eternity, but I saw her. My mom was running. She seemed scared and as she got closer I saw tears in her eyes. I began to wander, what happened to mom? She never cries. Did she get hurt? Did she fall? As she got closer she reached out her arms and grabbed me tight. I cried too. It took me a minute, but I realized my mom had been looking for me too. The whole time I searched for her, she was searching for me. I never should have left her side. Separation is a painful experience. We can feel abandoned, unloved, vulnerable, bewildered, even angry when we are separated from the persons we love. Separation is so often not what we expect. It threatens our security and our future. What can we do if we don’t know it’s coming? How can we stop it from happening?
The community Isaiah speaks to is recovering from a traumatic separation. This separation is beyond any individual relationship. The people are separated from God. How did this happen? The once great nation of Israel fell apart. The glory days of David and Solomon were no more. The kingdom divided itself in half and each half was carried away into slavery by a larger nation. The temple in Jerusalem, the house built for God, was completely destroyed. Its riches were looted and its stones thrown down. The people were dazed. Where is God? Why is this happening? What will become of us? No one spoke of hope or deliverance. They felt abandoned, forgotten, defeated. Their community crumbled around them as did their relationship with God. The Babylonian captivity is a story of failed relationships, a story of separation.
What exactly is the irreconcilable difference that set the people on a course of self-destruction? Isaiah and many of the other prophets of the Old Testament make no secret of the fact that the people were worshipping other gods. It is a continual theme running throughout the Old Testament. The Israelites bow to a golden calf while Moses is away. One of the Ten Commandments specifically says not to make idols and to have no other gods. In the time of Elijah anyone who refuses to worship the god Baal is executed. There are always competing gods. They take away the people’s time and energy to invest in their relationship with the Creator. How can you have a close relationship with someone you don’t talk to and do not visit on a regular basis? You can’t. It’s not possible. The people’s priorities shifted over time and their relationship with God degenerated and decayed to the point of death. Their daily existence no longer had a unified purpose rooted in a common god, but a divided purpose centered on their own wants and desires in the moment.
The people’s relationship with God was broken and so was their relationship with one another. The law in Deuteronomy calls for the corners of the fields to be left for the widows, the orphans, and the aliens to tend. It also says to leave any unintentional crops that may fall from harvesting for the poor to gather. The law in Deuteronomy recognizes that it is the community’s responsibility to care for the most vulnerable and least-privileged among us. Yet we also know from the Old Testament prophets that the community was not taking care of its own. The poor and the marginalized suffered greatly while the people who had, gained more. The reason for the existence of any community is to ensure the survival and wellbeing of its members. In this case, the community failed to follow the law, in essence, leaving its weakest members without resources and without any hope for survival. The people’s relationship to each other withered away and was transformed into a self-centered, winner-take-all lifestyle. The people were no longer in relationship with God or with one another.
In the ruins of broken relationships and shattered promises, the people become slaves to other nations. It is not that God left them for they long ago had left God. It’s not so much that their community was surrounded and destroyed by the Babylonians as they had already broken their community down by ignoring the cries of the needy. Exiled miles away from home in an unfamiliar land with a wholly different culture and language, the people wonder if they will just disappear as if they had never existed. It is in this context that Isaiah brings them good news. It’s time to rebuild, to start over. Their glory days from the past are no more, but there will be glory days in the future. What’s more, as they build their community anew, God will ensure their success. The people are offered a new chance to rekindle their broken relationship with God and with one another.
Rebuilding is an exciting opportunity, but an enormous challenge. The previous structure fell apart. What will you do to ensure that the new structure does not also collapse? When Hurricane Katrina slammed into the Gulf coast a few years ago, very few people would have predicted the damage done to New Orleans. Everyone placed so much faith in large mounds of dirt and rock holding back millions and millions of gallons of water. When the levees broke open, the houses were not prepared for the rising waters. Most of the houses were a total loss. After the storm, new houses are required to be anchored more than 30 feet into the ground and rest several feet above the ground surface. This way the house will not be moved and it will be safe from the rising water. It is extremely important when rebuilding to learn from past mistakes and build better, wiser, and safer.
Jesus provides with a blueprint for rebuilding relationships with God and with one another. It is through Christ that we are ultimately restored to full relationship with God. Jesus obediently followed God’s call in his life and made himself vulnerable for the sake of the community. Also, it is from Christ that we are given the beatitudes, blessing the poor and the weak. In Matthew chapter 5 Jesus says, “You are the light of the world. A city built on a hill cannot be hidden.” Our rebuilt community sits in a place where the world can see it. Do we ensure that the world sees us? Are we comfortable with the world coming to us and the changes that would occur? What are we doing with our elevated position? What kind of example are we setting for the wider community around us? Do we care for the lowly, the marginalized, the wounded, and the oppressed?
It is always a good idea to ask ourselves difficult, self-reflective questions. We should never be afraid to hold ourselves accountable for our relationships. Let’s take an inventory of our relationships now. Are we truly a city on a hill? Do people look up to our church as a shining light or do they pay us little attention? Do we wait for people to come to us or do we go out and meet people where they are? Which one of these do we think fits the image of a city on a hill more closely? How do we organize our priorities? Does God make the top five? How do we make God a priority? What do we do to care for one another? How do we care for the widow, the orphan, and the alien? Relationships are always changing. There are ups and there are downs and it requires constant maintenance to keep the relationships we value. Let us not wait for the point when we have to rebuild. We don’t have to let ourselves slip into brokenness. When we are lost, alone and afraid, thanks be to God that He looks for us as we are looking for Him. Thanks be to God that when we feel alone, there is always a community here to support and build us up.