From Memory to Hope
Isaiah 40:21-31
We’re in Epiphany, which is the season in the church year between Christmas and Lent. The theme of Epiphany is the light of God shining in the darkness. In today’s reading from the gospel of Mark, we can see how God’s light shining in Jesus through his ordinary day: healing the sick, forgiving sins, and teaching with authority. In this reading from Isaiah, we see the light of God shining on one who feel unseen and forgotten.
Listen now for the word of the Lord.
21 Have you not known? Have you not heard?
Has it not been told you from the beginning?
Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth?
22 It is he who sits above the circle of the earth,
and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers,
who stretches out the heavens like a curtain
and spreads them like a tent to live in,
23 who brings princes to naught
and makes the rulers of the earth as nothing.
24 Scarcely are they planted, scarcely sown,
scarcely has their stem taken root in the earth,
when he blows upon them, and they wither,
and the tempest carries them off like stubble.
25 To whom, then, will you compare me,
or who is my equal? says the Holy One.
26 Lift up your eyes on high and see:
Who created these?
He who brings out their host and numbers them,
calling them all by name;
because he is great in strength,
mighty in power,
not one is missing.
27 Why do you say, O Jacob,
and assert, O Israel,
“My way is hidden from the Lord,
and my right is disregarded by my God”?
28 Have you not known? Have you not heard?
The Lord is the everlasting God,
the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He does not faint or grow weary;
his understanding is unsearchable.
29 He gives power to the faint
and strengthens the powerless.
30 Even youths will faint and be weary,
and the young will fall exhausted,
31 but those who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength;
they shall mount up with wings like eagles;
they shall run and not be weary;
they shall walk and not faint.
This is the word of the Lord.
Thanks be to God.
Those powerful words are spoken to a people who have forgotten the most important thing they need to remember.
How many of you occasionally have memory trouble? Maybe it’s more than occasionally? You forget an appointment, or something your spouse told you? You forget where you put your keys, and discover they’re in your pocket. Where you put your glasses, and then find them on your head. Where you put your phone, and need someone to call you?
All of us can be forgetful, and sometimes we become more forgetful as we age.
More often, though, we become more forgetful when we’re under stress. If you find yourself forgetting things, ask yourself first if you’re stressed. A big project deadline at work, an upcoming surgery, a loved one who is struggling, a move or a marriage or a newborn, caring for a spouse, grieving a death. Wars in Ukraine and Israel, the fear of a widening conflict in the Middle East, the prospect of a very long presidential election. Any one of these, and surely several together, can cause us to forget.
In the reading from Isaiah, the prophet is speaking to people who are under a great deal of stress and have forgotten the most important thing they need to remember.
This part of Isaiah is written when most of the nation of Israel has been in exile for several generations. The first 39 chapters of the book of Isaiah were written by a prophet called Isaiah, before Israel was defeated by their neighboring nation and their leaders were taken into exile.
But if you read through the book, you’ll notice a change at Chapter 40. Chapter 40 begins what is called “Second Isaiah,” written many decades later by other prophets in the “school of Isaiah,” to the people who have been living in exile for generations. Their exile, now, is nearly over, and “Second Isaiah” starts with a message of comfort and hope.
They are living at the very bottom of society in a nation and culture that is foreign to everything they know. They are surrounded by different gods and different values. Their imagination for life has atrophied, their faith is cold, their courage is tired, and their souls are weary. God – the living God, the Lord their God, the God who called them and made them a people – seems very, very far away.
Living under the stress of personal and national trauma, the people of Israel living in exile have forgotten some very important truths. They are living with existential amnesia. Like us when we are stressed, their feelings and thoughts are zoomed in to the present moment, their heads, their eyes, and their minds are down and in – focused on the anxieties and worries of now.
The prophet, here in chapter forty, is helping them remember. The prophet is stirring up an old memory of faith so they can move from memory to hope.
Memory is essential to living with hope, and it is a key part of biblical faith. It’s no accident that repeatedly in the Old Testament, God describes God’s self by recalling a memory. “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.” That way of introducing God by recalling the memory of God’s deliverance is so common it practically becomes God’s name.
God is not simply God; God is “the Lord, your God, the one who brought you out of the land of Egypt and out of the house of slavery.” Do you remember who God is? In that one event, God’s goodness and love and mercy and justice and power are remembered. In that one recollection, God’s character is brought to mind.
In Isaiah 40, the prophet – who is also pastor, counselor, and therapist – asks the stressed out, worried, and despairing people to remember the most important thing they have forgotten.
“Have you not known? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the creator of the ends of the earth.”
I wonder if, maybe, the prophet says it more strongly than that. Perhaps it is not a quiet whisper, but more like a wake-up call.
“Have you not known? Have you not heard?
The Lord is the everlasting God, the creator of the ends of the earth.”
Don’t you remember? Are you walking numb through this life? Has existential amnesia caused you to forget God too?
Sometimes, we do forget, and we need a prophet to help us remember.
Many years ago, Frederick Douglass was addressing a Boston audience about racism in America, and Sojourner Truth was sitting in the on the front row, facing the platform, tall and attentive. As he spoke, Douglass grew more and more agitated, more and more despairing, saying finally that there was no hope for justice outside of violence and bloodshed.
When he sat down, the crowd fell into a tense hush. Then, in her deep and commanding voice, Sojourner Truth asked a question that was heard all over the room: “Frederick, is God dead?”[1]
Sojourner Truth is a soul-sibling with the prophet from the school of Isaiah.
“Have you not known? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God.”
To these dear people in exile who despair that they are unseen, whose souls are weary, and whose faith is fragile, the prophet/pastor/counselor/therapist does not reframe their circumstances in terms that make it seem easier to bear.
The prophet/pastor/counselor/therapist does not point them to a silver lining that will bright-side their situation.
The prophet/pastor/counselor/therapist does not try make them feel better by helping them see that it could always be worse.
The prophet/pastor/counselor/therapist does not tell them, like Job’s friends did, to just curse God and die.
For these dear people, beloved by God, in the depths of their despair, the prophet/pastor/counselor/therapist reminds them of the character of their God, of God’s goodness and power and promise.
The one who sits above the circle of the earth, such that its inhabitants are like little grasshoppers, the one who makes heroes zeroes, who brings the strongmen of earth to nothing – do you remember this is your God?
Look at the stars in the sky. Do you remember that your God created these? Do you remember that your God is the creator of the ends of the earth? Do you remember that your God does not grow tired or faint?
Do you remember? Do we remember? It is human to forget things when we are under stress. It’s simply what we do. When we are knee deep in grief, up to our neck in troubles, when we are walking a lonely path, hidden from the sight of others and feeling ignored by God. Do we remember?
Do we remember that our God is the God who saw Haggar in the wilderness, when she was mistreated and rejected and alone, God saw her and she named God the One who Sees?
Do we remember that our God is the one who heard the distress of Israel people in Egypt, and sent Moses to say, “Set my people free”?
Do we remember that our God is the God who found Elijah, utterly depleted and deeply depressed and begging to die, and God sent the ravens to feed him and summoned a tree to give him shade? Do we remember?
When we are overwhelmed by grief over what is happening or fears of what may happen, do we remember? When we are weary of caring, and hoping, and working, and striving, when our faith is fragile, and our energy is low. Do we remember?
Our God is the God who said, “I will make justice flow down waters, and righteousness like a mighty stream.” “I will make.” Do we remember? Our God is the God who said, “Come to me, all you who are weary and carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.” Our God is the One who said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” Do we remember?
The prophet calls us to remember – not just remember God – but remember who God is, what God has done, and what God promises to do.
“Those who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.”
Those who wait for the Lord. Those who stop and take time to remember who the Lord our God is.
I’m reminded today of a story in the life of Martin Luther King, Jr., when an elder of the movement helped him remember who God is. February is Black History month, and this month black churches, especially, will remember black Americans who have made a tremendous impact in our common history.
Several years ago, at a black congregation in Montgomery, Alabama during February, I was struck that the children of the church were doing biography projects of famous black Americans, not only as part of a civics or history lesson but as part of the story of their faith. They had posters on tables in the fellowship hall, and after worship the congregation went down to see the presentations and hear what the children had learned.
The elder who helped Dr. King to remember was called Mother Pollard, an elderly and poverty-stricken and deeply intelligent woman who was profoundly committed to the civil rights movement. After several weeks of walking and not taking the bus, someone asked if she was tired and maybe wanted to consider riding for a while. She replied, as King said, with ungrammatical profundity, “My feets is tired, but my soul is rested.”
Later, when King had finished speaking at a mass meeting, he came off the platform and Mother Pollard called him over.
“Come here son.”
(She was about to give some Isaiah-like pastor/prophet/counselor/therapist treatment.)
“Something is wrong with you,” she said.
“You didn’t talk strong tonight.”
King tried to play it off. “No, I’m fine. Nothing’s wrong. I’m as good as ever.”
Mother Pollard didn’t believe it. “Now you can’t fool me. I know something’s wrong.” After talking for a minute, King said this is what happened.
He wrote:
Before I could respond, she looked directly into my eyes and said, “I don told you we is with you all the way.” Then her face became radiant and she said in words of quiet certainty, “But even if we ain’t with you, God’s gonna take care of you.” As she spoke these consoling words, everything in me quivered and quickened with the pulsing tremor of raw energy.[2]
Have you not known? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God.
Most of us will never be called to lead, as Dr. King led the civil rights movement, in the face of hatred and violence. We are called, however, to face the challenges of our lives and the problems of our time with the same faith, and hope, and love, with the same courage and compassion and conviction. We are called to let our light shine in the darkness, and to remember – and remind each other – who God is when we are feeling weak.
Wait for the Lord. Take time to remember.
It sounds basic, but when you’re stressed and worried and weary, even the most important things need to be remembered.
Remember who God is, what God has done for you, what God promises for you.
Those who remember shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles…
Do you remember?
Rev. Patrick W. T. Johnson, Ph.D.
First Presbyterian Church
Asheville, North Carolina
[1] From Thomas G. Long, Preaching from Memory to Hope, p. 38.
[2] Martin Luther King, Jr, Strength to Love, chapter 4.