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27281 CTJ APR05 Text.Qxp CTJ 40 (2005): 104-107 Arise, Shine A Sermon on Isaiah 60:1 Cornelius Plantinga, Jr. Isaiah 60:1: “Arise, shine; for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you.” How I Approached This Sermon In isolating a text to preach from this assigned chapter (a blessed assign- ment, of course, by comparison with, say, Ezra 6), I wanted to say in other words what the text says and to do in other words what the text does. These require- ments moved me to center the sermon, both thematically and dynamically, on the glory that shines out—from God, from Israel, from the nations—when each party in the drama acts “in character.” God’s specialty is to save, so break- ing Israel out of her Babylonian captivity is God’s glory. Israel’s specialty is to attract the nations to God so that they may stand under his blessing. Her glory is to shine. The nations, in turn, each have their specialties to bring to God— cedars, flocks, spices, and so on—which are their glory. Vs. 1 compacts the whole chapter message into the form of a glad invitation. To get some of the gladness and glory onto a page and then out into air- space at Symposium, I needed to get those nations moving. I needed to expose what they are carrying. So we’ve got these nations and their treasures on the move, but the procession is up ahead because, for the moment, Israel is trapped in darkness. What’s that like? The Messiah story connects Israel’s text to a situation we can all imagine, and, at least for me, powers the adversative clause right into our hearts. Darkness, yes, but the Lord shall arise upon thee. (The text also belongs in your Easter folder.) That’s the hinge of the sermon. Darkness, depression, sorrow of persons and nations, but the Lord shall arise. The fulfillment of the promise comes at the end of history when the nations are on the move again, bringing their special- ties into the City of God. In the end, what attracts us all is “the light of the knowl- edge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” So, I did a simple major key, minor key, major key progression, moved along by the chapter’s own imagery of light, darkness, light; and of glory, shame, glory; all of it framed up by the Bible’s big dynamic of promise and fulfillment. 104 ARISE, SHINE The Sermon I suppose that if you looked hard enough you might find a chapter of Scripture that needs the doctrine of biblical inspiration to shore it up a little, but nobody needs a doctrine to tell that the Holy Spirit is in Isaiah 60. All you have to do is to read it or hear it. All you have to do as a preacher is to stay out of the way. So much light in this chapter! So much of God’s glory rising like the sun. So many kings and queens in all their splendor. So much of the world’s treasure pouring into the city of God, all of it carried in royal procession through city gates that never close. The treasure is premium quality, and it comes from every direction. Ships sail in from the West with gold and silver, ships move in from Tarshish with Jewish babies in the arms of their nannies. From the East, the gifts of the Arabian tribes come in overland on the backs of camels, which are the “ships of the desert.” Gold and frankincense come in with the desert tribes who stream through the gates. It’s Israel’s homecoming; it’s God’s Epiphany; every- body brings a gift. Not just any gift. These are the treasures of the people who bring them. These are the things they’re known for. When lumber comes through the gates to rebuild God’s temple, it can’t be Michigan pine. It’s got to be Lebanese pine, or Lebanese cypress. The lumber has to come down from the North in Lebanon, because lumber is Lebanon’s glory. As if these multicultural riches aren’t enough, God brings homecoming gifts too, upgrading each in turn: Instead of bronze, I will bring gold Instead of iron I will bring silver; Instead of wood, bronze Instead of stones, iron. People bring their glory into the city of God. They bring what they’re famous for; they bring things that cause others to flourish, which is what glory is about in the first place. Kings and queens come through the gates, and their nation’s cultural glory comes with them. In Isaiah 60, Israel’s homecoming is God’s Epiphany, and so all the banners are flying, and all the trumpets are sounding, and everything is lit up by God as on earth’s first day when God said, “Let there be light!” The writer of this inspired drama calls out to a people who sit in darkness. Israel is trapped in Babylon. Back home her cities are ghost towns. In Babylon she’s as homeless as Cain. She’s camped out along the rivers of Babylon, weep- ing over her bondage, weeping over her homelessness, weeping over her terri- ble vulnerability to Babylonian guards who know how to taunt and hurt. “Hey, you with the harp, give us a tune! Hey, Jew, sing us one of your Jew songs!” Israel is depressed by her sin, depressed by her bondage, depressed by her terrible homesickness. Israel is like a person too depressed to get out of bed, 105 CALVIN THEOLOGICAL JOURNAL but in chapter 60 it’s a new day, and now the glory of the Lord is going to rise in the East. “Arise, shine: for your light has come, and the glory of the LORD has risen upon you.” My mentor, Douglas Nelson, once told of attending a performance of Handel’s Messiah in Edinburgh. It was December and darkness covered the earth as it does there at that time of year. The musicians kindled the light of God’s grace that shines from just about every page of Handel’s score. My men- tor was particularly moved by the bass soloist, whose singing that night seemed to come up from a well of love and sorrow that was desperately deep. In the newspaper the next day there was a story about him. It said that a few hours before the performance of the previous night, the bass soloist had gotten news that his son in England had been killed in a crash. Yet the singer had decided to go ahead with his part in the music. So the bereaved father walked out onto the stage, and some of you know the recitative he needed to sing. These are the words: “For behold, darkness shall cover the earth and gross darkness the peoples, but the Lord shall arise upon thee, and his glory shall be seen upon thee.” My son is dead, but the Lord shall arise. My heart is broken, but the Lord shall arise. Everybody in the Middle East has somebody to hate, but the Lord shall arise. Half the children in an African village have AIDS, but the Lord shall arise. The church of Jesus Christ is in Babylonian captivity, depressed by her sex- ual-abuse scandals, depressed by her schisms, depressed by the terrible irony that her people glare at each other over the question of how to worship God. The church of Jesus Christ is in Babylonian captivity, but the Lord shall arise! Isaiah is talking to depressed people of God, and that means he’s talking to us today. He says that dawn is coming. God is going to rise like the sun, and God’s glory is going to shine on us. And what is this glory? What is it that God is known for? What’s God’s specialty? Brothers and sisters, God is always out to save. God is an exodus God, a wilderness God, a God of manger and cross and resurrection and Pentecost. God’s saving goodness is like Lebanese lumber. It’s God’s specialty, and God glories in it. So Israel’s rebelliousness turns out to be a means of grace because God sticks with her, and saves her, and even brings in Cyrus the Persian to do it. As my pas- tor John Timmer has put it, Israel’s no to God becomes God’s yes to the world. God chose Israel to be a blessing to people of every tribe and tongue and nation, and so, here they come now, streaming into the city of God. According to Revelation 21, the city of God descends out of heaven so that God may dwell with us here. We don’t go to heaven; heaven comes to us. It’s a second Eden, but also a city because centuries of global culture have poured through her gates. 106 ARISE, SHINE In a vision lovely enough to break your heart, John shows us what God showed him: up ahead of us, after centuries of tribal feuds and racial arro- gance, after centuries of militant nationalism, after we human beings have just about silted history full with the debris of all our antagonisms—after all that, God will descend to us and dwell with us. Once more, God will say, “Let there be light” and there will be light. The city of God is full of light because it’s so full of God; the city of God is full of glory because it’s so full of God’s schemes for making others flourish.
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