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The Rev. Frank Logue
Return to the Source “A date that shall live in infamy.” December 7, 1941 is the date of a sudden and deliberate attack by the Empire of Japan on Pearl Harbor. Today, sixty seven years later, we still remember that day, and the sacrifice of those who died in the attack, as well as the many sacrifices that would be required before VJ Day brought an end to World War II nearly four long years later. Pearl Harbor was significant for the millions who lived through that day in ways easy to imagine for those of us who never lived through it, but impossible for us to fully grasp. That day was a dividing line. Before the attack on American soil, there was much difference of opinion on the course our nation should take in the conflicts enveloping our planet. By the end of the attack, the USS Arizona rested on the harbor bottom with 1,177 sailors entombed in its hull. There was no more debate. The day had been a watershed event in the life of our nation. We were at war. Our Old Testament reading for this morning comes after just such a cataclysmic event in the life of the People of Israel. It is no exaggeration to compare the events that happened between Isaiah’s 39th and 40th chapters to Pearl Harbor and World War II. In the first 39 chapters of the book, the Prophet Isaiah has been crying out to Israel calling for the people to repent, change their ways and return to the Lord. God was the source of all their strength and Isaiah kept calling his people to return to their source. Earlier in Israel’s history, the northern Kingdom of Israel had been defeated by the Assyrian Empire and the peoples of ten of the twelve tribes of Israel were taken into captivity. Isaiah was in Jerusalem. He was a prophet in the southern kingdom of Judah warning that the same thing could happen again if the people did not return to God in prayer and worship and in the way they lived their daily lives. After the 39th chapter was written, Isaiah’s prediction came true. The Babylonian Empire defeated the southern kingdom of Judah and took the people into captivity. God’s chosen people were defeated. The Temple lie in ruins. This was a watershed event like no other in the history of the People of Israel. The upheaval was comparable only to their enslavement by Pharaoh. Yet being slaves in Egypt had happened before Moses and the giving of the law; before entering the Promised Land and the building of the Temple. To suffer total defeat after these things was seen as impossible. By the time chapter 40 is written, the prophet Isaiah was long dead. Both Christian and Jewish tradition say that he was sawn in two. This is what they did to someone who called out words of warning that are recorded in Isaiah 24:3, “The land will be completely laid waste and totally plundered. The Lord has spoken this word.” Once in Babylon, time passed and then God began to speak anew to prophets. These words continued the words God had given to Isaiah and so they were recorded as a continuation of his prophetic line. Our reading for this morning was the beginning of this section of the Book of Isaiah sometimes called Second Isaiah. The prophet is given these words by God, Comfort, O comfort my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and cry to her that she has served her term, that her penalty is paid, that she has received from the Lord's hand double for all her sins. A voice cries out: "In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God… It is another landmark event. Even though the words came true that Israel was laid waste, the Lord has more in mind for God’s chosen people. After the destruction come these words of comfort and encouragement. That is wonderful, but the words continue and they are less than comforting as the prophet says, A voice says, "Cry out!" And I said, "What shall I cry?" All people are grass, their constancy is like the flower of the field. The grass withers, the flower fades, when the breath of the Lord blows upon it; surely the people are grass. The people are like grass, which quickly withers and fades when the breath of the Lord blows upon it. We are but quickly passing the prophet tells us, but then goes on to say, The grass withers, the flower fades; but the word of our God will stand forever. While our lives might be fleeting like a puff of wind before God, or like grass that quickly fades, there is more. The Word of God stands firm forever. It is something to which we can anchor. And finally the word of God gives us this most comforting of images to a people then in captivity, He will feed his flock like a shepherd; he will gather the lambs in his arms, and carry them in his bosom, and gently lead the mother sheep. Israel is promised that God has not forgotten them. They are still his people and the sheep of his pasture. God will still gather his lambs in his arms. Fast forward in history and Israel is return from Babylon. They are sent back home by King Cyrus, with money to rebuild the Temple in Jerusalem. While very few had believed Isaiah that the southern kingdom of Judah could have fallen into enemy hands, fewer still believed that they would return to Jerusalem, rebuild the fallen city and worship their Lord once more on Zion in a rebuilt Temple. Yet, God was faithful and the impossible happened. In another watershed event, God’s chosen people returned to the Promised Land. Pearl Harbor. Israel’s captivity by the Babylonian Empire and their return to Jerusalem were huge historic events with a large and lasting impact. But I bring this closer to home to talk about what difference these events make for this coming week in your life, I want to add some watershed events in the life of King of Peace Episcopal Church, for today is not so dramatic as the events I have described, but it is a landmark one nonetheless. One November 24, 2002, we held a groundbreaking for the building in which we worship this morning. In the sermon given just before we walked out back of the house in which we then worshipped to break the ground, I preached the following words, If the building is for church members only, we would be better off praying for God to strike us dead by lightning on the way to the site as we would be committing a sacrilege. I went on to say that the place of worship we had then was more than adequate to the congregation of the time. We were not building a new building for us, but for the community and for the ministry the new building would make possible. There were no clouds in the sky that morning as six preschool-aged children with tiny gold shovels broke ground for this place of worship and ministry. January 18, 2004 we held our last worship service in the house that was on this property and we deconsecrated that building to return it once more to use as a home for a family. On that day, I preached, There was Emily Gross’ baptism the very day that we closed on this house. Thirty-four people came to worship in what was still very much a three-bedroom, two-bath house. The next month we marked another high water line when we held our first public service on Christmas Eve. The next month in January of 2001, we baptized five members of the West family at the Bishop’s first visit to his new mission. I could go on listing high water marks in our life as a church.
Those marks certainly are not based on attendance. Sure its been nice on the few occasions when a hundred or more of us have shoehorned ourselves into this place of worship. But there have been times with quite a few empty seats when somehow everything has clicked and I’ve left the service thinking, “If you didn’t like that one, you just don’t like church.” But I can tell you that I then looked forward to a time when there would be lots of people worshipping at King of Peace who had no idea that we had once worshipped in a house on this property. But we continue to talk of having worshipped in a house on this property to show how far we have come. We tell stories of what God has already done in our midst, to remind one another of the miracles we have experienced as we look for where God is leading us next. Today we hit another watershed. As this service is ending, we will have a vote on whether or not to become a parish of the Diocese of Georgia. Though we must sign a legal document for the Diocese, with the signatures of confirmed communicants 18 and older, we will invite all who wish to do so to sign a copy of the Articles of Association to frame and maintain here at the church. Then there will be those before and those after this new event. I grew up in a church with a charter on the wall and there was a real difference between those oldest members who had been there to sign that charter and the later arrivals. This would be lamentable. No, we mark these landmark events in the life of our congregation not to create the in group and the also rans. We mark these big events because these are the times that reveal so fully the ways in which God is working in our lives. For those in Judah before the fall to Babylon, they were, as a nation, unfaithful day by day, but they could only notice the problem on the fateful day when the nation fell into enemy hands. Then for those in captivity, God was present with them day by day leading them like a shepherd, but they could notice this most fully when they were sent back to Jerusalem with the goods and money to rebuild the Temple. We need to mark big events and to talk about them to future generations as they reveal how God is present and faithful day by day. The move from mission of the diocese to parish is important as a new landmark. Lots of churches don’t make this move after fifty or even a hundred years and we stand at this juncture after just under nine years. On this important day we recall the words of the book of Isaiah where the prophet gave them God’s words and told them that it was the Word of God which stood forever. On that day, they were told to return to their source. Return to the one who had nourished them and cared for them. This is what we do in our own lives as well. When we hit tough times and wonder where God is in the troubles we face, we can look back to how God has been faithful. Sometimes it is difficult to look out the windshield at the road ahead and see God’s presence. But when we look in the rear view mirror, we see God everywhere, having been present with us in the past. That’s a resource for those tough times you face. Look to how God has been faithful in the past and trust that God is faithful still and that God is with you in the problems you face this week. And when you reach your own landmark events, times that make you question God’s existence and times that show you God’s presence. In all these times and places of your life, return to the source. Mark the important times of your life by returning to God. Return to God in prayer, in worship, in reading scripture. For God is your source. Without the abiding presence of the Holy One, King of Peace would never have reached this milestone. And without the abiding presence of that same Holy One, you could never make it through the tough times of your life to the times of great joy. Return to the Holy One, the source of your life. Knowing how God was with you through problems in the past gives you the strength you need for the tough issues you face this coming week. Amen.
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