Remembering Who We Are

'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?

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;

who brings princes to naught,

and makes the rulers of the earth as nothing.

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.

To whom then will you compare me,

or who is my equal? says the Holy One.

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.

Why do you say, O Jacob,

and speak, O Israel,

"My way is hidden from the Lord,

and my right is disregarded by my God"?

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.

He gives power to the faint,

and strengthens the powerless.

Even youths will faint and be weary,

and the young will fall exhausted;

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.'

--Isaiah 40: 21-31

Many of us probably think of the prophet Isaiah as that guy who predicted Jesus’ birth; after all, we read a lot from Isaiah around Christmas time, particularly chapter 7. But Isaiah is more than just the guy who predicted Jesus.  Did you know that the Book of Isaiah has 66 chapters, making it the second longest in our Scriptural library behind the Psalms at 150?  Or did you know that scholars have deduced that a single author did not write the whole book?  In fact, we can split Isaiah into three parts:  before the exile in Babylon—chapters 1-39—during the exile—chapters 40-55—and after the Israelites return home from exile—chapters 56-66.  There’s a lot in this book, but today we focus on chapter 40, the beginning of what is called Second Isaiah. 

An Orthodox Christian icon depicting the prophet Isaiah.

Picture this:  we are living in a land that is not our own.  There had been rumors about a great military power that was sweeping through our home, but we figured there was no way that those folks would come for us.  That was during our grandparents’ generation!  Now, somewhere in the greatest empire on the planet we sit by a river and long for home.  We try to remember the traditions of our ancestors, the promise of hope that God once gave us, but it’s been almost 70 years, and we are starting to forget.  Among us, however,  is a person who claims the name of a prophet who lived many years earlier—Isaiah—and he is not preaching a message of gloom and doom as the First Isaiah did, nor is he blaming anyone for causing this pain and misery.  Instead, he is giving us a message of hope and calling us to remember. 

The prophet throws out a bunch of rhetorical questions to get our attention:  Have you not known?!  Have you not heard?!  Has it not been told to you?!  Have you not understood?!  We're starting to forget that great promise:  the one who sits above the circle of the earth, the one who brings princes to naught and makes earthly rulers as nothing, is the same one who calls everything by name, including you and me.  Great in strength, mighty in power, this is the one to whom no one and no thing can be compared.  We grumble, though, saying things like, “My way is hidden, and my right is disregarded by God,” feeling as if God has abandoned us, but the prophet, again using a rhetorical question, bounces back:  Have you not known and heard?!  The Lord is the evelasting God.  Everlasting.  That means lasting for ever, from before ever, never-ending, never giving in, and never forgetting.  God did not forget us, says this Second Isaiah—or Deutero-Isaiah, as he is often called—and if we would just remember that, we will endure, knowing the God who made us, who loves us, who sits by those waters of anguish with us and holds us when we cry, that God, the everlasting God, will deliver us.  We need only to remember who we are, and who is our God.

The people who heard this prophecy did remember. They did endure.  And they did know justice and salvation.  It’s amazing what happens when the children of God remember that they are the children of God.  History is full of examples where God’s people, downtrodden, beaten, and seemingly forgotten, have remembered who they are,  that this God is an everlasting God, and that justice and salvation are real.

Fitting, then, that we hear this prophecy at the beginning of February as we celebrate Black History Month.  Each Sunday this month my congregation will be singing hymns from Lift Every Voice and Sing II, a hymnal composed by the Episcopal Church in 1993, made of African American spirituals and old gospel tunes. And as we sing songs like Give Me Jesus, We Shall Overcome, and yes, Lift Every Voice and Sing, we will be reminded of the faith of our brothers and sisters who endured the same pains as those to whom the prophet speaks in this reading today.  And like the folks who heard Second Isaiah preaching, our brothers and sisters, by the grace of God, remembered God’s promise of salvation, justice, and hope.  Through enslavement in a land that was not their own, black codes and Jim Crow laws, and every which way that racism continues to rear its evil head, our brothers and sisters endure and stand tall and proud because they know the love of an almighty and everlasting God who delivers God’s people now, just as way back then, from the bonds of injustice.  That example continues to inspire all of us, as we work for justice in our own time, well beyond the month of February. 

Lift Every Voice and Sing II, the hymnal out of which all of our congregation songs will come this month.

This inspiration comes from our God, who manages to always bring a message of hope in the face of overwhelming adversity. Second Isaiah speaks at the darkest, most despair-ridden time in the lives of the Hebrew people, and yet his message, the thing that is brought back to the minds of those who heard, is how precious and irreplaceable and life-giving God’s word of hope is.  Those same words of the prophet cry out to us even now.  When we are feeling shame and fear:  Have you not known that God loves you?  When we are lost and don’t know where to go:  Have you not heard that God walks with you?  When we cannot escape the traps of our lives and feel utterly alone:  Have you not understood that you are beloved of God? Our God is a God of deliverance, a God who never forgets us.  We need only open our eyes and our spirits to see the majesty of God all around us, reminding us of who we are and whose we are.

I heard a story last week of a man who was being accosted at gun point.  The man showed no fear, and when the gunman asked how he could be so calm, the man told him, “Because you have no power over me. I belong to God, and God will deliver me, no matter what you do!”  The gunman, as the story goes, walked away, amazed at the man’s faith.  I don't know how true that story actually is, but its point is clear:  this is what happens when you remember, deep down at the core of your being, that you belong to God.  You can face anything because ultimately no force on earth has power over you if you know that!  That’s what the prophet was preaching.  That’s the example of faith we honor this month.    That is the Good News for all of us right here and now.

So brothers and sisters, if you feel broken, beaten, afraid, and alone, remember.  The architect of the universe holds you in those almighty hands.  You too are marked as God’s own forever.  You too can stand and endure, locking arms with one another, singing spiritual songs of praise and glory.  For this is who you are:  beloved children of God.  As it was in the beginning, is now, and will be forever!