Last weekend, I had the privilege of attending the funeral of Lew Motter, a long-time champion of Trinity Christian UCC and the beloved father and grandfather of the Vogl clan. The service was very personal, and we all learned a little more about Lew as we heard about his life.
Lew was a very faithful man. He loved the Lord. And, he loved his family. His daughter, our own Susan Vogl, selected today’s scriptural focus: Isaiah 40:31. This is one of Susan’s favorite scriptures and must have also been one of Lew’s favorites, because it was chosen to be read at his funeral.
The words of Isaiah 40 are a message of support and comfort – Isaiah was speaking to the exiled people of Israel as they lived in Babylon…but his words still apply to us, twenty-first century Christians.
Listen now to the words of Isaiah as they come down to us through the centuries. We will read chapter 40 verses 25 through 31….
The Scripture Isaiah 40: 25-31
25 “To whom will you compare me?
Or who is my equal?” says the Holy One.
26 Lift up your eyes and look to the heavens:
Who created all these?
He who brings out the starry host one by one
and calls forth each of them by name.
Because of his great power and mighty strength,
not one of them is missing.
27 Why do you complain, Jacob?
Why do you say, Israel,
“My way is hidden from the Lord;
my cause is disregarded by my God”?
28 Do you not know?
Have you not heard?
The Lord is the everlasting God,
the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He will not grow tired or weary,
and his understanding no one can fathom.
29 He gives strength to the weary
and increases the power of the weak.
30 Even youths grow tired and weary,
and young men stumble and fall;
31 but those who hope in the Lord
will renew their strength.
They will soar on wings like eagles;
they will run and not grow weary,
they will walk and not be faint.
Amen.
Here ends this reading of the word of God for the people of God. Thanks be to God. Amen.
Let us pray…..
The Message The Grace of Waiting
When I was a teenager, I was part of a youth program sponsored by my local YMCA – a Junior Leaders Club. Y’s throughout the world have the program – we were in a cluster of clubs that had summer camp and weekend retreats together. The cluster was big – it included Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin and Minnesota. During the school-year, we would spend three weekends at one of the YMCAs in our cluster – so, all of the kids from the St. Louis-area would miss a day of school, meet early in the morning at a YMCA, and load onto school buses to travel to a Y in Chicago or St. Paul or Milwaukee. There, hundreds of kids would spend the weekend doing service projects, listening to inspirational speakers, and playing sports.
We loved it. Part of the fun was that we would try not to miss any minute of our time together. So, we all would try not to sleep. This was before energy drinks, but we would still drink as much caffeine as we could. We would also eat loads of sugar all weekend…..trying to work against our bodie’s need to sleep with as many artificial stimulants we could access.
Can you imagine being with 400 teenagers who were desperately doing everything they could to not fall asleep? I pity the adults who supervised us.
We tried not to sleep for a few weekends a year – we were exhausted, but it was do-able for our young bodies.
But, many of us older adults know what it is to be really tired – bone weary tired. Working and doing housework and watching babies and caring for older relatives and going to meetings and cooking….it never ends. Our sleep, when we get it, is interrupted by nightmares or children getting into our beds or our aging bladders. Bone weary tired.
I feel anxious just thinking about being tired. And, many of us get anxious thinking about all of the things on our to-do lists and working out how we will fit them all in. And, we are always under pressure to add things to our schedule
The book of Isaiah is a message to people who were in exile. The people were not just physically tired, they were bone weary tired. They had seen their homeland and the city of Jerusalem invaded by foreign armies. They saw the Temple of God, the place they believed God was physically present, destroyed. They were put in chains and marched away from their homeland into captivity. They were now in a foreign, strange, disorienting land. They felt forgotten by God – they thought God wasn’t paying attention to their needs and had moved onto bigger and greater problems. They feared that God had given up on them – they had failed in their faithfulness, and now God had abandoned them.
But, through Isaiah’s words, God doesn’t tell the people they are forgotten. God doesn’t tell them to just work harder or try harder.
Instead, through Isaiah, God says: The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. God will not grow tired or weary…” God knows the names and placement of all the stars in the skies…. God loved and valued them. As Jesus said to humanity: “Indeed, the very hairs of your head are all numbered” by our loving God.
Today, we are looking at what happens when human strength runs completely dry, and how our Creator exchanges our zero-percent battery for God’s infinite strength.
Isaiah’s comforting words remind us: “God gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak…..but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.”
Although our circumstances may be different than the Babylonian exiles, the message of God as preached through Isaiah is a message we still need to hear.
We are beloved by God. God loves us and notices us and pays attention to us. We make mistakes, and God forgives us and never stops loving us.
And, God sees how exhausted we are. God will give us strength. God will increase our power. This is especially true for us – After Jesus ascended into heaven, and the first Christian Pentecost day came, God has blessed Christians with the presence of the Holy Spirit. God’s Spirit is dwelling within us – to guide us, to strengthen us, to reassure us. And, God is physically present not only within us but around us. God is with us.
Susan’s favorite verse from this passage says: “but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.” This is a message for us who are feeling exhausted. If we rely on ourselves, we will suffer from exhaustion. We will feel burnt-out. But, if we wait on the Lord, if we “hope” in the Lord, we surrender to the Lord. God will give us strength from the infinite source of God’s Holy Spirit. God’s Spirit will give us long-term endurance
So, my friends, instead of carrying all of our burdens on our own shoulders, let us remember to pause each day, listen for God, invoke the Holy Spirit, and allow God to be in charge. We don’t have to do everything on our own – God is with us.
Thanks be to God. Amen.
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