St. Andrew’s, Pictou; August 8, 2004

 

Mystery Factor

 

Isaiah 1:1, 10-20:         The Vision

Luke 12: 32- 40:          The Realization

 

With the popularity of programs like “Dr. Phil,” “Oprah,” and the like it has become very poplar for the more complacent of us, when we talk about other people with problems, to say, “He has issues. She has issues. They have issues.”

 

We listen to some horror story about some couple and we say, “Boy! Do they have issues!”

 

When we use the word “issue” we tend to mean that there is some point about the individual that needs to be addressed: their drinking, their need to control other people, their anger, childhood issues, etc.

 

What we might forget about the word “issue” is that it tends to mean “something that comes from something else,” like the proceeds from an estate, like an issue of blood.

 

We need to remember that what we refer to as an “issue” is something that is a consequence coming from something else; an emergence; on offspring. There are certain reasons or results that then, of consequence, constitute “an issue.”

 

The prophet Isaiah tells about one of God’s issues. All of Jewish life and worship at the time was focused on the temple but one issue was missing. This passage is “a stinging attack on worship in the temple, because this worship does not issue… justice.” (O’Driscoll p.70)

 

Isaiah tells the people in no uncertain terms what angers God:

-that there is no link between religious life and the way that people live.

-that there was no link between religious rituals and social reality.

-the prophet tells the people that God is virtually angry at the sacrifices made to Him and the incense offered because the people don’t connect the worship with the way that they live.

 

It would have been shocking at the time for the prophet to be telling the people that their hands are full of blood, but Isaiah gave real and tangible words about what they were supposed to be doing as good Jews:

-“cease to do evil and learn to do good,

-seek justice,

-rescue the oppressed,

-defend the orphan,

-plead for the widow.”

 

Through the words of the prophet God was saying that it angers God when the worship doesn’t translate into care for the plight of people in distress.

 

Through the prophet the people are given a reality check:

you shall eat of the good of the land:

but if you refuse and rebel,

you shall be devoured by the sword;

for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.”

 

It appears that God is more interested in justice than worship. Through the prophet, God is trying to bring the people from the earthly kingdom into… the Godly Kingdom.

 

In the reading from the Gospel of Luke, Jesus is trying to do exactly the same thing.

 

He says, “…it is the Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.”

 

Imagine that 1,000 years later, Jesus is trying to get the people to somehow understand the bigger picture that Isaiah was telling them in antiquity:

 

Jesus was trying to bring the people into an awareness of a reality that they were missing. How could people misunderstand that God wants them to have the very best of lives?

 

“They just didn’t get it,” as we say today.

 

When Jesus tells the people to “Sell your possessions…. Make purses for yourselves that do not wear out, an unfailing treasure in heaven, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys.” He is talking about priorities. Jesus is really asking the people what it is on which they truly depend.

 

When he talks about slaves being ready for the master arriving at any time, having your lamps lit, Jesus is talking about being aware of this moment, this day in you life, and how you live it. He likens being ready, to one knowing the exact moment when their house was to be robbed. That is the same kind of awareness that is meant in Buddhist contemplation.

 

Awareness. If we were truly aware, we would know exactly what to do, or say, or if we should be silent in any given situation in our lives.

 

How many of us have looked back in hindsight to situations on the past and wished we had made another choice, said something different, or just plain shut up, but we didn’t do what we now know was better?

 

It seems like there is some kind of “mystery factor” to be considered here.

 

All Jews and Christians think of Isaiah as a great amongst the greats, but the people who had him right there in their face, weren’t getting it.

 

We think that Jesus was even better than Isaiah and yet the people who had him right there in their face, didn’t seem to be getting it either.

 

Jesus said, “You also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an unexpected hour.” So obviously, they weren’t aware and ready and he as trying to get them to be aware because they weren’t in order that they would be ready.

 

The mystery factor as to why they weren’t ready was still there and operational.

 

The same thing is true in ordinary life today and we can even see it in the work of the experts as much as the ordinary machinations of our day to day lives.

 

The big bridge that was built across the St. Lawrence River at Quebec City collapsed twice during construction killing a total of 90 men. The inquiry into the deaths found that the problem was that too much responsibility was on one person, and that was the flaw that caused the two collapses. There was no sense of correction, because it was all left to one person.

 

A number of years ago, they added a wing to the VG Hospital in Halifax and they were building it before they realized that they forgot to do electrical plans for the building!

 

There is a huge and imposing library built at the University of Toronto called “The Robarts Library.” It is slowly sinking into the ground because the planners forgot to figure in the weight of the books!

 

There is a student Union building in a University in the USA that has a swimming pool on the seventh floor that is unused. They forgot to figure in the weight of the water!

 

The Ocean Ranger oil rig sank a number of years ago off NFLD and 84 men died. The inquiry said it was “human error” that caused the accident.

 

The Titanic received NINE warnings about the ice and the ship sailed full steam into iceberg alley with the Captain having a nice dinner with one of the owners and after a brief visit to bridge, went to bed.

 

Think of all of these stories and their inquiries that always say, “So this will never happen again” and ask yourself what is common in each and every story and ask yourself, why is it that it is indeed going to happen again and again as it continues to do so.

 

What is the mystery factor that connects all of the stories?

 

HUMAN NATURE!

 

We have Isaiah and Jesus trying to get through to the people two and three thousand years ago, and we have things going on today where we are trying to be aware and connect, trying to get beyond the limitations of our human nature.

 

The limitations that we humans have are exactly the very reason that we need religion. We need God to help us with our human nature; to get beyond it, to transform, transfigure, and move on in spite and with, our human nature, and with God’s ever present help.

 

Try as we might, we are stuck with our human nature, and as long as we have free will, we will go and make our mistakes because we are not able to be aware of all that we need to know so that we will be able to act like God.

 

We need God in our lives! As long as we are human, we need awareness, the connection to God who takes us beyond our limitations to God’s Kingdom of love, that in the end works much better than our greedy, competition driven world. 

 

With pride we hear people say that some young man or woman is very “competitive.”

 

Competitiveness between husband and wife will destroy a marriage.

 

Ask yourselves if competitiveness between the CIA and the FBI helped with “911” and the death and destruction and war that has resulted from their competitive bungling and inability to read the writing on the wall and share their information.

 

Did competitiveness between the Niagara Police and the Toronto police that kept DNA on the shelf help as women were being brutalized and murdered help solve the Karla Homolka, Paul Bernardo murderous affairs.

 

The foibles of our human nature need God to address and compliment who we are.

 

We need God in our lives; the God of cooperation, the God of understanding, the God of wisdom, the God of forgiveness, the welcoming God, the God of love.

 

Having God in our lives is the normal, healthy, and natural completion of being the very human beings that we are.

 

AMEN                       Rev. Alan Stewart