Back when I was in seminary, I went on a study tour of the Middle East. It was an invaluable trip. One thing that you notice when you go there is that there are ancient ruins everywhere, reminders of civilizations that have come and gone. The first ruins that my group visited were in Syria, the ancient city of Palmyra. It is a UNESCO World Heritage site. Palmyra is a city of nothing but ruins – the ancient temple of Bel, Roman-style columns sticking up, Greek and Roman style tombs, and Roman amphitheatre, massive stone blocks strewn hither and yon. There’s even a crusader castle on top of a high hill overlooking the city. Even though there was hardly an intact building with a roof on it, the ancient city was still inhabited by some very, very poor people who sold trinkets, gum, and re-bottled water and myriads of children who would let you take their picture for a dinar.
If you take a tour to other places in the Middle East you will see that rebuilding ancient ruins is just the way they do things. Take Jerusalem for example. Jerusalem is built upon the ruins of a previous Jerusalem that was built upon the ruins of previous Jerusalem that was built upon the ruins of another previous Jerusalem and so on. Archaeologists have found that you have to dig down about ten metres to get to the Jerusalem where Jesus walked the streets and about twice that to get to the time of King David. Building upon ruins upon ruins upon ruins upon ruins…a way of life.
Rebuilding ancient ruins is a topic of our reading in Isaiah today and the city involved is Jerusalem. To give you a little history; the LORD is here speaking to a remnant of his people who said “yes” to his invitation for them to return from their exile in Babylon to the land of Judah, to Jerusalem, to rebuild it, because their time in exile had ended. On the bigger global scene, the Persians had just conquered Babylon and the Persian king, Cyrus, also decreed they could go home and he would pay their way and help them when they got back.
Well, why were they, God’s people of all people, in exile? Nearly a century earlier God had cast his people off of the Land he had promised to and given to their ancestors where they had indeed been a great nation. God did it because they had been worshipping other gods and this idolatry led them into being a people whose way of life did not shine forth the love, righteousness, justice, and peace of the God who had brought them out of slavery in Egypt to be his distinct people. They didn’t look like the God who loved them had saved and established them. Instead, they looked like the soap opera of immorality that those other gods were believed to live. The wealthy abused the poor and gave no concern to the care of widows and the orphans, the most vulnerable in their day. In fact, they used the poor as a way to get more wealth. Their legal system, instead of a just and fair legal system, was a cesspool of corruption and bribery. Worst of all, their kings and leading citizens went as far as to sacrifice their own children by setting them on fire to the foreign god Molech in order to grow powerful and rich. Who does that?
So, God sent the Babylonian army and for over a year they put Jerusalem under siege starving everyone indiscriminately. When the Babylonians finally broke through the city wall, they levelled the city, razed the Temple, and led away anybody who considered themselves important on a long march to exile in Babylon. The politicians, the priests, the patrons, the wealthy families – the ones who previously had everything – lost everything and literally had to walk away from it all. The poor – those who previously had nothing – got what was left…the ruins. And…it did not take long for opportunist and thugs from surrounding lands to come a-squatting on free real estate. Those left behind got absorbed in all that and lost their identity.
That was the history behind our passage. Let’s have a look at the passage itself now. The prophet was speaking to a remnant of Israelites who had come back from Babylon and resettled Jerusalem and the surrounding area but under difficult circumstances and so they were a disillusioned lot. They were expecting to rebuild everything to its former glory but they just didn’t have the financial and people resources to do that. And, there were those people who had moved into Jerusalem and the surrounding countryside to squat on the land after the Babylonians took the Jews into exile; they had lived there long enough to call the land their own and didn’t take too kindly to a few thousand religiously fervent “Babylonian” Jews showing up and saying this place belongs to us because God gave it to our ancestors. (The rubrics of the Israeli/Palestinian problem go back a long way.) The return to Jerusalem did not go according to the hopes of this faithful remnant whom God brought home from Babylon.
The prophet comes to bring this tired, disillusioned lot good news and joy. “The Spirit of the LORD is upon me” he says so that he could proclaim the good news to God’s faithful remnant that God is still with them and that his purposes for them will in time come to fruition. He reminds them who they are and what God has done for them. In Babylon, they had been oppressed, held captive, even imprisoned for trying to maintain their faith and identity as Jews rather than becoming “Babylonian” as many Jews did. Hence, the stories of Daniel in the Lion’s Den and Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in the fiery furnace. God freed them and brought them back to their homeland. Now back on the Land God will rebuild the ancient ruins for it is what God wants to happen. They are a nation of priests who will reflect the glory of the LORD to the nations and the day will come when the nations will bring their wealth to them and call them blessed in realization that the one true God is among them. But…the process of how it all happens will not be an overnight kind of thing. It will be like how plants grow; a natural, timely spouting and growing of righteousness and worship. It will not happen quickly.
In the meantime, this remnant of tired, disillusioned people will need to be mindful of their own righteousness and be joyful. They will need to avoid going the way of the nations and trying to gain a false sense of security by means of pursuing power and wealth. God loves justice and hates it when people rob and cheat and lie to get wealth and power. They must draw close to the LORD and walk in his ways. Gratefully walking in God’s ways is what righteousness is. There can be no real joy apart from righteousness.
I think what the prophet is really trying to say here is that before the ancient ruins of Jerusalem can be rebuilt, the ancient ruin of the people themselves needs to be rebuilt. The people need to rebuild by walking in the ways of the LORD and rejoicing. Rejoice means be joy-filled, be joy-filled about what the LORD had done and will do for them. They are the ancient ruin and they need to be rebuilt with joy.
Throughout this passage the prophet refers to himself. Yet, it is not a stretch to say that he is speaking of himself as representative of the whole people. What he says about himself is true for the people as well. The Spirit of the LORD is upon him. So, it is with the people. The Spirit of the LORD is with them, dwelling in and among them. He wears the joyful wedding garments of salvation and so it is with them. He says, “I will greatly rejoice in the LORD; my whole being shall exult in my God, for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation, and covered me with the robe of righteousness.” That’s true for the people as well. They were in a foreign land oppressed, held captive, and some were even imprisoned and now they are free and in their ancestral land free to be the people on earth through whom the LORD shines forth his glory. That is the garment of salvation. They, too, wear the robe of righteousness for the Spirit of the LORD is upon them. Therefore, they should rejoice, be joyful and praise God with their whole being.
Even though life back in Jerusalem is not as they had hoped. Even though Jerusalem still lay in ruins and they have to spend all their time protecting themselves from the folks who have been living there, it is still their reality that God had done so much for them just to get them home and so they should feel the joy and let the slow growth happen as God rebuilds them because it will…in time, it will happen.
Well enough of the past. How about us today? The “Church” as most of us remember it is today an ancient ruin. One studied done just prior to Covid determined that in Canada one church per week was closing. We are like a faithful remnant holding to the hope of rebuilding it but we lack the resources of finances and people…our only hope is a societal-wide act of God.
Regardless of the disillusioning reality that according to the numbers Christianity in our land is a dinosaur going the way of the Dodo, inside our doors it can be said that the Spirit of the LORD is upon us. In our midst, good news can be heard and found. Jesus the Christ risen from the dead is alive and present in our midst. We each wear the garment of salvation. The LORD God who built and rebuilt ancient Israel has stepped into each of our lives and proven himself faithful in steadfast love. We each wear the robe of righteousness – the Spirit of the LORD is upon us and shines through in the way that we live our lives. Though we are part of those remnant inhabitants living among the ancient ruins of North American Christianity we have a joy that only God can give. We have peace. We have hope. We have love. Though we may be growing old, there is in our midst the New Life of the New Day coming, a foretaste of Creation and human community healed.
Take some time in your daily routine to take note of all that is good in your life, of how God has been faithful to you. How God has been faithful and time and again gave you the strength you needed to face each day and sometimes even just to face the next ten minutes. The Spirit of the Lord is upon you, in you. You are never alone. The one who has the power to raise the dead is holding you by the right hand. He’s counted every tear you’ve cried. Since he dwells in you, he has felt everything you have felt and felt it with you. He has been through everything you have been through and been through it with you. His voice is the one who calls us to compassion, generosity, patience, and forgiveness rather than selfishness and vengeance. There is a peace that passes understanding when we “Be still and let God be God.” When we sow in tears, God will personally see to it that we will reap in Joy. You folks who have served Lord all your lives has not this been your experience? Indeed, I think it has. Praise the Lord. Amen.
