Epiphany 5b: Isaiah 40: 21-31; "A Community of Memory"

²¹ 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? 
²² 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; 
²³ who brings princes to naught,
   and makes the rulers of the earth as nothing. 

²⁴ 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. 

²⁵ To whom then will you compare me,
   or who is my equal? says the Holy One. 
²⁶ 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. 

²⁷ 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’? 
²⁸ 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. 
²⁹ He gives power to the faint,
   and strengthens the powerless. 
³⁰ Even youths will faint and be weary,
   and the young will fall exhausted; 
³¹ 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.

If you know anything about Duke basketball, you will know that Coach K started off losing a lot of games. This might make some of you happy. K lost his first seven matchups with Virginia. The seventh was especially painful. In the opening round of the 1983 ACC Tournament, the Cavaliers absolutely destroyed a Duke team who was starting four freshmen. 

The final score of that opening round game was 109-66.  Nowadays, it’s hard to imagine Duke losing by over 40 points to anyone.  But this was a different day. Now, what made the whole situation worse, is that Virginia’s Coach, Terry Holland, complained that Duke played dirty. Coach K was furious.

It was a disastrous night.

After the game, the assistant coaches knew that Coach K would not be able to sleep.  So they decided to go grab some food.  They went to a nearby Denny’s outside of their hotel in Atlanta.  As soon as they sat down, the waitress brought everyone a glass of water.  Assistant Coach, Johnny Moore, picked up his glass and held it up as to give a toast. “Here’s to forgetting tonight” he said.

Coach K picked up his glass and responded, “Here is to never forgetting tonight.” The real quotation contained a choice four-letter word.

When practice opened the next October, the Duke team saw the score of that Virginia loss on their scoreboard. 109-66.

Since that time, Coach K has broken the record for the most wins as a college basketball Coach.  And when he did, he said, “We have come a long way since Denny’s.”

I tell this story because it shows that memory is important. Coach K knew that when memory fails, the whole team would fall apart. Each loss, each hardship, and each struggle is central to the identity of the team and the Duke program.

But human beings have the tendency to make memory selective. Some of us may select to just remember the good times; others of us might only select to remember the bad times. Like K’s assistant coach—we choose to remember what we want.

This is the case for Israel, too. In the 40th chapter of Isaiah, Israel has forgotten about God. Jerusalem has fallen.  The temple has been destroyed.  The people have been carried off to Babylon, in exile. The crisis in Babylon have caused the people to forget who they are, their past, and who their God is.

While Babylon is strong and threatening, forgetfulness is the real threat to Israel.   They question the power and presence of their God. There are doubts about God’s attention their future. There are doubts about God’s power to control and direct their community. They fall apart without their memory.

We forget too, in our lives. We have selective memory and only remember only those things that we want to remember.  Sometimes, it’s the times we have messed up. Sometimes we only remember the times we have succeeded.

Sometimes it is the stress—so many things are going on in our lives that trust in God seems so distant. I put a picture up in my office in which Jesus says, “Trust me I have everything under control.”  Otherwise, I would forget who God is and have a nervous breakdown.

On the other hand, it can be complacency—maybe you are just going through the motions of life. Ease and comfort is enticing, but it is dangerous. If you are completely comfortable, then maybe you have forgotten about God.

It can be suffering—or, the dreaded words, “cancer” or “death.” Many times, when we hear these words we wonder if God hasn’t gone off and left us all together.

Have you forgotten who God is? You might have, and not even realized it.

Isaiah’s task is to minster to a people who have forgotten. How do you minister to a people who are grieving, who are weary, who are at the end of their tether? How do you minister to a people who think God has just left or that God just does not care?

His task is simple—remind Israel who they are. Remind them of their story.

“Remember your God,” he says. “Have you not known? Have you not heard?”

Haven’t you heard this story your whole life?

God sits high above the round ball of earth. The people look like mere ants. He stretches out the skies like a canvas—yes, like a tent canvas to live under. God's hospitality reaches throughout the heavens and the earth preparing a tent in which all creation might live. He ignores what all the princes say and do. The rules of the earth count for nothing. Princes and rulers amount to nothing. Like seeds barely rooted, they just sprouted, They shrivel when God blows on them. Like flecks of chaff, they are gone with the wind.” [1]

Have you not been paying attention? Haven’t you heard these stories all your life?

This is not new knowledge…It is knowledge that has been known from the beginning, from the foundation of all the earth. God works in your history and in your lives. The God who creates, is the God who recreates.  Our God is transcendent, unknowable, awesome, but is also involved in the petty affairs of nations and princes.

Don’t you remember?

He is not just some far off God, he is right here.  He is involved in your life and your story. Look at the night skies: Who do you think made all of this? Who marches this army of stars out each night, counts them off, calls each by name—so magnificent! So powerful!—he never overlooks a single one!

Why do you say that God has lost track? Why do you say that God doesn’t care? God has invited you into his story, the greatest story of all time.

Have you not known? Have you not heard?

 Isaiah brings a powerful word. Israel may have forgotten God, but God has never…not for a second, forgotten them.

In many ways, this story is like a slap in the face.  It is reminiscent of God’s great speech to Job—the emphasis is on God’s greatness, vastness, and infinitude and then, the likelihood of us to forget all about it.

You know, our own stories might be full of stress, or anxiety, or sorrow.  But Isaiah reminds us to remember. “Have you not heard? Have you forgotten?” Memory is at the heart of who we are as a people.

That’s why we gather every week on a Sunday to tell a story. You are a part of a much larger story—it’s a story that begun with Creation, Israel, and culminated with Jesus Christ.  It is the story of salvation and the remaking of the world. We tell the story week after week so we will not forget.

Memory. That is also why we gather for Holy Communion. At Communion we remember the story of God and Jesus Christ. We gather at the Table to remember what God has done for us in Jesus’ cross and resurrection. At the Table, we remember our sins, so that God will remember our sins no more.  At the Table, we remember that God has made us a part of his memory.  At the Table,  are re-membered, literally re-membered…we are literally connected, intertwined, and made members of one another.

Then, finally, we are re-membered into the story of God. Is there anything more beautiful?

Despite all we go through, do not lose heart. Have you not known? Have you not heard?

We are a part of the body of Jesus Christ.

I want to close with a final story:

There is an old rabbinical story says that when there was a crisis in the life of God’s people, the great rabbi, would go to a particular place in the forest, build a great fire, say a particular prayer, cry to God for salvation, and the story says, “It was sufficient; for God saw the fire in the place, heard the prayer and heard the cry, and God saved his people.”

A generation passed and another grave crisis came upon the people. And so another rabbi went to the same place in the forest and cried to God for mercy, “Master of the Universe, listen! I do not know how to light the fire, but I am still able to say the prayer.” And the story says, “It was sufficient. And the miracle was accomplished. God saved his people.”

Still later, another generation passed and another crisis came upon the people. A different rabbi would go to into the forest and say, “I do not know the prayer, but I know the place and this must be sufficient.” And it was sufficient and the miracle accomplished. God saved his people.

Finally, it fell to another rabbi to overcome misfortune. Sitting in his armchair, his head in his hands, he spoke to God: “I am unable to light the fire and I do not know the prayer; I cannot even find the place in the forest. All I can do is tell the story, and this must be sufficient.” And it was sufficient. God saved his people.

Life can be difficult and our challenges can be so severe that even the young will faint and grow weary. It is easy to forget who God is. But we have been made a part of a story. When we are weary and exhausted we must tell the story, lest we forget who we are.  Because if we trust our story, then we will receive the ability to meet our challenges and rise above. We will soar on the wings of eagles.

You may go throughout life and forget God, but God will never forget you. That’s the story we tell. It is the story of Jesus Christ. And it is sufficient.

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[1] I am drawing from Eugene Peterson’s translation, The Message.