WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.800 --> 00:00:04.300 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from our Lord and 2 00:00:04.300 --> 00:00:05.200 Savior Jesus Christ. 3 00:00:10.300 --> 00:00:15.900 A few years ago I was moving and so I was in the basement and I came 4 00:00:15.900 --> 00:00:21.600 across this shoebox full of photographs, family photos. 5 00:00:21.600 --> 00:00:26.200 And so I took a break from moving and I just stood there and started 6 00:00:26.200 --> 00:00:27.100 to look through the pictures. 7 00:00:28.800 --> 00:00:30.800 And I learned something about my family. 8 00:00:30.800 --> 00:00:35.300 We take a lot of awful photos. 9 00:00:36.300 --> 00:00:37.900 They were awkward. 10 00:00:37.900 --> 00:00:40.400 We're standing in front of a Christmas tree 11 00:00:40.400 --> 00:00:44.600 we're sitting around a Thanksgiving table and we've all got these 12 00:00:44.600 --> 00:00:50.800 strained looks on our faces because we're holding a smile for too long, 13 00:00:50.800 --> 00:00:56.900 cuz my dad's operating the camera. Now this just before you had cameras 14 00:00:56.900 --> 00:00:57.500 on your phone. 15 00:00:57.500 --> 00:01:00.600 This is before you head video monitoring in your home and you could 16 00:01:00.600 --> 00:01:05.000 say Alexa zoom in and take a picture. Now this is back when you 17 00:01:05.000 --> 00:01:09.900 actually had this thing called a camera. And you couldn't see the 18 00:01:09.900 --> 00:01:13.200 pictures you took. You had to take the film out and send it away to get 19 00:01:13.200 --> 00:01:16.200 it developed and they come back and then you look at the pictures can 20 00:01:16.200 --> 00:01:20.000 see all of these awful photos because my dad was great at this. 21 00:01:21.300 --> 00:01:25.600 You see the camera he had was too small and had too many buttons. 22 00:01:25.600 --> 00:01:29.200 It had a button for turning it on and a button for opening the shutter 23 00:01:29.200 --> 00:01:32.200 and a button for using the flash and a button for advancing the film 24 00:01:32.200 --> 00:01:35.500 and a button for taking the picture and they were so small with his bifocals 25 00:01:35.500 --> 00:01:38.900 he couldn't see them. And we get these pictures that were 26 00:01:38.900 --> 00:01:42.800 awful there would be a picture of the floor his shoe his pant leg the 27 00:01:42.800 --> 00:01:46.800 dreaded zipper shot as he's struggling with the camera. 28 00:01:48.800 --> 00:01:51.400 So I'm standing there and I pulled out a photo. 29 00:01:53.400 --> 00:01:57.600 And in the very corner of the photo, is this blur. 30 00:01:59.200 --> 00:02:02.900 Because my dad's finger had gotten in front of the lens. 31 00:02:04.700 --> 00:02:08.000 And so I have a fingerprint of my father 32 00:02:09.300 --> 00:02:10.500 on a picture 33 00:02:11.600 --> 00:02:13.200 where he can't be seen. 34 00:02:15.500 --> 00:02:18.500 Fingerprint of your father 35 00:02:19.900 --> 00:02:23.700 on a picture where he can't be seen. 36 00:02:25.100 --> 00:02:27.300 That's what I'd like you to think about this morning. 37 00:02:28.300 --> 00:02:32.300 Because that's what Isaiah is giving you. 38 00:02:33.400 --> 00:02:37.000 In the Old Testament reading he is giving Israel and he's giving the 39 00:02:37.000 --> 00:02:42.900 church a fingerprint of their father on a picture where he can't be 40 00:02:42.900 --> 00:02:53.000 seen. Isaiah is teaching us that God rules over a fallen world. 41 00:02:55.200 --> 00:02:56.600 And that gives Israel 42 00:02:56.600 --> 00:02:57.200 hope. 43 00:02:58.700 --> 00:03:01.800 And that challenges us today. 44 00:03:03.300 --> 00:03:07.600 So this morning I'd like to spend some time meditating on the text and 45 00:03:07.600 --> 00:03:12.400 seeing what Isaiah is doing and then turn and think about how this 46 00:03:12.400 --> 00:03:14.800 text challenges us today. 47 00:03:14.800 --> 00:03:17.500 So let's consider the text. 48 00:03:17.500 --> 00:03:22.000 This is an oracle a royal oracle. 49 00:03:22.900 --> 00:03:28.500 Which means that Isaiah is giving Israel the opportunity to listen in. 50 00:03:29.600 --> 00:03:39.100 As they hear their God speak directly and personally to a king who will 51 00:03:39.100 --> 00:03:42.800 extend his kingdom. Imagine the 52 00:03:42.800 --> 00:03:48.700 comfort to know that your God is working so clearly in the world. 53 00:03:50.100 --> 00:03:55.500 We have this God call the king by name. This God anoints him. 54 00:03:55.500 --> 00:03:56.900 He commissions him. 55 00:03:56.900 --> 00:03:58.700 He promises things to him. 56 00:03:58.700 --> 00:03:59.400 He equips him. 57 00:03:59.400 --> 00:04:05.900 He actually grasped hold of his right hand and Israel for a moment for 58 00:04:05.900 --> 00:04:10.800 a moment can over hear God speaking to a future king. 59 00:04:12.000 --> 00:04:13.000 But there's a problem. 60 00:04:14.100 --> 00:04:15.600 Picture isn't perfect. 61 00:04:17.000 --> 00:04:20.899 Because this king is not from Israel. 62 00:04:22.300 --> 00:04:24.400 It isn't one of Israel's priest. 63 00:04:24.400 --> 00:04:27.000 It isn't one of Israel's prophets. 64 00:04:27.000 --> 00:04:31.800 It's not even one of the Kings from Israel's Davidic line. No God is 65 00:04:31.800 --> 00:04:39.600 speaking to Cyrus a king who does not know him nor acknowledge 66 00:04:39.600 --> 00:04:39.800 Him. 67 00:04:39.800 --> 00:04:44.500 And God is going to use this king who does not know him and does not 68 00:04:44.500 --> 00:04:49.200 acknowledge Him in order to free Israel from exile in Babylon. Now 69 00:04:49.200 --> 00:04:52.900 imagine how shocking that would be to Israel. 70 00:04:53.600 --> 00:04:57.800 When Israel was in Egypt crying out to God for deliverance 71 00:04:57.800 --> 00:05:04.900 who did he send he chose a man who knew his name. Moses standing there 72 00:05:04.900 --> 00:05:06.600 on Holy Ground before a bush 73 00:05:06.600 --> 00:05:07.300 that's burning 74 00:05:07.300 --> 00:05:11.600 and not burning up. And asking what God's name is and hearing 75 00:05:11.600 --> 00:05:16.900 the name of the name of Yahweh. And then going and entering into Egypt and this 76 00:05:16.900 --> 00:05:17.200 one 77 00:05:17.200 --> 00:05:17.900 who knows 78 00:05:17.900 --> 00:05:23.500 God's name who acknowledges God uses him to bring them freedom from Egypt. 79 00:05:23.500 --> 00:05:28.300 But now now in the future in the Exile with Israel's lost in Babylon 80 00:05:28.300 --> 00:05:32.300 God will work again. Only this time this time 81 00:05:32.300 --> 00:05:34.800 he's not going to choose somebody who knows him. 82 00:05:34.800 --> 00:05:37.500 He's not going to choose somebody who acknowledges Him he's going to 83 00:05:37.500 --> 00:05:44.600 choose somebody who doesn't know him and use him to free Israel. Why? To show that the 84 00:05:44.600 --> 00:05:46.900 Lord your God is one. 85 00:05:47.500 --> 00:05:49.000 There is no other. 86 00:05:50.800 --> 00:05:58.700 I form light I create darkness I make peace and I create calamity. 87 00:05:59.900 --> 00:06:08.100 There is none besides me and I rule in a fallen world. 88 00:06:12.500 --> 00:06:16.400 If you have a photograph of that moment you see a picture of Cyrus. 89 00:06:17.800 --> 00:06:19.000 Standing in the temple. 90 00:06:20.800 --> 00:06:22.300 The Temple of Marduk 91 00:06:23.600 --> 00:06:25.600 and holding his right hand. 92 00:06:26.400 --> 00:06:29.800 Babylon New Year's Festival. 93 00:06:31.800 --> 00:06:34.900 And the closer you look the messier the picture gets 94 00:06:36.100 --> 00:06:39.200 because Cyrus wasn't King of Babylon, Nabonidus was. 95 00:06:40.300 --> 00:06:43.100 Nabonidus was King but he was an absent king. 96 00:06:43.100 --> 00:06:46.100 He had not been spending his time in Babylon. 97 00:06:46.100 --> 00:06:49.400 He had not been spending his time at the altar of Marduk. 98 00:06:49.400 --> 00:06:54.800 He's been out in the field building altars to another god a god of the Moon. 99 00:06:54.800 --> 00:06:59.700 And now after 10 years he was about to come back and build an 100 00:06:59.700 --> 00:07:05.300 altar to the god of the Moon in Babylon. And the priest Marduk were concerned 101 00:07:05.300 --> 00:07:10.600 because here goes their connection to power. And Cyrus comes along and Cyrus is 102 00:07:10.600 --> 00:07:14.900 willing to stand in the temple of Marduk and hold on to Marduk she 103 00:07:14.900 --> 00:07:20.300 right hand and so they open the gates of bronze before him. 104 00:07:20.300 --> 00:07:25.000 They unearth the treasures of the city and give it to him. And he 105 00:07:25.000 --> 00:07:29.900 stands there in the temple on New Years and he holds the right hand of 106 00:07:29.900 --> 00:07:34.700 Marduk his face is Red from where the priest and the ritual has left 107 00:07:34.700 --> 00:07:38.200 him with the insignia. Tears are coming out of his eyes, which were 108 00:07:38.200 --> 00:07:38.600 told 109 00:07:38.600 --> 00:07:40.000 which we're told meant that Marduk 110 00:07:40.200 --> 00:07:41.600 would bless him. 111 00:07:42.700 --> 00:07:44.900 Marduk has nothing to do with it. 112 00:07:47.900 --> 00:07:49.300 God is blessing. 113 00:07:50.600 --> 00:07:55.200 And he will you Cyrus who doesn't even know him to set his people 114 00:07:55.200 --> 00:07:55.800 free. 115 00:07:55.800 --> 00:08:03.400 So that through them he might bless all nations through his son. 116 00:08:03.400 --> 00:08:08.100 God is Lord and apart from him 117 00:08:08.100 --> 00:08:12.800 there is no other, he rules in a fallen world. 118 00:08:12.800 --> 00:08:18.900 And so you will always have fingerprints of your God in a picture 119 00:08:18.900 --> 00:08:21.500 where he can't be seen. 120 00:08:23.600 --> 00:08:25.500 That's what's happening in the text. 121 00:08:26.900 --> 00:08:28.700 So what does it do for us today? 122 00:08:30.700 --> 00:08:32.500 Well, I think it challenges us. 123 00:08:34.000 --> 00:08:39.400 Because I think we feel in a very deep and resonant way 124 00:08:40.500 --> 00:08:44.300 how fallen our world truly is. 125 00:08:46.900 --> 00:08:51.000 If you were to come to my house, and I would it take you to my desk 126 00:08:51.000 --> 00:08:55.300 you could open the drawer and inside that drawer you'd find all of 127 00:08:55.300 --> 00:09:01.000 these note cards that I've scribbled things on and take things to. You 128 00:09:01.000 --> 00:09:06.900 see I have this habit that if I'm watching a documentary or reading a book or 129 00:09:06.900 --> 00:09:09.700 talking with somebody and I hear something interesting. 130 00:09:09.700 --> 00:09:14.100 I tend to jot it down on a card and put it in that drawer cuz I think 131 00:09:14.100 --> 00:09:17.700 you know, I might be able to use that in a sermon someday. Now 132 00:09:17.700 --> 00:09:21.200 the problem is I'm really boring and a lot of things strike me as 133 00:09:21.200 --> 00:09:21.800 interesting. 134 00:09:22.600 --> 00:09:30.700 So I have a lot of cards and I have one in their dated August 2009. 135 00:09:30.700 --> 00:09:32.600 It's a newspaper clipping. 136 00:09:32.600 --> 00:09:34.400 I cut out from the St. 137 00:09:34.400 --> 00:09:38.000 Louis Post-Dispatch and I taped it on that card. 138 00:09:39.000 --> 00:09:46.400 It was a notice of a man who had stolen a painting of the Virgin 139 00:09:46.400 --> 00:09:47.000 Mary. 140 00:09:48.400 --> 00:09:50.100 And was selling it to make money. 141 00:09:51.900 --> 00:09:52.900 I found that interesting. 142 00:09:52.900 --> 00:09:57.400 I thought isn't that interesting the way the sacred and the 143 00:09:57.400 --> 00:10:02.300 profane are so close to one another that this image that was meant to 144 00:10:02.300 --> 00:10:09.500 inspire devotion has inspired one-man to thievery and dishonest gain. 145 00:10:11.100 --> 00:10:14.400 But if you look closer the picture gets messier. 146 00:10:15.400 --> 00:10:19.700 The notice says that the man stole this painting of the Virgin 147 00:10:19.700 --> 00:10:24.600 Mary and was selling it to make money in order to pay for an abortion. 148 00:10:26.800 --> 00:10:31.200 So this image of the woman who brought life into the world 149 00:10:32.900 --> 00:10:36.700 is being sold to prevent life from coming into the world. 150 00:10:39.000 --> 00:10:40.200 And then you read further. 151 00:10:41.800 --> 00:10:46.300 And this man had stolen this painting of the Virgin Mary and was 152 00:10:46.300 --> 00:10:51.900 selling it to make money to pay for an abortion for a teenage girl 153 00:10:51.900 --> 00:10:53.500 whom he had raped. 154 00:10:56.500 --> 00:10:57.100 And now 155 00:10:58.200 --> 00:11:06.000 sacred and the profane are so clear and so far apart from one another. 156 00:11:08.200 --> 00:11:12.800 Now, I know you're thinking I ought to cut that out and put it in my 157 00:11:12.800 --> 00:11:12.900 drawer. 158 00:11:12.900 --> 00:11:18.100 I could use that in a sermon someday. Welcome to my world. 159 00:11:19.300 --> 00:11:24.500 I cut it out in August 2009 because it just struck me as shocking. 160 00:11:25.600 --> 00:11:28.800 How far for our world to fallen and I 161 00:11:30.000 --> 00:11:34.500 I'm really sad to say that if I came across that today in 2020 162 00:11:34.500 --> 00:11:35.800 I probably wouldn't blink an eye. 163 00:11:38.200 --> 00:11:39.200 Because our world 164 00:11:41.300 --> 00:11:42.500 is so profane. 165 00:11:44.200 --> 00:11:49.000 And when the sacred and the profane or so far apart from one 166 00:11:49.000 --> 00:11:53.700 another what is it that we do. As God's people we turn toward that 167 00:11:53.700 --> 00:11:58.900 which is sacred in this is good meet, right and salutary we turn into 168 00:11:58.900 --> 00:11:59.400 toward that 169 00:11:59.400 --> 00:12:03.500 which is sacred. We meditate upon his word where he promises to 170 00:12:03.500 --> 00:12:03.900 speak. 171 00:12:03.900 --> 00:12:06.100 We listen to that word in preaching. 172 00:12:06.100 --> 00:12:07.400 We read it in the scriptures. 173 00:12:07.400 --> 00:12:11.200 We teach it to one another we gather around the baptismal font. 174 00:12:11.200 --> 00:12:14.900 We gather around the altar where we receive the body and blood of Christ for 175 00:12:14.900 --> 00:12:17.200 forgiveness on life and your salvation. 176 00:12:17.200 --> 00:12:23.200 We turn into that which is sacred than this is good meet, right and 177 00:12:23.200 --> 00:12:28.200 salutary the only problem, the only problem is that sometimes while 178 00:12:28.200 --> 00:12:32.500 we're turning in we turn our back on in the world. 179 00:12:33.500 --> 00:12:39.100 We turn our back on a world that is so profane and so fallen and we can't 180 00:12:39.100 --> 00:12:41.500 imagine that God could be there. 181 00:12:41.500 --> 00:12:47.300 We avoid that world we fly from it we attack it and we defile it. 182 00:12:48.800 --> 00:12:53.300 We defend ourselves against and we despair over it. 183 00:12:53.300 --> 00:12:57.300 But the one thing we don't do is we don't look at it. 184 00:12:58.700 --> 00:12:59.900 We don't see it. 185 00:13:01.000 --> 00:13:04.600 And a way to see fingerprints of God 186 00:13:05.900 --> 00:13:09.100 who rules over a fallen world. 187 00:13:11.600 --> 00:13:12.500 That's sad. 188 00:13:14.500 --> 00:13:18.000 Because every time we come together and we say the Creed what do we 189 00:13:18.000 --> 00:13:18.300 say? 190 00:13:19.500 --> 00:13:25.500 Jesus Christ born of the Virgin Mary suffered under Pontius Pilate. 191 00:13:26.500 --> 00:13:33.100 We put Pontius Pilate into our creed to remind us that our God works 192 00:13:33.100 --> 00:13:38.900 in history and not just works in history, but works in places where he 193 00:13:38.900 --> 00:13:44.800 would be unexpected and unseen. Takes a Roman governor who declares 194 00:13:44.800 --> 00:13:47.900 that Jesus is innocent, but because of political maneuvering 195 00:13:47.900 --> 00:13:54.000 crucifies him anyway. And uses him to bring life and salvation to all 196 00:13:54.000 --> 00:14:00.500 things on this Earth for the world has not fallen so far that it is a 197 00:14:00.500 --> 00:14:02.200 part from the hand of God. 198 00:14:02.200 --> 00:14:04.800 I am the Lord 199 00:14:05.600 --> 00:14:11.100 And there is no other. I form light I create darkness I make peace and 200 00:14:11.100 --> 00:14:14.500 I create calamity. Jesus Christ 201 00:14:14.500 --> 00:14:20.800 the Son of God came into this world and drew all calamity upon himself. 202 00:14:20.800 --> 00:14:23.700 Died under it. That 203 00:14:23.700 --> 00:14:28.400 God the Father might raise him up and seat him at his right hand. 204 00:14:28.400 --> 00:14:35.300 And now Jesus Christ is Lord and He rules over a fallen world. 205 00:14:37.200 --> 00:14:41.800 And so when we turn in and look at the things that are sacred, we also 206 00:14:41.800 --> 00:14:47.800 turn out and lift our eyes not in fear, but in faith. 207 00:14:49.000 --> 00:14:53.500 To see fingerprints of our Father in a world where he can't be seen. 208 00:14:55.200 --> 00:14:57.700 So you turn on the television you get a picture 209 00:14:59.400 --> 00:15:01.700 of a police car burning, 210 00:15:02.900 --> 00:15:05.000 smoke filling the evening sky. 211 00:15:07.100 --> 00:15:09.900 Fingerprints of your Father 212 00:15:11.800 --> 00:15:13.200 causing a wealthy nation 213 00:15:15.600 --> 00:15:22.800 to question how justice and care for the least work together. 214 00:15:24.600 --> 00:15:29.700 You get a Facebook post of a Muslim woman who's suing a county in 215 00:15:29.700 --> 00:15:34.000 California in order to have the right to express her religious belief. 216 00:15:35.300 --> 00:15:37.100 Fingerprints of your Father 217 00:15:38.000 --> 00:15:43.600 carving a space in the public sphere where confession can be made. 218 00:15:45.200 --> 00:15:47.000 You're standing in the grocery store 219 00:15:47.000 --> 00:15:47.600 you look at your phone 220 00:15:47.600 --> 00:15:51.700 you got a map of the world and it's got all these red dots that keep 221 00:15:51.700 --> 00:15:51.900 growing. 222 00:15:53.300 --> 00:15:55.400 As a virus affects everyone. 223 00:15:56.500 --> 00:15:57.300 And you look up. 224 00:15:59.000 --> 00:16:00.400 And there's an elderly woman 225 00:16:01.500 --> 00:16:05.700 taking time to thank the grocery clerk. 226 00:16:06.900 --> 00:16:11.300 Telling her she's an unsung hero. 227 00:16:12.900 --> 00:16:20.900 Fingerprints of God where you see self-sacrifice invocation out in a 228 00:16:20.900 --> 00:16:22.400 fallen world 229 00:16:25.600 --> 00:16:28.900 So I'm standing there in my basement with a shoebox of photographs 230 00:16:28.900 --> 00:16:33.200 thinking why are there so many awful photographs here and then I 231 00:16:33.200 --> 00:16:37.500 realized this was my discard pile, but of course I didn't discard it. 232 00:16:37.500 --> 00:16:49.900 That's my World. So I kept all these awful photographs. An I thought why did I put these all in the box? Because there all imperfect they can't make it into my photo album. 233 00:16:52.200 --> 00:16:54.300 The spirit through Isaiah's words 234 00:16:55.400 --> 00:16:59.400 he's asking us not to wait till it's perfect. 235 00:17:00.800 --> 00:17:02.700 To look and see 236 00:17:04.200 --> 00:17:06.599 because Jesus Christ is Lord. 237 00:17:06.599 --> 00:17:08.700 There is no other. 238 00:17:10.300 --> 00:17:14.200 And you can look at that world not in fear, but in faith 239 00:17:15.400 --> 00:17:21.200 you'll see the fingerprints of God who rules over a fallen world. 240 00:17:22.900 --> 00:17:23.599 Amen.