Second Sunday after the Epiphany
January 17, 2010
Text: Isaiah 62:1-5
While reflecting on the unbelievable suffering and desperation that the people of Haiti are now going through, I had a vague memory of a hurricane hitting Haiti not too long ago. So I Googled “Hurricane – Haiti.” What I found was this: Within a span of 30 days, beginning in August of 2008 with Hurricane Fay and ending in September with Hurricane Ike, four huge storms hit the island of Haiti. Nearly 800 people died, about 60% of the country’s harvest was destroyed and entire cities were rendered desolate and uninhabitable. A columnist wrote, “Life in the western hemisphere’s poorest country went from grim to desperate.” The Prime Minister was also quoted as saying, “The whole country is facing and ecological disaster. We cannot keep going on like this.”
On top of all the past misery, now the people of Haiti face even greater devastation. Instead of 800 people dead, The Red Cross estimates the death toll to be at 100,000. There are an estimated 3 million people whose homes have been destroyed.
Haiti is the poorest country economically in the Western Hemisphere. We have heard and seen many accounts of Haitians trying to enter our country in makeshift rafts and boats. They are the victims of a trifecta of suffering: the poorest nation, in the path of numerous hurricanes and now situated on a major fault in the earth’s crust. Such injustice and cruelty on one nation of people makes us reflect on how can this be?
There are a number of answers given: there are scientific answers explaining nature’s behavior; there are political answers explaining the government’s policies and leadership; there are economic answers explaining the lack of sustainable income. How do we consider such a disaster from a theological point of view? Where is God in all of this?
Answers range from the extreme of saying, “Haiti is cursed by a pact with the devil” to the other extreme that claims there is no God. Everything in between also becomes a possible explanation as to why this happened. Each of us has an explanation we cling to, because we also have had to understand and accept the evil that has cruelly come into our lives. Why did my spouse die? Why do my children suffer? Why is grandma suffering from dementia? Why did I get breast cancer? Why do I need this operation? Why did I loose my job? Why me is a question we all have asked ourselves.
The answer given can not be a specific one, because there is no definitive answers to our questions of why. The best we can answer is that evil is a very real part of our lives. We live with both the good and the bad. Injustice and justice, war and peace, the ugly and the beautiful are part of our lives. An answer to the question Why is Why not? Evil and death are part of life, why should we in particular be exempt from it? No one else is or will be?
Then where is God in all of this? Our first reading from the 62nd chapter of Isaiah gives us a comforting and hopeful answer to our question. In Isaiah’s time the people of Zion, God’s beloved children, had turned away from their God and were worshiping other gods. God no longer called His people His Beloved Bride. They were called Forsaken and Desolate because God had abandoned them to their sin and rejection of Him. They were condemned, empty of any righteousness to save themselves. They were in exile in Babylon. There was no delight in God’s eyes for them.
In the midst of all their condemnation and threat of no future, they hear a promise from God crying out in the distance,
“For Zion’s sake, I will not keep silent,
and for Jerusalem’s sake I will not rest,
until her vindication shines like the dawn,
and her salvation like a burning torch.” (Isa. 62:1)
This passage from Isaiah reminds us of the familiar words from Psalm 121:
I lift up my eyes to the hills;
from where is my help to come?
My help comes from the LORD,
the maker of heaven and earth.
He who watches over you will not fall asleep.
Behold, he who keeps watch over Israel
shall neither slumber nor sleep.” (Ps. 121:-4)
From these passages we learn that God’s promise to us is that he will not keep silent, nor will he rest until all things are made right with us. Evil will not have the final word, but God will. It is God who will heal, restore, and redeem us. The earthquake in Haiti will not have the final word in lives of the Haitians. Cancer, arthritis, diabetes, disability, or whatever illness we have will not have the final word in our lives. Over against our depression, loneliness, grief and anxiety God will have the final say. Finally, over our death God will have the last word, because God alone has the power to bring us out of death into life once again.
Isaiah the prophet tells us that God will marry His people, “Your land will be called Married for the LORD delights in you.” (Isa. 62:5) God married to us means that
no matter what happens to us, God’s unconditional love will not forsake or abandon us.
In the life and miracles of Jesus, we see our Bridegroom, the one who will not rest until our salvation from all evil and death is secured. God will not rest until all is made right for us. This is our hope and promise of new life to come. This is our call from God not to rest until we can make things right for others.