Do you not know? Have you not heard? Has it not been told you from the beginning? Have you not understood since the earth was founded? He sits enthroned above the circle of the earth, and its people are like grasshoppers. He stretches out the heavens like a canopy, and spreads them out like a tent to live in. He brings princes to naught and reduces the rulers of this world to nothing. No sooner are they planted, no sooner are they sown, no sooner do they take root in the ground, than he blows on them and they wither, and a whirlwind sweeps them away like chaff. “To whom will you compare me? Or who is my equal?” says the Holy One. Lift up your eyes and look to the heavens: Who created all these? He who brings out the starry host one by one and calls forth each of them by name. Because of his great power and mighty strength, not one of them is missing. Why do you complain, Jacob? Why do you say, Israel, “My way is hidden from the Lord; my cause is disregarded by my God”? Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom. He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak. Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.
(Isaiah 40:21-31)
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They’re clearly rhetorical questions: “To whom will you compare me? Or who is my equal?” God asks through the prophet. You don’t really have to answer them; they’re questions that don’t need an answer because the answers to the questions are so obvious. Maybe I can commit the ultimate faux pas of answering these questions with a question in order to clearly make the point. “To whom will you compare me? Or who is my equal?” Well - who or what could be greater than God? There’s the question that answers the questions. It’s an answer to God’s questions because, really, my question in response has no answer! Who or what could be greater than God? The only response is stunned silence, a few moments of contemplation, and then, an acceptance: no one and nothing can be greater than God. If God is the Creator of all that exists, then nothing that exists can be greater than God! It’s self-evident. When I first read this passage, I thought that the only approach to take in preaching from it might be to simply acknowledge the supremacy of God. But how interesting would that be? We can all answer those questions without the ramblings of a preacher, can’t we. But then I thought - what if we don’t take those questions (and the obvious answer) as the central part of the passage? What if there’s another point that could be made?
A few years ago one of our former Moderators stirred some controversy when he said that “God needs us.” The controversy revolved around the discomfort some felt at the assertion that God would actually “need” (the key word was “need”) that which God had created. Perhaps it’s a bit of a tempest in a teapot, so to speak, and maybe it’s merely a semantic issue that’s about as important as the mediaeval debate about how many angels could dance on the head of a pin, but in all honesty perhaps the Moderator did go a bit overboard with that word “need.” Honestly, I’m not sure I want to be “needed” by God, because if God “needs” me then God had no choice but to create me. That seems to work against the reality of divine love. I don’t want to be “needed” by God. I prefer to think of myself - and to think of all of you and all of us - as partners with God. Not equals - because God is greater - but sharing in responsibility. And I think this passage really is moving in that direction. I’m especially taken by these familiar words:
He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom. He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak. Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.
At the end of this passage there’s a huge and dramatic move that takes place - it’s a move from sheer transcendence to intimate immanence. The God who so far in this passage has been far above us, without equal, incomparable and in need of absolutely nothing, is suddenly right there with us, strengthening us, helping us and empowering us. All of a sudden, God is with us, and God’s might is within us. All of a sudden, we’re no longer facing this world alone - we’re facing it with God at our side. Paul’s later words from Philippians are perhaps an unintended reflection on the last few words of this passage: “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” Who is Christ? He’s Emmanuel - “God With Us.” So God is there for us, helping us along, strengthening us in our weakness, and if God’s strength is given to us - obviously it’s given to us for a purpose, so that we can use it, and I don’t think there’s any person of faith anywhere who wouldn’t say that from time to time they’ve needed God’s strength to get them through seemingly impossible situations.
In this passage, Isaiah was speaking to a people in exile, who’d spent a lot of years away from home. They were tired. They were tired of the distance, the longing, the not knowing if they would ever get back home; they were sick of feeling powerless and unable to do anything about the circumstances they were facing. The prophet speaks to us as well. He speaks to us as individuals; he speaks to us as a congregation of Christ’s church. We get tired. We get exhausted. We feel powerless - as if we can’t make a difference; as if everything that seems to have been taken away from us is gone forever. To make it even more practical, I was thinking about that in relation to our annual meeting today. We have to plot a course forward. We face uncertain times. We have a lot of good things happening in our midst, but there are also a lot of challenges to be overcome. I think of those people who are going to be taking on responsibilities of leadership within our congregation. And I think of the promise of Isaiah directed toward them: God will make sure that you have the strength and the ability to fulfil the roles you’ve been called to. But in faith and in the church it should never be about “them” - it should always be about “us” - it’s about all of us. All of us are called. The promise of God through the prophet Isaiah wasn’t just given to the leaders of God’s people - it was given to all of God’s people. And I thought about one sentence that I wrote as part of my message in the Annual Report: “Many of our ‘go to’ volunteers have been ‘gone to’ repeatedly over the years. Many are tired; many need a break. Everyone at Central needs to ask where they can pitch in and help.
You see the promise of God isn’t given to only a select few; and the call of God isn’t reserved only for a handful; and the work of God isn’t done only by those with titles. The ministry of Jesus, after all, wasn’t done only by the Twelve - it’s still being done by us. So the promise is for us all:
He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom. He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak. Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.
God hears us and empowers us - in exhaustion, in oppression, and in other moments of greatest need. God doesn’t need us - God loves us, which is far more important. In return, we do all we can for God. Because the work of God is a shared responsibility
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