No. 26. >> Thank you, Professor Lessin g. I tried to write down everything you just said. Now, may I stay in this groove by asking you to give us an example of a Lenten sermon from Isaiah? >>DR. R. REED LESSING: Yes, let's continue our discussion on how to move from the ancient text to 21st Century law Gospel proclamation. The text we want to look at is from the Fourth Servant Song of Isaiah, which I already mentioned before. It begins not in Chapter 53. But in 52 Verse 13. This is a critical move that we want to highlight in terms of where the song begins. We'll see how this Fourth Servant Song ties in nicely with some of the themes we've already discussed in our discussion on Isaiah. Specifically Isaiah's call in Chapter 6. And more specifically, 6 Verse 1. So let's look at perhaps a proclamation on Good Friday or any time during the Lenten season. The text would be the entire Fourth Servant Song of Isaiah. Making sure that it begins in Verse 13 of Chapter 52. Well, let's get started. It begins like this: Kowl in Hebrew, pas in Greek, omnis in Latin, ***alis in German, totas in Spanish, all ya' ll in Texan. It's the most superlative word in any language. A l l, all. Siblings include, total, complete, entire, everything. Country cousins include the whole hog, the whole shebang, the whole enchilada and the whole ball of wax. All. The most superlative word for the most superlative section in the book of Isaiah. The Fourth Servant Song. This servant had it all. So there we've set the stage for what is to follow. The rhetorical rope, which would be terminology that homileticians use is going to be an idea that is going to be repeated several times within the sermon. Our prior sermon you probably caught some rhetorical ropes. Like "Don't miss it" would be a major idea. Sad would be another rhetorical rope that is worked in at least initially in that sermon. Here the rhetorical rope is going to be all. And that's going to provide the glue, you see, that keeps the message together. Well, in Chapter 52:13, remember we had these two great Hebrew words, high and lifted up, describing the servant. And these are the same Hebrew words to review that are used in 6:1, 33:10 and 57:15. In the other three, they only define Yahweh. Here they define the servant. Tremendously important idea in the book of Isaiah. Let's go on. The Adoni, the Lord, who receives the cry of the seraphim in 6 Verse 3, holy, holy, holy. In 6 Verse 5 Isaiah calls him the king General Yahweh. This God that Isaiah sees and speaks about in other sections of his book, this God and the servant are one. A mystery not fully articulated until John 10 Verse 30 records these words of Jesus: I and the Father are one. You see, this servant had it all. And he would need it. Because the Fourth Servant Song composed by Isaiah of Jerusalem in the Eighth Century was originally intended for Sixth Century exiles. So there we are trying to locate the text in its historical context. And we've made several comments throughout this course that Isaiah of Jerusalem, the Eighth Century prophet, is the author of the entire book of Isaiah. And here we are understanding that the Fourth Servant Song as well as all of 40 to 66 composed by Isaiah in the Eighth Century and early Seventh Centuries are really for people who are going to live in Sixth Century Babylonian exile. And they were singing not the Servant Song. But another song. Psalm 1:37: How can we sing the songs of Zion while in a foreign land? This depressing, deadly dirge is in the same key as Israel's previous songs. Sinatra songs like: I Did It My Way. Billy Joel songs that say: I don't care what you say anymore. This is my life. Exiled. Bondage. In prison. Stuck. The result: They are far away from the Father in a foreign land. How can we sing the songs of Zion while in a foreign land? To such captives Isaiah sings a different song. The Servant Song. See, my servant is raised and lifted up. Highly exalted. This servant had it all. Colossians 2:9: For in Christ all the fullness of the deity lives in bodily form. Hebrews 1:3: The Son is the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of his being. Mary ex claims. I have seen the Lord. Peter gasps: We were eyewitnesses of his majesty. Climatically Thomas cries out: My Lord and my God. Jesus isn't the assistant to the Father. He isn't the vice president of the cosmos, a sort of Dick Cheney of the university. Jesus isn't a junior partner to the Father. No, he is a full pledged member of the Godhead. Equal with the Father in every way from eternity. Being of one substance with the Father, this servant had it all. This servant gave it all. Jesus didn't appear in the landscape of this planet as an emperor, statesman or investment banker. The all powerful, all knowing, all present second person of the Trinity is described in these words of Isaiah 53: He grew up before him like a tender shoot. A tender shoot vulnerable from the time of his birth, Bethlehem, swaddling clothes, Herod's wrath, the escape to Egypt. He was despised and rejected by men. Opponents said of Jesus: He's blaspheming. Who can forgive sins but God alone? By the prince of demons, they scoffed, he's driving out demons. He said to them: Why all this commotion, wailing. This child is not dead but asleep. And remember, they laughed at him. And then the final nail in the coffin: They shouted: Take him away! Take him away! Crucify him! He was despised and rejected by men. Stricken, smitten and afflicted. Pierced, crushed and punished. Like a lamb led to the slaughter Isaiah says. Cut off from the land of the living. Assigned a grave with the wicked. That's why in Isaiah 52:14 it says: Many were appalled at him. His appearance was disfigured beyond that of any man. This servant had it all. This servant gave it all. Every last drop of blood. This servant delivers it all. Isaiah 53:11: By his knowledge my righteous servant will justify many. The servant delivers what captives need most: Forgiveness. Forgiveness lays at the heart of Isaiah's own experience. Remember Chapter 6 Verses 6 and 7? Then one of the seraphims flew to me with a live coal in his hand which he had taken from tongs from the altar. With it he touched my mouth and said: See this has touched your lips. Your guilt is taken away. Your sin atoned for. Let's pause here and simply ask: What's happening now homiletically within the book of Isaiah? Again, I'm trying to stay in Isaiah as long as possible. And get as much as I can from Isaiah before I would move into a New Testament proclamation. So moving now into New Testament proclamation, from the altar called Calvary, our God touches us, also, with forgiveness. The absolution declares it. The font seals it. The table celebrates it. Romans 8:32: He who did not spare his own son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also along with him graciously give us all things? Total. Complete. Everything. The whole enchilada, the whole ball of wax. He had it. He gave it. He delivers it. Because it's part of the plan. Back to Isaiah 53:10. This verse is marked off with these words: It was Yahweh's will. At the beginning of the verse. At the end of that verse. Calvary isn't just a moving tragedy, a sorry story. It wasn't a stop gap measure. Nor was it the Father's unexpected knee jerk response to a world plummeting toward destruction. It was the Lord's will. The cross was drawn into the original blueprint written into the first script. Galgatha is the decisive plan of the Father before the creation of the world. And what's it mean? It means Jesus intentionally planted the tree from which his cross would be carved. It means he voluntarily placed Judas into the womb of a woman. It means he was the one who set in motion the political machinery that sent Pilate to Judea. And it means he didn't have to do it. But he did. He did it for all. Our depressing deadly dirge that knows only bondage, captivity, addiction. How can we sing the songs of Zion while in a foreign land is trumped in another song. Isaiah's song, that imparts forgiveness, freedom, life abundant. When the words of this song, Isaiah's Fourth Servant Song, enter our ears and strike our hearts, we can't help but respond with the words: One more song. Written not by Isaiah but by Isaac, whose last name was Watts: Were the whole realm of nature mine that were attributed far too small, love so amazing so divine demands my soul, my life, my all. That's one way to move from not only Isaiah's Fourth Servant Song, but using other ideas in Isaiah to faithfully proclaim him who is greater than Isaiah. Indeed, the one who gives it all, Jesus our Lord.