Dreams from The Holy: The Dream of Inclusion (Is. 56:1-8)

Earlier this month a photo was taken at the White House.  In it a white man and a black man sit in high back chairs in the Oval Office.  The white man is President George W. Bush.  The black man is President-elect Barak Obama.  It is the first time that a black President-elect has ever been in the Oval Office.  And this January, it will be the first time a black President takes up residence in the White House.

 

 

Regarding race, the White House has been a kind of community of exclusion.  Ethnicity has been one barrier to the Presidency.  Only white men have occupied the White House.  But this community of exclusion is becoming more of a community of inclusion.  I remember listening to a reporter interviewing people after the election and one black woman said, “I can now tell my son, ‘One day, you can be President.’”  Regardless of your politics, this is a remarkable event.  The White House no longer welcomes only white men.

 

Have you ever experienced exclusion?  Have you ever been touched by a community of exclusion?  I know of a student at Abilene Christian University who once taught a Bible class there.[1]  He asked students to write down the worst thing that had ever happened to them.  Two students wrote this: The worst thing that has ever happened to me was when I was assaulted at age 15 because I was the wrong color in the wrong neighborhood…The worst thing that has ever happened to me was when my best friend’s parents told me we couldn’t be best friends because I was black.  Some of you may have also been touched by communities of exclusion based on race.

 

Though bright and cheery the Disney movies “High School Musical” 1, 2, & 3 are built on the not-so-cheery fact that most high schools are made up of smaller communities of exclusion.  If you are in the athletic community, you better not get involved in the drama community.  And if you are in the drama community, you better keep out those from the athletic community.  If you are in the academic community, you have no business dating athletic community.  High school is filled with communities of exclusion—cliques where only the athletic, or the creative, or the smart, belong.

 

This was the very issue which Jewish people in Jerusalem were wrestling with in Isaiah 56.  First some background.  Previously, God delivered the Jews from the oppression of Egypt, led them across the wilderness up to the Promised Land, sent them back into the wilderness to discipline them, and finally brought them into the Promised Land.  Once there, however, many people turned their backs on God.  As a result, God allowed another oppressive power—the Babylonians—to enslave the Jews.  The Babylonians dragged them from Jerusalem into Babylon.  But the time would come when God would deliver them, they would return to Jerusalem, and they would begin rebuilding the city and their lives.

 

And now with the people back in Jerusalem, the question they are asking is this: What kind of community are we going to be?  More specifically, whose kind of community are we going to be?[2]  Who’s in?  Who’s not?  Who’s included?  Who’s excluded?  It is likely there were competing visions about what kind of community Jerusalem should now be and who would be allowed in this community.[3]

 

Based on this text, it seems clear that some feared Jerusalem might become a community of exclusion.  Listen to the exclusion implied in this text: 3 Let no foreigners who have bound themselves to the LORD say, “The LORD will surely exclude me from his people.”  And let no eunuch complain, “I am only a dry tree.” (Isaiah 56:3 TNIV).  Isaiah allows us to hear the fear in the hearts of two groups: foreigners and eunuchs.  Foreigners would be people of non-Israelite ethnicity who find themselves in Jerusalem.  They might be from any number of surrounding nations despised by the Israelites.  And as they watch Jerusalem being rebuilt, these foreigners are worried: The LORD will surely exclude me from his people.  Indeed, there was some basis for the fear.  In Deut. 23 Moses forbids some foreigners from joining the community.  The prohibition had more to do with punishing those nationalities for unjust actions than with some type of xenophobia.  But now these foreigners fear that Jerusalem will become closed to any person of foreign ethnicity.  They fear that Jerusalem is about to become a community of exclusion based on ethnicity.

 

Eunuchs were men who had been emasculated.  For some, it may have simply been the result of an accident.  For others, becoming a eunuch may have been forced upon them.  God warns in Is. 39:7 that the Babylonians will force some to become eunuchs and force them to work for Babylon.  In this case the men not only had a physical disfigurement, but a social one as well.  They would have been considered traitors.[4]  Not only did they have bodies different from the norm.  They also had pasts different from the norm—they were Jews who worked for the enemy.  And now these eunuchs fear Jerusalem will exclude them.  They say, “I am only a dry tree.”  Compared to others, I am abnormal.  I am a dead tree in the midst of living trees.  They feared exclusion because of their lack of normalcy.   There was some basis for this fear.  The same text in Deut. 23 which excludes some foreigners also excludes eunuchs.  The prohibition was probably put in place so that Israel would never force others to become eunuchs.[5]  Nonetheless, that law led these eunuchs to fear that Jerusalem would now exclude all eunuchs.  Jerusalem would become a community of exclusion based on normalcy—rejecting those who did not meet the norm in physique or past.

 

Is. 1:1 introduces us to this book by telling us that the book is the “vision” which Isaiah saw.  This book is filled with visions God gave Isaiah.  These are the dreams of God Isaiah recorded.  That’s why this series is called “Dreams from The Holy.”  The characteristic name of God in Isaiah is “the Holy One” or “The Holy.”  And the book contains the visions or dreams of “The Holy.”  And here is what God dreamed for Jerusalem: 1 This is what the LORD says: “Maintain justice and do what is right, for my salvation is close at hand and my righteousness will soon be revealed.  2Blessed are those who do this—who hold it fast, those who keep the Sabbath without desecrating it, and keep their hands from doing any evil.”  3 Let no foreigners who have bound themselves to the LORD say, “The LORD will surely exclude me from his people.”  And let no eunuch complain, “I am only a dry tree.”  4 For this is what the LORD says: “To the eunuchs who keep my Sabbaths, who choose what pleases me  and hold fast to my covenant—5 to them I will give within my temple and its walls a memorial and a name better than sons and daughters; I will give them an everlasting name that will endure forever.  6 And foreigners who bind themselves to the LORD to minister to him, to love the name of the LORD, and to be his servants, all who keep the Sabbath without desecrating it      and who hold fast to my covenant—7 these I will bring to my holy mountain and give them joy in my house of prayer.  Their burnt offerings and sacrifices will be accepted on my altar; for my house will be called a house of prayer for all nations.”  8 The Sovereign LORD declares—he who gathers the exiles of Israel: “I will gather still others to them besides those already gathered.” (Is. 56:1-8 TNIV).

 

In vs. 1 God establishes the only boundary of this community: justice and doing what is right.  This will not be a community built on ethnicity.  This will not be a community oriented on normalcy.  This will be a community where the only thing that matters is justice and doing what is right—literally justice and “righteousness.”  In vs. 2 God shows how justice and righteousness should be expressed in Jerusalem: keep the Sabbath and keep their hands from doing evil.  In other words, justice and righteousness will have a vertical and a horizontal expression in Jerusalem.  It will have a vertical dimension—something between persons and God—summarized by a commitment to keep the Sabbath.  Keeping the Sabbath was a fundamental way of prioritizing your relationship with God.  Justice and righteousness would also have a horizontal dimension—something between person and person—summarized by keeping your hands from evil.  This likely refers to refraining from treating others in evil ways.  God says, “Here is my dream: build a community which is not based on ethnicity or normalcy.  Build a community which is based solely on a commitment to justice and righteousness—the right treatment of God and of others.

 

Such a community, God reveals, will become a community of inclusion.  Thus, God says to the eunuchs: 4 For this is what the LORD says: “To the eunuchs who keep my Sabbaths, who choose what pleases me and hold fast to my covenant—5 to them I will give within my temple and its walls a memorial and a name better than sons and daughters; I will give them an everlasting name that will endure forever.  (Isaiah 56:4-5  TNIV)  Here is test case #1: what do you do with un-normal people when you have a community based on justice and righteousness?  You welcome them in!  God tells the eunuchs that if they keep the Sabbath and do what pleases him—another way of repeating vv. 1-2—they will be prized members of this community.  If eunuchs wish to treat God and others with justice and righteousness, they belong in this community.  In fact, God says he will welcome them so heartily that they will have a name, a history, a heritage that will last forever.  One consequence of being a eunuch was the inability to father children and thus the inability to pass on your name, heritage, or history through children.  But God says he will give the eunuchs new children.  When they come into this community, the community will be their family.  And the community will pass on their name forever.

 

Then, God speaks to the foreigners: 6 And foreigners who bind themselves to the LORD to minister to him, to love the name of the LORD, and to be his servants, all who keep the Sabbath without desecrating it and who hold fast to my covenant—7 these I will bring to my holy mountain and give them joy in my house of prayer.  Their burnt offerings and sacrifices will be accepted on my altar; for my house will be called a house of prayer for all nations.” (Isaiah 56:6-7 TNIV)  Here is test case #2: what do you do with foreigners when it comes to a community established on justice and righteousness?  You welcome them in!  God tells the foreigners that if they will keep the Sabbath and hold fast to the covenant—another way of repeating vv. 1-2—they will be prized members of this community.  If any person of any ethnicity wishes to treat God and treat others with justice and righteousness, they belong in this community.  In fact, God says he will welcome them so heartily that they will have access to his forgiveness and to his presence.  They will be able to come to the holy mountain, offer burnt offerings and sacrifices and experience forgiveness.  They will be able to come to his house of prayer and join people from all ethnicities in praying to God.

 

What was potentially a community of exclusion based on ethnicity or normalcy has the potential to now become a community of inclusion based on justice and righteousness.  It is God’s dream to build a community where the only thing that matters is a person’s desire to treat God and others with justice and righteousness.  Skin color, accent, race, and birth-place do not matter.  If you want to treat God and others right, you belong.  The shape and state of your body, and what you did in your past, does not matter.  If you want to treat God and others right, you belong.  God wants to build a community of inclusion based on justice and righteousness.

 

Harold Myra and Marshall Shelley write about Billy Graham in the 1950’s.  When in Southern states Graham would hold segregated meetings.  Outside the South, he held integrated meetings.  There was criticism.  Why did Graham permit segregation at his meetings in the South?  Why didn’t he address racism in the South?  The issue came to a head during Graham’s 1952 campaign in Jackson, Mississippi.  Graham rejected the Mississippi Governor’s suggestion to hold a separate meeting for blacks.  But he agreed to hold the meeting segregated—whites on one side of the arena, blacks on the other—ropes separating the two.  But during the event, Graham acted.  He walked to the ropes and tore them down.  Ushers moved in to put the ropes back.  Graham stopped them.[6]  As far as he was concerned, anyone who wanted to learn and live the way of God ought to be received fully.  That’s what God’s doing in this text.  He’s tearing down the ropes.  The ropes of normalcy.  The ropes of ethnicity.  And he’s saying, “Anyone who wants to live by justice and righteousness is welcome in my community.”

 

It is a dream which the church has not always caught.  Fred Craddock writes of preaching for a little church near Oak Ridge, TN.[7]  At that time Oak Ridge experienced a boom as people moved there to take jobs in the emerging atomic energy industry.  There was not enough permanent housing for them.  As a result, hills and valleys were covered with recreational vehicles, tents, and trailers—filled with outsiders and the poor.  After services one Sunday Craddock gathered the church leaders and suggested the church invite all the people in all the trailer parks to come to church services.  One leader said, “I don’t think they’d fit in here.  They’re just here temporarily.”  Craddock argued they ought to invite them anyway.  The group disbanded and agreed to talk next Sunday.  At next Sunday’s meeting one of the leaders said, “I move that in order to be a member of this church you must own property in the county.”  Someone else said, “I second that.”  A vote was held.  It passed.  The vote was meant to keep those newcomers living in trailers from ever becoming members of that church.  Years later Craddock went to see what became of that church.  When he pulled up he hardly recognized it.  In front was a sign: Barbeque, all you can eat.  Craddock went inside.  The place was packed.  There were people of all colors and kinds eating pork and chicken and ribs.  Craddock leaned over to his wife: “It’s a good thing this is not still a church, otherwise these people couldn’t be in here.”

 

But that is God’s dream.  God dreams of a community where anyone who’s hungry for justice and righteousness is welcome to eat.  He dreams of a community of inclusion where ethnicity and normalcy no longer matter.  He dreams of a community where all that matters is a person’s desire to treat God and others justly and righteously.

 

And God concludes: 8 The Sovereign LORD declares—he who gathers the exiles of Israel: “I will gather still others to them besides those already gathered. (Isaiah 56:8 TNIV).  God declares that he’s on a mission.  God’s gathered his people from exile to re-start this community in Jerusalem.  But he’s not stopping with them.  He’s going to gather still others…besides those already gathered.  He’s going to gather eunuchs.  He’s going to gather foreigners.  He’s going to gather those in the trailer parks.  He’s going to gather people on both sides of the rope.  God’s dream is to build a community of inclusion into which he can gather people from all backgrounds and all nations.

 

And God’s still gathering. 

·         Several times each year God sends Joe and Betty Canon to Bila Tserkva, Ukraine to gather.  These two Americans invite Ukrainians to become part of God’s community.  Through Joe and Betty God shatters the barrier of ethnicity.  And God’s dream becomes a reality. 

·         Through Highland missionaries Nathan and Karen Luther, God’s still gathering.  This couple in Bacolod, Philippines invite Filipino’s to become part of God’s community.  Through Nathan and Karen, God shatters the barrier of ethnicity.  And God’s dream becomes a reality.

·         Through Jab Mesa and the Melanesian Bible College God is training gatherers.  Men and their families come to the school in Papua New Guinea where they are trained and sent back into the bush to invite the young and old, the educated and the uneducated, men and women into God’s community.  All are invited in.  And God’s dream becomes a reality.

·         Through Jim Harbin and Memphis Urban Ministry, God’s still gathering.  Through Jim, God’s crossing not just ethnic lines but socioeconomic lines.  Through MUM church plants like the Raleigh Community Church of Christ where Jim preaches, God is inviting whites, blacks, Hispanics, high class and lower class into his community.  And God’s dream is becoming a reality.

·         Through FIT, God’s still gathering.  We collaborate with Agape in Families in Touch—the only ministry to homeless pregnant women in the city.  That ministry invites women who have been rejected by society and often by their families to be part of the community of God.  And God’s dreams becomes a reality.

 

Our Special Contribution for World and Urban Missions on Dec. 14 funds these and other ministries.  It’s how we join God in gathering all races, all colors, all ages, rich and poor into his community of inclusion.  We hope to raise $162,000 on Dec. 14 to fund the work of these ministries from July through December of this year.  We’ll take another collection in May to fund their gathering from January through June.  $162,000 is a lot of money.  But there is no better investment.  Is. 56 is one of God’s greatest dreams.  You can help make that dream reality by giving on Dec. 14.