September 12 Isaiah 6

Chantal and I lived in Ontario for five years before we returned here to Manitoba. We were

always within a short day’s drive of Montreal but it was only in the last weekend before we moved

back that we decided to finally take a weekend trip and visit the city. One of our plans was a visit to

the Museum of Contemporary Art. Now perhaps I should have expected this but some of the

installations included things a room full of huge canvases painted in solid primary colours and then of

course there was the bathtub suspended inside an aquarium full of water. In any event there were a

number of head scratchers that I did not quite get. One installation did catch my attention however.

There was an old projector that played a short film on a surface within a small house made of glass. So

the scene looked like it took place within the house. The film was silent and in black and white. It

began with a man sitting on a chair. There was however two film strips being projected simultaneously.

So as the scene progressed the man from one film strip stood up while the same man from the other

film strip stayed seated. So, you get the idea, the man was now looking at himself. The standing man

at first found this very amusing as he playfully explored this reality outside of himself. But after

awhile he noticed that the seated man never moved or reacted to the standing man. The standing man

tried to get his attention by poking and prodding but still nothing happened. The seated man remained

motionless. The standing man eventually became angry and started to violently strike out at the seated

man, but still nothing happened. Eventually the standing man disappeared and all that remained was

the seated man, unmoved, where he began.

For some reason this piece made a strong impact on me. I have no idea what the artist had in

mind that created it but I took it to reflect the modern obsession with self-improvement or self-help; or

more simply of being a self-made person. In the modern era we have believed that we can step outside

of our lives to look at ourselves objectively so that we can see what changes we need to make and then

make them. This can initially be quite enlightening and even exciting as we explore or ‘find’ ourselves

as the saying goes.

Over time, though, many people realized that nothing was really changing in their lives. Their patterns

remained relatively fixed, the problems did not go away simply because they could give them a name

and knew where they stemmed from. This realization could lead to anger, self-hate, depression, or any

number of coping mechanisms that would have to deal with this failure. This small art installation

reminded me of a certain impossibility of life. We cannot fix ourselves and yet we cannot simply do

nothing.

In the Christian tradition we have tended to branch off in two directions in the face of this

impossibility. One path focuses on what God has called us to do believing that God then has equipped

us to accomplish the task. This path refers to Jesus’ call to discipleship. It quotes the Book of James

that reminds of the value of work. It looks to the Ten Commandments and the Sermon on the Mount as

guidelines and possibilities for how we can live. I would say that Mennonites have typically fallen into

pursuing this path.

There is another path. This path follows the long string of acknowledgements that humans are

simply unable to live faithfully. It does not take long to identify this thread as it stretches back to Adam

and Eve and surfaces all the way through the Bible. This path highlights the clear and direct actions

God takes to assure that his Kingdom is established. We hear from this group an emphasis on certain

passages from Paul that seem to deny any value of human action. This expression tends to focus on

grace and the will of God.

Now perhaps my characterizations here are a little simplistic but this morning we are focusing

on those who have committed themselves to the task of faith formation in our church and so these

questions become important because depending on which path we choose it may lead us to express a

wrong belief in what we are capable of which may lead to frustration and even destructive behaviour as

the standing man in the glass house or alternatively it may lead to the belief in a type of divine

intervention or protection that God has never promised and leave us like the sitting man alone in

isolation and disillusionment.

Both of these postures try to avoid the impossibility that we are called to face. Both of these paths try

to make things possible by saying that we are capable of doing God’s work or that we are irrelevant to

God’s work. Both options avoid impossibility. I would like to propose that our reading this morning

offers another path, an impossible path.

I wish I had more time to reflect on this chapter as it has been pivotal for my own formation but

this morning I will focus on one aspect. In this chapter the calling and message of Isaiah stands in the

middle of two distinct sections. The first half of the chapter expresses the holiness of God. This

section is marked by the theme of fullness. We hear about the Lord’s robe that fills the temple. Then

there are the seraphs who fill the temple with praise. And what is their message. God is holy but not

just holy; for the first time in the Bible we hear the refrain holy, holy, holy. And then they add that the

whole earth is full of God’s glory. Then we find that their praise shakes the thresholds of the temple

and smoke fills the place. The scene is literally overwhelming in its fullness. And that is Isaiah’s

response; Woe to me, I am ruined . . . I am undone. This encounter dismantles any reasonable

understanding, response, or action.

If the first half of the chapter is characterized by fullness then the second half is characterized

by emptiness or what could be called poverty. After Isaiah hears the message he asks God how long

the message will last. God responds with an account of emptiness. The cities are ruined, the houses

deserted, the fields ravaged. Until the Lord has sent everyone far away, and the land is utterly

forsaken. The impossibility that Isaiah stands between is the fullness of God’s holiness and the poverty

of our existence. This is that space that we are called to live in the midst of. This is the condition of

God’s Kingdom. To the extent that we put God’s holiness at arms length and try to build our own

world through our intellect and action we are actually taking space away from God’s Kingdom. And

the extent to which we want to hide in some personal or mystical experience of God or some

unfounded pious action where we do not face the poverty of the world then the Kingdom lays no

ground through us.

 Like Isaiah, this leads us and leaves in places out of our control; places of overwhelming beauty

and tragedy. We are called here because this is the place of salvation; the place where holiness and

poverty meet and become one. This is the task of the artist or writer to face the impossibility of a full

and empty canvas or page. This is the task of the spouse to face the impossibility of a broken and

loving marriage. This is our calling in the West to face the impossibilities of disaster and restoration in

the social and ecological order. I continue to hear about the tragedy of mass rape in certain areas of

Africa and I wonder how we can stand with or support those who stand in the impossibility of violation

and healing. This is also the task of our teachers who we have commissioned to create space for this

impossibility for our children to enter sothat they will neither deny the struggles of the world nor the

fullness of God. This is the call of each Christian because Christ is our impossibility. In Christ the

fullness of God and the poverty of the world are joined in one flesh.

Perhaps the context of the house in the art installation I began with is instructive for us here. In

our culture our homes are characterized as places of refuge; they are treated like a castle or fortress.

Our home is a space that we can own and control and predict. But this is an illusion and a dangerous

illusion. We of course need healthy boundaries for our bodies, relationships, and homes but we cannot

escape the world by closing and locking the door. We need to step out of those spaces that offer false

hope whether it is in the houses of our status, our intellect, our ability, our tradition, our wealth, or any

other expression that does not allow ourselves to be undone by God’s abundance and the world’s

poverty. We must come out and face the impossible so that we might then be gathered again joined in a

new humanity that is stripped of that which divides us. We come out and leave our illusions so that we

can be gathered in to feed on the abundance of God.

The church exists as one such space to be gathered. May you encounter the abundance of God’s

holiness and the poverty of our world as we share the bread and cup. May God call you and grant you

a message in the face of the impossible. Amen.