Isaiah 40:1-11; Mark 1:1-8

Ulrich Zwingli. That is a name that probably does not bring much to mind for most people. And yet he may be the second most important person of the Protestant Reformation of the sixteenth century. And he is our guy. Much that we now call “reformed theology” can be traced back to Zwingli. Martin Luther is their guy. The differences between these two are still mirrored in the differences between the Lutheran Churches and what are generally known as the reformed churches today. We are on the reformed side. I won’t go into all of what that means because I know when I put the words church and history together it can have a magically stupefying effect on people. And I also know that most of us really are not concerned about the fine points of difference between the reformed churches and the Lutheran Churches. Suffice it to say that there were differences between these two and because of it not a small amount of enmity.

At one point it would have been politically worthwhile for them to agree and merge because of the overwhelming threat and power of the Roman Church but they couldn’t or more precisely wouldn’t because of a dispute they had over what communion really was. Luther wanted to uphold the idea of transubstantiation that the bread and the wine actually became the blood and the body of Christ. Where as Zwingli, our guy, wouldn’t hear of it. It seems a small difference to us perhaps but it was a world of difference to them. Luther, it is said, would not even shake Zwingli’s hand when the talks fell apart. He told his followers that Zwingli couldn’t even be considered a Christian.

Not that our guy didn’t have strong opinions himself. He preached constantly against the Roman church and Roman doctrine. He even lead an army into battle against his fellow Swiss brethren who happened to want to uphold Catholic tradition. He was killed in such a battle on November 11, 1531. Luther said it served him right and it was a sure sign of God’s disfavor with Zwingli.

I am amazed when I hear such stories of such hatred between people caused by differences in religion. Especially these people they really ought to know better. For all that the reformation accomplished it could not solve the problem of religious self righteousness and certainly didn’t help religious understanding. In fact it lead to much misunderstanding and untold violence. People were killing people because they believed those other people had the wrong idea about God. And it wasn’t just Catholics killing Protestants or vice versa. Good Congregationalists in this country executed Quakers! When I read about such stuff I think that Freud had it wrong. Religion is not the opiate of the masses it seems to inspire much more violence than opium ever could. It is like the angel dust of the masses!

The self righteousness is especially apparent in those who win religious battles and wars. It was and is assumed that whoever won the power struggle must be right about God because God had delivered them and not the other. It is an idea that may be even more destructive than religious war and it is just plain wrong. Success is not necessarily a part of God’s favor or presence.

In the Bible readings for today we have examples of two colossal failures that every Christian believes are events that God had everything to do with. God is not always with those who succeed God is often powerfully present in the failures of this life.

Isaiah 40 is a watershed moment. Chapters 1-39 come from a period in the history of Israel that sees the beginning of the end. And Isaiah sees it coming in spades. And that is what he tells anyone who will listen in the first thirty nine chapters. There is nothing but disaster ahead if the people of Judah do not change their ways. Evidently they didn’t because Israel is taken in 722 BCE and Judah and Jerusalem are obliterated in the sixth century BCE. Isaiah is alive for the first and foresees the latter. Everything that Israel was supposed to be comes to naught. And yet in Isaiah 40 the failure that has overtaken Israel does not spell the end of God’s care for Israel and its people.

In fact Isaiah 40 begins with God saying, “Comfort.” “Comfort my people for their warfare is now ended.” After all the death and the destruction, the failure of Israel as a country of power and influence there come the words “Comfort my people.”

How could the writer of second Isaiah who was writing after the disasters even begin to suggest that God is still involved in the lives of the people of Israel? Many of them had been in Babylon for generations. The holy city Jerusalem was still in ruins. It would take centuries to rebuild and it would never regain its glory. Judah and Israel remained in desolation. But there they are words of hope. God is still present and powerful. It goes against all the evidence and yet the writer maintains that there is hope, powerful hope and there is one reason for that hope.

Verses seven and eight are the key verses. They make the claim that even though human life and endeavor is fragile and fleeting; even though our mightiest efforts fail; even though destruction overtakes us that is not evidence that God has abandoned us. “The word of God stands forever!” That is a powerful theological jump forward and quite a change from the previous understanding that ruled in much of Hebrew thinking. The change was this: God did not necessarily bring success and victory rather God gives something better God gives hope and faith.

It is the hard won wisdom of Israel telling us that the word of God stands forever regardless of our fate. So there is hope for everyone, even for the dead. Good news, really good news.

This good news is no where more evident than in the sad and tragic story of the ministry of Jesus. I know we think of the ministry of Jesus the one we proclaim Christ as a rousing success but that is not really how the story goes. Professor Bart Ehrman who has written extensively on the life of Jesus points out what two thousand years of Christian apologetic and tradition has all but erased. Jesus was not well accepted by most of the people he came into contact with. Ehrman reminds us that even his family mostly rejected him. It is what the writer of Mark reports early in his ministry (Mark 3:21). And the Gospel of John reports that his brothers did not believe in him (John 7:5). It is clearly reported that he was rejected by his own townspeople. Luke even reports that they tried to kill him after he preached in the local synagogue. (Luke 4:16-30). He of course was rejected by the Jewish authorities especially the Pharisees. And the Romans did not much like him either. In the end his disciples would not defend him and fled from him in fear. This ministry was not a rousing success.

But even if you did not know any of that it would be hard to understand his ministry as a success simply because of the way he died. At least, I hope that crucifixion of the leader is not a mark of success for Christian ministry!

Listen. God’s word does stand forever even for the meekest of men who would not raise an army or a finger to save his life from a scandalous end. Jesus’ life and death proves that God never lets go of us. So the message is the same as Isaiah proclaims. There is hope. What has befallen you, no matter what it is, is not enough to destroy God or even enough to get God to back off. God is found in the midst of failure or so we learn from the life of Jesus.

Ours is a resurrection God and that means hope is present and faith works best when all seems lost.