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Before we stand for the reading of God’s Word, some background on some of the most incredibly hopeful language about how God deals with humanity in the midst disaster and crisis in all of scripture.

The book of Isaiah covers a span of some 300 years. The first 39 chapters were written as a disastrous war unfolded between the Israelites and Syria. The Assyrians conquered Israel, the Northern Kingdom, and were threatening to capture Judah, the Southern Kingdom, as well.
Isaiah believed this war with the Assyrians was nothing less than the judgment of God on the nations of Israel and Judah, because of the social injustice (widening gap between rich and poor) that was occurring in their lands. While Israel fell to the Assyrians, Judah survived largely because of a godly king named Hezekiah who responded to the warnings of Isaiah. Yet as the years went by people in Judah didn’t really change their way of living.

Some 100 years later, the new empire of Babylon swept away the nation, their king, their temple, their old way of life. Everything was gone! The Israelites are in exile in Babylon. Most scholars date chapter 40 at around 550 BC, meaning the people ware about 30 years into their captivity. They wondering if they have a future again as God’s people.

In the midst of this crisis of faith God speaks to them through this message of Isaiah.


Isaiah 40:21-31
21 Have you not known? Have you not heard? Has it not been told you from the beginning? Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth? 22It is he who sits above the circle of the earth, and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers; who stretches out the heavens like a curtain, and spreads them like a tent to live in; 23who brings princes to naught, and makes the rulers of the earth as nothing. 24Scarcely are they planted, scarcely sown, scarcely has their stem taken root in the earth, when he blows upon them, and they wither, and the tempest carries them off like stubble.

25To whom then will you compare me, or who is my equal? says the Holy One. 26Lift up your eyes on high and see: Who created these? He who brings out their host and numbers them, calling them all by name; because he is great in strength, mighty in power, not one is missing. 27Why do you say, O Jacob, and speak, O Israel, “My way is hidden from the Lord, and my right is disregarded by my God”? 28 Have you not known? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable. 29He gives power to the faint, and strengthens the powerless. 30Even youths will faint and be weary, and the young will fall exhausted; 31but those who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.

When God’s Ways Become Our Ways
These words that we have just heard from the prophet Isaiah are meant to inspire hope for the future. Hope that is rooted in the essence of who God is: great strength, mighty power, tender love, with the capacity to always do something new for us, and for our world.

Is that what you heard this morning (smile)? I’m serious. What is it that you heard as God asks these great questions through the prophet Isaiah, “Have you not know? Have you not heard?”

Anybody?

The fist thing I heard was, “What is that I have not known or heard, or perhaps long forgotten?

• God sits above the circle of the earth. We who live here are like grasshoppers!

In describing the greatness of our Creator, Isaiah starts off by comparing us to small leafhoppers. What an image, what a sense of relief! We are not God, nor do we have to be. After all we are just lowly grasshoppers.
Do you hear the hope in this (smile)? I’m serious. What is it that you hear when Isaiah describes the greatness of God by comparing us to grasshoppers? Anybody?

After I had this sense of relief (even hope) “I am not God, and I do not have to be,” and I remembered Aesop’s fable about the Ant and the Grasshopper. The grasshopper is lazy and playful. As a result it has nothing for the winter and has to beg the industrious hard working ant for food and shelter. Doesn’t sound very hopeful. Sounds like any hope that we might have for the future is rooted in our ability to fend for and take care of ourselves. I’m sure this isn’t what Isaiah was trying to communicate!

So before we dismiss any hope from this grasshopper metaphor, because of this one fable consider the following, much of this comes from a former pastor of urban churches named Todd Weir, who now works in a transitional housing program for homeless people. This grasshopper stuff you’re about to hear is his inspiration, not original to me, “it is his gift to pastors and people trying to be faithful to the scriptures” as puts it on his website www.bloomingcactus.typepad.com

Grasshoppers are one of most successful species on planet – They come in some 12,000 different species, a variety of colors. Brighter the color the greater the warning to birds they are not great to eat.

Grasshoppers have wings, they can leap 20 times more than their own body length – if we could do that as humans it would a flying leap of 40 yards! If only we could land with grace of grasshopper.

Grasshoppers have five eyes. Their adaptability and survival comes from their ability to see everything around them in a great panorama. This ability to see can take us beyond the perceived ‘hopelessness’ or our current despair, circumstances. If we only see the next blade of grass in front of us, we will not grow or thrive. Quickly weighed down by ‘why doesn’t grass taste better?” or “will we run out of grass altogether?”

“Have you not known? Have you not heard?” Isaiah asks us a second time, as if we just don’t get it. And what is it that we most need to hear in the midst of disaster and crisis? That our hope that is rooted in the essence of the God who created us – God will give us great strength, mighty power, tender love, with capacity to always do something new.

What is that you are hearing? I’m serious. Anybody?

Have you long forgotten? Not only is God above the circle of the earth, but also the Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of earth. God does not faint or grow weary. God gives power to the faint and strengthens the powerless.

I heard a great line this week about one of one of Jesus sayings, “Blessed are the poor in spirit.” Poor in spirit simply means that we recognize our need and dependence on our creator, and turn to the One who always has the capacity to do something utterly new, with us in our world.

When we are at the end of ourselves, and come to this life giving power, well then

• even though youths will faint and be weary, and even though the young will fall exhausted; but those who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.

What incredible words for us to hear together, from “the Holy One.’ Even the small grasshopper that has gotten a bad rap might end up soaring like an eagle. As Todd Wier writes, “May each of us learn to live with grasshopper eyes and eagles wings.”