"The Lord Delights In You"

By Rev. Billy D. Strayhorn

(Isaiah 62:1-5)

For Zion's sake I will not keep silent,

and for Jerusalem's sake I will not rest,

until her vindication shines out like the dawn,

and her salvation like a burning torch.

[2] The nations shall see your vindication,

and all the kings your glory;

and you shall be called by a new name

that the mouth of the LORD will give.

[3] You shall be a crown of beauty in the hand of the LORD,

and a royal diadem in the hand of your God.

[4] You shall no more be termed Forsaken,

and your land shall no more be termed Desolate;

but you shall be called My Delight Is in Her,

and your land Married;

for the LORD delights in you,

and your land shall be married.

[5] For as a young man marries a young woman,

so shall your builder marry you,

and as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride,

so shall your God rejoice over you.

(NRSV)

INTRODUCTION:

Mark Minnies sent me the address for a spot on the Internet that is nothing but a page of one-liners. Some are observations, some are good advice and there are a few you would really be tempted to say to some people. Here's just a few:

Be nice to your kids. They'll choose your nursing home.

Why is "abbreviation" such a long word?

There cannot be a crisis today; my schedule is already full.

Ever stop to think, and forget to start again?

If one synchronized swimmer drowns, do the rest have to drown too?

I'd explain it to you, but your brain would explode.

If at first you DO succeed, try not to look astonished!

Don't be so open-minded your brains fall out.

Mental Floss prevents Moral Decay.

And my favorite: Sinners can repent, but stupid is forever.

Good news is like a good joke, you just have to share it. The opening verse of this passage reminds of the woman who had just won the lottery. She was so excited by the news that she grabbed the phone, dialed the operator and said, "Oh, just get me anybody."

Isaiah can't contain himself. The Good News has to be told. The first 40 chapters of Isaiah are scathing denouncements of what was wrong with God's people. Isaiah interprets every crisis, both political and social as God's judgment for their faithlessness and sin. In chapter 40 Isaiah's tune begins to change. He begins to see hope and proclaim both hope and comfort to God's people. The nation is still divided but there is hope.

The news is so good, Isaiah can't keep it to himself. He even admits it and says: "For Zion's sake I will not keep silent." In this passage we find promise after promise from God. Let's look at those promises together.

I. NEW NAME:

First there is the promise of a new name.

A. FORSAKEN: In verse 2, Isaiah tells the people of God, "you shall be called by a new name that the mouth of the LORD will give." And then in verse 4, Isaiah says: "You shall no more be termed Forsaken."

Forsaken, that's a horrible name. Have you ever felt forsaken? It's perhaps the loneliest feeling of all. It's worse than alienation. It's worse than just being alone. It's abandonment and being cut off from any sense of nurture. It's being jilted or cast aside.

Part of them were exiled, the nation was split, they were at war. They felt God had deserted them. Isaiah very bluntly says, God had deserted them.

A teacher took her class to the Museum of Natural History. her pupils enjoyed every minute of it. At dinner that evening one of the fathers asked his daughter, "Where did you go today?"

Quick as a flash she answered, "We've been to a dead circus."

Isaiah says that's exactly how God felt about them. Their worship was dead and lifeless. It had no meaning and no feeling, they were going through the motions simply to placate God. Filled with sin, their worship made no difference. God's anger over their sinfulness was such that God turned his back on them.

B. FORGIVEN: But here the tune changes. The good news is that no longer will they be called "Forsaken." They have repented and come to God, so God has a new name for them. God offers that same restoration, that same new name for us.

I have a friend, a member of one of our former Churches. He was late coming into the Church. Frank was in his late 50's before he accepted Christ and joined the Church. You see, when he was a young man he did some pretty reprehensible things. He was rather rebellious and people said he was headed to prison. He didn't spend any time in prison but by the time he was twenty-five he had spent plenty of time in the County Jail.

God got Frank's attention after a particularly horrible wreck that destroyed his pickup but from which he walked away. Investigators said there was no way he should have survived. But he did, with just minor cuts and scratches.

After the wreck, he began to live differently, but for the next thirty years he carried the load of his past in his heart and on his shoulders. We met at a funeral. Something I said caught his attention and to everybody's surprise, about three weeks later he showed up at our worship service. The looks and the stares were enough to send him home. But he stayed.

After the service, he was one of the first ones out the door. This went on for about six weeks. Then one day he met me as I was going into the Post Office. I found out later, that he'd been waiting for me. We went and got a cup of coffee and talked. He had lot's of questions. Most of them something like: "Are you sure, preacher? Even somebody like me?"

Two weeks later when I gave the invitation, Frank was down front before I got all the words out of my mouth. He accepted Christ and I baptized him. After the service he walked to the door with me and people came by to welcome him.

One of the little old ladies of the Church who was hard of hearing shook his hand and then asked, "And what did you say your name was?"

Frank looked at me, then looked down at her. He straightened his shoulders, stood tall, and with a grin on of sheer joy said, "Forgiven, ma'am. My name is Forgiven."

That's the promise made to us. That's the promise made to Israel. No longer will they be called forsaken. No longer will WE be called forsaken. Instead, through Christ, like Frank, like Israel, we are given a new name and we are called "Forgiven."

II. GOD REJOICES OVER YOU:

As the "Forgiven," "God rejoice over us." We are no longer cut off. God rejoices and welcomes us home.

There's a story by O. Henry about two thieves who plan to rob a bank. One dresses like a policeman and acts as one all day beside the bank; but having acted as an honest cop and been treated like one all day, he arrests his own partner as he flees the scene of the crime, thus spoiling the plan.

There's an old saying that says, "Clothes make the man." If that's true then Isaiah is saying that not only do we get a new name but we get a new wardrobe as well. We will be dressed in salvation and robed in righteousness.

Wow, what a change. From forsaken to forgiven; from desolate t a crown. Why? Because God delights in us. Not because of what we've done. Not because we are so good and noble and righteous. But because it is God's nature to delight in us, for we are God's creation, God's children. And what parent doesn't delight in their children, especially when they return home after being gone for such a long lonely time.

III. YOU SHALL BE:

A. The passage also talks about God's continued presence and work in our lives. Isaiah goes on to tells us that once God gives us a new name, there is still more to do. Having that new name means there are some expectations, too. He says: We "shall be a crown of beauty . . . and a royal diadem in the hand of God."

That sounds to me like a description of something yet to come, something yet to be. It sort of puts things in proper perspective, too. For it means that God isn't through with us yet. It means we've been given a new name and we've started a new life, now the work of that new life begins.

In one of his sermons, Martin Luther King, Jr. put it this way: "We ain't what we want to be. We ain't what we gonna be. But, thank God, we ain't what we was."

No longer are we forsaken, now we are forgiven. And being forgiven, experiencing the lifting of the burden of guilt fires us up like Isaiah both to proclaim the Good News and to do the work of becoming that crown of beauty. In other words, we want to live so that our lives are pleasing to God and show the true glory of God.

B. Martin Luther King, Jr. said, "If a man is called to be a street sweeper, he should sweep streets even as Michelangelo painted, or Beethoven composed music, or Shakespeare wrote poetry. He should sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will pause to say: 'Here lived a great street sweeper who did his job well.'"

Out of response to God's grace that changes our name from forsaken to forgiven we try to be and do what God wants us to be and do. Sometimes it's hard but the Good News is that as God's forgiven we will never be forsaken.

Kenny spent his first two Christmases in the Harlem hospital where his mother abandoned him. He was kept with other children who also had AIDS. He spent his third Christmas in a children's home in Albany, NY. If anybody could have been called "Forsaken," it was Kenny. If anybody's place could be called "Desolate," his could. But there in Albany he was found by Gertrude Lewis, a 47 year-old city bus driver who lived alone, had never been married and had no family of her own. "I saw this boy with these beautiful eyes just looking up and smiling," she remembers. She prepared a room for Kenny in her house, as well as in her heart, a room where desolation was dispelled by merry pictures and stuffed animals. "It is going to be hard to lose him," Gertrude said. But Kenny can no longer be called "Forsaken," because "her delight was in him," and he knew it.

Gertrude responded to God in a hard situation. She became what God wanted her to be, the promised land for Kenny. And Kenny got a new name and a new place . . . forever. The Good News is that as God's forgiven we will never be forsaken. As God's 'Forgiven,' "God delights in you." And through the power of God's Holy Spirit, together we will become what God wants us to be.

CONCLUSION:

No wonder Isaiah couldn't contain himself. No wonder he cried out, "I will not keep silent."

Remember, the Good News is like a good joke, too good to keep to yourself. Through your life and through your words let everyone know that through God's grace your name has been changed from "forsaken" to "forgiven." Never forget, God delights in you. And having been forgiven you are called to live that delight for others to see.