Sermons

---

Our Tale of Two Cities
December 28, 2003
Associate Pastor Steven Lympus
Sermon series: “Images from Isaiah”
Isaiah 24:1-12, 19-23
Isaiah 26:1-7, 19

Some of us are visual thinkers, others of us are more verbal thinkers. Isaiah the Prophet was both visual and verbal. Isaiah loved pictures, and he also loved words that describe pictures. If he wasn’t an artist himself, I’d bet you that Isaiah was at least an art enthusiast. He had to have a creative mind, for God had given him visions of stark devastation and inspiring hope. Even if you are receiving visions from God, like Isaiah certainly was, you have to have a visual imagination to be able to write such vivid descriptions of these images down on paper…or in Isaiah’s case, a scroll.

We are in the middle of a series here at Bethany on the Prophecy of Isaiah. This Old Testament book is full of graphic images:

• images of pain and suffering on a personal level, like oppressed widows and orphans
• images of devastation on a national level, like invading armies and natural disasters
• images of warning, like a destroyed and abandoned vineyard
• images of hope and triumph, like swords being beaten into shovels in times of peace, or the wolf lying down with the lamb

Today, we look at two different chapters from Isaiah’s sketchbook, and two very different sets of images. You’ve heard the devastation and judgment from chapter 24, as Jane or Sprague sketched an interpretation. Now hear the hope and restoration in chapter 26. After I read this, Abbie or Susan will sketch an interpretation and the musicians will play. I invite you to relax and watch this image take shape, as well as listen to the words of the song, printed in your bulletin…

Images in contrast
This is Our Tale of Two Cities: two cities, with two very different futures. There are the more technical questions we might ask about these cities: like which cities were being depicted in these visions, and did these events correspond to actual historical disasters? Scholars are still asking these questions about Isaiah 24 and 26. For today, I want to invite you to use your imaginations with me and simply picture what it is like to live in these two cities, as Isaiah describes them. Immerse yourself in the images Isaiah offers, as well as the images offered here before us, and I think we will come close to seeing the message that God showed to Isaiah in his visions.

“The City of Chaos”
The first city is the one described in Isaiah chapter 24 – let’s just call this the Isaiah 24 City. This city is a human product, built without God in mind at all. The Isaiah 24 City sort of reminds us of the Tower of Babel in Genesis (the tower that was built to celebrate human accomplishment, and reach all the way to the heavens). The Isaiah 24 City was a model “city of the future,” they hosted the World’s Fair a few decades back and they’re going for an Olympic bid. The Isaiah 24 City was a proud city.

However, Isaiah nicknames this city “The City of Chaos,” like the chaos in Genesis 1 when the earth is still “formless and void” before God created the light, and separated the waters from the land. This Isaiah 24 City is also “formless and void.” This city is meaningless. It was promised to be the city of the future, but the people who lived there became stuck in ruts of exploitation and despair. They served themselves and had no eye for each other or for God. The Isaiah 24 City was all about self-sufficiency, and living apart from God – in fact, if they had a tourism bureau, this would have been their motto: “Come visit the Isaiah 24 City to get away from it all—including God.”

What happened in this great city? Isaiah writes that the Covenant was broken – the agreement between God and humanity violated. As in the time of Noah (Gen 6:5), an evil imagination had taken over the thoughts of the citizens, and God was not pleased. Like a lump of clay that will not yield to the potter’s hands, and goes off-center of the potter’s wheel spinning to the ground, this city was on the way to destruction. So God judges this city, severely.

Let’s pause on the Isaiah 24 City for a moment, and talk about the second city.

A city under God’s restoration
The second city is in Isaiah chapter 26, the Isaiah 26 City. This is where God’s people dwell – the God-seekers live here in the Isaiah 26 City. These citizens are not immune from the turmoil of history – wars go on, they are threatened, the economy dips now and they suffer as any city does in times of loss – but the people in the Isaiah 26 City experience all these hardships from within a secure city. They have strong walls and secure foundations; based not on their own technology, really, but on God’s salvation. And the motto at their tourism bureau is quite different than the motto in the other city: “Come live with us in the Isaiah 26 City, where God is King.”

But the Isaiah 26 City is not the city of perfection. The people here are not perfect people; they disagree, they sin, they fail to follow God (though they usually come running back to Him). The city is structurally sound for the most part, but is in drastic need of more urban renewal. There is a plan for restoration of the downtown core, but they are far from being a perfect city.

The Perfect City comes later in Isaiah (65:17-25), when God creates the New Jerusalem. John saw a vision of this City too, and wrote about it in his Revelation. This Isaiah 26 City is not that New Jerusalem, but it is a city that we can live in. The Isaiah 26 City is, after all, a city where God is King. A city under God’s restoration, in stark contrast to city under God’s judgment. Take a look at the contrasts here:

God reigns over both
The cities look quite opposite: One is being judged, the other restored. But what is the same in both cities? God reigns, He reigns over both cities. That’s the funny thing: in both chapters, Isaiah is sure to mention that God reigns, over both cities. He reigns whether the citizens of the city acknowledge Him as King or not. He reigns whether the city is under His judgment, or under His restoration. God reigns, always.

God, the King of the World, has come to claim his throne on Mount Zion (seriously resisting any references at this point to a certain current movie that may be showing in a theater near you…promised Dan). God, the long-expected King of the World, returns to His throne on Mount Zion. He sets up court here and sits as final Judge over both heaven and earth.

The details of His judgment are not totally clear, but His purpose is clear: redemption. God’s purpose is redemption, always. God will not give up. This King longs to restore hope and promise to the people in the cities of the world.

And that’s where Isaiah chapter 25 comes in…the chapter between the evil city (ch 24) and God’s city (ch 26). In chapter 25, the outside nations hear about God, rumors of both His judgment and His salvation. These nations join God as He hosts a great feast on Mount Zion [a new Sinai, but not just for Israel anymore]: a lavish banquet, with good aged wine. New kings always throw lavish parties to celebrate their coronation, and invite new allegiance.

All the nations are on a pilgrimage here to the new King’s feast – all the nations are welcomed, but not an “anything-goes now” kind of basis: All the nations come to worship and serve God on God’s terms. In return, God has swallowed up the veil of darkness that covered the lands, and there is no more death. The nations have heard of God’s salvation, and they have come to serve this new King of Restoration.

God has not given up on the cities…God loves cities. In the Biblical narrative, we never return to the Garden (Eden) after the Fall; that paradise is gone forever. But we do go to the city that John describes in Revelation – the New Jerusalem that God re-creates. The city of God’s holy re-imagination, high on a mountain, where Jesus is worshipped as King, the King of Restoration.

Conclusion
But for now, we have a choice of which city to live in. Which city are you living in:

• the one where God is ignored, where an evil imagination reigns, the city on the way to destruction?
• or the one where God is acknowledged as King, and is at work reconstructing, re-imagining a hopeful future?

As you are about to begin a New Year, think this question over: What will God’s reconstruction look like in your own life? In your family’s life? What will God’s restoration look like in our city? In the wide world around us? Can you picture it – can you even imagine?

Cast your imagination forward – what do you see? Do you see families that are not broken…cycles of addiction broken…a city without poverty…Soweto, Kenya, without AIDS? Does your imagination go that far? God’s does, and much farther.

Prayer
Jesus, Lord of our lives, thank you for your holy imagination for how you desire our lives, our families, and our cities to be restored/rebuilt. Thank you that this is not just your imagination, but the reality you offer us…and thank you for the words of Isaiah, and the gift of art, to help us picture this new reality. Teach us what it means to live with you as our King, Jesus. Amen.

Sermons