Isaiah 29:17-24, Psalm 27:1, 4, 13-14, Matthew 9:27-31
In the history of Christian faith we too often project the promises of the Messiah into the life after death. In this view, God’s reign is about what we call heaven and we must suffer through this life to get there. Although life after death certainly is the ultimate realm of God’s presence I don’t believe it excludes the hope that faith, real trust in God, might well result in God’s reign and our crazy, amazing happiness in the here and now.
I say this today because today’s readings seem to scream this viewpoint. The Isaiah verses begin with the imagery we’ve come to expect for God’s Reign, the deaf hear, the blind see, the poor rejoice. But then I would contend it gets personal, and it’s this getting personal and individual that pushes me toward feeling this is about our life and our time. Isaiah talks about the God who redeemed Abraham and how Jacob’s kids will see God’s work and praise God as a result. Finally it ends with how those who “err in spirit” and “find fault” will receive instruction and acquire understanding. We’re talking about kids coming to respect their parents and other people who change their minds and accept something new. That sounds like a life process not some sacred after death revelation. To me it hints that we should rethink what Isaiah may be saying when he talks of “a very little while.”
Matthew’s gospel is a wonderfully personal story of two blind men who manage to follow Jesus to where he is staying and simply don’t give up. Jesus who has been working cures all over the place simply asks them if they believe he can cure them and they say they do. So he touches their eyes and prays that the cure happen “according to your faith.” In Matthew’s gospel Jesus regularly refers to or engages the faith of the person being cured. Here he not only has asked them if they believe in him but then stipulates the cure is based on their faith. It places additional emphasis on the need for personal trust. This is not about abstract theory. It’s not about big picture Salvation. It’s about these two men trusting another person, who he is and what that means for them. I think the personal element is emphasized when Jesus tells them not to tell anyone. He is doing this for them not as a means to larger ends.
This kind of up close and personal action says to me that Jesus is the message. God comes into this world to make people’s lives better. Isaiah could talk about it as a possibility but Jesus is the living proof that life can be better right now. Changing our lives in this life certainly is the message that the Psalmist is singing about. First, the Lord is a refuge from fear. Fear is not an afterlife problem. Second, she wants to dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of her life and finally and most explicitly, “I believe that I shall see the bounty of the LORD in the land of the living.”
I think this emphasis on individual, personal trust and subsequent change is important because it suggests how God may actually work in the world: one person, one situation at a time. No big obvious sea change but each of us being willing to trust that God can do this in our lives: drive out fear, open hearts, enable generosity and love. Each of us having our eyes opened so we can see what we couldn’t before. By coming to a better understanding of what is possible in this world, we can rejoice in it and now, be sure to pass it on to someone else.
