2nd Sunday after Epiphany – A                                                                      LSB #’s 761, 575, 746
Text – Isaiah 49:4
 
But I said, “I have labored in vain; I have spent my strength for nothing & vanity; yet surely my right is with the Lord, & my recompense with my God.”
 
FOR NOTHING & VANITY
 
 You know the saying, “If it weren’t for bad luck, I’d have no luck at all.”   Then there’s Murphy’s Law, “If anything can go wrong – it will!”  Both sayings give us a picture of our world – a world that is broken, full of sorrow & frustration.  There are only two solutions to the despair.  Either human beings must fix it, or there is some greater power out there who will. 
 All the belief systems of mankind can be boiled down to those two categories.  People may believe in themselves, or other human beings.    People may believe in some kind of supernatural god.   When the events of our lives 1st collapse into the pit of everything going wrong, with nothing but bad luck, the normal reaction is to search for a solution. 
God’s chosen nation would be stuck in the land of Babylon.  They would end up there because they needed discipline from the hand of their Creator.  Their pride & arrogance already stunk to high heaven.  At their initial defeat & captivity they may have blamed it on bad luck & Murphy’s Law, but after a time, more faithful people were born of the struggle in captivity. 
All of this was being prophesied by Isaiah in, what turned out to be a futile attempt to turn the people back from their destruction.  They refused to listen & so their “Promised Land” was taken from them.  They would regain humility, & turn back to their Creator, only through suffering.  Babylon is pictured by Isaiah as a type of death & burial for God’s people. 
Yet, Isaiah does not predict only suffering, humiliation & death.   Due to God’s great mercy, Isaiah also prophesies of rescue, forgiveness, life & salvation – even the hope of resurrection.  Because the Promised Land was viewed literally as life itself, to be taken from the land was to die.  Likewise, the return from exile, to the Land, is looked at as resurrection from the dead.  It was that dramatic.   For the Israelites, that’s how tightly tied together were the promises of land & life.  And under the right conditions, even apart from the Promised Land, simply the promises of God would bring life out of death also in Babylon. 
The events of Daniel in the lion’s den, along with Shadrach, Meshach & Abednego in the fiery furnace, both occurred there.  The people of God had been humbled by their defeat & captivity.  Some were now turning back to Yahweh in repentance & humility.   They were willing to die in Babylon rather than turn away from the One who brings life out of death. 
The ultimate Promised Land does not reside on this earth but in heaven.  So the words of the sermon text ring true with our experiences on this earth: “But I said, ‘I have labored in vain; I have spent my strength for nothing & vanity…’”   The Holy Spirit tells us that is true in each of our daily lives: “For all have sinned & fall short of the glory of God.  (Romans 3:23 ESV) 
Try as we might, no matter how many things we achieve that appear as success, not a one of us can fix this broken world.  King Solomon was the wisest man to ever live, & in that wisdom he tried to fix things & make everything successful.  Here’s what he concluded.  It sounds a lot like ‘nothing & vanity’:
“Everything is meaningless, completely meaningless!”  What do people get for all their hard work under the sun?  Generations come & generations go, but the earth never changes.  The sun rises & the sun sets, then hurries around to rise again.  The wind blows south, & then turns north.  Around & around it goes, blowing in circles.  Rivers run into the sea, but the sea is never full.  Then the water returns again to the rivers & flows out again to the sea…    No matter how much we see, we are never satisfied.  No matter how much we hear, we are not content.  History merely repeats itself.  It has all been done before.  Nothing under the sun is truly new.  Sometimes people say, “Here is something new!”  But actually it is old; nothing is ever truly new.  We don’t remember what happened in the past, & in future generations, no one will remember what we are doing now...   I, the Teacher, was king of Israel, & I lived in Jerusalem.  I observed everything going on under the sun, & really, it is all meaningless – like chasing the wind.  What is wrong cannot be made right.  What is missing cannot be recovered.  (Ecclesiastes 1:2-12, 14-15 NLT) 
 
That’s a large selection of Holy Scripture but it makes Isaiah’s point so well, & it fits with our own personal experiences.  Life in this world is hard, & by it, many people end up crushed.  We want to fix them, & we think that trying to do so is what God wants from us.    Jesus calls us to love our neighbors unconditionally, not to fix them.  There’s a difference. 
Our faith in Jesus as Savior – from all that is wrong in this world – can grow.   Our relationship with God & with our neighbors, can grow.  However, our neighbors, & we ourselves cannot be fixed.  We don’t get better & better each day, even if we try.  Our sinful nature must be put to death, & you may have noticed, that is neither a simple nor a painless process. 
The people of God had to be put in exile in a foreign land; enslaved & surrounded by people who followed false gods.  That is what it took to humble them so they’d turn back to the true God, who, by the way, offers life instead of death.  The problem is, in our current state of sin, you & I really struggle to tell the difference between life & death. 
If we even believe what we’re saying at the beginning of the service, our confession is half-hearted at best.  Many people don’t believe, & actually object to, these words, “I, a poor, miserable sinner…”  The words bite & cut at the very core of our pride & our arrogance.  The words speak of humiliation & surrender.  They are words of death to our sinful nature. 
In & of ourselves, none of us would speak them.  In & of ourselves, none of us are able to speak them.  It is only by the power of the Holy Spirit, who raises us from death to life, that you or I can say those words in truth & honesty.  And yet, it is because we are poor, miserable sinners that we look at our lives with discontent & believe that we see nothing & vanity. 
Our heavenly Father is working miracles every day, but we do not have the eyes to see nor the ears to hear.  So God sent His only & perfect Son to take on human flesh, to suffer the anguish & the woe of our sins.  You see, although Isaiah wrote them, the words of the sermon text are not his.  They are the words of the Suffering Servant who is Jesus Christ: “I have labored in vain; I have spent my strength for nothing & vanity; yet surely my right is with the Lord, & my recompense with my God.”  In other words, from the perspective of Jesus’ human nature, even He struggled to ‘see’ the good He was accomplishing. 
So many people turned away from Him.  So many people shouted, “Crucify him!”   So many people, like us, struggled & even refused to confess their sin.  As a pastor, it is sad for me to see so many young adults abandon worship & Christian living so quickly after confirmation.  They seem to openly ignore what they’ve been taught in the 3rd & 6th commandments.  
We spend hours & hours teaching the basics of the Bible, & what good does it do in the end?  I’m sure you’ve had the same frustrations with your children & grandchildren – it’s even more personal for you.  
Or maybe it’s an inner struggle against sin, where you keep on repenting & keep on seeking strength to deal with a weakness, but it keeps coming back again & again.  Some just give up & quit.  Why even try?  But it’s interesting to see how Jesus deals with this seeming lack of success & return for His work.  
He says, “yet surely my right is with the Lord, & my recompense with my God.”  Though He could not see it, He entrusted the reward to His Father.  He let Him take care of the results.  It reminds me of the classic movie “The Karate Kid.”  
Daniel is told by Mr. Miyagi, “Wax on, wax off.”  Hour after hour he goes, & he finally blows up, demanding to know what good it is to do the wax on & wax off.  Then, Mr. Miyagi starts throwing punches at Daniel, only to have him feign off the punches by using the same motion he was using to put the wax on & the wax off.  Then it all made sense.  
Jesus, however, didn’t throw a fit & demand to see results.  He trusted that the results
would be what they would be.  He would only do what God called Him to.  He’d keep swinging the sword & using the arrows in hopes that sooner or later the weapons would hit their mark & people would see that He really was Messiah. 
God calls us to be faithful at repentance.  He doesn’t call us to be successful.  How often do we quit & give up because we aren’t getting the results we want.  Maybe we stop praying for someone.  We stop reaching out.  We stop taking care of someone that needs our help, because we don’t get the appreciation we want.  
When we quit, or when we complain the whole time we are doing something, we aren’t being faithful at repentance.  Leave the rewards up to God.  Be faithful in the way you raise your children.  Be faithful in prayer.  Be faithful at your job.  Be faithful as a spouse. 
It’s in the nothingness of the cross that Christians are victorious.  It’s in defeat that Christians are triumphant.  That makes life complicated.  We’d rather be #1.  Yet, all human beings have value & worth even if their lives appear to be nothing & vanity.  It’s just not easy to live a life that appears to be filled with nothing. 
The Epiphany message is that our labors are not in vain.  The sweat & the toil may grind us into the dust in this life, but we know that the true life is yet to come.  Through it all God in Christ Jesus has & will give light & life, for His sake, & in His name. 
You have heard these words so many times that it’s likely you barely even hear them anymore.  Consequently, these words of God may seem like nothing to you anymore.  Yet these simple words create life where there is death:
“Upon this your confession, I, by virtue of my office, as a called & ordained servant of Christ, announce the grace of God unto all of you, & in the stead & by the command of my Lord Jesus Christ I forgive you all your sins in the name of the Father & of the Son & of the Holy Spirit.  Amen. 
 
 
 
The peace of God that surpasses all human understanding will guard your hearts & your minds in Christ Jesus.  Amen

Epiphany – 2020
Text – Isaiah 60:1-2
 
Arise, shine, for your light has come, & the glory of the Lord has risen upon you.  For behold, darkness shall cover the earth, & thick darkness the peoples; but the Lord will arise upon you, & His glory will be seen upon you.
 
HIS GLORY WILL BE SEEN UPON YOU
  
How have you been feeling lately?        Are you exhausted from all the Thanksgiving, Christmas & New Year’s activities?    Do you have more aches & pains than you did 10 or 20 or 30 years ago?   Will 2020 be the debut of the “new you”?    Oh, you’ve already learned that New Year’s resolutions are a waste of time.  Murphy’s Law is out to get you! 
Has the New Year rung in with a spring in your step & good feelings about your short-term future?  Is hope springing eternal in the doldrums of a typical gray Michigan winter?  But the gloom doesn’t only arrive in the weather.  Experiences darken human living & assault us from all forms of media – lies, injustice, violence & the slaughter of the innocent. 
Darkness, depravity & death abound.  Anxiety is driven by terrorism, or by dysfunctional schools & families, deadly diseases, betrayal & broken promises.  The chapter of Isaiah right before the sermon text – makes it clear that nothing is new under the sun:
“No one is calling in righteousness, & no one goes to court with honesty.  They rely upon an empty argument & speak falsehood!  They conceive trouble & give birth to wickedness!  They hatch eggs of an adder, & they weave webs of a spider.  The one who eats from their eggs will die, & a rotten egg is hatched into a viper…  Their feet run to evil, & they make haste to shed innocent blood.  Their thoughts are of wickedness.  Destruction & ruin are in their highways.  The way of peace they do not know, & there is no justice in their tracks…  Therefore justice is far from us, & righteousness does not reach us.  We hope for the light, but, behold, darkness.  [We hope] for intense brightness, [but] in deep gloom we walk around.”  (59:4-5, 7-8a, 9) 
 
That description of life sounds a lot like today.  It’s similar to many of the words written in the book of Ecclesiastes.      Sin has corrupted, & made a huge mess of, everything in life – including you & me.   Now that another of the world’s chief terrorists is dead, we wait for the other shoe to drop as his supporters seek to gain revenge.   If we allow evil to run, unchecked, many lives are scarred, maimed & left for dead.   Yet, if we end evil in one place, it simply rears its ugly head in another, even in your own heart, & in mine. 
King David was a great warrior for the Lord, conquering the pagan people of Canaan, that God’s people might live there to worship Yahweh.   Then David committed adultery with the wife of one of his soldiers, even denying, that he’d done it, before God.   So, in this new year, filled with all the sins of the last, imagine this as we approach the 60th chapter of Isaiah:
V. 1-2: Envision the entire earth wrapped in total darkness.    Imagine Zion, the OT church, also as being overcome by this darkness of hopelessness.  Then, of a sudden to her, & to her only, the glory of the Lord flares out into the sky.   The vision goes on to show that the rest of the world is still shrouded in the depths of darkness & despair. 
Historically, this is the moment when Israel’s liberation from Babylonian Captivity takes place, as though it had been one great burst of glory.   A salvation which took years & centuries is pictured as a sudden & instantaneous event.  “His glory will be seen upon you.” 
In V. 3 – the picture expands.  Zion is, as it were, rubbing her eyes & beginning to take notice.  The Lord’s prophet is standing by her side, calling attention to marvelous things that are happening.  People are streaming in from afar, bearing gifts.  The light at Zion has attracted them – the only bright spot on the whole earth’s horizon. 
And it’s becoming apparent not only that nations are on the march, but also kings. 
V. 5 – now the prophet points out to Zion what joyous emotions are being engendered by this.  Looking around, Zion becomes radiant.   The center of the higher emotions – her heart – is filled with the awesomeness of this event & expands in joy.[1]    Are you there yet?   It’s what the season of Advent is designed to prepare you for.  It’s what the events of Christmas & Epiphany are bringing to fulfillment.   Did you just live through all that, & the whole month of December, for nothing?    “His glory will be seen upon you.”   That is what the word of God tells us.     Do you believe it?   It’d be wise to appropriate the words of a certain Biblical father:
“I do believe; help my unbelief.”  (Mark 9:24 NASB)    So how is it that “His glory will be seen upon you.”?    Does it mean that someday you’ll be casting out demons?  Are you going to have the ability to lay hands one of God’s creatures & heal them?  Will speaking in tongues will become your forte? 
In the character of Hebrew poetry, “His glory will be seen upon you” is a restatement of the affirmation in verse one, “for your light has come, & the glory of the Lord has risen upon you.”  The light is Yahweh Himself, or as Jesus said in John 8:12, “I am the light of the world.”  Do you remember one of His names which Isaiah gave as a prophecy? 
“Behold, the virgin shall conceive & bear a son, & shall call His name Immanuel.”  As the Gospel of Matthew cites that prophecy he adds, “Which means, God with us.”  The true & eternal joy of Christmas is not any of the material gifts you received, nor is it found in the number of friends & family who were with you. 
The true & everlasting joy of Christmas & Epiphany is “His glory will be seen upon you” because the Light of the World is God with us.  That we believe in Jesus as Lord & Savior from sin is the glory of the Lord upon us.  As we tell others, who then come to faith, that we believe in Jesus, then the glory of Yahweh will be seen upon you. 
As you tell of the things that God has done in your life, in your heart, & in your soul – “His glory will be seen upon you.”   As you serve & love your neighbor as yourself, “His glory will be seen upon you” without necessarily even using words.   Jesus’ death on the cross involved very few words, yet for those who are children of God, the message is very clear.  There, the heavenly Father’s glory is seen upon the Son as He dies in our place, for our sins.  This good news whisks us away from the aches & pains, from the daily drudgery of life, & enables us to see & believe in a future age marked with peace, health & wholeness.  
The 2nd Advent of Jesus will bring a glory that will extend beyond us to include the entire new creation.  “For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now.  And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.”[2] 
Sin has been a plague on all of God’s creation.  When His human creatures reject Him, He turns away & leaves them to themselves.  That’s Isaiah chapter 59, & thus lost in gloom & experiencing divine judgment, those who are God’s people confess their sins.  Yahweh responds by rescuing His faithful remnant & the bright rays of this explode in radiant color in chapter 60. 
The OT reading from Isaiah 60 was fulfilled in a preliminary & partial way in the lives of the OT believers so the prophet can use the past tense, “…for your light has come.”  This fulfillment was evident in Yahweh’s appearance as a pillar of fire by which He guided them through the wilderness. 
The prophecy then switches to verbs that anticipate a future fulfillment, “…the Lord will arise upon you, & His glory will be seen upon you.”  From the perspective of Isaiah the prophecy would reach fulfillment in the future advent of Messiah at Bethlehem, as well as at Golgotha. 
Last, the prophecy reaches its most complete fulfillment in the new heaven & earth, after Christ’s 2nd advent, as described in Revelation: “And the nations will walk about by her light, & the kings of the earth bring their glory into her.”  (21:24) Thus, a preview & type of this ultimate fulfillment occurred in the journey of the Wise Men from the east to worship the Christ Child. 
In many ways, the kingdom of God is coming.  That news can put a spring in our step no
matter our circumstances here on earth, if we take the time to ponder the permanent Light of Christ instead of the tragedy going on in the fleeting & temporary circumstances of this life.   
Through Isaiah 60:1-6, the prophet calls us to faithfulness not so that kingdom glory will come, but because its arrival is imminent.   We can only arise & shine because our Light, Jesus, has already come, & is coming again.  His glory rose upon us already on Easter morning.  All children of God were there blessed, even though like us, many had not yet been born. 
The year 2020 may not be the debut of the “new you,” but there is a Day coming when God’s children will be made brand new.  Knowledge of that Day is what empowers us to keep going despite the suffering & tragedy that all creatures endure in this life.   When that Day arrives, Murphy’s Law will never set foot in heaven. 
Knowledge of that Day when Christ’s glory will be seen perfectly upon you is even better than the feeling you get when the sun shines in January, in Michigan.  In our country today the darkness is spreading, evil & depravity is growing, but the Lord’s glory stands out ever more clearly in the darkness.  Thank God for the light of His glory.  Amen. 
 
 
The peace of God that surpasses all human understanding will guard your heart & your mind in Christ Jesus.  Amen.


[1] Leupold, H.C., Exposition of Isaiah, Volumes I-II.  Baker Book House Company, 1991.  Pages 307-309. 

[2] Romans 8:22-23 ESV