Image is of quotations hanging in the Iowa State Capitol: Courageous confidence in the intelligence of the community is the sure sign of leadership and success (G.W. Curtis) and The ideal state – that in which an injury done to the least of its citizens is an injury done to all (Solon).
Isaiah 59:11
We all growl like bears; like doves we moan mournfully. We wait for justice, but there is none; for salvation, but it is far from us.
I imagine these words from Isaiah on the lips of asylum seekers reaching our southern border, being met with tear gas. I imagine them on the lips of the Standing Rock Sioux, the pipeline they protested now flowing with oil. And as we approach the sixth anniversary of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, I imagine this lament on the lips of those devastated parents every time another senseless mass shooting takes place.
Isaiah gives us permission to lament the injustices that surround us, to feel the hopelessness that wells up within us. It’s overwhelming to merely glimpse, let alone truly understand, the oppressive and unjust systems of which we are all a part. And in a time of division and partisanship, when absolute certainties seem preferable to nuanced curiosity and recognition of complexity, it seems impossible that change will ever come.
So those with eyes to see and ears to hear lament. Those with broken hearts and bewildered minds mourn. Those with even just a sliver of faith call out to God for help, for justice, for salvation.
Isaiah doesn’t leave us to lament forever. Just ten verses later, the command is this: Arise, shine; for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you (Isaiah 60:1).
The one who came to bring good news to the oppressed, to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and release to the prisoners dwells among us today (Isaiah 61:1). The salvation for which we wait is upon us, and within us, even now. His name is Jesus. And he is working through our failings and our fears to bring about the justice we so desperately need.
At today’s state funeral for President George H.W. Bush, presidential historian Jon Meacham said this of the 41st President of the United States: On his watch, a wall fell in Berlin; a dictator’s aggression did not stand…An imperfect man, he left us a more perfect union.
I’m reminded of my favorite setting of Mary’s Magnificat, Canticle of the Turning by Rory Cooney: From the halls of pow’r to the fortress tow’r, not a stone will be left on stone. Let the king beware for your justice tears ev’ry tyrant from his throne.
Our youngest son, at age 8, is planning to sing this song for the Christmas Program later this month. To hear him sing of God’s justice, with the faith of a child, turns my lament to praise.
To honor an imperfect President as one through whom God worked to tear a tyrant from his throne, turns my fear to hope.
With the Spirit of God at work in us, change is possible.
My heart turns from sighing to singing.
Come, Lord Jesus, come. Let your justice live in us. Amen.