Our prophet writes about enemies. When we hear the word, we immediately think we know our enemies, right? In fact, some may be willing to say we know our enemies, or the bad guys, as well as we know who the good guys are.
To prove this, here are six examples that couple the good and the bad, and many of us will see that we are as familiar with the enemy, or the bad guy, as we are with the good guy. Here's number one. In the comic book series Superman, the man of steel has Lex Luther; number two: in the Star Wars films, Luke Skywalker has Darth Vader; number three: on the domestic front, white, wall-to-wall carpeting has muddy dog paw prints; number four: back-to-school students like Ryan Higgins knows that broken pencils (bad) have pencil sharpeners (good), and yes, a pencil sharpener is a good guy. Here's number five. On our Susquehanna County Roads, good drivers experience bad (or just plain nasty) potholes, and finally, in knowing both protagonist and antagonist equally well, here's number six: weightwatchers or those with high cholesterol—the good guys—have the constant battle with the bad, which are éclairs and ice cream calling behind refrigerator or freezer doors.
Number six, of course, has an exception. If you're in the Lecture Hall standing by that large orange counter and some sugary treat could quite possibly hit the floor and you save that sugary treat from an extremely unlikely fall, than that treat becomes, of course, both calorie and cholesterol-free.
I may not be right on with what I say about desserts Jean Bonham or Ginny Ahearn make being calorie or cholesterol-free if they hit the floor, but admit it, we know our good guys from the bad. Hands down, we have a good sense of who (or what) an enemy is.
That said, let's revisit this scripture lesson. Just about in the middle of verse 4, we hear that God is coming to destroy our enemies. Most of us, upon hearing that verse for the first time, think of our enemies as those that, at the least, present hardships or obstacles. We think of our enemies as outsiders. But ask yourself this: in your lifetime has God destroyed your enemies? This can make us wonder, are those the enemies the prophet speaks of?
In the destruction of the enemies we've talked about so far, here's something to consider. No matter how big you are, or how big you're becoming, grade school friends, there's always going to be a bad guy or a bully. Sometimes we may even call that black cowboy hat wearing guy or girl the enemy. And sometimes we may think that someday we'll be big or great enough that the big bad wolf will stop knocking on our door because we've upgraded, insulated or worked our way from straw to wood to brick protection or strength, but the truth is, there's always going to be trouble. There's always going to be a bad guy. God has yet to take these enemies away. He probably won't.
Perhaps Deutero Isaiah, the second of three prophets who wrote under the single name of Isaiah, has something else in mind for us when we think of enemies, bullies or bad guys. I invite you to consider this passage, and this book, in ways you may not have considered before. Maybe here today, the enemies God will destroy are enemies that are not around you. That's right, maybe, as we get into this text, we'll see the enemies God promises to destroy are not the Lex Luther's or Darth Vader's in our lives; maybe God isn't promising to wipe out the bully on the school bus or in the grade above you, maybe God isn't going to silence the slippery girl in your Spanish III class; maybe God isn't going to take out the neighbor that is, truly, a thorn in your side. Or, if we think of 'an enemy' as a health concern or crisis, maybe God isn't going to take away the enemy that is a positive test result that is cancer or diabetes or arthritis, or the enemy that's a health disability from mild to major.
According to this second of three prophets writing under the single authorship of Isaiah, maybe this is not the enemy or these are not the enemies God is talking about removing from our lives. Perhaps, as we look at this text, we'll see that God promises to destroy the enemies within ourselves.
That may be a radical paradigm shift for some. This may bring about thinking like this. "Ah, come again, there's an enemy within (or inside) myself? Oh now, sure, I may have a bad day. I may say something I know I'll regret. Sure, I can find a fault or two with myself from time to time; I'm not perfect. I may just say something under my breath about the slug leaving his or her shopping cart in the middle of the grocery store parking lot instead of seeing it nest in those just so convenient cart recepticles, or I may be like this woman. True story: while stopped at a red light in downtown Scranton, a certain 43-year old with a bum knee looks out the back seat passenger window of a blue Honda van and sees a woman more than a little hard-pressed seated on the long, shiny marble steps of a large, grand church. A split-second later, a second woman rounding the corner is on her way up the steps to the church. She doesn't cross in front of the first woman so they could have the opportunity to make eye contact; instead, she walks behind the one seated so they never meet face to face. Like that second woman who could have had the decency to meet the first one face to face, there's some stuff we can all work on. There's stuff we avoid, like meeting the face of God in a stranger, but an enemy, come on, there's an enemy within me?"
I suggest there is. Recently I saw a Jell-o pudding commercial. (Ah, the things you can't do while laid up, so there's TV!) This fat-free product, the commercial boasts, has only 90 calories. (Or, maybe if you eat it, you'll actually loose 90 calories!) The hook for this supposedly creamy, delicious snack goes like this: every diet deserves a little wiggle room.
There is no wiggle room here. Ask yourself, who's holding you back from a greater, deeper, richer life with God? Is it an enemy from the outside? Is a downtrodden woman on church steps keeping you down? Is she holding you back? Is it that dog with the four muddy feet? Is your relationship with God hindered by a Pennsylvania pothole?
You know God as an active agent in your life. God who loves you, God who created you in all about that relationship with you. God who loves you, God who created you is all about being right with you. If there's a block, an obstacle or a stone—if there's an enemy keeping you down, out, or away from God—that block, obstacle or stone is yours.
Speaking of stones, here's another true story. There was a class of twenty-five third graders at a charter school in Wilkes-Barre not long ago. This group of kids loved science. Rarely is it seen where a whole class of adorable nine and ten year old cherubs really love the subject of science. One of their bigger lessons in the spring of that year was on erosion. With colored chalk, we drew pictures on the blackboard of mountains, rivers and lakes. We had fun with maps and diagrams. Certain students did reports on the water table and the subject of erosion, which, as we know, is the wearing away, or the wearing down of something.
In our relationship with God through Christ, we, like wind and water, can wear down something, too. As if we are stones, this lesson tells us that we have to be the ones who let our hard or rough spots wash or wear away. We have to be the ones who dump or destroy our enemies within, and, like erosion, we do this on a day to day, maybe even an hour by hour basis. And we do this dumping, this cleansing, this metamorphous by letting go attitudes or mindsets or misgivings. In this process of letting go or letting things smooth you over, we get closer to the one whose perfect image we're created in.
Roadblocks or stumbling blocks are yours alone. They are your enemy. You are created in God's holy image.
You do not have to find something; it is already there. At your core, at your true self place, there is God in whose image you were created.
The message today is that, in being created in God's holy image, we can remove what I've called our own enemies. We can remove or at least level that which keeps us blind, and that which keeps us deaf.
With what we've just discovered, or, actually, discovered, in our understanding of erosion where we daily remove what keeps us from God, let's read verse five from our scripture sheets together. 5Then the eyes of those who are blind will be opened. The ears of those who can't hear will be unplugged.
Folks, we are blind. We don't see what God has in store for this church, or even ourselves. We are handicapped.
And here's another fact: when we arrive at an honest place, we are also deaf. We do not see what God has in store for this church, or even ourselves.
But that will change. God is handicapped assessable. Yes, through our handicaps, through or being blind and deaf, we can access God. We can reach God.
Let him free you from your enemy of being blind. Let him free you of your enemy of being deaf.
Today, and in the weeks to come, and in the weeks to come here in worship, open your eyes more than you've done. Open your ears more than you have done. We are made in the perfect image of God, and with his son, Christ, the blind parts of us will see, and the deaf parts of us will hear.
See. Listen. Let the blessings will flow. Let the blessings will flow.