Confidence – Isaiah 54, 1-14 - King's College

Sermon for King’s College Chapel
Sunday 21 October 2012
Confidence – Isaiah 54, 1‐14
Revd David Chamberlin
Rector of Milton
The legendary sprinter and long‐jumper Carl Lewis, winner of ten Olympic medals, once
said, “If you don’t have confidence, you’ll always find a way not to win.”
Where is your confidence? In a city such as this, it is perhaps easy to place our confidence in
academic achievement, in innovation, in enterprise, in progress. Perhaps your confidence is
in your sporting prowess, in your winning personality, in your attractive appearance, in
your incomparable sense of style! We all place our confidence in something or someone, in
ourselves or someone else.
It’s easy to recognise the difference between a person of confidence and one without it. It can
be seen in the sporting arena ‐ the person of confidence has a different demeanour. They
carry themselves differently ‐ they hold their head high. Contrast this with the person whose
confidence is gone ‐ their head goes down, they look defeated. They no longer believe that
they can win.
What, I wonder, was the demeanour of the people of Israel at the time that Isaiah delivered
this prophetic word? The people were in exile, and the implication of the text is that Israel
had cast itself in the role of the abandoned wife ‐ barren and lost. In a bit of a sulk with God.
Heads down, losing hope, defeated. They had no reason for confidence in themselves to
deliver themselves, and they had not only lost confidence in the Lord, they seem almost to
have lost sight of him altogether. That’s the problem with having your head down ‐ you lose
your vision.
And so the Lord, through the prophet, speaks into the situation. “Sing, O barren one, who
did not bear; break forth into singing and cry aloud, you who have not been in labour! For
the children of the desolate one will be more than the children of her who is married,” says
the LORD.
“Sing.” Victors sing. Overcomers sing. Winners sing. People with their head down grumble,
moan, and whinge; they rarely sing. “Sing.” Things are going to have to change for us to sing. A
Robbie Williams album from about ten years ago was called ‘Sing when you’re winning’.
That’s easy. This is an instruction to sing even though you’re convinced you’re losing. That’s
much harder.

This passage challenges us today. It certainly challenges the church of today. In many places
in the West, it appears that the church has lost confidence in the Gospel, and ‐ dare we say it
‐ it has lost confidence even in God himself. We hear so much of rising tides of New
Atheism, Secularism, Consumerism, other faiths. And I think some of us are beginning to
believe the propaganda. God had a solution to rising tides in Noah’s day. It wasn’t an ark. It
was a man ‐ a man who took God at his word and was prepared to stand against the rising
tide, and look really stupid by building an ark in the desert. A man who had confidence in
God. I wonder if Noah sang as he built? Are we still singing?
Sing? In case you hadn’t noticed, Isaiah, we’re still in exile. What exactly is going to change?
“Enlarge the place of your tent, and let the curtains of your habitations be stretched out; do
not hold back; lengthen your cords and strengthen your stakes. For you will spread abroad
to the right and to the left, and your offspring will possess the nations and will people the
desolate cities.” Impossible! Didn’t you hear that we’re in exile?
Plan for expansion. Put the resources in place for growth. Be ready for multiplication. Not
phrases we might expect to hear very often at Synods or PCC meetings. But why not? Do we
not serve the same God who brought the people of Israel out of exile against all
expectations? Do we not serve the same God who raised Jesus from the dead, against every
expectation? “If you don’t have confidence, you’ll always find a way not to win.” Where is
our confidence as a church, and as individual Jesus‐followers?
“Fear not, for you will not be ashamed; be not confounded, for you will not be disgraced; for
you will forget the shame of your youth, and the reproach of your widowhood you will
remember no more. For your Maker is your husband, the LORD of hosts is his name; and
the Holy One of Israel is your Redeemer, the God of the whole earth he is called.” You see
yourselves as an abandoned wife ‐ that is not so, you have a husband, who has never left
you ‐ you have simply lost sight of him. And he will deliver you from this place of exile ‐ he
is not only your husband, he is also your redeemer, the God of all the earth.
Elite athletes employ every possible means to gain a tenth of a second here, a few extra
millimetres there in their quest to be the best. Many use a sports psychologist as a part of
their support team, recognising that the mind is just as important as the body to real success.
One of the roles of the psychologist is to help the athlete to believe what they already know.
They know they can win, they know they can be the best, but they need reminding ‐ often ‐
so that they truly believe it, and perform accordingly. This is most important after they have
suffered a setback. That’s why God so often repeats himself through the prophets ‐
especially those speaking into the exile ‐ reminding the people over and over again who he
is, what he has done, and what he will do. They know it, but they need to be reminded so
they will believe it and place their confidence in God once again.
And that’s also one of the reasons we gather together regularly for worship as followers of
Jesus ‐ to be reminded over and over again who he is, what he has done, and what he will

do. We know it, but we need to be reminded so that we will believe it and place our
confidence in God once again.
Where is your confidence? Jesus said. “I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not
prevail against it.” (Matthew 16.18) That’s a pretty confident statement. There are others:
“But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my
witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” (Acts 1.8)
“Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father
and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded
you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” (Matthew 28:19‐20)
Where is your confidence?
At the end of Common Worship Holy Communion, we are dismissed with the words, “Go
in peace to love and serve the Lord”. Self‐improvement guru Dale Carnegie said this:
“Inaction breeds doubt and fear. Action breeds confidence and courage. If you want to
conquer fear, do not sit home and think about it. Go out and get busy.” I’d like to declare an
‘Amen’ to both, and to encourage us all to ‘go and do likewise’.
Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, copyright ©2001 by Crossway Bibles, a
publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.