000 Allen FMT (i-xxii) - The Presbyterian Leader

250 Proper 9 [14]/Year C
avoided (Isa. 66:3c). The only appropriate worship is that accompanied by
deeds of loving-kindness (mitzvoth). “All these things my hand has made . . .
are mine, says the LORD” (v. 2). They are not ours to kill. True worship
involves doing justice, loving-kindness, and walking humbly with God
(Mic. 6:8). Micah and Third Isaiah share a discomfort with the Zadokite
priesthood and its approach to the Temple and Temple worship.
Then Third Isaiah moves with verse 5 into the theme of today’s reading:
the promise that Jerusalem shall rejoice and be vindicated. “Yet as soon
as Zion was in labor she delivered her children. Shall I open the womb and
not deliver? says the LORD” (vv. 8–9). No: “Rejoice with Jerusalem, and be
glad for her, all you who love her; rejoice with her in joy . . . that you may
nurse and be satisfied from her consoling breast” (vv. 10–11).
Throughout the Scriptures of Israel, the eschatological vision is always
intimately connected with down-to-earth matters. Blessing was a matter
of concrete, everyday well-being. It involved “prosperity” (v. 12), because
well-being is incompatible with hunger and homelessness. Blessing means
that the “bodies” of the people would “flourish like the grass” (v. 14). A
vindication that left Jerusalem gaunt with famine would be no vindication.
When our understanding of salvation is not world-affirming, we have
failed to comprehend the biblical witness.
Salvation is available from a gracious God, which is the good news of
Isaiah. But God’s grace is not cheap. God wants proper worship, not idolatry,
and worship that liturgically reflects and reinforces a life of faithful
living. God’s mercy does not mean that God will not “execute judgment
... on all flesh” (v. 16). Nor does it mean that God will tolerate “those who
sanctify . . . themselves to go into the gardens . . . eating the flesh of pigs,
vermin, and rodents” (v. 17); they “shall come to an end together” (v. 17).
The chapter ends on two apparently discordant notes. The first (vv.
22–23) is the familiar universalism of the Isaianic vision of salvation: “all
flesh shall come to worship before me, says the LORD” (v. 23). The second
is at first strange: “And they shall go out and look at the dead bodies
of the people who have rebelled against me; for their worm shall not die,
their fire shall not be quenched, and they shall be an abhorrence to all
flesh” (v. 24). And so, Isaiah ends with worms crawling in and out of the
dead bodies of those who did not heed God’s call to live a life conducive
to sharing of life and blessing.
This is utter realism. The Torah and the prophets make clear that we
have a choice between a way of life and blessing or, alternatively, a way of
death and destruction. If the nations do not make for peace, they get war,
lots of corpses and worms. There is, however, a choice, and we could,