Isaiah 63:7-9 - "Who Is In Control?"

Title: “Who Is In Control?”
Text: Isaiah 63:7-9
Day: Christmas 1A
Date: December 30, 2007

This past week, Eryn and I went back to Michigan to spend Christmas with my family. We had a great time, visiting with family and friends. Eating. Spending lots of quality time with my parents. Playing some games. Eating some more. Putting together a jigsaw puzzle. Listening to Christmas music. Eating once again. It was great.

What we didn’t do a lot of, however, is watching TV. Now, I have to admit, I am a TV lover. I enjoy watching stupid sitcoms and re-runs and movies and the Food Network and the national news. I never really get tired of it. So you would think that having the opportunity to watch these programs at my parents’ house on their huge, big-screen, high-definition TV with state-of-the-art surround sound speakers would be a highlight of my trip. And sometimes it is, if I can figure out how to work the remote control.

You see, the remote control for the television in our house is pretty simple. It has an ALL ON button to turn everything on, and from there things are pretty self-explanatory. The remote control for my parents’ television, however, looks like something that would control a nuclear submarine! There are all kinds of buttons on it that light up when you touch them. There is even a little computer screen on it that offers directions so that supposedly even the dumbest of people can easily navigate its myriad of buttons. Even still, if I want to watch TV at my parents’ house I have to really work at it, and even then I will still have to call my mom or dad into the room to help me lest I inadvertently press a wrong button and have the Spacestation Mir explode into tiny bits!

Remote controls are funny things. All of them are different. All of them work differently. All of them control different things. But once you are familiar with them, once you figure out how they work and what they work, they give you just what they promise: CONTROL, which is something we all desperately desire.

Unfortunately, we know about this desire for control all too well. The struggle for control can be seen everywhere. The Church is not immune to this struggle. Who has control in the ELCA? Bishop Hanson? He would say no. The Conference of Bishops? They would say no. The synod staff? They would say no. The Pastor? He would say no. The Committees? They would say no. The Council? They would say no. The average congregation member? They would say no. And yet all of these people possess and vie for control, even if they don’t realize it.

This struggle for control in the church is mirrored on the national scene. Who has control of our nation? The President might claim control, but the President is surely driven and influenced by many people including the Cabinet members, the President’s advisors, the Senate, the House, the Justices, and more and more nowadays the President is influenced by Activist Groups and even Big Businesses! So, who is in control?

We could give more and more examples of this confusing web of control. Ask the people in Pakistan today who is in control after the assassination of their Prime Minister last week. Ask the people who were caught in the Indonesian Tsunami three years ago who is in control. Ask the people who lived in New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina who is in control. Ask the leaders of any of the numerous terrorist groups in our world today who is in control. Everyone will give you a different answer. Control really is the world’s hottest commodity.

This rampant desire for control has been the bane of humanity’s existence from the very beginning. The story of Adam and Eve tells a chilling tale of what happens when we try to take control out of God’s hands and into our own; and from that story onwards through the Bible it is rare to find a story that does NOT have something to do with humanity trying – but failing – to be in control. Cain kills his brother Abel so that he might control God’s blessing. Jacob and Esau vie for control within Rebekah’s womb. The Egyptians force the Israelites into slavery to keep them under control. Saul seeks to kill David in order to keep his sense of control. Nations rage against nations throughout the Old Testament in order to gain more control for themselves.

So it should come as no surprise that this is exactly the situation into which Isaiah speaks his prophetic words. By Isaiah’s time, there were two kingdoms in Palestine: Israel in the north and Judah in the south. Israel had already succumbed and was conquered by the mighty Assyrians that came from the far north. Judah’s existence hung by a thread for years, but the Assyrians never invaded since Judah played the submissive role. Ultimately, however, the people of God had failed to wield control for themselves; now the Assyrians had all the control.

Then the Babylonians in the east rose in power. The Babylonian empire expanded swiftly and brutally. The Assyrians put up a fight, but it was hopeless and eventually the Babylonians won control. The tiny nation of Judah put up a fight, but it was in vain. Babylon took control of the entire Near East. Now, the people of Judah and Israel were dispersed through the Babylonian empire. The people of God had failed to wield control; now they were in exile.

After many long years in exile, however, the Babylonian empire cracked. Control leaked out of its old joints and it was unable to survive. The exile was over and the people of Judah and Israel were allowed to go home…at least, go to what was left of home. The land had been destroyed along with everything – EVERYTHING – they owned.

That’s when Isaiah the prophet spoke up. While the people were walking around the rubble and ashes of what used to be their homes, weeping and grieving for their losses, Isaiah cleared his throat and began to speak to them: “I will recount the gracious deeds of the LORD, the praiseworthy acts of the LORD…because of all that the LORD has done for us.” To a people who had been stripped of their sense of control, to a people who – for centuries – had fooled themselves into thinking that they had any control over their lives, to a people who had learned first-hand what a false sense of control can do to a people, these words of Isaiah must have seemed like a breath of fresh air.

In brilliant and beautiful poetry, the prophet then reminds the people that any control they thought they possessed was just an illusion. Isaiah reminds them that it is the LORD who holds the control. He reminds them that while they were in distress – while they were in turmoil and exile – the LORD became their savior. The LORD’s very presence saved them. “In his love and in his pity he redeemed them; he lifted them up and carried them all the days of old.” Isaiah paints a picture that depicts the LORD as a loving parent caring for a baby. In this picture, the baby does nothing but receive what the parent has to give. In this picture, control rests solely with the LORD…and this is the true way of things.

This month, as we wrestle with that pesky question, “Who Are We,” I think we need to confess that we are control freaks. We are people who desperately want power. We want to believe that we all can be little dictators. We want to own, possess, and hoard all the control we can get our hands on. And if that means that we have to knock some people out of the way first, then so be it. Sadly, we must admit that we are control freaks.

This is, in fact, what we do in our Confession & Forgiveness every week. We confess that we often try to control our own lives. But we also confess that it never works. Control, it seems, is easy enough to get, but once it is in our hands it is like acid. It eats away at us. We cannot handle it. We are forced to give it away. But we never stop wanting more.

Thankfully, that’s when God picks us up and reminds us that ultimate control lies in God’s hands. In our distress, God delivers us. In our distress, God redeems us. God picks us up and carries us. All of this is to remind us that GOD is in control, not us.

So, I pray today that we would have the courage to open our hands, release whatever control we think we might have, and instead realize that control already rests in God’s capable hands. And I pray that we might simply live into our identity as God’s children, simply receiving what God our Father has to give.

Amen.