Isaiah 60: 1-6

(Sermon by Pastor Michael D. Schultz 01/06/08)

INTRODUCTION:

The scene is all too familiar...  The older person sticks his head through the door and says, “Rise and shine.”  The younger person responds with, “Go away!” and buries his head under the pillow.  Whereupon the older person crosses over to the east window, throws open the shade, flooding the room with light, and pleasantly repeats the wake up call, “Rise and shine.”  And the younger person growls on the way to the bathroom. 

That would be the contemporary physical version of, “Rise and shine!”  The original spiritual version isn’t really a wake-up call.  It’s a call to get up off the ground, a call to people who’ve been assaulted by their conscience and beaten into despair to get up, a call to people who’ve tasted life’s worst and given up on God to get up.  It’s a call to trust in the goodness and grace of God and to shine like the sun, so that despair and despondency and grumpiness and grouchiness go away, replaced by cheerfulness and joyfulness.  Does that need to or is that going to happen for you?  Wrong questions!  God makes it happen because the words are his:

Rise & Shine!

It would never be my intention to dismiss little things or daily things as inconsequential things.  I’m sorry if your dog is sick or your sink is clogged, and I wouldn’t be meaning to blow you off if I said, “Take it to the vet,” or, “Buy some Liquid Plumber.”  But when it comes to your overall wellness, there is a bigger issue.  The thing that should really make you ill is God’s description of hell, because you should be there and I should be there next to you, and God describes it like this:  a) darkness where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth; b) eternal fire; c) lake of burning sulfur; d) being shut out from the presence of the Lord.  A dead-end job or boredom in retirement or issues with the kids or chronic problems with a certain family member can be depressing, but getting from God what your sins deserve is something you don’t recover from.  Is it possible that we have fallen into the pit of horribly mistaken thinking, that excessive worrying about our own problems has made us think that deliverance from hell is a little thing?

It’s everything!  The most glorious thing about God that exists is that he says you won’t receive the hell your sins deserve because he gave Jesus the hell your sins had coming.  The light of that truth is burning like the sun, so get out of the shadows.  Drop the “I’ve got it so bad” routine.  Get up off the ground and be radiant.  Rise and shine because you’ve been brought into Christ’s church.  Deliverance from hell is no little thing.  It’s everything, and it’s yours.  “Jesus saved me from hell” is enough fuel to keep you out of despair and on your feet and filled with joy for every good day and every not-so-good day and every horrible day and for all of forever.

But look at how many people remain in the dark!  Built into the Lord’s call to you to rise and shine is the matter of bringing those many people out of the dark.  By the way the Lord talks, we can’t be content to be safe ourselves.  Nations are in the dark, but this light has shined on you!  They will see the light of Christ when they look at you.  In fact, nations will come to your light, kings to the brightness of your dawn.  Rise and shine because people have yet to be brought into Christ’s church.  

What is it about the 4th of July and fireworks?  They’re just lights exploding in the darkness but you can’t keep people away.  There’s some kind of magnetism about a fireworks display.  People are drawn to them.  They don’t go grab people off the street and shove fireworks in their faces or trick people into coming for other reasons and then force them to watch fireworks.  People wanted to see fireworks and went to see them.  They were drawn to the light. 

That’s how God makes it work.  He draws people to the light that’s shining from you.  We can worry ourselves to death about how to get more young people in the church or about what some other church is doing that's really bringing in the people.  We could figure out something that would really get people on the property and then send them home with a packet about church and Bible Class.  Or we can learn something from the Lord today – nations will come to your light.  Our calling in life is to rise and to shine with the kind of joy and behavior that show we’ve been rescued from hell.  God will use that shining light to draw people in.

It is a sheer joy to watch the people come in, and to see what they’re doing and to take note of what they’re bringing.  Rise and shine as people, praise and offerings are brought into Christ’s church.  Remember, now, that what Isaiah sees isn’t merely what happens at one church like ours.  It’s what happens throughout the world whenever people are brought into the Christian faith.

As one personal example of the joy of watching it happen [from a Christmas letter]: We are so happy to be at a WELS Lutheran Church!  It was wonderful that you didn’t give up on us as we attended the classes several times and thought about it a long time before becoming members!  We firmly believe we are in a church that teaches the truth from God’s Word!

It was a joy to turn my own voice down and listen to other voices singing Hark! The Herald… and Joy to the World on Christmas Eve – many voices worshiping Jesus.  It is an incredible joy to see hearts that truly love Jesus giving joyful, willing and generous offerings to the King, placing their gifts in these plates and setting them on God’s altar in the same way that the Wise Men bowed before Jesus and gave him gold and frankincense and myrrh. 

In a world of sadness (and struggles and sin), rise and shine is not a call to paint on a 24 hour smile.  It’s God’s call that pierces through the grief of funerals and the pain of injuries and the sudden changes and the dismal disappointments and the jarring letdowns of life to tell you that you can still get up and keep going and be radiant, because Jesus your light has come.  It is also how God lets people everywhere know that there’s nothing better than being rescued by Jesus, as he turns you into the beacon and the lighthouse that draws people out of the dark to the light of Christ. 

It may not always be a 24 hour smile, but it is 24 hour power, peace, contentment and joy because the glory of Jesus being your Savior rises over you and it is the Lord God himself who is calling out to you, “Rise and shine!”

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