SPEAKER_00: Uh scripture reading today comes from the book of Isaiah, chapter 60, verses 1 through 6.
SPEAKER_00: I will be talking about it in my sermon, but this was part of the theme passage for the week of VBS, which is why we I picked it for the Sunday.
SPEAKER_00: And so I meant to have the kids say it as they were here, but if you see any of the kids afterward, I bet they could say the theme verse because they all learned it.
SPEAKER_00: So uh our so our book, our scripture comes from Isaiah.
SPEAKER_00: This is usually part of the epiphany reading for the year, but we're reading it in the middle of summer instead.
SPEAKER_00: Um and so I hope that you will hear some words that speak to you today.
SPEAKER_00: Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you, for darkness shall cover the earth, and the thick darkness the peoples.
SPEAKER_00: But the Lord will arise upon you, and his glory will appear over you.
SPEAKER_00: Nations shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your dawn.
SPEAKER_00: Lift up your eyes and look around.
SPEAKER_00: They all gathered together, they come to you, your sons shall come from far away, and your daughters shall be carried in their nurses' arms.
SPEAKER_00: Then you shall see and be radiant, your heart shall thrill and rejoice, because the abundance of the sea shall be brought to you.
SPEAKER_00: The wealth of the nations shall come to you, a multitude of camels shall cover you, the young camels of Midian and Epha, all those from Sheba shall come.
SPEAKER_00: They shall bring gold and frankincense, and shall proclaim the praise of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: This is the word of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Thanks be to God.
SPEAKER_00: I was showing the America I knew and observed to others who might not have noticed.
SPEAKER_00: These are words from Norman Rockwell, who was famous for painting the American life, or well, the American dream, as was often said.
SPEAKER_00: I have one of his paintings in my office.
SPEAKER_00: It's one of St.
SPEAKER_00: Thomas's church in New York City.
SPEAKER_00: It's a beautiful church in the midst of the city.
SPEAKER_00: Um, in the painting, there is a man putting up the sign with the sermon title for the week on a very tall ladder.
SPEAKER_00: Uh so above everyone's head, there it is, it is zoomed in a little bit.
SPEAKER_00: Lift up thine eyes, it says, based on part of this reading.
SPEAKER_00: He's talking to a priest in the image, and below the man in the very tall ladder, the people of New York are walking by this beautiful church.
SPEAKER_00: Every single one of the people has their head down.
SPEAKER_00: The only person in the whole painting who is looking up is the priest.
SPEAKER_00: This painting has a bit of a different tone than many of the others of Rockwell's paintings.
SPEAKER_00: Rockwell saw what was a weakness in society, and so he used this to juxtapose two different types of people, those who are looking down and those who accept the invitation on the Gothic cathedral.
SPEAKER_00: Mind you, this was painted in 1969.
SPEAKER_00: It was a companion to former vice president Huber H.
SPEAKER_00: Humphreys' article called Four Words to Remember.
SPEAKER_00: It was in McCall's Women's Magazine.
SPEAKER_00: And this image was to illustrate that.
SPEAKER_00: The article advocated for meaningful spiritual practice as a refuge for those struggling or simply preoccupied by the demands of daily life.
SPEAKER_00: And the painting showed us exactly what that looked like.
SPEAKER_00: Now, because it was 1969, none of the people in this painting are holding cell phones in their hands.
SPEAKER_00: They weren't uh round yet because it was 1969.
SPEAKER_00: They weren't looking down at newspapers or books either or tablets.
SPEAKER_00: I find it interesting because today we blame everything our disconnect, our loneliness, our fears, our technology.
SPEAKER_00: It's all blamed on phones and technology.
SPEAKER_00: I've even preached sermons on that where I've blamed it on technology too.
SPEAKER_00: And Rockwell was pointing us out that people were not paying attention to the world around them, even in 1969.
SPEAKER_00: They didn't even have anything to look at in this picture.
SPEAKER_00: They were just lost in thought and whatever big thing that came next in their day.
SPEAKER_00: Last spring, my family and I went to New York, and much of what we did was just kind of walk around the city.
SPEAKER_00: And when we came upon St.
SPEAKER_00: Thomas' Church, which is a practicing Episcopalian church on Fifth Avenue, my husband Howard stopped to take a picture.
SPEAKER_00: He's always really loved this painting.
SPEAKER_00: And the kids then realized that we were right in front of a Microsoft store.
SPEAKER_00: And so we went in the store, and the Carols played Minecraft and some other form of a game for about an hour on the second floor while we looked out the window, like as a completely glass, full wall of windows, and got the most perfect angle for a picture of the church.
SPEAKER_00: This was his picture.
SPEAKER_00: Um, and it looked almost exactly like the painting, right?
SPEAKER_00: And you may also notice that once again the people are walking along the sidewalk and they're looking down instead of looking up.
SPEAKER_00: And I think that lack of attention is something that has expanded generations to the splendor of God's creation.
SPEAKER_00: It's something that was happening even in the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: We find that the writers are trying to get the listeners to pay attention quite a bit.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus says to stay alert in the Gospel of Mark.
SPEAKER_00: Lift up thine eyes, is not only in the passage we just read in Isaiah, but also in chapter 49 and 40.
SPEAKER_00: I imagine it was a common thing for prophets to try to get the attention of the people they were speaking to.
SPEAKER_00: Arise, shine, your light has come.
SPEAKER_00: Pay attention to all the things that are happening around you.
SPEAKER_00: It's what they're trying to say.
SPEAKER_00: Now, the context of this passage in Isaiah 60 is that Isaiah is speaking to the people of Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_00: They've been exiled by the Babylonians.
SPEAKER_00: Jerusalem was destroyed and all of that.
SPEAKER_00: They were kicked out of their homes for a whole generation.
SPEAKER_00: Isaiah had constantly been telling them throughout that time about what would happen, that they would get to go back to Jerusalem, that this would be grand, etc.
SPEAKER_00: By this point in the book of Isaiah, the people were returning to the city.
SPEAKER_00: But things weren't really what they expected.
SPEAKER_00: Things were still falling apart.
SPEAKER_00: It wasn't easy to get back on their feet.
SPEAKER_00: They were disappointed in what they were seeing around them, hopeless, looking down at their feet, perhaps.
SPEAKER_00: They weren't expecting things to still be as hard.
SPEAKER_00: But Isaiah still comes to the people with hope.
SPEAKER_00: They're in a dark cloud, feeling separate from God, and he is encouraging them to look up and see all of the things that are happening around them, all the things that will happen in the future.
SPEAKER_00: He's reminding them that they are to shine themselves, and that the dark cloud will dissolve.
SPEAKER_00: For darkness shall cover the earth, he says, and thick darkness the peoples.
SPEAKER_00: But the Lord will arise upon you and his glory will repear over you.
SPEAKER_00: Everyone's here, he tells them.
SPEAKER_00: Things are getting better.
SPEAKER_00: Just look up and notice and pay attention.
SPEAKER_00: Now, as I said before reading the scripture, this is often read on Epiphany, the day that we remember the wise men's arrival to visit Jesus in Bethlehem.
SPEAKER_00: Notice the camels mentioned in the passage and the gifts of gold and frankincense.
SPEAKER_00: Kind of why we read it at Epiphany.
SPEAKER_00: Isaiah is quoted often as preparing us for Jesus' arrival and celebration as a king.
SPEAKER_00: The light in this passage is usually assumed to be Jesus, since the word light is often used for Jesus so often.
SPEAKER_00: And of course, we're reading this after we know about Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: The folks hearing this would not have known about Jesus yet.
SPEAKER_00: They are probably just searching for some sort of hope, something to get them through the darkness.
SPEAKER_00: Arise, shine, your light has come.
SPEAKER_00: The Lord's glory has shone upon you.
SPEAKER_00: This passage, this verse reminds us now that Jesus is our light, and we are to shine as well.
SPEAKER_00: Now the reason we are reading it this week instead of Epiphany is that it was the theme verse for this week's vacation Bible school.
SPEAKER_00: We called it the signal verse.
SPEAKER_00: And every day we focused on ways that we shine the light to others, whether that's through love or faith or hope.
SPEAKER_00: They had to find what we called infinity lanterns, which reminded me a little bit too much of the Avengers and their infinity stones and rings, but they were meant to shine the light always by using love and faith and hope.
SPEAKER_00: And you know how kids are.
SPEAKER_00: They often get this message more than us grown-ups do.
SPEAKER_00: They hold hands as they go from station to station.
SPEAKER_00: They encourage the other kids when they're acting out the Bible story or playing a game and wreck.
SPEAKER_00: They make cards and crafts for the volunteers without anybody even asking them to do it.
SPEAKER_00: Sure, they get upset when they lose and tired as the night goes on, but they also tend to see the best in things, finding hope in every moment.
SPEAKER_00: And they definitely learned the Bible verse this week.
SPEAKER_00: They will probably always know it.
SPEAKER_00: Kids have a way of reminding us what hope looks like.
SPEAKER_00: They don't spend much time wondering whether they're qualified to shine.
SPEAKER_00: They just do it.
SPEAKER_00: They invite the child who's standing alone to join the game.
SPEAKER_00: They proudly show you the craft they made.
SPEAKER_00: They sing as loudly as they can, whether they're on key or not.
SPEAKER_00: They notice caterpillars and butterflies and funny-shaped clouds.
SPEAKER_00: They look up.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe that's Isaiah's invitation to us too.
SPEAKER_00: Arise, shine.
SPEAKER_00: Not because everything is finally perfect, not because all the darkness has disappeared.
SPEAKER_00: Not because we've solved every problem.
SPEAKER_00: Isaiah spoke those words to people whose city was still broken.
SPEAKER_00: There were still walls to rebuild.
SPEAKER_00: There were still a lot of disappointments.
SPEAKER_00: Yet he told them to arise and shine anyway, because God's light had already begun breaking into their darkness.
SPEAKER_00: The same is true for us.
SPEAKER_00: There is plenty that can keep our eyes down.
SPEAKER_00: Headlines, worries, schedules, bills, grief, the never-ending doom scrolling that we can do on our phones, the constant feeling that there is one more thing to do.
SPEAKER_00: We can spend so much time staring at what is wrong that we miss where God is already at work.
SPEAKER_00: So maybe this week, the invitation is surprisingly simple.
SPEAKER_00: Lift up your eyes.
SPEAKER_00: Notice the neighbor who could use a conversation.
SPEAKER_00: Notice the child who wants to tell you a story.
SPEAKER_00: Notice the person serving quietly without anyone thanking them.
SPEAKER_00: Notice the beauty of a sunrise or a thunderstorm, a meal shared with friends.
SPEAKER_00: Notice the places where hope is already breaking through.
SPEAKER_00: Because when we begin to notice God's light, we become more willing to reflect it.
SPEAKER_00: That's how the light spreads.
SPEAKER_00: Not through grand gestures, but through ordinary people who chose to pay attention.
SPEAKER_00: A kind word, an act of generosity, a moment of forgiveness, a reminder that no one walks alone.
SPEAKER_00: We don't create the light.
SPEAKER_00: Isaiah doesn't tell us to manufacture it.
SPEAKER_00: He says, Your light has come.
SPEAKER_00: The light is God's light.
SPEAKER_00: Our calling is simply to reflect it so that others can see.
SPEAKER_00: So this week, before you rush to the next thing, before your eyes fall back on the ground, I invite you to hear Isaiah's words one more time.
SPEAKER_00: Arise, shine, lift up your eyes.
SPEAKER_00: Because the glory of the Lord has risen upon you.
SPEAKER_00: And the world is still waiting for people who are willing to look up and help someone else do the same.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.