Radical Inclusion

Preached at 08:00 Holy Communion 20 August 2017

Reading: Isaiah 56:1,6-8

Do the right thing.

“Maintain justice and do what is right.” Do the right thing. But what is the right thing? If I give you a complicated situation and ask you what should be done, I will probably get as many different answers as there are people here this morning. Fortunately, it is not our opinions about how things should be done that counts here. It is the Lord’s opinion that counts, and when the people of the day heard what that was they may have been quite surprised.

Lectionary

The lectionary misses out the next 4 verses, but they are key to understanding this passage, so if you have your Bibles open lets read them now:

² Blessed is the man who does this, the man who holds it fast, who keeps the Sabbath without desecrating it, and keeps his hand from doing any evil.” ³ Let no foreigner who has bound himself to the LORD say, “The LORD will surely exclude me from his people.” And let not any eunuch complain, “I am only a dry tree.” ⁴ For this is what the LORD says: “To the eunuchs who keep my Sabbaths, who choose what pleases me and hold fast to my covenant — ⁵ to them I will give within my temple and its walls a memorial and a name better than sons and daughters; I will give them an everlasting name that will not be cut off.

Sabbath

The reward for maintaining justice and doing what is right and sticking to those things, is the Lord’s blessing, that is hardly surprising. Adding the condition of keeping the Sabbath is perhaps a little surprising. Why the emphasis on the Sabbath?
Looking through the Old Testament, the Sabbath is mentioned a lot in the Torah as you would expect. If we look for other mentions, particularly mentions that relate to keeping the Sabbath holy, they only occur in Nehemiah, Isaiah, Jeremiah and Ezekiel. These prophets see the keeping of the Sabbath as the thing that marks someone out as either committed to the Lord, or not committed to the Lord.

Outcasts: Eunuchs and Foreigners

This differentiation of the people is then extended to foreigners and eunuchs, people well known as outcasts, treated as second class citizens, or worse.

In Deuteronomy 23:1 eunuchs are excluded from the assembly, and in verse 3 foreigners from certain tribes are excluded from the assembly until more than 10 generations of them have passed. In Isaiah's time it means they are not allowed to enter the temple. Yet here, in verse 3, the prophet is saying that no foreigner (who has bound himself to the Lord) should expect to be excluded from the people, so they would all be allowed in the temple, as far as all the other Israelites – to the court of Israel.

The temple allowed graded access to the Lord, on the far outside was the court of the gentiles, not really in the temple at all, then inside was the court of Women, then the court of Israel, then court of priests and finally the holy of holies – where only the High Priest was allowed.

Bound to the Lord

It is worth considering what ‘bound to the Lord’ means. In a modern context, think of a tandem parachute jump. I know some of our congregation have experienced this, so lets see what it means. You are strapped to an experienced skydiver. What ever he does, you do. Where ever he goes you go. Once you leave the plane your immediate future is entirely out of your control and in the control of the skydiver. Any attempt on your part to fight his guidance will only end badly for both of you.
To be bound to the Lord means total commitment to the Lord, and living with his people for life, and for the lives of your children and their children, as far into the future as you can see. What ever happens to Israel, happens to you and your family – good or bad. No going back.

Salvation Close

This apparent change from exclusion to inclusion is because the Lord’s salvation is close. The book of Isaiah records a time when the Assyrians were a serious threat to Israel, although Jerusalem was never conquered by the Assyrians. The book looks forward to a time when Jerusalem would be overrun by the Babylonians and the people taken into exile. God saves his people and they are allowed to return and rebuild their city. The book also looks forward to other events, including the coming of the Messiah. (Remember the Servant Songs we read at Christmas?) It is unclear here which salvation is being foretold, it may well be both the return from exile and the coming messiah.

God’s Kingdom

What is clear is that God’s Kingdom is an inclusive one, not a place where people are excluded for reasons of the location or nature of their birth, or for some ‘accident’ of upbringing that has befallen them. While looking for something on the modern day equivalent of eunuchs I followed a thread on the status of eunuchs I came across this quote in an article by David Gregg:

“In the Ethiopian eunuch, I see every person that typically would be relegated to the non-contributing "others" of society: the irritants, the wastes-of-time, the hangers-on. I see friends with Aspergers and autism spectrum disorders and severe depression and body odour. I see psychopaths and addicts and narcissists. I see people with unusual humour and inconsiderate conversational habits. Communities formed on utilitarian goals or on the fulfilment of mutual self-need, would leave all these people behind, but the community of Christ continually redefines itself in order to accommodate them.”
(http://www.thegoodquestion.com/2011/09/of-eunuchs-and-social-non-contributors.html)

This is helpful because it provides the beginnings of an answer to one of the questions the passage raises for us. Unlike the Israelites, we don’t have a list of excluded people, perhaps because of that there are now many more people who are excluded for many more reasons.

This passage in Isaiah reminds us that as the body of Christ we must be making the effort to include those that the rest of society excludes.

Grenfell – poor excluded

One of the observations I made in the aftermath of the Grenfell tower disaster was the extent to which the poor are excluded from the normal political process, their voices, and therefore their lives, do not matter to the politically powerful, but I see that the local churches were there showing how it should be done, and making a difference to people’s lives. How far that goes towards inviting them in to the Kingdom remains to be seen.

Refugees

The other large category of excluded people that we hear about regularly are the refugees, those who are escaping war and are in need of our help. Our government seems reluctant, but as Christians we should be ready and able to assist. Father Joe Delfgou, when he was at Christ church said ‘Let them all in’. As I read this passage this morning I have to ask how we could choose who to invite into the Kingdom and who to exclude.

We are the Foreigners

We must constantly remind ourselves that we are the foreigners that have bound ourselves to the Lord, and that this is only possible because of the messiah who came to die for our sins and make us acceptable to the Lord. This, of course, makes us foreigners in the land in which we live, as 1 Pe 2:11 reminds us.

Other questions

Lastly, let’s remind ourselves what verse 6 and 7 says about us being bound to the Lord:

“to serve him,

to love the name of the LORD,

and to worship him”

… and here is His promise to us:

All who keep the Sabbath without desecrating it and who hold fast to my covenant— these I will bring to my holy mountain and give them joy in my house of prayer. Their burnt offerings and sacrifices will be accepted on my altar; for my house will be called a house of prayer for all nations.

To serve Him

To serve Him is to maintain justice and to do what is right. It is to love the people He loves, it is especially to love the excluded.

To love the name of the Lord

To love his name is to use it, not to try to hide it or disguise it. Saying Jesus’ name is not blasphemous, although it can be used that way, it should never be by us. Our use of his name should be reserved for his praise and our prayer.

To worship him

To worship him, is not exclusively a Sabbath activity, but is one of the things that the Sabbath is to be used for. Worship is not just something God demands, it is good for us too, but that’s another sermon.

Acceptable

If we do these things, and stick with them, they become our sacrifices and they are acceptable in the Lord’s sight and the church will be a house of prayer and a place of joy for all nations.

… and we will receive eternal life – which can never be an after thought.
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References

https://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?commentary_id=2112
https://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?commentary_id=1049
https://www.sermonwriter.com/biblical-commentary/isaiah-561-6-8-commentary
https://www.sermoncentral.com/sermons/7-reasons-to-go-to-church-dr-stanley-vasu-sermon-on-church-purpose-of-37971?ref=SermonSerps
https://www.sermoncentral.com/sermons/a-house-for-all-nations-karl-eckhoff-sermon-on-evangelism-how-to-49537?ref=SermonSerps
https://www.sermoncentral.com/sermons/fasting-and-prayer-for-revival-elmer-towns-sermon-on-disciplines-fasting-57202?ref=SermonSerps
http://www.yourdictionary.com/do-the-right-thing
http://dictionary.reverso.net/english-definition/do%20the%20right%20thing
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serfdom
http://experimentaltheology.blogspot.co.uk/2011/09/exclusion-and-inclusion-of-eunuchs.html
http://www.thegoodquestion.com/2011/09/of-eunuchs-and-social-non-contributors.html#more
The Expositors Bible Commentary Volume 6ISBN 0-310-36480-9 (V. 6)