Closeness, Distance and Intimacy
Isaiah 58: 1-12;
Matthew 5: 13-20
Closeness, Distance and Love
To understand Isaiah 58, you have to have some background on the time it was written and who it was written to. Jerusalem was seen as the City of David. Under the rule of King David, now long gone, the city was a symbol of peace and prosperity under God and his chosen king. But things went downhill from there and in 587, the unthinkable happened. The Babylonians invaded and took over Jerusalem. The temple was destroyed, and the king was taken captive.
What happened then was that the talented and educated Israelites were taken into exile to Babylonia, a city that was technology wise and culturally far ahead of Jerusalem at the time. Those that remained lived through decline. Those that were exiled had to find their feet in a strange culture where other gods were adored. The book of Daniel gives us precious glimpses into what that was like. In psalm 137, made famous by Boney M 😊, the Israelites in Babylon ask: “How can we sing the Lord’s song in a strange country?”Jerusalem and a hope that it’s ruins will be build up again. The stories of Ezra and Nehemiah showed us just how strong that connection and desire was in some people.
Now by the time this was written, the 70 or so year exile was over. The Persians ruled know and gave Israelites a greater measure of self governance. The exiles could now return to Jerusalem, but this was also a difficult task. Some of them did well. Their children were born in Babylon. Going back was no easy task. It was before the time of the internet and social and mass media that can keep one in the loop, so many of them were shocked to find a Jerusalem stripped of the two strong institutions its peace and prosperity was build on. These would be the monarchy and the temple. These people realized now that they would have to start from scratch and that they would have to come by without many of the things they took for granted in Babylon.
You see, the great thing they have struggled with was this issue of distance. They had to learn to live a good distance away from their spiritual home. It was a struggle for them to hold on to the fact that God love them and they are just as much his in spite of them being such a distance away from what they considered the centre of God’s love and goodness. And when they came back and practiced their religion, they made a horrible discovery, their physical proximity to Jerusalem did not take away the distance they felt from God. As a matter of fact, they felt further removed from God and his love than ever before! Their religion did not seem to bridge the gap, it only widened it. Park all this for a while.
Simone Weil
I stumbled upon the writings of Simone Weil. Interesting woman who was born in 1909 and died in 1943 at the age of just 34. Her most interesting thoughts to me, is what she held about friendship and suffering.
Let us start with suffering. She said we should distinguish between suffering and affliction. Suffering is physical discomfort and pain. It is part of affliction but not affliction itself. You could suffer while running a marathon but still not be afflicted (well hopefully not!). Affliction is when some kind of evil really gets to your soul. It is the kind of thing that happens that makes it hard for you to believe that God is good and that people are good. Affliction is different things for different people. One person’s mother dies and he might be relived for whatever reason. Another person’s mother dies and it feels like life has lost all its meaning for another set of reasons. Affliction falls randomly on people that don’t deserve it.
Then when it comes to friendship she said there is two needs every friendship has, two ways if you will, in which we experience love in friendship. The obvious one is through closeness. When we do the same things together, when we share something and when we are physically close to one another, we experience closeness and experience love because of it. But then there is also the need for distance. We sometimes like to stay friends as in we would like our friends to know we still love them and we would like the assurance that they still love us even though there is distance between us. Whether it be physical or emotional distance. Also, in distance then, can we experience the love of friendship.
I found the thought quite surprising but then I realized that she is right. Think about your marriage or close friendships. Without times of closeness, sharing and proximity there would not be that friendship. But surely no friendship or marriage has closeness all the time. There are times where you have a need for distance like for instance when you and your wife go off to sperate jobs each day. And during those times it is very inspiring to be able to trust that this person’s love will remain in spite of the distance. That is why people often say that their best friends are often those they haven’t seen for years but is able to engage with readily when they meet up again.
Now these two thoughts on affliction and distance, Simone also applied to our relationship with God. She said that it just as often affliction that binds us to God as it is good times and blessings. She said that it is when there are distance between us and God that we sometimes mysteriously discover the power of His love that conquers even vast distances between us and God.
What Simone did wrong and right
It’s not about your thoughts but about to which actions they lead you. The proof is in the pudding as they say. Simone did one thing wrong and one thing right. When she wasn’t afflicted she brought affliction upon herself. That is unnecessary. Life brings enough affliction, we don’t need to inflict it on ourselves. In good times, we should enjoy and embrace the good things of life. Simone denied herself physical contact, all physical contact. She also refused to eat more than the French under German occupation had to eat while she was living in England. Because she had a frail health, she contracted TB and got a heart attack that ended her life at 34. We can only imagine what helpful thoughts she still had in her to serve humankind with. Even though she took Jesus seriously, she refused to be baptized and she didn’t worship. And yet one day she had a deep mystical experience of Jesus when she saw a group of peasants singing hymns. What a pity that she never joined in.
But then she also did something right. Throughout her life she showed practical acts of solidarity with those in affliction. She fought in wars next to soldiers. She worked in factories to understand the plight of the working classes. She embraced people in affliction and by that was an agent that communicated to them the power of love even when we feel distant from God Himself.
You may wonder why I go on about Simone Weil this morning. I think her thoughts and life story, both what she did wrong and right, brings us to the heart of what God wants to convey in this passage. If you jump around on one leg all day and then go to a doctor, complaining that the leg you hopped around on all day pains and doesn’t function correctly, what will he tell you? He will tell you: “Silly, walk with both legs!”.
The exiles that returned start practising their religion. They worship and fasted. They did that as an expression of their devotion and commitment to God, but it was like hopping around on one leg. God reminds them of the other leg. That of being with those in affliction. Being a sign of a God that still loves even when we experience Him as distant. They mirror Simone. Simone neglected worship, self care and in that sense closeness to God while she embraced affliction and brought it on herself sometimes. These guys neglected attending to those in affliction even though they worshipped and fasted.
To grasp as much of God as we can, we need two things. Intimate, disciplined worship directed at God from our heart. But we also need to bow down to those in affliction. Like another great philosopher said: He who doesn’t see God, doesn’t look low enough. To love other people, we need to know two things: What delights them because all our passions and desires is in the final analysis love for God. We should celebrate with people. But we also need to ask what afflicts people and how could we help carry the burden of other’s affliction. It helps us to gain a balanced and fuller understanding of God’s love. Closeness and distance, blessing and affliction, worship in blessing and solidarity in affliction makes God a living presence in our lives. It is the two legs that enable us to walk with and towards God.
Isaiah then gets very practical. He names four ways in which we can practically be in solidarity with those in affliction. Firstly to share food with the hungry. Hunger is a very basic physical need. Often many other things cannot improve when you are hungry. So we can say attending to hunger with food is still a need and a good thing but it is also about having an eye out for where basic needs are not met. Secondly he says they should provide shelter for the wanderer. This is about more than just a roof over someone’s
head. It is about an attitude of hospitality towards outsiders. Thirdly, clothe the naked. Yes, this again is about basic needs but also about helping people to be socially integrated (as being clothed had the effect of you now being able to be socially acceptable and to engage. Lastly it says something interesting. Don’t turn away from your own. It is sometimes easier to be open and attentive to the needs of s stranger than it is when it comes to the needs of someone close. Giving your close circle care and attention is very important. This includes taking care of yourself, something that Simone neglected to do and had dire consequences.
I went through the list and thought about our church. My heart warmed when I thought about the hot dog ministry where we give food and our involvement with SUMS. How we welcome people from all over in our midst. How with sisters closet we got to help clothe many people in our community. I think how we attend to the pastoral needs of our own congregants. What we manage to establish as a rhythm in our community of faith, helps us to establish as a personal rhythm in our lives.
Isaiah says people who compliment their worship with practical deeds of social justice, will experience God in new and fresh and intimate ways. If I preached this whole sermon in Afrikaans, you would walk out of here longing for a translator. We should remind ourselves that when we go out in this world there are people longing for a translation of the sermon you just heard. And the only language they understand is the language of practical acts of love. We should have a rhythm of feeding the hungry, kindness towards the stranger, inclusion and self care not only in our communal life as a church but also in our individual lives.
Jesus and the sermon on the mount
This brings me to the images of Salt and Light that Jesus used in the sermon on the mount in Matthew 5. The sermon on the mount was among other things, a teaching where Jesus spelled out what it means to live according to God’s laws. He urges us to do much the same as Isaiah asked his people to do in chapter 58. He states that He is in congruence with the prophets that came before him and when he uses the images of salt and light, he explains to us what it will be like when we follow His example.
Salt is a game changer. It is one of the most basic and important ingredients when it comes to taste. You can find it anywhere. You can taste immediately if it is lacking and I guess you also immediately taste it when it is too concentrated. Salt is rarely visible while being used. It dissolves into the food so that it is barely recognizable. It is much the same with light. When light is not there it creates problems. People fall and hurt themselves and they get cold. When it is there it is often overlooked. Both light and salt then is indispensable even tough it is overlooked.
May this be an encouragement to each one of us that decided to walk on both legs. For those who embrace both the closeness and those who experience distance from God. Your role maybe grossly undervalued and overlooked but your faith and the cations that flows from it is indispensable in this world. Our community will be cold and tasteless without it.
Close
It is said that religious people find God useful whereas people of true faith find God beautiful. I think people that embrace God’s closeness in worship and ritual and their fellow man’s needs in affliction are best off.
To them God becomes even more beautiful and they find themselves becoming increasingly useful for God’s purposes on earth. They discover that God sustain them to be live giving.
May God’s beauty inspire you to be useful in the lives of those He find just as beautiful as you!
Amen