Stay on target!
Have you ever run into a self-styled prophet? I have a few times, people who claimed God has given them special visions of the future, special knowledge that they wish to impart to people. They tend to make predictions, much like a palm reader or psychic.
True prophets are not fortune tellers or seers into the future. They have a gift in which God gives them a vision or a word to bear witness to the unfolding of God’s truth in the midst of the flow of events and history, to know and to bear witness to that truth in their own time. Because it’s God’s truth, what they have to say applies in the moment and it also becomes an enduring word for all times.
There is a future, fixed and inevitable, when God’s will shall be fully accomplished. That’s set, it has always been set. People are not in full alignment with it, so there is always a tension between what ought to be and what is. A prophet taps into what ought to be, and what will be, according to God’s will.
There were, and have always been, a lot of people who would claim to be prophets. The good ones, the true ones, are remembered because their word is consistent with what people have ever heard from God and the truth they speak is borne out over time. It conforms with what ought to be.
Isaiah was speaking to the circumstances of his own time. And he was also speaking within the great flow of what God has been saying all along, with a firm grasp of where everything will lead. He speaks of God’s ultimate victory – which we are able to see in Jesus and the Kingdom of God.
This passage from Isaiah is one of the sweetest descriptions about what the Kingdom of God will be like. It is so peaceable, so perfect in every way; righteousness, justice - and it all comes under the rule of a just and righteous king, a king who is so good that violence between animals ends. Even humanity’s age-old conflict with snakes is healed.
We must also take note of what it is not, what can never be a part of that glorious time and place: the wicked, the evil, the false, the wrong, the cruel or the careless.
And what is happening in the world must happen within each one of us.
In the same way that God’s truth has been flowing toward his ultimate end, Christ is flowing to us. He demands the very same correction – to repent.
When we hear the word “repent,” we tend to think, “OK, I’ve been doing some things I shouldn’t, I’ve not been doing things I should.” Or maybe we think of an old-school fundamentalist preacher shaking his fist.
Well, this is fundamental. Here is why:
Humans are unique in all of creation in a number of ways, including the whites of our eyes. Lots of animals have great vision for hunting and to see trouble coming. But we can see the whites of each other’s eyes, which enables us to follow each other’s vision precisely and immediately.
And aim is critical to our existence. Physically, we are built to hunt, to hurl projectiles – a rock, a spear, an arrow, a bullet – and we are best when we work cooperatively to do it. That’s why the vast majority of our sports are based on aim, and why a great shot in a big moment makes a crowd erupt. That could be in an individual sport like golf, tennis or bowling. And we love it in a team sport like basketball, soccer or hockey, where the team works cooperatively to get their teammate in position to hit that big shot. Your team is down by 2 points. It’s 3rd and 7, they’re on their own 32 with a minute to go and your quarterback hits a, 40-yard pass, now they are in field goal range.
How much do they pay the guy that can throw that pass? Everyone knows his name: Brady, Brees, Rodgers, Wilson Rothelisberger. (You may not be able to spell it but you know it.) And what about the guy who can get open and catch it? Even the guy that can kick the field goal accurately, who can do nothing else for the team, gets paid an awful lot per play.
In that sense, I’m your coach. Throw it there.
The Greek word for sin is hamartia. It literally means “to miss the mark.” If your aim is off, you’re going to miss your target. It may appear to be just a little off up close, but the further out you go the farther off you become.
John the Baptist says, “You’re off target. You’re missing the flow of God’s will, of God’s truth. Get your eyes back on the target. If you miss this, it’s catastrophically bad. If you’re primarily focused on power, money, your reputation, food, sex, happiness, you’re headed the wrong direction. It may not seem like it’s by that much in the short run, but in the long run, you’re off, way, way off.”
When he said that then, they knew he was right. People were streaming out of Jerusalem and the other cities so they could hear his message and get baptized in the River Jordan. Imagine people streaming out of Orlando and Tampa to Zolfo Springs to get baptized in the Peace River. (Maybe rivers are the best place for baptisms because they remind us of the flow of God’s will and God’s truth.)
And we know he’s right. To the very core of our being we know he’s telling us the truth, pointing to God’s truth that has ever been and is flowing towards its ultimate end.
It works the same way internally for each of us. When we say “Jesus is coming,” we might refer to the celebration of his birth, the wondrous gift of God incarnate. We might refer to his coming again, the end times, the Day of The Lord. But Jesus is always coming, coming into our hearts, coming into our minds, coming into our souls. The restraint on that is...us. He shows us His way, his target, but we choose to follow him, or not, moment by moment.
Internally, this means honing in on Jesus and discarding everything - the chaff - that throws our aim off. Be done with it. Let Him burn it away.
And remember, other people can see the whites of your eyes. They see where we are looking, for better or for worse. Keeping our eyes on Him helps others to look in his direction. He can change the world, at least the world around us. We can transform our families, our friendships as others follow the whites of our eyes, where we are looking, precisely and immediately.
Stay on target.
AMEN