In the Midst of the Ugliness, Beauty Abounds Today
Isaiah 61: 1-4 and Luke 4: 16-21
October 20, 2024
These are ugly times.
We are shocked by what we are doing to our natural environment. How toxic and ugly it is.
We are shocked by what we are doing to our political environment. The misinformation, the fear, the mean-spiritedness, the divisiveness and the growing authoritarianism. How toxic and ugly it is.
We are shocked by what we are doing to our social environment. The growing economic inequality and the disturbing racial injustice and blatant racism. How toxic and ugly it is.
We are shocked by what many are doing to our religious environment. The rise of white Christian Nationalism in our churches, especially those who once prided themselves on their nonpartisan nature. How toxic and ugly it is.
But this is the good news:
In the midst of the ugliness, beauty abounds today.
I’m going to highlight that good news in our Scripture and in our world today: the good news that beauty abounds today. Then after I’m done preaching, I’ll invite you to share where you see beauty abounding today.
For I believe:
In the midst of the ugliness, beauty abounds today.
Let’s do that as a call and response. I’ll say: In the midst of the ugliness. You say: beauty abounds today.
In the midst of the ugliness…
(beauty abounds today)
Our Old Testament scripture today was written around 530 BC after the first exiles began to return to Israel from Babylon. Earlier prophets had predicted that when the Jewish people returned to Israel that it would be a heavenly time. Unfortunately, there was much ugliness.
First of all, most of the Jewish people chose not to return, but instead to stay back in Babylon and assimilate into the Babylonian culture there. Their numbers were small and seemingly insignificant.
Second, those who did return were destitute and desperate to find jobs back in their old homeland. They struggled to even find food to feed themselves.
Third, those who returned from Babylon fought with those who had stayed in Israel. Even though they were all Jews, their worship styles and cultures had changed so much in the intervening decades. They struggled to find common ground to get along.
Fourth, they dealt with the oppression and authority of the Persian King. It might have been a little better than the Babylonian rule, but still it was hard and oppressive.
Fifth, and most important, their cities and temples and houses and buildings had all been destroyed by the Babylonians many years before. They had never been replaced or rebuilt during the intervening years. Everything still lay in ruins after the Babylonian army had come through and destroyed everything. You looked around and all you could see was rubble. The ugly vestiges of what was once a great place to live.
For sure, the writer of Isaiah 61 lived in ugly and toxic times. But this prophet could discern some beauty in the midst of that ugliness.
For the good news we celebrate today is this:
In the midst of the ugliness…
Beauty abounds today.
Let’s hear about the beauty the prophet shared:
“The Spirit of the Lord God has taken control of me. The Lord has chosen and sent me to tell the oppressed the good news, to heal the brokenhearted, and to announce freedom for prisoners and captives. This is the year when the Lord God will show kindness to us and punish our enemies. The Lord has sent me to comfort those who mourn, especially in Jerusalem. He sent me to give them flowers in place of their sorrow, olive oil in place of tears, and joyous praise in place of broken hearts…. They will rebuild cities that have been in ruins for many generations.”
In the midst of the ugliness,
Beauty abounds today.
560 years later, ugliness and toxicity were rampant in Israel again.
The people were no longer subservient to the Persian King. Now it was the Roman emperor who ruled with an authoritarian iron fist. The land of Israel was filled with the Roman army who kept a close watch on everything that happened.
The oppression of Rome amplified the rural poverty that was present in that land. Once again, so many people struggled to survive and provide for themselves.
In addition, the ugliness was apparent in the religious divisiveness between the Pharisees and the Sadducees and the Essenes. There was also the growing hostility between the Jerusalem Jews and the Samaritan Jews and the Galilean Jews.
People were discouraged and fearful. They were unsure of what the Romans would do next. And afraid to trust their neighbor.
In the midst of the ugliness, Jesus starts his ministry by going back to his hometown of Nazareth. He volunteers to read the Scripture that Sabbath during their synagogue worship. He was handed the scroll of the prophet Isaiah. He opened it and read:
“The Lord’s Spirit has come to me, because he has chosen me to tell the good news to the poor. The Lord has sent me to announce freedom for prisoners, to give sight to the blind, to free everyone who suffers, and to say, ‘This is the year the Lord has chosen.’”
Jesus closed the book or the scroll, then handed it back to the man in charge and sat down. Everyone in the meeting place looked straight at Jesus.
Then Jesus said to them, “What you have just heard me read has come true today.”
The most important word that Jesus said was “today”. Most people considered the good news that Jesus talked about as coming some day in the future. They thought that their present time was simply one of continued ugliness and toxicity. They were waiting for this amazing day of salvation and beauty and goodness to someday arrive. They appreciated this amazing prophecy from the Old Testament prophet Isaiah. But as they looked around, people could not see the beauty, only the ugliness.
Jesus said, In the midst of the ugliness,
Beauty abounds today!
I’ve been reading and re-reading Brian McClaren’s latest book about all this, entitled: Life After Doom. This is his story:
“During my years as a news junkie, I found myself getting a strange high from the latest ugliness report. Each time I indulged, I fanned the flames of something unhealthy…my moral superiority, or resentment or fear or despair or desolation or us-versus-them hostilities. … Cable news stations deliver a constant injection of outrage…This ugliness news can dominate your life. It can drain your life.”
Can you identify with Brian McClaren and the challenge he faces with the ugliness of the news?
As we come down to the final weeks of the 2024 Presidential Election campaign, ugliness can dominate our lives. We see the misinformation, the fear, the mean-spiritedness, the divisiveness, the dangerous authoritarianism, the racism, the misogyny. All of this ugliness… It can drain the life out of our lives.
There is another and better way.
McClaren says, “That doesn’t mean denying the ugliness, pretending it’s not real, popular, powerful and deadly. It just means that every time ugliness presents itself, after noticing it, grieving it, and feeling furious about it, you commit yourself to fight the ugly with the practice of the beautiful and joyful, celebrating and adding to the beauty that abounds, the goodness in the world that is worth fighting for….Whatever happens, beauty abounds for those who learn to see it.”
In the midst of the ugliness…
Beauty abounds today.
I’ve seen it in the natural beauty in Acadia National Park recently with the fall colors and the amazing oceanside scenery.
I’ve seen it in the relational beauty we found last month as we interacted with two amazing Appalachian ladies on our mission trip.
I’ve seen it in the mornings on my kayak as the sun rises over Lake Cora.
Tell me where you have seen beauty abounding in the midst of the ugliness of our world?
Where do you find beauty and goodness?
