Living in the Heights

 

Living in the Heights

 

Isaiah 58:9b-14

Do not trample the sabbath 

 

58:9b If you remove the yoke from among you, the pointing of the finger, the speaking of evil,

 

58:10 if you offer your food to the hungry and satisfy the needs of the afflicted, then your light shall rise in the darkness and your gloom be like the noonday.

 

58:11 The LORD will guide you continually and satisfy your needs in parched places and make your bones strong, and you shall be like a watered garden, like a spring of water whose waters never fail.

 

58:12 Your ancient ruins shall be rebuilt; you shall raise up the foundations of many generations; you shall be called the repairer of the breach, the restorer of streets to live in.

 

58:13 If you refrain from trampling the Sabbath, from pursuing your own interests on my holy day; if you call the Sabbath a delight and the holy day of the LORD honorable; if you honor it, not going your own ways, serving your own interests, or pursuing your own affairs;

 

58:14 then you shall take delight in the LORD, and I will make you ride upon the heights of the earth; I will feed you with the heritage of your ancestor Jacob, for the mouth of the LORD has spoken.

 

 

I grew up in Oil City, PA, and on the “Northside” of our town, as you continued to scale the hill, you would wind up in what was called Hasson Heights, named after an historically prominent family, who once owned property there. “The Heights” had a beautiful park, called appropriately, Hasson Park.” Hasson Heights was home to our large municipal pool complex, numerous sports fields and baseball diamonds, the public skating rink, and later, when the powers-that-be wanted to upgrade our school system, a brand new high school was built in “the Heights.” My experience of being a student in the school system in the 1960s and early 70s (I graduated from high school in 1972) was most interesting. For grades one and two, I attended one of the more recently built schools, then our family moved into a different neighborhood. Grade three was held in—literally—a condemned building, which had to be used until the new Smedley Street Elementary building was completed. The Innis Street building had a “police line” blocking off its second floor, as it wasn’t sound(!), the roof leaked, and the “ventilation shaft” that served our third grade classroom was open to the roof, and pigeons used to fly down and poke their heads into our classroom. After having the privilege of attending grades four through six in a brand new building, off I we went to seventh grade in yet another condemned building, Southside Junior High. Again, the top floor was roped off as being unsafe. The auditorium—in the center of the structure—had a ceiling that extended up to the roof, and since the roof had numerous leaks, if it was raining when we had an assembly, we had to take umbrellas with us to the assembly. In 1968, when the new High School opened in Hasson Heights, the “old” high school building halfway up the “mountain,” became the new junior high. That building had the unique distinction of being in a volume of “Ripley’s Believe It or Not.” Having been built into the hillside, it was the only building in the world, at that time, the one could enter any of its five floors directly from the ground. Matriculating to the new high school in “the Heights” was a welcome thing. 

 

Of course, given that Hasson Heights was home to Oil City’s most prestigious neighborhood—Oliver Manor—a new high school had to measure up. We were one of the first schools in the region to have an indoor Olympic-sized swimming pool, a planetarium, a Universal Gym appointed weight room, and literally, a “world class” fine arts auditorium, equipped with professional theatrical stage lighting, a sophisticated sound system, and an authentic Steinway grand piano on the stage. Oil City had an incredible music education staff with many “connections” in the music industry. During my years in high school, we hosted Duke Ellington and his orchestra (who opened the new auditorium and pronounced it one of the finest acoustical spaces he had played), Lionel Hampton, Buddy Rich, Maynard Ferguson, Doc Severinson, Harry James, and many others. Nothing was too good for “the Heights.”

 

Did your town have its equivalent of “the Heights”? Isn’t our language interesting? What’s the opposite of the heights? The “other side of the tracks,” of course. In many small towns, people were “graded” by where they lived. If you lived in “the Heights,” you were something. If you were from “the other side of the tracks,” not quite so much. I dated quite a bit in high school, and every Friday or Saturday night that I was going out, my mother would ask about the girl I with whom I was going out. If she was from the other side of the tracks, my mom might say, “What do you want with HER?” [My mom wasn’t that cruel, actually, but it was just “a thing” back in the day, at least in our town, to “grade” people like that.] Of course, years later, while still living at home, I went out on a date with Dara for the first time, and upon reporting this at the family dinner table, my dad asked, “What does she want with YOU?” I knew there may be magic in this new relationship!

 

Many years later, after answering a call to ministry, I served as a student pastor in Turtle Creek, during my seminary years. Turtle Creek was “in the valley,” while the former farming land “up on the hill” had become Monroeville, and was quickly becoming the “place to be” while the “valley towns” were rust-belting out. Neighboring Braddock had a downtown that looked like Dresden after the bombing, after years earlier, “white flight” had sent some to “Braddock Heights.” 

 

All this to say that American society, ultimately, isn’t much different in its “grading” behavior today than was small-town America in the 1960s. Lower middle-class folk are most often relegated to the less prominent turf—or the “other side of the tracks”—while the “well-heeled” occupy some version of “the Heights.” The real estate “ruler” had its day of glorifying wealth by locating it near bodies of water as a substitute for “the Heights,” in many cases, but climate change has brought frequent flooding or catastrophic storms to this region, so we are beginning to see the souring of interest in this venue, especially when insurance companies begin to say “no more.” I’m guessing that mountaintop properties will again begin to soar in value.

 

I think of these things when I read this text from Isaiah, who offers us a Hebrew prophet’s glimpse into the heart of God. In verse one, the author describes “the pointing of the finger” as a yoke, meaning it is a type of “evil” bondage on humanity. “Pointing of the finger” is not an allusion to the infamous middle-finger “salute” prominent in automobile battles at busy intersections as much as it is about this economic, ethnic, or religion-inspired “grading” of other people. When my mother asked, “What do you want with HER?” it demonstrated well this kind of evil “grading,” even though she may not have meant it as anything but a critique of the person I had chosen to date. (On the other hand, anyone that knows Dara, knows that my dad’s inquiry, “What does she want with YOU?” was nothing but an accurate judgment. This brings us to another interesting assessment we hear: “He married UP.”)

 

The Isaiah text promises a life “in the Heights” for some: “I will make you ride upon the heights of the earth…” and this “reward” is not for those swimming in assets or steeped in power or prominence. Let’s look at what God honors with this promise:

 

Offering food to the hungry and satisfying the needs of the afflicted—sharing our provision with those who starve for “enough” or whose lives are being buffeted by suffering, is something that not only gives one “points” with God, but builds character and citizenship.

 

If you refrain from trampling the Sabbath—honoring God by resting as God did after creating the world, and taking time to gather with the community of faith to worship and pray will bring a multitude of blessings, not to mention better health!

 

You don’t have to be a homiletical genius here to see that these two things that are central to the heart of God, and that God says will bring great blessings to us, can be summarized—even as Jesus himself did—into two simple commands: LOVE GOD and LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR. Willfully doing these things pays great dividends to the believer. I firmly believe that honoring the Sabbath and worshiping together jazzes God up NOT because God “desires” or “likes” us to venerate the Divine, but that in doing so, we are coming together AS the people of God, fellowshipping with one another, praying for others, and focusing—for an hour or two—one positive, edifying things. THIS is what God is after in asking us to “not trample on the Sabbath” by ignoring it. Add to this the “rest” component, which EVERY medical expert tells us is healthy, and you have in the observation of the Sabbath so much of what might make US better people, healthier people, and better members of the community. LOVING GOD is ultimately more for OUR benefit than God’s!

 

And, of course, LOVING OUR NEIGHBOR, and all of the compassion, empathy, and acts of mercy that this will entail helps “fix the earth,” or what our Hebrew friends call tikkun olam. And let’s not play that scholastic game of trying to “define” who our neighbor is. A man did that in the Bible with Jesus, and Jesus voiced the famous parable we know as “The Good Samaritan” as his answer to the question. Our neighbor is ANYONE we see who is in need, next door or on the other side of the globe. We “act” upon our love of neighbor in many ways, as God leads. I will never forget what Diane Miller shared with one of my congregations when she was serving as our United Methodist missions coordinator for Western PA. She said that God needs three kinds of people: the “Prayers, the Players, and the “Payers.” Some of us love our neighbor by entering into a season of fervent prayers for them and their needs. Others get physically involved in helping them, feeling a call to put “feet to their prayers.” And still others recognize that they are in a position to “bankroll” the whole helping enterprise. It is OK to restrict one’s “love of neighbor” to any of these pursuits, or even a bit of all of them, but the most important thing is to be sensitive to God’s leading—which may arrive via a “tug” on your heartstrings—AND to do something! This is precisely what Jesus modeled in the great parable.

 

In short, God’s version of “living in the heights” has nothing to do with status, and everything to do with empathy and compassion. When Jesus said that the one who will turn out to be “greatest of all” will be the one who first is the “servant of all,” he meant it, not just as an observation, but as the “way of the Kingdom of God.” As the Son of God, Jesus could have chosen any human “office” he desired, but he manifested the Divine will as a servant minister, even to the extreme of washing the filthy feet of his disciples. I’ve heard it said that “washing feet” in a more modern setting means to be keeping an eye out for those in need around us—our “neighbors”—and stepping up to help them in the name of Christ Jesus. I like Diane Miller’s “Prayers, Players, and Payers” in that it recognizes that not ALL of us can put ourselves in the “doing” trenches, and certainly not ALL of us can put up the cash necessary for funding ministry to the same degree some can. And while we ALL can be “prayers,” there are those whom God will call to the special ministry of undergirding the work of others in the “mission field” with fervent prayer. (I will never forget Velma, an aged, “single mom” who was an extremely dedicated “prayer” in my first church. She spent HOURS each day in prayer for her pastors—past and present—and those doing God’s work in the world.)

 

In your own faith and ministry, make your decision about where you will “live”: Will you be a “prayer,” a “player,” or a “payer”? As Isaiah tells us, “getting in the game” will determine if we will be just a “user” of divine grace, or be part of the team that “shall be called the repairer of the breach, the restorer of streets to live in.” Answering God’s call to be a part of THIS team is the best way to move into a better neighborhood! Amen.