Grace and Peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

The text for today’s meditation is Isaish 41: 14-16

"Do not be afraid, O worm Jacob, O dead ones of Israel, for I myself will help you, declares Yahweh, your Restorer, the Holy One of Israel. Behold, I will make thee a new sharp threshing instrument having teeth: thou shalt thresh the mountains, and beat them small, and shalt make the hills as chaff. ¹⁶ Thou shalt fan them, and the wind shall carry them away, and the whirlwind shall scatter them: and thou shalt rejoice in the LORD, thou shalt glory in the Holy One of Israel."

If you could become any animal in the world, which one would you choose? Maybe like Isaiah you would soar on wings like an eagle. Or like Amos perhaps the lion is your animal of choice, because you love to rumble in the jungle! Or maybe like Elisha you boast in the bear because when it comes to obstacles you maim and you maul. Or if your name is Caleb – which in Hebrew means dog – you just might choose to be a sweet and adorable little dog.

Question. How many of you would like to become a worm? May I see a show of hands? That’s just what I thought. None of you are worm wannabes! I don’t blame you. Worms have no arms, no legs, and no eyes! They’re small and insignificant and, if you ask me, worms don’t have the best of personalities!

No one ever stops their car and says, "Hey everyone, take a look at that worm!" Or when did you read an editorial that passionately argued, "We must cease the ongoing genocidal atrocity taking place in our lakes and rivers! Worms deserve better! These cute creatures should not be skewered on hooks, just so they can be fed to the fish!"

Can you imagine the worm being any team’s mascot? Will we ever

Isaiah 41:14, "Do not be afraid, O worm Jacob."

Why does Yahweh call the exilic community in Babylon a worm? Didn’t he get the memo that worm theology isn’t the way to boost self-esteem or encourage people to get up and get going?

Buried under the boot of Babylon, in Isaiah chapters 40-55 the exiles are also called weak and weary – bruised reeds and smoldering wicks – deaf and blind – childless, widowed, divorced – and a stubborn rebel from birth.

God has a word for that.

Worm.

The parallel thought in our text equates "O worm Jacob" with "those who are dead." Isaiah’s poetic parallelism invites us to compare dead people with worms. What a prophet! Dead people are buried; so are worms. Dead people are stepped on; so are worms. Dead people are surrounded by dirt; so are worms. Dead people are ignored and soon forgotten; and so are the worms.

The exiles had seen terror on every side. The patriarchal and Davidic promises appeared to be null and void. The captives are in a culture where their most treasured narratives and liturgies are being mocked, trivialized, or dismissed as being simply irrelevant. Everything had been swallowed up by the beast called Babylon.

This hopelessness is epitomized in Psalm 22:1, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" And then verse 6, "I am a worm and not a man."

Now, what should we think of ourselves when we are captive to sin and so far away from the Father? When we don’t "act justly and love mercy and walk humbly with my God"? When we are not aflame with holiness and feel no compassion for the lost? What are we to think of ourselves when we take no delight in the Word, recoil from prayer, harbor lustful thoughts and pant for the praises of people? What are we when we are dishonest, mean-spirited, petty and vindictive?

God has a word for that.

Worm.

"Vicar, didn’t you get the memo that worm theology isn’t the way to boost self-esteem or encourage us to get up and get going?"

No, I didn’t. Because thinking highly of ourselves has nothing to do with God’s word. Rather he longs for us to cry out with Isaiah, "I am a man of unclean lips," and with Job, "Therefore I despise myself, and repent in dust and ashes," and with Paul, "O wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from this body of death!"

You see, only people who are dead and buried and surrounded by dirt cry out for life and resurrection!

"Do not be afraid, O worm Jacob, O dead ones of Israel, for I myself will help you, declares Yahweh, your Restorer, the Holy One of Israel."

Yahweh is not some football coach trying to rally his team to "win one for the gipper." Nor is he some talk-show host who wants us to feel warm and fuzzy all over. Yahweh is not some sentimental granddaddy who helps those who help themselves. No.

He is "your Restorer, the Holy One of Israel."

The Hebrew word go’el – best translated "your Restorer" – appears here in Isaiah chapters 40-55 for the first time and will come fourteen more times in this section. A go’el is your next-of-kin-relative who buys back your inheritance, frees you from slavery, and pays off your debt. Whatever has gone bad your go’el will make good.

Coupled with go’el is the phrase "the Holy One of Israel" – which appears in the book of Isaiah twenty-five times and only seven more times in the Old Testament. He is, as the seraphim cry out "holy, holy, holy!" It means Yahweh is completely set apart and different from everyone and everything else.

Isaiah couples your Restorer – the completely immanent One – with the Holy One of Israel – the completely transcendent One to announce that Yahweh alone is able to marshal every power in the universe for a single, loving, furious, relentless goal – to bring us home! Because, you see, there really is no place like home!

How does he do it? In the fullness of time Yahweh became our next-of-kin-relative, literally. And then he took another step. He became dirty, despised and dismissed. But then he took another, almost incomprehensible step. It was one for the ages.

Psalm 22:1, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" Or, in his native Aramaic language, "Eli, Eli lama sabathani." And then verse 6, "I am a worm and not a man."

Here is Jesus, nailed to the tree, his body bent, broken, and twisted. Here is Jesus, a bloody horrific mess. Here is Jesus, mocked, ridiculed, and abandoned.

God has a word for that.

Worm.

But then there was an earthquake and an angel and the stone was rolled away and then the announcement that continues to rock our world, "He is not here, he is risen, just as he said!"

And because Jesus is alive, Yahweh’s transforming word to us is exactly this. Isaiah 41:15, "See, I am making you into a threshing sledge, new and sharp, with many teeth. You will thresh the mountains and crush them, and reduce the hills to chaff."

Worms become mountain movers! The lowly and despised are loved and lifted up. "The blind see, the lame walk, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the gospel is preached to the poor." God has a word for that. Grace!

And it means we are going home to our eternal paradise in heaven!

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.