A service of worship and commitment recognizes this year’s graduates
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06/02/11
Watch Dr. John Goldingay's sermon, "High and Holy, but Present with the Lowly" on Vimeo.A special Baccalaureate service was held on Wednesday, June 1, in the First Congregational Church of Pasadena to honor the graduating class of 2011. After the faculty and graduates marched down the center aisle in their full academic regalia, the group sang several hymns and then turned eagerly toward the featured speaker, beloved faculty member John Goldingay, the David Allan Hubbard Professor of Old Testament.
His sermon, entitled “High and Holy, but Present with the Lowly,” focused on selected texts from Isaiah 56-66, in which God is described as living “in a high and holy place,” and saying, “Heaven is my throne and earth is my footstool.” Yet in the next breath, the prophet shows that this same God is with the lowly in spirit and looks toward the one who is afflicted. It is important, Goldingay noted, that the prophet first emphasizes who God is. “He’s not your buddy, not someone with whom you partner, not just someone living inside you,” said Goldingay. Rather, God is towering so far above us that the entire cosmos is his throne. “What good news!” he exclaimed. “God is not built to our scale.” While we may be more comfortable with the idea of God being close to us as our indwelling friend, the Bible acknowledges the high and towering nature of God before telling us “what we want to know”—that he is with the lowly and the afflicted.
Most translations, Goldingay pointed out, assume that “crushed” and “afflicted” in these verses mean being “contrite” or sorry for one’s sins. He asserted that this is not the case, as these words—also used in Job and the Psalms—denote distress and suffering. While God is indeed with the contrite, the point here, Goldingay stated, is that “God is with the afflicted, suffering, and disabled in spirit—and such are some of you,” he said, addressing the graduates. Some may have come to seminary disabled in spirit and seeking healing—whether they found it or not—and others may have come full of vitality and now leave disabled in spirit. “God’s word to you as you leave seminary,” said Goldingay, “is not merely that he is your buddy, or that you can do things for him, but that God is with the disabled in spirit, the crushed, the afflicted.”
Further, as Isaiah 66:3 states, God is with people who tremble at his word. The context here suggests that if one is broken in spirit, it might be difficult to believe God’s words and promises of restoration. “You may tremble at God’s word because it is too good to believe,” said Goldingay. “But that’s okay because God is near to people who are so crushed in spirit that they can’t believe his promises,” he assured, remarking that our broken disbelieving does not affect God’s fulfilling his word.
In addition to showing that God is high and holy, yet present with the lowly, the verses at the beginning of Isaiah 66 pose a question, as God asks, “Wherever is the house you would build for me?” Goldingay observed that this question implies incoherence in the idea of building a house for the God whose throne is the entire cosmos and who uses the earth as a footstool. In seminary, students learn to build things, to make a difference, and to partner with God. “If you build it, God will come,” joked Goldingay. But God showed David, who desired to build a house for God, that he was reversing the way things should be. Goldingay emphasized that God is the one who is supposed to build, but when they still built the temple, it was as though God shrugged his shoulders and came to dwell in it anyway. In the same way, he said, “We hate the idea that God is the one to bring the Kingdom of God.” So we try to partner with God, to make a difference, and to build a house for him. Despite our efforts that clearly ignore God’s place as the initiator and builder, Goldingay said, “Still, he will shrug his shoulders, and he will come.”
The Baccalaureate service was followed by a reception in the Garth honoring this year’s graduates, sponsored by Fuller’s Office of Alumni and Church Relations.