Seeking light...growling like a bear

Therefore justice is far from us,
and righteousness does not reach us;
we wait for light, and lo! there is darkness;
and for brightness, but we walk in gloom.
We grope like the blind along a wall,
groping like those who have no eyes;
we stumble at noon as in the twilight,
among the vigorous as though we were dead.
We all growl like bears;
like doves we moan mournfully.
We wait for justice, but there is none;
for salvation, but it is far from us.
For our transgressions before you are many,
and our sins testify against us.
Our transgressions indeed are with us,
and we know our iniquities:
transgressing, and denying the LORD,
and turning away from following our God,

Isaiah snagged me this morning. I nodded while reading Hebrews and thought there is a lot of the Blind Man in me as I read Mark. Yet what leapt of the page (or the screen) was Isaiah. It is no wonder that Paul loved Isaiah for Isaiah so easily lends it self to seeing Christ among his pages.

Therefore justice is far from us,
and righteousness does not reach us;
we wait for light, and lo! there is darkness;
and for brightness, but we walk in gloom.

I have been wrestling this past semester with my own form of Pelegianism. No I'm not an official heretic proclaiming as Pelagius did that "human beings are able to achieve their salvation by their own powers." I am conscious of the fact that my strength came in defeat. I am conscious of the fact that when I could not...He could. But how often in the midst of knowledge do I revert back to handling my life? How often in the midst of the everyday do I revert to the practice of simply making it by effort? My mouth may proclaim "Christ, Christ" but my actions reveal a Christ who looks conspicuously like myself.

And here is Isaiah proclaiming that the people are waiting. They too are unable to approach Justice. They too are unable to make righteousness. They grope along the wall like the blind man in Mark. They growl like bears unable to remove from the world one once of sin.

Do we not in this church tend to collectively believe (at least a little bit) that it is our responsibility to make justice, end poverty, fight for freedom? Is there not a collective understanding that we are able to pull that off, that we are wise enough, rich enough, righteous enough that God has chosen us to figure it out? Do we, like I know I do, proclaim "Christ, Christ" revealing a church wedded to a salvic image that looks like it self?

Unlike Isaiah we do not need to wait. The light has entered the world. Our righteousness and our Justice will always come up tainted...corrupted. Yet the Light has entered the world. The candle holds back darkness. There is One who has taken transgression and sin, darkness and despair, and transformed them. That light points us back and throws a great light on our struggles. "Dear brother" he says "mine is enough." If we are to have any hope of bringing justice, peace, mercy to the world it is not enough to say "we can do it because he did it" If we are going to have any success we must surrender to that great light realizing that we are able only after surrendering to the fact that He continues to do so.