Memorial Service Ravaka Rajo
Text Isaiah 6 Time 06/07/13 Place Trinity Road Chapel, Tooting
(Ravaka Rajo was a Malagas pastor and Seminary Director who died at the end of April 2013 in Madagascar after being hit by a motorcycle)
I
count it a privilege and an honour to preach here this afternoon. I
only knew Ravaka for a relatively brief few years of what was a sadly
short life. I never saw him in his native Madagascar and so he was
always at a disadvantage, especially in those early months when
someone like me would chat away in English and Ravaka would endeavour
to keep up in what I suppose was his third language. Even in that
short time we recognised that here was a man of God, a gentle and
quiet man in many ways but one whose great desire was first and
foremost to serve the Lord. From our limited human viewpoint it seems
a great tragedy that he should die so young.
Reference
has already been made to Philippians 1:21. Certainly it is very
important that we are all clear that for Ravaka to live was Christ –
it was all about Jesus Christ. His death, of course, is gain for him
because he is now with Christ forever. We all need to know Christ and
trust in him and then when we die it may be loss to others but it
will be gain to us.
When
I knew I was to speak here today, however, my mind immediately went
to a Scripture that I thought would be a help to us this afternoon as
we reflect on our loss. My mind went to Isaiah Chapter 6. Let me read
that short chapter to you now.
1 In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord seated on a
throne, high and exalted, and the train of his robe filled the
temple. 2 Above him were seraphs, each with six wings: With two wings
they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with
two they were flying. 3 And they were calling to one another: Holy,
holy, holy is the LORD Almighty; the whole earth is full of his
glory. 4 At the sound of their voices the doorposts and thresholds
shook and the temple was filled with smoke. 5 Woe to me! I cried. I
am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people
of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the LORD Almighty. 6
Then one of the seraphs flew to me with a live coal in his hand,
which he had taken with tongs from the altar. 7 With it he touched my
mouth and said, See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken
away and your sin atoned for. 8 Then I heard the voice of the Lord
saying, Whom shall I send? And who will go for us? And I said, Here
am I. Send me! 9 He said, Go and tell this people: Be ever hearing,
but never understanding; be ever seeing, but never perceiving. 10
Make the heart of this people calloused; make their ears dull and
close their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with
their ears, understand with their hearts, and turn and be healed. 11
Then I said, For how long, O Lord?And he answered: Until the cities
lie ruined and without inhabitant, until the houses are left deserted
and the fields ruined and ravaged, 12 until the LORD has sent
everyone far away and the land is utterly forsaken. 13 And though a
tenth remains in the land, it will again be laid waste. But as the
terebinth and oak leave stumps when they are cut down, so the holy
seed will be the stump in the land.
Now
from these verses I want to say three things to you
1.
Something about Ravaka - a great one has died and left us
The
words that drew me to this chapter were the ones with which it opens.
The chapter begins In the year that King Uzziah died. King
Uzziah (or Azariah) was one of the good kings of Israel and Judah and
although he made mistakes he was a godly man and a good leader. He
has been called the
most prosperous king, excepting Jehoshaphat, since
the time of Solomon and
he gave hope to people like the prophet Isaiah who were eager to see
God honoured. His reign lasted some 52 years and we can be sure that
Isaiah had never known any other king. But at last he died. Isaiah
felt devastated.
I
don't think it is difficult for some today to identify with that
situation. Ravaka was no king, of course, but he was your king, Liz;
your husband and protector, and he was a king to Anna and Jonathan, a
gentle and loving lord over them. Pastors are not kings, either, but
he was a good shepherd to the church in Antsirabe and not only that,
the new Principal of the seminary as well. And now, and at a much
younger age than Uzziah, he has been taken. This is the year that the
Principal died, the pastor died, the husband died, the father died ….
To feel devastated, especially when we consider how suddenly it has
happened, is not wrong. It is perfectly understandable.
2.
Something about Ravaka's God – a greater one is still on his throne
So what did Isaiah do when he heard
his king had died? I think it is clear from this chapter that he did
exactly what we are trying to do today. Isaiah went to the Temple of
God there in Jerusalem. He went to the place where he could meet with
God. We are not under the Old Testament law, of course, and there is
no Temple. Jesus has come. He is our Temple. But we have agreed to
meet together like this and to seek God. Isaiah tells us in verse I
saw the Lord seated on a throne, high and exalted, and the train of
his robe filled the temple. Uzziah
was no longer on his throne. Ravaka has gone from us. He cannot be a
husband, a father, a pastor, a Principal, a denominational leader as
he once was. We wonder why it should happen in the way it has. But
make no mistake God is still on his throne. He is still in control.
He is seated on a throne, high and exalted, and although
the most Isaiah or we can see is the train of his robe,
it is enough. We know he is in
control.
Isaiah says that (2-4) Above
him were these heavenly seraphs,
each with six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with
two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying. And they
were calling to one another: Holy, holy, holy is the LORD Almighty;
the whole earth is full of his glory. At the sound of their voices
the doorposts and thresholds shook and the temple was filled with
smoke.
Such
details remind us that God is the holy one, the holiest of all. He is
the Almighty one and the glorious one. How majestic, how powerful,
how great he is.
That
is where we need to fix our minds today. Ravaka is gone. We long to
see him again in heaven, but for now, he has gone and so we must look
to God.
And
some of you may say to me but I find it hard to fix my mind on God.
In John 12 in the New Testament there is a quotation from this
chapter from verse 10. Interestingly, John says, Isaiah
said this because he saw Jesus' glory and spoke about him. The
same glory Isaiah saw is the glory that was later to be seen in the
man Christ Jesus. If you want to think of God and his glory, then,
think of Christ – his holiness, his powerful miracles, his death on
the cross for sinners. That is where to look.
3.
Something about those who Ravaka leaves behind
And so for the rest of our time let's think about ourselves – those
Ravaka has left behind. There are a number of things we can say from
this passage.
1. We who remain are all sinners before God
Look
at Isaiah's reaction to all this in verse 5 Woe to
me! I cried. I am ruined! What
prompted that? For I am a man of unclean lips, he
says and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes
have seen the King, the LORD Almighty. The
presence of death and of God suddenly made Isaiah aware of his
sinfulness. Simply talking about death and about God can have this
effect. It is one reason why people don't like funerals. Perhaps you
feel like that. As I speak, you find your sins coming to mind. Isaiah
was supposed to be a prophet who spoke in God's name but he knew his
lips were sinful lips. He knew too that the people who he spoke to
were sinful as well. And he knew that God was watching them. It is
hard to admit you are a sinner. I'm sure Ravaka found it hard the
first time he did it. But he knew he was a sinner and we need to
recognise that we are sinners too who will also one day die and have
to face our Maker.
2. Yet we can be forgiven
And
then we have perhaps the most wonderful bit in this chapter. 6, 7
Then one of the seraphs flew to me with a live coal
in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar. With it he
touched my mouth and said, See, this has touched your lips; your
guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for. In
the Temple there was more than one altar but the one in mind here is
the one where the animal sacrifices were made. The live
coal stands symbolically for
atonement through sacrifice, forgiveness through what has happened on
the altar. It is applied to Isaiah's mouth because that is where he
was most conscious of sin. The coal is a means of removing sin and
guilt. It points forward to the great sacrifice Jesus Christ was
going to make by dying on the cross and so securing salvation for all
who trust in him. We are all sinners but there is forgiveness in
Christ.
3. Once we are forgiven we must tell others about the Lord
Next Isaiah says (8) Then
I heard the voice of the Lord saying, Whom shall I send? And who will
go for us? We do not know in
quite what tone this is said but Isaiah's immediate response was
Here am I. Send me! And I
suppose that is partly how you ended where you are today Liz. In some
way or another you heard God saying, as it were, Whom shall
I send? And who will go for us? And
you said Here am I. Send me! And
that, ultimately, is how you met Ravaka. He too in a different way
had also said Here am I. Send me! All
believers, to a greater or lesser extent, are those who are sent. We
have found forgiveness and we are called to pass the message on. We
must tell others. Sometimes we come to strange junctures. You are at
one now, Liz, and so are the Baptist churches in Madagascar, due to
this strange providence. You want to say Here am I. Send
me! I trust but where?
Madagascar? The UK? Somewhere else? Who knows? In some ways they are
only the details, as important as they are. Willingness to be sent is
the first thing, the chief thing.
4.
Tell them even though they may not listen
But then in verses 9-13a we are
brought back to reality with a bump. It can sound very exciting –
being sent, going out. But look what Isaiah is told He
said, Go and tell this people: Be ever hearing, but never
understanding; be ever seeing, but never perceiving. Make the heart
of this people calloused; make their ears dull and close their eyes.
Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears,
understand with their hearts, and turn and be healed.
It is not going to be easy, and
sometimes it isn't, perhaps we should say usually it isn't. 11
Then I said, For how long, O Lord?And he answered: Until the cities
lie ruined and without inhabitant, until the houses are left deserted
and the fields ruined and ravaged, until the LORD has sent everyone
far away and the land is utterly forsaken. And though a tenth remains
in the land, it will again be laid waste. Isaiah
was going to preach through lean and hungry years and eventually the
people would be carried off into exile by the Babylonians. What bleak
times they were. Isaiah was to do the work, nevertheless, and we who
are believers must go on telling out the good news, whether people
listen or not.
5. Be
assured that some will respond
But the chapter doesn't end on that
low note and nor do we. Verse 13b says But as the terebinth
and oak leave stumps when they are cut down, so the holy seed will be
the stump in the land. When you
cut down a tree like an oak or a terebinth that isn't the end of the
story. They sprout again, they begin to grow again. We do not know
yet what may come from this very death, tragic as it is. There is
nothing automatic here and the previous verses ought to make us sober
but who knows what might be next for you as a family, for the Baptist
movement in Madagascar, for Madagascar itself.
This
is a sad day for us let's not deny it but let us look to God, to
Jesus Christ. Let's serve him as Ravaka sought to do when he was with
us.
