In some of the most striking poetry of the Bible, Isaiah the Prophet invites us to the love of God …
Are you thirsty? come to the waters.
Are you sad? Wine to gladden the heart …
Are you tired? Milk to nourish the body …
Joyful abundance … generous provision.
Thou preparest a table before me …
For Isaiah and his world, and the world in which we live, there is bread, and there is sawdust …
There is truth and there are lies …
There is gold and there is glitter.
There are decent human beings who work for the good, and there are criminals and shysters out to do us harm …
There is religion, lots of it … some of it corrupt, bent and twisted … some of it, good, sweet, and healthy …
How to tell the difference?
Isaiah shifts our attention from the imagery of food and drink to theology … covenant theology … God’s promise to Israel … God’s steadfast love for David … and through Israel, through David, God’s love to the nations, the powers that be, the whole wide world.
God so loves the world … not just David, nor only Israel, but the world …
The breadth and width and height of God’s love …
Something the Christian Nationalists would be wise to learn.
And all such religions that draw tight boundaries and despise diversity, equity, inclusion …
Oops, did I just say, DEI?
Christian virtues, the life and work of Christ … a trinity of purpose … God the Creator of Diversity, Christ the Savior, the guarantor of equity, the Holy Spirit, the Giver of life, in whom none are turned away, and all are included.
From the first words of creation, the covenant with Sarah and Abraham … God’s work in the life of Israel and King David … through all the failures, and all the moments of goodness and glory … from the cradle in Bethlehem, along the dusty roads of Palestine, to the cross of Calvary, it’s love at work.
God’s love.
where there is love, there is understanding …
where there is love, we find compassion and peace …
where there is love, the way forward is revealed …
where there is love, the door is open, and the welcome mat is out.
Isaiah makes another shift to personal responsibility:
Seek the LORD while he may be found … call upon him while he is near.
Seize the day, strike while the iron is hot … opportunity stands at the door and knocks, so go ahead, open it.
A moment to decide …
In C.S. Lewis’s great work, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, Lucy asks about Aslan, the Lion .. Is he - quite safe?
Mr. Beaver replies, Safe? Who said anything about safe? Course he isn’t safe. But he’s good. He’s the King, I tell you.
It’s never safe for us to deal with God … but God is good … The a stronghold in a day of trouble; he protects those who take refuge in him.
Isaiah says:
Let those who have lived on the wrong side of history, those who have done evil and hurt others, let them return to the LORD, because there’s always another chance …
God abundantly pardons … God makes new what has been broken … God restores what has been lost … where there is death, God brings life … in the dark night of the soul, God is light and peace.
The moment to decide …
On the shores of Galilee … Jesus stops to watch the fishermen in from a long night of fishing, to clean their nets … Jesus says to them, Come, and follow me!
Immediately they drop everything to follow him, says the Bible. Why so quickly?
Jesus is already well known to them, as a man of wisdom and ability, a rabbi, a teacher, who heals the sick and welcomes the outcast, who proclaims the kingdom of heaven.
The invitation of a respected rabbi, a rare and wonderful opportunity …
Like being accepted at Cal Tech to study physics … or an invitation from Oxford to study philosophy …
The fishermen look at each other,Is he talking to us? There’s no one else here, is there?
The moment to decide.
They step off their boats, and they step into the future.
Here I am, LORD.
The moment to decide.
Little moments, big moments, joyful moments, sad moments …moments to choose the right from the wrong … the truth and not the lie, the gold, and not the glitter.
Sometimes I fail, and fail miserably in all of this … sometimes I succeed, and do it right …
Years ago, I came across a mealtime ritual from a small religious group … before they ate on a Saturday night, to wrap things up for the week, they’d asked a simple question around the table: Were you faithful to God this week?
They allowed only two answers: Yes and No … or … No and Yes.
Sometimes it’s clearly - YES and no … and then, NO and yes.
It’s always a mixture … as the man said to Jesus, I believe; help my unbelief.
Our hope, you see, is not in ourselves, but always in the purity and glory of God … God decision is irrevocable … God’s love for us is inviolable.
God is the savior, the lover of our souls … in Christ, every one of God’s promises is a Yes!
So, let’s not waste time.
Because we don’t have all the time in the world, and the world doesn’t either …
Pilate’s soldiers raid a group of Galilean’s in worship … there is death and suffering.
Workers die when a tower collapses …
It is what it is, says Jesus … a sad accident, or the violence of a cruel politician … life is short … no matter how long it is, life is short … days are numbered, opportunities are limited … like the fig tree, there are only so many seasons that come our way … seize the day; strike while the iron is hot.
In the end, the final end, the Omega Point, all will be well … all will be good.
What didn’t work here, God will fix … what was lost, will be found … the hate of the world, the grief and sorrow, will be gathered up into the loving arms of God.
We can count on it, because God is faithful … but why waste our time?
Jesus invites us to follow him - why would we wait? Why would we ignore the Man of Galilee? It’s the Rabbi … the Teacher … the healer of our souls.
No sense wasting time on that which is foolish, no sense investing in things and programs that take from us, and give back only hurt and harm … why live in the shadows when we can live in the sunshine? Why live on scraps when we can feast?
Go for the gold, the real McCoy, the everlasting good …
Why should any of this matter?
We live in perilous times … lies are a dime a dozen … things are afoot, cruel and dangerous … now … is a time … to decide …
