Good News of Hope in Isaiah

Isaiah 51:1--6

Ps 138

Romans 112:1-8

Matthew 16:13-20

The Second Isaiah contains some of the most profound verse in all of Scripture. 

 Isaiah 51 compels us: Listen! Look! over and over.

He proclaims hope to a distressed and discouraged people. He calls them to trust God's promise with courage. He doesn't deny that things are bad, he just declares that God will make them better. 

"Listen to me, you who pursue righteousness, you that seek the Lord."

Verse 1, 4, 7 all begin with the word "shama"--listen, hear, obey--is a key word in the Hebrew Bible. It begins their prayer shema Israel, hear Israel. Listening, and obeying, is the love response to God's gift of salvation as Kingdom people.

"you that seek the Lord" In 45:9 the prophet says GOd did not say 'seek me in vain' and in 65:1 "I was ready to be sought by those who did not ask for me; I was ready to be found by those who did not seek me. Those who pursue a right relationship with God, who seek His face--they will find Him. Jesus Himself confirms this in the Sermon on the Mount.  

The prophet says--look at your ancestors--look to Abraham and Sarah. They were a solitary old couple who became a great nation, I can repair and renew my people in every age. 

The barren land (a reminder of exodus) feels uninhabitable. Yet YHWH God promises comfort (a root word for Noah's name). Human eyes look at a the desert waste, but the eyes of faith see a garden of Eden (Paradise).  Pay no attention to what worries you, says the Lord, be filled with joy and gladness, sing a song and give thanks. My salvation will be forever and my deliverance will never end.  Salvation (yeshuah in Hebrew--or Jesus) is forever. Focus on Jesus friends, not the problems of the world. 

Be brave. Be strong. Look at all the turmoil and remember the sky will vanish and the earth will disappear. What the materialist calls concrete reality is really a smoky vapor. Humanity is mortal, we die like a bug.  But YHWH's saving love in Jesus is forever.

We are a broken and wounded people. We too often forget our heritage, we are distracted by our worries and concerns. We fret about real life concerns, it is hard not to do, but we too easily forget the divine perspective. God doesn't see the next election or the status of Corona the way we do. God sees us.

I find comfort in Isaiah 51 because God says, "Hey! Listen to me. Look at me. Jesus salvation is forever, the desert is the Garden of Eden still under construction. Trust me, be brave, spend more time praising and thanking. Feel the hope, feel the joy."

I think we should do just that.  

insider and outsider

Isaiah 56:1, 6-8   Ps 67   Romans 11:1-2, 29-32   Mathew 15:(10-20) 21-28

It is hard to read our biblical texts about racial identity without thinking about our current societal debates. The heated arguments about identity politics and whose lives matter could easily drown out God's revelation. A disclaimer, in a world where one person's peaceful protest is another's riot, it is clear that we cannot seem to agree on much of anything, so listen to my words with a grain of salt.

I believe that since Eden, the world has consisted of insiders and outsiders. Adam and Eve could certainly testify how quickly that can change. Salvation, God's kingdom rule through our Lord Jesus, will hopefully free us from hatred and heal our brokenness and divisions. Until then, unfortunately, we will struggle to live in peace with one another.

I have consistently taught that sin is a heart condition, generated by sinful desires and false thoughts. In addition, I believe that we deeply wounded and more than a little afraid. The world is dark and corrupt since they left that Garden, and only repentance, confession and personal reform empowered by God's Holy Spirit can improve humanity. I believe Jesus teaches that until we are made whole and holy, our efforts to change the world will never make it better. (the mote in your eye)

Many progressive preachers will declare that the exchange between Jesus and the pagan woman illustrates Jesus' racism and sin. I reject that idea completely!

Reading Matthew, Jesus makes clear throughout that His mission is to Israel. He tells the disciples to focus only there. So when Jesus is confronted by the woman--a person who worshipped false gods--He tells a maschal (wisdom illustration or parable) about feeding children and not dogs. The comparison is obviously indelicate, but it is also accurate. Membership status matters. This is why the same people who would demand that the US have open borders remain steadfast in making sure that only certified convention delegates are on the floor. We will never let members of other denominations vote at our convention, or even members (!) if they are not delegates. And I would agree that they shouldn't. Identity requires boundaries. There really are insiders and outsiders, even in church.

So why does Jesus cross over to the fringe and heal the daughter? Because the mother's faith opened her to membership in God's people. The love and mercy of God are available to those of humble faith. When a pagan Canaanite addresses Jesus as Messiah and Lord, she has begun the process of personal conversion necessary to be a citizen of the Kingdom.  

At the end of the Gospel, we hear the rest of the story! Jesus will send His disciples to all the pagan nations. He will command them to make disciples and teach all that He has taught. The last judgement, the final declaration of who is inside and who is outside, is still in the future. It is for our Heavenly Father to determine. Our task is to bring the healing love of Jesus to everyone until that day.

Which brings us back to today's political conflicts. Whatever side you are on in all this, make sure you pray for the healing and salvation of those with whom you disagree. Love them with the heart of Jesus and recognize their humanity and need. That is a discipline which will go a long way to helping you repent and change your own heart.

The Whiner

I have a collection of characters which I have created to entertain my youngest son. Among them is "The Whiner." He, as you can imagine, is able to find something to complain about whatever the situation, and he is the eternal victim, grieving his maltreatment at the hands of everyone. 

The Whiner serves a purpose, he is a parable about the destructive forces at work in each of us. The message is--don't be a whiner. He is totally unappealing.

Unlike our hagiography, the Bible does not refrain from illustrating characters in all their good and bad. Too often, the saints were portrayed as heroes, their minor flaws generating great humility, and they were as otherworldly as comic book superheroes. The expression "I'm not a saint" was a declaration that no-one should expect much from us, we are ordinary. So, hagiography fails to inspire us, it only discourages us with figures too great to be understood.

Elijah the prophet had long stood against the corruption of King Ahab and his foreign wife, Queen Jezebel, who intensified the worship of Ba'al in Israel. Elijah and Ahab traded insults and accusations (it is almost comical at times), each blaming the other for the nation's troubles. Finally, during a horrible drought,  there is a showdown between Elijah and over eight hundred pagan priests. Elijah mocks their efforts to call down fire from the sky and ridicules their gods. Then Elijah calls on YHWH to bring flame upon his water drenched altar. YHWH consumes the wood and the area around the altar. THe  people of Israel, duly impressed, reconfirm their faith in God, and Elijah commands them to slaughter all the pagan priests. Immediately after, Elijah tells the king, the drought will end.

When Ahab returns home, he tells Jezebel what had happened and she vows revenge. Elijah, after these demonstrations of divine power, inexplicably flees. Like Moses before him, he prays for death. "It is enough, Lord..." Instead, God provides bread and water which sustains him during a forty day fast as he travels to Mount Horeb (Sinai) where Moses saw the bush, and later communed with God when he got the commandments.

God asks him, "What are you doing here?"

Many believe the question is intended negatively. Elijah makes his complaint, though much of the information is incorrect. The Israelites had not rejected God and Ahab & Jezebel was slaying the prophets, although we know six hundred had been hidden. Elijah is whining.

When YHWH commands him to stand in the presence of the Lord, we understand what the cave is. It is the place where Moses stood when the Lord "passed by" during the Exodus. Elijah will receive the same visitation, or will he?

The theophany--wind, fire, earthquake--associated with the Exodus story is repeated, but here we learn God is not in their destructive power. Instead, there is "a sound of silence," the word is used in another place to describe the quiet after a storm. I have sat high on a mountain in Spain where I heard this sound of silence. The scriptures would have us know that it is in silence that our Lord speaks.

God repeats His question, "Why are you here?" and Elijah whines again. Life is hard, things go poorly, I am all alone. God gives his answer, the men who will end the current monarchy, and the promise of 7,000 faithful in Israel, no doubt a symbolic number.

The great Elijah is portrayed as just another whiner. His lack of trust on full display. 

What are you doing here, Elijah?

It is easy, friends, to forget God has won the victory. It is easy to see ourselves, as victims, abused, battered, betrayed and left all alone. It is easy to seek God's voice in power and majesty, forgetting that in Jesus we learn God is found in the still silence.

Soon after this, Elijah will be caught up into heaven in chariots of fire. Jews believe he will prepare us for the Day of the Lord. He is, despite his flaws, God's man.

There is hope here. There is hope for us flawed, weak, imperfect humans--people who run away, afraid and depressed. When God asks you, "what are you doing here?" do not whine. Do not twist the truth to paint yourself a victim. Do not claim "I'm the only good one left." 

Rather listen in the silence. Trust God will deliver you, will deliver us. Grasp the faith and trust His power to deliver us, trust His desire to make us whole.

We aren't perfect, but neither were the saints of old. And that's okay, because God is perfect and He is on our side.

Kingdom Hope for the Weak

Sunday 26-27

1 Kings 3:5-12     Ps 119:129-136   Romans 8:26-39   Matthew 13:31-33, 44-52

We all remember Martha’s complaint to Jesus, “Tell my sister to help me.” Paul uses that same Greek word when he says. “The Spirit of God helps us in our weakness.” In Genesis 1, the wind of God hovers over the chaos in creation, and in Genesis 2 God breathes His breath into the dust to make a human. Wind, breath, Spirit—ruah in Hebrew—refers to the life-giving power of God. Humans were created to rule the earth, but sin and corruption have literally made us (asthenia) “not strong.” We are so weak that we do not even know how to pray. Paul uses the word “weak” to describe our human condition, more than any other author in the New Testament, but he has hope that the Helper, whom Jesus promised, has come. Paul says the Spirit sanctifies our groaning and makes it prayer! Think what that means!

Paul sees God’s redemption in the midst of—our sin, guilt and shame, the hardships, violence, poverty and persecutions, the material and spiritual powers which would destroy us—and he declares that NOTHING can separate us from the love of God in Jesus Christ. The Kingdom will come.

Yet, the Kingdom of Heaven is already manifest among us and within us. Jesus says it like the tiny mustard seed, just a speck, yet it grows into a large bush. It is hidden, like leaven in fifty pounds of flour—a direct references to Abrahams huge lunch feast for the Three Visitors! Remember, that meal ended with a laughable promise of a son, but Sarah is the great-grandmother of the twelve tribes of Israel. The impossible happens in the Kingdom!

God is secretly ruling in places even now, while some stumble across it by accident, like a buried treasure, others seek and find it, like the man searching for the pearl. But it comes at the cost everything. Why? Because whatever is not given to God remains a servant of sin and death. Remember, our earth is ruled by rival monarchs. Jesus says, choose your King.

In Genesis 1, God creates by speaking and separating: light from dark, land from water, day from night… In the same manner, the Torah separates righteous from sinner, clean from unclean. Jesus says the final separation will be the last judgement, where God will divide out His friends from His foes.

Let us be the wise man, treasuring both the Ancient and the new. Learn the Scriptures and tradition even as you study the arts and sciences. Jesus contains all truth, and the Spirit will help us in our weakness to pray and live as His disciples each day.

7/5

zechariah 9:9-12     Psalm 145:8-15    Romans 7:15-25     Matthew 11: 16-19, 25-30

zechariah 9:9-12     Psalm 145:8-15    Romans 7:15-25     Matthew 11: 16-19, 25-30

When Jesus says, "to what can I compare this generation?," He uses the same verb (homoioo) which introduces numerous parables. Jesus points to the everyday reality to uncover the symbolic meaning of life and the patterns which reveal God’s Kingdom.

In a small, impoverished village, funerals and weddings were grand events, so children’s games would imitate the adults. Jesus says that the people of His time are like difficult children who cannot be satisfied. They reject John the Baptist and his ascetical lifestyle (the funeral) calling him possessed, in our time it would be called ‘crazy.’ But neither do they like the celebrative approach of Jesus, who describes the Kingdom as a wedding feast. How can Jesus be holy when is a drunkard and a glutton? As a result, that generation failed to recognize its visitation.

How could this happen? In Classical spirituality, there is a spirit called "acedia+." It is the passion of discontentment and dissatisfaction. Jesus' contemporaries had hard hearts because they were unmotivated to seek and embrace the things of God. This malady is the voice in your head asking “What’s the point?” When confronted with a prophet, or even the Messiah, it has us shrug and mumble “whatever…” Rather than repent and rejoice, the contemporaries of Jesus choose to find fault. Their murmuring kills their souls.

Jesus models the antidote for acedia. Rather than become disheartened and give up, Jesus turns to His Father and proclaims thanks and praise. The Apostle Paul famously said, “knowledge puffs up.” (I Corinthians 8:1) Jesus

Reinforces that idea with his claim that God has hidden from the wise what He has revealed to His little ones. This is no advocacy of intellectual laziness nor is it blessing ignorance. But it is a reminder that our riches are a barrier to the Kingdom of God and the arrogance of the self identified learned and wise is a huge barrier. Too often we remain sophomores our whole life (Sophia WISE and Morons Fools) Our highly educated elite are too often proudly atheistic, embacing science and disdaining faith.

Jesus has come to reveal the Father to  us. It is His choice. We must fight the urges of acedia and battle the boredom and disinterest. We must also be loving, humble servants. Keenly aware that we are a little one and avoid the arrogance of the wise.

Jesus is Here with us now. Offering us the Father. Let us rejoice in the kingdom wedding feast in ourt hearts

+ see below for insights
http://www.centerforbaptistrenewal.com/blog/2020/3/6/the-desert-fathers-on-dissatisfaction-and-sorrow

7/12

Isaiah 55:10-13
psalm 65
Romans 8:1-11
Matthew 13:1-9,  18-23

Isaiah 55* contains many memorable verses as it expresses God's saving will for His people.
Are you thirsty? Come to the water!
Have no money? eat for free!
Worldly things cannot satisfy us, yet wear ourselves out to fill our belly and ignore the greater promise of covenant with God. 

God declares that His covenant with David will transcend Israel, that the nations of the world will run to join His people.

We know in the Gospels that Jesus multiplies the loaves and feeds the people with bread, but more importantly with His word. We know Jesus, the Son of David, will draw the nations to His cross at Jerusalem and form a New Israel from all the tribes of the earth.

Isaiah 55:6-11 are Canticle 10 in the Morning Prayer Office. It is a beautiful song inviting us to seek the Lord while there is time, to call Him now. Isaiah, like all the  great spokesmen for God, requires our repentance "let the wicked forsake their ways, and the evil ones their thoughts and let them return to the  Lord so He can have mercy." Always, always, the offer of salvation has a sense of urgency. The Day of Doom approaches.

The mind of the God of Isaiah is far above us. As the sky is far from the earth, or better, as heaven (the abode of God) is far above the fallen earth--so far away is He. The gap is unbridgeable, unless He comes to us. And so He speaks His word.

It is like precipitation falling from the clouds, the  life giving waters which produce life on the earth. God is firm, His word does not return empty. He will accomplish His goal.

That Word is incarnate in Jesus Christ. Jesus is God's Self-communication to each and all of us. Jesus is the  revelation of GOd in flesh and blood. Today Jesus speaks of His own ministry as throwing  seed. The seed will grow, it will produce; but woe to those who  are  barren land.

Those who are owned by the passions and sin cannot even hear the word of Christ. Those of shallow spirit engage the Lord briefly for a season, but then quickly move on to other concerns when the price of discipleship becomes too great. The affluent and worldly have the word choked away. It is hard to receive the Lord and embrace His word.

There is abundance of fruit for any who do. this is the good news of GOd's salvation. we are of the earth, far below and far away from our maker. yet he turns to us and pours His own life into us. The connection of water and the SPirit in the Scriptures leads one to see the same possibility in Isaiah. Jesus sowing the seed of His word also echo with John 1. Our only task is to be attentive and receptive. To be aware that our Father wants us to receive His life--the Son and SPirit. He wants us to be united to Him and in this union the fruits of a holy life are automatically going to flow. Trust God will do this.












*they are also found in Canticle 10, which we recite each Friday at Morning Prayer. 

Good Seed, Bad Seed

July 18-19, 2020

Isaiah 44:6-8   Ps 86:11-17   Romans 8:12-25   Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43

One of the most important revelations in the Bible are from this section of Isaiah where YHWH declares: “I am God. I am the only God. There is no other God. I alone am God.” I guess this raises the question, if there is only one God, what is the source of evil in the world?

The recurring theme of judgement comes through strongly in this parable. The simplistic and erroneous contrast of a NT God of Love and OT God of judgement could not be more wrong. The Kingdom of Heaven is a dividing process.

Jesus tell us about the Kingdom of Heaven over fifty times in Matthew’s Gospel. He tells us to pray “Father…your kingdom come, your will be done.” In today’s parable He says that an enemy’s hand is at work in our world. Right now, God is not ruling, His dominion is being opposed. In Mt 11:12, Jesus told us “that the violent take the kingdom by force”—probably a reference to worldly powers.  Jesus says that the Kingdom belongs to the weak and poor, to the simple believers and mere children; those are trampled by the powerful. The kingdom is found in the hearts of those who do God’s will and obey. We follow the Crucified, but other masters seek our allegiance.    

The parable begins with the simple words, “someone sowed seed in a field.” The word “fields” is connected to human troubles in the bible. Adam sins and the earth is cursed; human toil will produce thorns and thistles. The serpent is a symbol of the hand of the enemy sowing bad seeds.

Rabbi Friedman enumerates connection of fields to family conflicts. Cain slays Abel in a field. Jacob tricks his brother, when Esau comes in from a field. Joseph irritates his brothers with a dream that they were sheaves in a field which bow to him. In Judges 20, Israel slaughters the tribe of Benjamin, and the word field appears twice. A wise woman tells King David a parable about a man killing his brother in a field. Thorns and thistle in the fields is a metaphor for fratricide and violent conflict.

The greatest fruit of the Kingdom is the divine love humans have for one another, and Jesus’s parable reminds us that the failure to love is the work of an enemy’s hand. Injustice, cruelty, and war, racism, crime, and indifference are all the evil seed among us. Too many families are filled with suffering and pain, too often the weak suffer at the hands of those who oppose the Kingdom of Heaven.    

The world is filled with evil because the Kingdom of Heaven is not fully among us. God did not plant the bad seed, it is an enemy’s work. Sadly, sometimes the enemy’s hand is at the end of my arm, or yours. Sometimes, we are part of the problem. This is why we must repent, and why we cannot judge others.

We live in the troubled times, with the probability that more troubles lie ahead. Weed and wheat grow together, but God will not act until the harvest. We need not speculate on the source of evil, we need to trust Jesus and follow Him. Every day, all day.