When we experience the bleakness Isaiah described, we will want to remember that light will follow this darkness. Isaiah tells us of the coming cornerstone that will lie in Zion, in Jerusalem, the city he describes as destroyed in Chapter 29. This prophet cautions, warns, exhorts, and pleads with the people to avoid pacts with foreign, pagan tribes. He cries out against overconfidence in human help – either the help of others or our own over-valued talents. He foretells thunder, the whirlwind, the storm and the consuming flame. He describes blindness and perversity, fear and terror. When our circumstances are the most dire, we must remember that our lives in Christ promise a redemption that always accompanies suffering.
And so, we pray with Isaiah.
But a very little while, and Lebanon shall be changed into an orchard, and the orchard shall be regarded as a forest!
Make of us forests of your love, O Lord of hosts.
The deaf shall hear the words of a book; and out of the gloom the eyes of the blind shall see.
Make of us light to shine in all the dark corners, O Lord of hosts.
Those who err in spirit shall acquire understanding, and those who find fault shall receive instruction.
Make of us your wisdom, O Lord of hosts.
For the tyrant will be no more and the arrogant will have gone; all who are alert to do evil will be cut off . . .
Make of us your justice, O Lord of hosts.
When [Jacob’s] . . . children see the work of my hands in his midst . . .
Go ahead and be stupid! Go ahead and be blind! Get drunk without any wine! Stagger without drinking a drop!
Isaiah warns us that we are sometimes drunk with our desire for total independence from God.
So I will startle them with one unexpected blow after another. Those who are wise will turn out to be fools, and all their cleverness will be useless.
Isaiah pleads with us to see the inversion of God’s plan that the high are brought low and the lowly rise.
Those who try to hide their plans from the Lord are doomed! They carry out their schemes in secret and think no one will see them or know what they are doing. They turn everything upside down. Which is more important, the potter or the clay?
Isaiah asks us to examine our understanding of our relationship with God.
In this sacred time of Lent, as we explore our dreams and motivations, we also reflect on our motivations and desires. And so we consider . . . When darkness surrounds us, we remember that God will always convert all harm to goodness. When we believe we can hide from the Creator, we deceive only ourselves. When we believe that we are the potter rather than the clay, we deny the Spirit. When we finally perceive the light in the midst of destruction, we acknowledge the redeeming love of Christ.
Samaria is located in the northern kingdom of Israel, not in the southern kingdom of Judah. In Jesus’ day, the Samaritans were considered unclean because they intermarried with the northern tribes who invaded to cart away the Jewish nation. They worshipped the pagan gods of these northern people, and so they were no longer true worshipers of Yahweh. Jesus turned the “purist, separatist” convention on its head. He spoke and interacted with Samaritans, and one of his parables compared a Samaritan with a Levite priest who was on his way to the temple and so wanted to remain clean, and so did not stop to help his neighbor who lay gravely wounded in a ditch. This action and these words confounded the people who loyally followed the Mosaic Law. They might confound us today if we are not watchful.
Samaria is the capital of Ephraim, a tribal area in the northern kingdom. According to the notes in the NAB it was “built upon a hill, suggestive of a majestic garland adorning the head of the drunken kingdom.” An interesting image, as are the ones that follow in this chapter. We might be the people who have made a covenant with death, who have made lies their refuge, thinking that “in falsehood we have found a hiding place”(verse 15). Or we might turn to the image of life that Isaiah offers, and Jesus proclaims.
My people, how can you be such stupid fools? When will you ever learn?
God made our ears—can’t he hear? He made our eyes—can’t he see?(GNT)
We continue our reflection on God’s ability and desire to remain in intimate relationship with us.
Blessed the one whom you guide, Lord, whom you teach by your instruction,
To give rest from evil days, while a pit is being dug for the wicked.(NABRE)
We continue to ponder our willingness – or unwillingness – to allow God’s protection and guidance to guide us.
If Adonai hadn’t helped me,
I would soon have dwelt in the land of silence.
When I said, “My foot is slipping!”
your grace, Adonai, supported me.
When my cares within me are many,
your comforts cheer me up. (CJB)
We continue to remember that God is the only secure place, the only sure refuge.
God was my high mountain retreat,
Then boomeranged their evil back on them: for their evil ways he wiped them out, our God cleaned them out for good.(MSG)
We continue to remind ourselves that God turns harm into goodness, and that God turns plots back upon plotters.
Today we spend time with Psalm 94 as we contemplate our reflection of God as a work of art, and why God’s loves us so dearly.
This is such an intimate and beautiful song of praise. Why do we hide? Why do we think that God cannot see or hear us? Why do we fear? Why do we believe that God does not tend to us?
We are God’s amazing, wonderful, beautiful works of art. Let us together praise God for the willingness to enter into intimacy with us. We reflect on varying versions of Ephesians 2:10.
God has made us what we are, and in our union with Christ Jesus he has created us for a life of good deeds, which he has already prepared for us to do. (GNT)
We are made in God’s image, made in love, to respond in love to all that confronts us.
For we are what he has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life. (NRSV)
We are one in the Spirit with God’s fidelity sustaining us. We are one in God’s hope bolstering us. We are one in God’s love healing us.
For we are of God’s making, created in union with the Messiah Yeshua for a life of good actions already prepared by God for us to do. (CJB)
We are God’s work of art. Coalescing in a reflection of God’s diversity. Ebbing and flowing in the Spirit that abides and transforms.
He creates each of us by Christ Jesus to join him in the work he does, the good work he has gotten ready for us to do, work we had better be doing. (MSG)
This is such an intimate and beautiful song of praise. Why do we hide? Why do we think that God cannot see or hear?
We are wonderfully, amazingly and beautifully made in and by and through God. Let us do all that we can to come together in Christ.
For another reflection on Psalm 139, enter the words God’s Work of Art into this blog’s search bar and explore.
As we approach the season of Lent, how willing are we to invite God into our most intimate thoughts? This beautiful song of invitation is a starting point when we struggle to open dialogs with the Lord.
God, investigate my life; get all the facts firsthand.
I’m an open book to you; even from a distance, you know what I’m thinking.
You know when I leave and when I get back; I’m never out of your sight.
You know everything I’m going to say before I start the first sentence.
I look behind me and you’re there, then up ahead and you’re there, too— your reassuring presence, coming and going.
This is too much, too wonderful— I can’t take it all in!
God is everywhere and in everything.
I look behind me and you’re there, then up ahead and you’re there, too—
If I climb to the sky, you’re there!
If I go underground, you’re there!
God is in every moment and in every time.
It’s a fact: darkness isn’t dark to you; night and day, darkness and light, they’re all the same to you.
This lovely song of abiding is an authentic call to God when we search for words that express our meaning.
Your thoughts—how rare, how beautiful! God, I’ll never comprehend them!
This divine hymn of opening is an honest cry to the Spirit when we hope to explore our relationship with the world.
Investigate my life, O God, find out everything about me;
Cross-examine and test me, get a clear picture of what I’m about;
See for yourself whether I’ve done anything wrong— then guide me on the road to eternal life.
When we fear that we do not measure up to the beauty and perfection of God, we might turn to this psalm to bridge any feeling of self-consciousness. When we offer our anxiety to the Lord, we begin to better understand God’s thoughts – despite their challenge, and despite our fears.
When we compare translations of this psalm, we find an opening to an honest dialog with the Almighty. Today’s verses are from THE MESSAGE.
David wrote this psalm when the Philistines in Gath captured him. These verses, especially when we compare varying versions, have much to teach us about how to react to our fears. From THE MESSAGE version, verses 2 and 3.
Not a day goes by but somebody beats me up;
They make it their duty to beat me up. When I get really afraid I come to you in trust.
I’m proud to praise God; fearless now, I trust in God. (MSG)
We may or may not live in circumstances that call for these words. If we do not, we count ourselves as blessed; but if fear does not govern our days and nights, we offer these words for those who gather in hiding places.
My enemies make trouble for me all day long; they are always thinking up some way to hurt me!
They gather in hiding places and watch everything I do, hoping to kill me.(GNT)
With New Testament thinking, we focus on the first line in this stanza as we pray for our enemies, knowing that their anger has locked them in a prison of hate.
Because of their crime, they cannot escape;
in anger, God, strike down the peoples.
You have kept count of my wanderings;
store my tears in your water-skin —
aren’t they already recorded in your book? (CJB)
Stepping into the protective presence of the Lord, we rejoice with verses 9 to 11, knowing that nothing of this world is lasting, and no one in this world can destroy the soul.
This I know, that God is for me.
In God, whose word I praise, in the Lord, whose word I praise,
in God I trust; I am not afraid. What can a mere mortal do to me?(NRSV)
Remembering God’s goodness, we sing verses 12 and 13. We recall our promises to God, and we consider what we might return to God as a sign that we are willing to give our fear over to the One who knows our world best.
O God, I will offer you what I have promised; I will give you my offering of thanksgiving, because you have rescued me from death and kept me from defeat. And so I walk in the presence of God, in the light that shines on the living. (GNT)
Ten days away from the season of Lent, we remember that this psalm came to us out of David’s anguish in Gath. We remember that God abides with David through this and other catastrophes. And we consider how we might rejoice as we allow God to transform all our fear into delight.
Over the last month we have sung a hymn in time of national struggle, we have argued with the Almighty, gone beyond human limits, reflected on narcissism and considered what we might learn from the story of Esther. Today we settle into these verses from Paul’s letter to the Corinthians.
Even though on the outside it often looks like things are falling apart on us, on the inside, where God is making new life, not a day goes by without God’s unfolding grace.
In the midst of turmoil, there is the promise of renewal.
These hard times are small potatoes compared to the coming good times, the lavish celebration prepared for us. There’s far more here than meets the eye.
Despite the pain that feels eternal, hope rises with the promise of restoration.
The things we see now are here today, gone tomorrow. But the things we can’t see now will last forever.
Although our fears bring us insurmountable anxiety, we have the assurance of transformation.
God puts a little of heaven in our hearts so that we’ll never settle for less.
In all times and in all places, in all sorrows and in all joys, God’s grace remains. Once we recognize this, we never settle for less.
When we compare this translation of today’s reading with others, and when we weigh our troubles with the promise of the covenant, we know that each day God’s grace brings us more than meets the eye.
Before we leave the story of Esther, we re-visit a Favorite from May of 2007. Today we consider the nature of our repentance as we move closer to the season of Lent; and we commit to enacting the fidelity, hope, and love we profess.
From the introduction in the New American Bible, “The book was intended as a consolation for Israel, a reminder that God’s providence continually watches over sincererepentance.” We have been hearing about sincerity versus insincerity in recent weeks. And again we see it today.
Yesterday’s first reading is from Sirach 17:24: “But the Lord will allow those who repent to return to him. He always gives encouragement to those who are losing hope.”And yesterday’s morning Psalm was 130:“My soul is waiting for the Lord, I count on his word. . . Because with the Lord there is mercy and fullness of redemption, Israel indeed he will redeem from all its iniquity”.
There is hope for all; yet, how do we show our gratitude for redemption? By being doers of the word and not hearers or sayers only. We show our sincerity before the Lord by not deluding ourselves.
This morning’s reading is one of my favorites from James, “Be doers of the word and not hearers only, deluding yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks at his own face in a mirror. He sees himself, then goes off and promptly forgets what he looked like. But the one who peers into the perfect law of freedom and perseveres, and is not a hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, such a one shall be blessed in what he does.” (James 1:22-25)
May we be hearers, sayers, and doers of the Word. May we persevere in our doing. And may we, like Esther, live up to our potential in order that we too may save nations.
The book of Esther, with all of its additions and amendments, is a wonderful story. We must read it when we can.
The Noontimes 