And then things broke loose. The details are not settled but I received notification that everything I had hoped for and more was on the way. God showed up in an email with all the exuberance and glee that is promised in Isaiah. And then the words took on a whole new melody.
I preached this message at the Stewart Health Center at Springmoor Retirement Village in Raleigh on the afternoon of Sunday, January 13. The people of Springmoor are always gracious to me and I love them for being so kind and welcoming. No video or audio is available but I hope you can hear all the hope and joy shining through. It's kind of a one-note sermon but OH WHAT A NOTE.
The Revised Common Lectionary texts for this week are:
Isaiah 43:1-7
Psalm 29
Acts 8:14-17
Luke 3:15-17, 21-22
In the chapter right BEFORE our Isaiah text, God is talking about how the people had disappointed him, and how they had gone to dark and harmful places. They had wandered off, and God had let them experience the consequences of their behavior. Those chapters set this up to be true Gospel – good news – the best news of all that God is our Redeemer and loves us and will keep us.
Listen to all the ways that God talks about being a Redeemer:
* Do not fear for I have redeemed you
* I have called you
* You are mine
* I will be with you
* They shall not overwhelm you
* You shall not be burned
And that’s all in just the first two verses!
But there’s more:
* I am… your Savior
* You are precious in my sight
* You are honored
* I love you (the only place in the Old Testament where we hear God say flat out I love you)
* Do not fear!
* I am with you!
And in one translation, the last verse is
I’d sell off the whole world to get you back.
This
Extravagant
Gleeful
Joyous
Exuberance
is how God thinks of you!
In this passage from the second half of Isaiah, in which God declares God’s Own Self our Redeemer over and over, God is talking to people who have been in exile. They are also people who are not particularly good, or well-behaved, or loyal, or pious.
But that is who God is talking to, saying
I will not leave you in the hard places.
I will not give you up!
It just touches my heart to hear that.
Have you ever felt that way about someone? Maybe your child, or spouse, or parents. You wanted to be with that person so much you would go to great lengths to be together!
I had a friend once who fell in love, and spent a whole day loading boxes of oranges onto a truck – without pay – so she could be near her beloved.
Or in more tragic circumstances, I have a cousin whose daughter ran away from home. She kept searching for years, until there is definite proof that her child had been mortally harmed. She would not – could not – give up.
That is the kind of intense wanting-to-be-together that God is talking about here in Isaiah. No mention of anybody deserving that love. In fact, coming on the heels of a list of the ways God’s people had wandered off makes the message even more powerful. God will not give you up, no matter what.
The words are addressed to the children of Israel – God’s chosen people. In the life, suffering, death, and Resurrection of Jesus we Gentiles have been grafted onto God’s chosen and beloved people. God is most definitely talking to all of us.
Even me.
Even all the people I love
And the ones who love me!
But also the ones who do not love me
And the ones I don’t like
And the ones who don’t like me…
Everybody.
God is putting together a family reunion with an invitation list that includes every single person who has ever lived. Not one person is left out. This is no party with limited space and time and funds, with a shortage of food or not enough parking or a lack of wheelchair accessible spaces. This is God.
And God is especially excited that you are on the list! So excited that each of us is at the very top of the list. I don’t even know how God manages it… but somehow each of us is on the top of God’s list of people to invite to an eternity of love.
Hear it again: God is especially excited that you are on the list.
How does it feel to hear that?
Let’s think for a moment about the irritating people in our lives. The ones who can manage to be annoying just by being in the room. Or who seem to think the opposite of you (or me!) on purpose. The people who seem oblivious to the idea that things could be done a better way (usually my way…) Or maybe it is someone who cannot seem to be anything but sarcastic and mean, who laughs when people fall down and never bothers to ask if they are ok. Or maybe it is some politician that just makes your skin crawl when you see them on tv.
Do you have one of those people in mind?
Well… God is going to go to great lengths – WILL MOVE MOUNTAINS – to go find that person.
God loves that person so exuberantly and gleefully and thoroughly that they are just as high up on the invitation list as we are! They are right at the top of the list, just like we all are.
How can that even be POSSIBLE? How can God love that person when I almost can’t stand to look at that person?
How can it be possible that God loves me that much when all I can think about is being mad at that very annoying person?
But it is true. It is the only thing that could possibly true. Because as soon as one person is not at the top of the list, it opens up the possibility that each of us might not be loved. But since God IS love, God will love each of us. All of us. And when I think of how true it is, my heart wants to cry.
Now, I am not God, and I am not love. I get angry and am unkind and try to put people in categories and pretend that I am higher on God’s list than they are. But I am not. And God loves me so much that my lack of love is forgiven, and absorbed into God’s complete love.
And if God is just going to absorb all our ugliness into love, anyway, maybe I can relax. Maybe I can trust that, and avoid the anger, or blame, or all the other things I am tempted to do other than love the people around me.
It almost sounds too good to be true, doesn’t it? But this Good News is real. We have proof in the fact that Jesus came to live among us and lived a most remarkable life. Jesus loved everyone with whom he came into contact, even the people who were sick or poor or left outside of polite society.
It did not win Jesus powerful friends. In fact, it got him killed in a pretty terrible way, by crucifixion.
Death could not keep Jesus down, though, and he rose again.
If God would send Jesus to go through all that for us, then I am highly inclined to believe that yes… God will do whatever it takes to hold onto us regardless of what we do or think or say.
So I want to say it again: You do not have to be good or pious.
God loves you. God says all these things:
* Do fear for I have redeemed you
* I have called you
* You are mine
* I will be with you
* Nothing will be able to overwhelm you
* You will not be burned in fire
* I am your Savior
* You are precious in my sight
* You are honored
* Do not fear!
* I am with you!
* I love you
* I’d sell off the whole world to get you back.
That God came among us in Jesus and Jesus spread love around to people who were sick, and poor, and outside of the mainstream – and also all the men, women, teenagers, children, tax collectors, rich young rulers…
Jesus showed us that the point of this life – the way to live as we were created to live – is LOVE. To love yourself. Love each other. Because that’s who God loves:
Everyone.
You.
May that love and peace give you joy and rest. Today, and every day.
Amen.
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