Healing

Thus says the Lord GOD, the Holy One of Israel: O people of Zion, who dwell in Jerusalem, no more will you weep. He will be gracious to you when you cry out, as soon as he hears he will answer you. The Lord will give you the bread you need and the water for which you thirst. No longer will your Teacher hide himself, but with your own eyes you shall see your Teacher. While from behind, a voice shall sound in your ears: “This is the way; walk in it,” when you would turn to the right or to the left. 

He will give rain for the seed that you sow in the ground, and the wheat that the soil produces will be rich and abundant. On that day your flock will be given pasture and the lamb will graze in spacious meadows. The oxen and the asses that till the ground will eat silage tossed to them with shovel and pitchfork. Upon every high mountain and lofty hill there will be streams of running water. 

On the day of the great slaughter, when the towers fall, the light of the moon will be like that of the sun, and the light of the sun will be seven times greater like the light of seven days. On the day the LORD binds up the wounds of his people, he will heal the bruises left by his blows. (Isaiah 30:19-21, 23-26)

Isaiah spoke of hope.  We will no longer weep.  We will receive the bread we need and water for which we thirst.  But there is a catch.  We must walk in the way – the way being love and kindness, sharing and caring.  Jesus plots our course.  Will we follow it, or as Isaiah would say on behalf of the Lord God: “Don’t turn to the right or to the left – walk straight.”

Speaking politically, we know many of us are on the left and many on the right.  We don’t walk the way of understanding, cooperation, polite discourse, and setting our differences aside in the interest of the common good.  We should walk straight and often intersect to find common ground.  If not, then there will be a day of great slaughter, and our towers will fall.  There will be shovels and pitchforks, bruises and blows.  We need healing.

Deacon David Pierce