CALVARY BAPTIST CHURCH
The Rev. Fred Weimert March 7, 2010
Rain and Snow, Heaven’s Water
Sometime,
probably toward the end of the captivity
of the Jewish people in
so sometime between 587
and say 500 BC
or BCE, what Jewish people call that
time
“before
the common era”…
Sometime
toward the end of that time,
as the Jewish people who elected to
return to
were preparing to leave
the splendor of
A Jewish, prophet, poet, who was
following in the tradition
of
that earlier prophetic writer, Isaiah,
wrote a
marvelous collection of poems
which
we find from Isaiah chapters 40-55
and
there were several other poems
which
were inserted in the earlier
39
books of Isaiah.
Today
we are going to be reading
what
many believe was the last
of this writer’s poem…
Isaiah
55.
This Poet wrote
beautiful and memorable poetry
His opening poem, Isaiah 40,
provides
much of the text of Handel’s “Messiah”
Lines
like:
“Comfort, comfort, ye my people…”
“Every
valley shall be exalted…”
“And the
glory of the Lord shall be revealed…”
All
those lines
and
many more
came from this poet’s pen at the
beginning.
And
this closing poem
has
lines every bit as memorable for us:
“Seek ye the Lord while he may be found.”
“For
my thoughts are not your thoughts…”
“You
shall go out with joy,
and
be lead back in peace.”
The words of
this poem will be familiar to you...
I
want to talk to you about verses 10 and 11,
but since the poem opens with words
about
thirst and water…
which fits well on this
baptism/communion
Sunday.
Also as I
read the poem
I want you to listen for those words
that echo Second
Isaiah’s concern for the exiles…
Words like: come,
seek, return
Isaiah
55: 1-11
Ho, everyone who thirsts,
come
to the waters;
and you that have no money,
come,
buy and eat! Come,
buy wine and milk
without money and without price.
Why do you spend your money for
that which is not bread,
and your labor for that which does
not satisfy?
Listen carefully to me, and eat
what is good,
and delight yourselves in rich
food.
Incline your ear, and come to me;
listen, so that you may live.
I will make with you an
everlasting covenant,
my steadfast, sure love for David.
Maybe I should add and
Emma here with David
since they were both baptized today…
but I think they mean
king David.
See, I made him a witness to the
peoples,
a leader and commander for the
peoples.
See, you shall call nations that
you do not know,
and nations that do not know you
shall run to you,
because of the LORD your God,
the Holy One of
Seek
the LORD while he may be found,
call upon him while he is near;
let the wicked forsake their way,
and the unrighteous their
thoughts;
let them return to the LORD, that he may have mercy on them,
and to our God, for he will
abundantly pardon.
For my thoughts are
not your thoughts,
nor
are your ways my ways, says the LORD.
For as the heavens
are higher than the earth,
so
are my ways higher than your ways
and
my thoughts than your thoughts.
For as the rain and
the snow come down from heaven,
and
do not return there until they have watered the earth,
making it bring
forth and sprout,
giving
seed to the sower and bread to the eater,
so shall my word be
that goes out from my mouth;
it
shall not return to me empty,
but it shall
accomplish that which I purpose,
and
succeed in the thing for which I sent it.
Here ends the reading.
Did you
hear those words: come, seek and return…
They would convey a feeling
that those who chose to
return to
the
were
stepping into the very presence of God…
or
at least into God’s foyer.
These returning exiles
would surely
be in close communion with the Eternal.
But Isaiah
didn’t stop there
He kept on writing
not about closeness,
but about distance:
“my thoughts are not your thoughts,
nor are your ways my ways,”
Isaiah doesn’t want these returning
captives
to think that by
returning
they would
be getting the inside track.
God’s thoughts and ways
would still
be higher than ours…
And
sadly that will always be the case…
Oh, moments
do arise
when
we feel particularly close to God’s
thoughts
or ways.
On Friday
morning,
as I was filling the baptistery for
today,
Dianna Romano came into
the office.
She said she
had spoken at length with a friend, the day before,
whose
child had returned home from school
and
told her that she was gay.
The woman
had had no clue of this
and
the news had been very difficult for her.
Dianne said
do you have any material
addressing a Christian’s relationship
to homosexuals and homosexuality.
And it just
so happened that at lunch on Thursday,
I
had spoken to another pastor about this issue,
and I had pulled out some of
material
I
have on this subject,
to
take to my fellow pastor,
And
those materials were laying
on
the floor,
outside
my office door.
When I told Dianna
that the
pile contained most of the material
I
have on the subject.
She said, “wow, this is uncanny.
It
almost makes you feel that this
was
supposed to happen...
That
I was there yesterday,
for
a purpose.“
We agreed that it was
certainly serendipitous,
and there
are moments in life
when
our way appears to have
mysteriously
intersected God’s way.
I think we can celebrate
those moments,
as well as
cherishing and remembering them
as
a buffer for those moments when
everything
in our life
appears to be going wrong,
and
we feel we are miles away
from God’s way.
But I would be careful
about becoming too complacent
about
feeling certain that we are now in or out of God’s way
or about
walking continually in God’s way,
such
thoughts can only lead
to pride, overconfidence and sin.
God’s way will always be
higher than ours,
in the sense
that it will always be calling us onward.
Earlier on in Isaiah,
this same
prophet wrote:
“Do
not remember the former things,
or
consider the things of old.
I
am about to do a new thing;
now
it springs forth,
do
you not perceive it?” Is. 43: 18,19
I think we
can benefit from remembering some former things,
times when God felt so close…
but we should never be fixated on
them.
because if things don’t
work as smoothly next time,
you might
feel that you aren’t where God wants you…
when
you really are.
Our first
hymn today was written by Adoniram Judson,
father
of Baptist missions from
Judson spent
his entire ministry in
Most
of his time there he spent in prison.
He
did translate the scriptures into their language,
and
I think he made six converts.
He
may well have questioned
whether
he was where God wanted him.
I am glad
that Dianna was the one who was there for this friend,
and I feel that God had something to
do with her being there.
because I
know Dianna has given this issue serious thought,
growing up, she had a very close
friend who was gay…
who early on contracted
aids…
and who she
even considered going home to
as his disease worsened.
So I know
that Dianna has been conditioned by God’s word…
maybe not with a seminary
understanding…
but God’s word had
conditioned her to love.
Because of
this she took time to listen to her friend
and
help her try to know how to love her daughter.
And I feel
certain Dianna will see her friend again and again,
because
she understands this is a difficult process.
Was God in that moment…
Yes, but not because we
found those books,
on
the floor, outside my office door.
There is always a pile
of stuff
on the floor outside my office door…
I
wouldn’t look at that as being a part of God’s plan.
God was in that moment,
because Dianna had opened
herself
to her neighbor’s cry
and to God’s word of love…
and as
Isaiah said here:
so
shall my word be that goes out from my mouth;
it shall not return to me empty,
but
it shall accomplish that which I purpose,
and succeed in the thing for which
I sent it.
May God’s word be found
in all of our hearts
so when
something new
or
totally unexpected comes up…
we
will be prepared
to
stand
as
humble earthen vessels
which just happen to be,
by grace
full
of God’s love.
So
may we live. Amen.