1015 Reflection -- Isaiah 25:1-9

Sunday 15 October 2017

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Isaiah 25:1-9 (NRSV)

O Lord, you are my God; I will exalt you, I will praise your name; for you have done wonderful things, plans formed of old, faithful and sure. For you have made the city a heap, the fortified city a ruin; the palace of aliens is a city no more, it will never be rebuilt. Therefore strong peoples will glorify you; cities of ruthless nations will fear you. For you have been a refuge to the poor, a refuge to the needy in their distress, a shelter from the rainstorm and a shade from the heat. When the blast of the ruthless was like a winter rainstorm, the noise of aliens like heat in a dry place, you subdued the heat with the shade of clouds; the song of the ruthless was stilled. On this mountain the Lord of hosts will make for all peoples a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wines, of rich food filled with marrow, of well-aged wines strained clear. And he will destroy on this mountain the shroud that is cast over all peoples, the sheet that is spread over all nations; he will swallow up death forever. Then the Lord God will wipe away the tears from all faces, and the disgrace of his people he will take away from all the earth, for the Lord has spoken. It will be said on that day, Lo, this is our God; we have waited for him, so that he might save us. This is the Lord for whom we have waited; let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation.

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This is a fairly well known reading. In both my present environment as an Episcopalian and my former environment as a Lutheran, this is a faily common Old Testament funeral reading. That said, it is worth noting that the funeral reading tends to begin with what God will do, and thus the reading tends to focus on hope. Here this reading is a Sunday reading, and it begins with a different focus. The first emotion is joy and thanksgiving, and these are expressed because of what God has already done. From this, then, hope springs forth with roots. This hope is that will do what God has already done, and even more. And what God has already done gives us the assurance that God can do far more than we can desire or imagine.

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                                          Fr. Timothy Alleman