This autumn, we are reflecting in worship on the same stories the youngest among us are discussing in Church School, going through the Bible from the beginning.
For the next few weeks, we’ll move through the Old Testament and hear stories about, “Promises of Hope.” Our Worship Series, Living the Word, reminds us that, “as the Israelites turn away from God and forget their calling to serve as a blessing to all nations, the prophets call them back to relationship with their creator. The prophets offer promises of hope to a people lost and dejected, reminding them that God will never abandon them and promises a future filled with hope. The people may have turned from God, but God will not turn away from them.”
The prophet Isaiah wrote about what was happening with the great geopolitical superpowers of his time (Assyria, Babylon, Persia) and how they affected the Jewish people. But he wrote about it from the standpoint of where God was in the midst of all the geopolitical maneuvering. As the Israelites were assailed, conquered, exiled, assimilated, where was God in all of this? And what did it mean about the relationship between the people and God?
These are questions that faithful people need to continue to ask. We get so caught up in the news cycle and what pundits, political insiders and op-ed columnists are saying and how our media outlets seek to shape our thinking, that we don’t ask often enough, “Where is God in all this? What is God up to?” and more foundationally, “How is God calling me in this moment?”
On Sunday, we’ll meditate on a passage from Isaiah that we often read on Christmas Eve, “the people who have walked in darkness have seen a great light” (Isaiah 9:1-7). Many of us have the sense that our nation and world are walking in a horribly dark time. Yes, and…God’s light keeps shining through. How are we helping it shine?
Come Sunday to reflect on this together and what it means for each of our lives.
In faith,
Kent
Image from the Nebraska Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America (ELCA)
