Friday 8 June 2007

In dealing with the situation of the Jewish Exiles coming home to Jerusalem from Babylon, Walter Brueggemann uses Isaiah to offer us a word about welcome. He will have five accent points to help us consider our own thinking about the future of the church. I will spend a few days on #1.



The problem that the dispute addresses is the reality of exile, the pain of deportation, and the acute sense of displacement.

(The dispute is between those who have been in exile in Babylon, those who remained in Jerusalem, and those who were deported to other places. Now they must deal with their differences as a people who are called to be one.)

Here are the words of God in Isaiah (56:8)

Thus says the Lord God, who gathers the outcasts of Israel,

I will gather others to them besides those already gathered.



The God present to the dispute is the God who gathers. The term "gather," a technical term for ending exile, is used in the verse three times...The statement is a disclosure of the intention of God who wills that all should be gather home to well-being.



There will be no more separation. It does not matter where you have been. It does not matter what has gone on in your live previously. This God of our - gathers...puts an end to the displacement and separation and all the places considered privileged and those considered worthless. Our God gathers. What we hear from God in Isaiah is a voice that does not care about the good, sound thinking of those on any side of this dispute. Yes, they all have their own voices and those in power tend to be able to make the most of their thoughts. And yet, the only voice that brings a vision and a word of hope is the word of God announcing the way God will be gathering.

A person may be able to come up with good reasons why someone is to be shunned or put to the back of the bus...but they do not fly within this Reign of God. The only place that this kind of life together is able to take place is where God sets it up - according to God's standards. It is God's will that all will come home. There are to be no road blocks put in front of anyone. God wills that all God's people -no matter what the situation may be- will come home.

There are many reasons to want to maintain control of who is in and who must be kept out. It is also important to some that there would be a way that those unlike us would have to go through some type of experience in order to come home. But this God of ours who opens up the lips of Isaiah is the God who proclaims the reality of home for all - a gift - a mandate - a blessed reality...in spite of what we would argue is best for us.



Connection: It is so easy to gloss over the differences that must have existed in the middle of these disputes...so way back in time. Scripture brings us an ancient voice and sometimes we keep it out there at a distance. Then again, who is in and who is out...who is like us and who is different - becomes the agenda of every day. Constantly, we must remember how God's will to bring us all home shapes how we go about the everyday routines we run through along the way.



Come, O God, and unite all who are separated. Remind us of your will to have us all gathered into your Reign and to be made well and whole within your sweet home ruled by your love and your wisdom and your gracious law. Come, Lord God, Come, and inspire our living. Amen.