Today we will continue with #2 of the five points we may consider in our looking toward the future of the church. Again we will continue a look at being gathered in (#2).
Brueggmann links Isaiah 39 and 56 by the word eunuch. In 39 "your own sons who are born to you shall be taken away; they shall be eunuchs in the palace of the Babylon" (6-9). Chapter 39 is the last chapter in "First Isaiah" which anticipates how the royal persons will become powerless servants. The next use of eunuch comes in Isaiah 56 - the first chapter of "Third Isaiah":
...chapters 39 and 56 with their two mentions of eunuchs bracket the powerful poetry of Second Isaiah in Isaiah 40-55. This literary arrangement suggests that Isaiah 56 aims precisely at rehabilitating the princes of the Davidic house who had lost their power and their royal credentials, who had become powerless, nameless nobodies in a foreign court. They are nobodies out there, but in here, in restored Jerusalem, they are to be made welcome.
...Thus, the inclusion of "eunuchs" pertains to all those, gay and lesbians, straight and successful, all those ground down to lost self in a relentless environment of production, the gains of which go to the stockholders and not to the producers. The summons of God before us, I propose, concerns the gathering God who will gather the scattered to a new community.
A whole new community that is not held back from what God is able to do among us - that is outrageous and gracious and out of our control. God makes room. God always has. God does not go along with the injustice and cruelty and abandonment and exclusion that seems to be the way the powers of this world are held together. Our life together is within a vision that takes up a new path. This path is not dependent on those who have come to trust in the power and influence they have to make the world as they would have it. Rather, God rules. Yes, there is still the invitation for all to come and enter this life and take up this way of life even when it goes contrary to how we would like our lives to go...but still we are invited. We are not the gatekeepers. We are to be the light...the salt...the gathered...the beloved...the sons and daughter of our God.
The way we live is one of separation and division...even in the life we call the church. But this God who frees the captive and heals the wounded and causes justice and peace to embrace and delivers the oppressed and nameless and worthless - is the God who still Reigns and still reaches out to gather even when our arms will not serve that purpose. Our God gathers despite us. That is the glory that shines around us.
Connection: This vision of God's Reign is meant to make our day free to live as though we are the beloved of God. Imagine what that may mean today!
Lord of All Hopefulness, you have become our light and our strength and our life. As you continue to abide with us, open our eyes to see those around me as the children you call your own. Amen.
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