I wonder if sometimes we forget,
and I alluded to this last week,
that we have good news to share.
I wonder if some of that
comes from inverting, subverting, or converting our roles
shifting the creator and the created
who has and exercises agency.
I mean that I think some times
we may be quick to blame God
and quick to look to ourselves
for answers and for salvation.
I think that we are all too willing to ignore
that God didn’t lead genocides
or drop atom bombs
even when people of every religion –
not just Christianity –
do horrible acts
in the name of their god or gods.
Isiah, writing probably in exile
or just before the Jewish people are taken captive
helps ground us in our relationship to God.
The prophets who write and edit under the name of Isaiah
know what oppression is like.
They know what it’s like to almost lose faith
and to have their practices destroyed.
They know what it’s like to go with the flow
when keeping their hope in God’s salvation
seems so much harder
than just submitting to the religious expectations
of their captors and tormenters.
Nevertheless, Isaiah writes,
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.
While not the same exile and captivity
this is the same experience that gives us
Psalm 137.
In Godspell Stephen Schwartz renders Psalm 137
“On the willows, there
We hung up our lyres
For our captors there
Required
Of us songs
And our tormentors, mirth
Saying
Sing us one
Of the songs of Zion
But how can we sing the Lord’s song
In a foreign land?”
Longing and lament
and hopeful expectation of God’s vision
go hand in hand.
There are times that psalmists and prophets
get mad at God!
Remember a few weeks ago
Jonah said he’d rather die
than see God show mercy
to the people of Nineveh!
Yet the overarching theme of all our Scriptures
from the creation and origin myths
to the warnings and admonitions of the prophets
to Jesus’ teachings and live in the evangelists
to Paul’s sharing his conversion experience
and hoping that other Jesus followers
can live and work together
to John of Patmos’ dramatic retelling of the gospel
in Revelation is what Isaiah writes today.
“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.”
Whether just before exile
or writing from exile
Isaiah has hope for the future.
His hope isn’t found in the Israelitites’ rebellion.
No, his hope is found
in the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
the Lord of hosts who will make for all peoples
of rich food filled with marrow,
and well-aged wines strained clear.
Probably this week you will get in your email boxes
and physical mailboxes
letters about financial stewardship
and our financial plans for next year.
The Bishop’s Committee is talking today
about next year’s finances
as well as anxiety
about the long-term financial health
of the congregation.
We have a practice here
of not doing an October beg-a-thon.
That will continue.
We’re also going to have to take hard looks
at how we steward our time, talent, and treasure
as members and as a congregation.
Deficit budgets aren’t sustainable,
but they aren’t the end of the story.
The thermometer out in the narthex
isn’t accurate.
By my math – which is a little different than Chris’s
because of accounting software –
over $50,000 have been pledged
for the New Wineskins Capital Campaign.
Work has already started and been done!
An arborist has assured us that our two trees
are safe.
Gutters have been repaired
and we’re in the process of?
getting our fire suppression systems
up to code.
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.
We still need you to fulfill your capital campaign pledges
over the next three years,
but our future will be one of hope
as we look to God as the source of our salvation
rather than solely the source
of all our woes.
Through Jesus’ strengthening us
in the eucharist and in our prayer
being gifted with God’s grace in our baptisms
we’ve made good strides
to fulfill desires you identified
at the annual meeting.
Upcoming coffee hours are going to have some themes
and we have socials for 20s and 30s monthly
and for people of all ages
at Evening Prayer and Potluck.
We have Good News to share.
What is the Good News you hear
or know to be true
at St. Hilda St. Patrick?
That question will be on your pledge form,
and it’s worth wondering what Good News
you may want to share
with family, friends, or strangers –
in a non-coercive, not aggressive,
friendly way.
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.
Amen.