Wednesday, December 19, 2018

Isaiah: Pastor, Prophet, Poet for the Present Moment


Arise, shine; for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you.
For darkness shall cover the earth, and thick darkness the peoples;
but the Lord will arise upon you, and his glory will appear over you.  Isaiah 60

If there is one truth I pray you have sensed throughout this series of posts it is that Isaiah loves paradox.  Isaiah would have loved to discuss how sometimes the things we want the most can also cause pain.  Isaiah's favorite song might be Every Rose Has Its Torn...(click here to re-live that classic 80s moment)  Isaiah's favorite meal might be a Turducken (that is a chicken in a duck in a turkey - which we do because...I guess we can?!).

Isaiah loves putting two things side-by-side in tension.

Lion and lamb standing side-by-side - check.
Swords (weapons both literal and the words of our mouth) being turned into a tool to cultivate growth and life - check.
All people...even that one friend on Facebook who annoys you and you blocked - being invited to the mountain of God - check.
Comfort when people were hurting so bad they didn't want to hear but wallow in the pain - check.
And now rising and shining when you just want to pull the covers over your head - check and check.

Paradox is part of our lives.

Family situations where we bury the pain with a smile on our face to try to make the best of it.
Jobs where our hearts struggle but there are many good things too.
Going out shopping when everyone else apparently decides that to visit the store at the same time.

Paradox is part of your life.

You live with tensions.
You live with beauty and brokenness sitting side by side.
You have tasted the Turducken of your so-called life.

It isn't that paradox is a new concept, it is that we have somehow come to believe or been told and taught that we have to resolve these moments.  That the ideal life is somehow free from paradox.

I don't think that is possible.  Nor practical.  Nor even desirable.  Paradoxes can provide fuel to feed our lives in good ways.

Paradoxes can provide fuel to feed our creativity...and can also sometimes be an obstacle - yet one more paradox to add to our list.

So, how...how do we see both the rose and thorn for what they are?
With eyes wide open to the face that there are places on the stem we can still hold the rose without getting pricked...and even if we do...we might learn something from that bit of blood.
With ears to hear that we don't know everything and perhaps we don't always have to share our opinion in the comment section of every news article.  
With hearts that realize each and every person carries paradoxes around s/he cannot solve and it might just be driving them mad or causing them to lash out with anger.
With souls that sense God's movement in the paradoxes...because if there is anything God loves it is the tension of doing what is unexpected and un-explainable.  Calling Abraham and Sarah in their old age to move?  Check!  Sending a condemned murderer in Moses back to the scene of the crime in Egypt as a liberator?  Check!  Letting a Moabite woman (who were seen of questionable ethics) in Ruth be the great, great, great grandmother of the great king David?  Check!  Picking out a unwed woman named Mary to be the God-bearer?  Check and check.

See...paradoxes are not new to Isaiah...just a faithful thread woven into almost every page of scripture and our lives.

Can we find ways to be more playful with the paradoxes of life?
Can we pray our way through paradoxes not as puzzles to be solved but unanswerable mysteries we live?
Can you find more than a trace of God's grace in the paradoxes you live?

That is my deepest hope for you.

Blessings ~~ 

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