When I memorized Isaiah 55:8-9 as a young child in my childhood bible church’s AWANA program, I pictured God telling the ancient people of Israel as my parents often told me that I would understand their commands better when I was older. With years of living and development come wisdom, discernment, and experience that enable us to live life in far more prudent ways than when we are young. Interestingly, as I think of this text in Isaiah now, I don’t think right away of God speaking as a parent but of God speaking as Jesus the Christ, the Messiah. I think of the sermon on the mount and the four other sermons of the book of Matthew that Jesus gave. I think of Jesus washing his disciples’ feet, and I think of God coming as a helpless baby to the young unmarried couple of Joseph and Mary. I think of God touching the unclean leper and inviting the hated tax collector to a meal. I think of a God who destroys all of our pretense and assumption when we think that we know the best way, the right way, the logical way, or the only way. As soon as we attempt to box God in, God blows apart our boxes and escapes our grasp like the bitterly cold wind of these blustery winter days chilling us to the bone and reminding us how fragile and dependent that we really are.
In this 2022 Lenten season starting on March 6, we will spend 7 Sundays leading up to Easter, exploring the alternatives to our “best ways.” Will you join me this Lenten season as we journey to the cross and resurrection, asking God to reveal the ways of the kingdom that began with Jesus in Palestine so many years ago?
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