Camp Sunday - Isaiah 40:27-31

 

This week Jon Olfert from Camp Valaqua will be joining our congregation and offering his reflections on Isaiah 40:27-31:

Have you not known? Have you not heard?
The Lord is the everlasting God,
    the Creator of the ends of the earth.

(verse 28 NRSV)

    and

 ...those who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; 

(verse 31a NRSV) 

This is a beautiful poem encouraging those who are weary - due to their health, or obligations, or situation or to another of many causes. If we trust God, wait for God's timing, we will be sustained and may even see something good emerge. 

Over the past few years many of us have grown weary - of ever changing information and regulations around COVID19, and of all the controversy and vitriol the differences in view have caused. Many wonder if we can ever get back to just being neighbors and friends, especially with those who held an opposing view. Some of us wonder if the church will ever again resound with exuberant hymns of praise. What will we lose due to COVID? Will there also be something that we will gain with all we have experienced over the past few years?

I am reminded of many stories from Genesis and other Hebrew Bible (OT) books. 

Noah had to wait for months in a stinky, crowded boat for the waters to subside. I'm sure he grew weary of waiting. When the land finally did dry up, a beautiful, fresh world was revealed. 

Abraham went through all kinds of trials and missteps in his efforts to answer God's call to move, and to become the father of nations. During his life he saw Sarah give birth to only one son (and his oldest son banished to the desert. Somehow he didn't really count the children born in his old age to his second wife, after Sarah's death). This did not seem a promising start to becoming the father of nations. He purchased a plot of land on which he could bury Sarah. Hardly the ownership of land as far as the eye could see. Yet he waited and trusted. Centuries later he is, indeed, seen as the father of nations. Christianity, Islam, and Judaism all trace their faith back to him. Though Abraham never saw the complete fulfilment of God's promises, they were fulfilled, not because of all of Abraham's often misguided actions, mistakes and hardships, but despite the fact they were part of the story.

Joseph was sold into slavery. Even though he worked hard and earned his master's trust, he was falsely accused of assault and imprisoned for years. It would have been easy for him to get discouraged and give up.  Eventually, though, he became valuable even to the Pharaoh. He became second in command in the country. This allowed him the power to relocate his family during the famine and to make sure they were well cared for. I'm sure this was not Joseph's preferred road to power or to saving his father's bloodline. This was not an easy path. Joseph suffered a lot - especially during the years in the cold, dank, dark prison. Yet eventually some good came of his suffering, as Joseph helped Egypt, and by extension other countries, prepare for the drought. This is not to say God caused him to be sold into slavery so he could help - I don't believe God would do that. This is just saying that God is at work to redeem even our greatest mistakes and hardships, to bring some good out of situations we, in our ignorance and fallibility cause.

The stories go on. Looking back we see God at work, redeeming ordinary, and even evil actions of people. We see people enduring much hardship - and eventually at least a little good coming from it, good they may never see. Sometimes people seem to fight God's efforts, but God continues to work - not according to our timeline, but in God's own. We need to wait, and to trust. We may not see God at work, but that doesn't mean it isn't happening. God's time is not our time. God's ways are not our ways.  Sometimes God intervenes with miracles, and sometime God lets us continue to wait without many signs of anything good happening.  But we are still called to "wait upon the Lord" and trust God to "renew our strength."

Isaiah reassures us that our strength will be renewed and we will have the strength to fly up on wings like an eagle, or run and not be tired, or at very least, put one foot in front of the other and keep going. God is at work. God is at work in us, through us, and around us, whether or not we can see that work. Let us look for it. Let us trust it is happening. Let us wait patiently.

As we look over the past two years we may not be able to comprehend how anything good can come out of the pandemic that killed so many and tore so many relationships apart, but God's understanding is beyond human reach (vs28). Maybe God can help us gain something, maybe even something wonderful, from even something as horrific as a pandemic.

So, when we get tired and discouraged, about the pandemic or anything else, let us hear again Isaiah reminding us that

    

The Lord is the everlasting God,
    the creator of the ends of the earth.
    God doesn’t grow tired or weary.
God's understanding is beyond human reach,
29     giving power to the tired
    and reviving the exhausted.
30 Youths will become tired and weary,
    young men will certainly stumble;
31     but those who hope in the Lord
    will renew their strength;
    they will fly up on wings like eagles;
    they will run and not be tired;
    they will walk and not be weary.

(vs 28-31 CEB)

May you, too, find the power to fly!