There are two points I want to make today.
The first comes from our Old Testament reading and is captured in the saying: “Feel is not Real”. A good example is a golfer who may feel he is swinging the club, gripping the club or flexing his body in a certain way, but a video reveals he may not actually be doing so. The awareness that his, feel is not real, can be a prelude to learning a new and better game. If you’re ever feeling far from God, either he’s abandoned you or you left him, the same phrase applies: Feel is not real. God is never far from you. You can break his heart, but you can’t make him stop loving you. You simply can’t sin big enough to overwhelm his greater ability to love you and to forgive you. When you turn you back on Him he is still there. Turn around and he’ll still be facing you and loving you......even if you feel he’s not.
At least that’s the message of our first reading. Israel had come to believe that because of their sin, God had abandoned them, and they believed if they did hear from God, the message would be one of punishment. But instead as we see in this section of Isaiah, that God responded with a soothing song of comfort! Comfort, O comfort my people says your God.
It’s like God was tying yellow ribbons around every tree, or spray-painting “Please come home, all is forgiven,” on the highway overpass coming into the city. And, in case we miss the ribbons or the overpass sign, God sent his son Jesus to tell us in person.
The second point is that despite the depth of God’s love for us, we don’t have to accept it. Just as we have freedom to stray from God, we also have the freedom to continue to stay away. Even when Isaiah offered the Israelites in Babylon, a powerful word of comfort and invitation to return, many still chose to stay in Babylon rather than return to the promised land.
That may seem incredible, but its really not. Most of the exiles had been born in Babylon. The land of Israel was only a memory of their parents. It was easier for them to cling to what they knew than to venture out as Abraham did into an unknown land, an unknown future.
But we can’t judge them too harshly. How many of us cling to what we know, to familiar habits, or places, or jobs, or relationships, or beliefs, – or whatever, simply because they’re familiar. Even if these things are keeping us from allowing God to really enter into our lives, we cling to them because they’re comfortable.
And that’s why the Baptist’s message of a repentance that leads to the forgiveness of sin is so important. To hear it and to respond to it, is like responding to a video of who we really are, and being loved into a whole new way of living. John knew that sin was... the feel that wasn’t real, and that unless we recognize, admit, and repent of our sin, we’ll never leave Babylon. We’re going to stay where we’re comfortable.
And then, rather than really experiencing God’s love and presence in our lives, it will be as though he never came at all, and the feast we’re preparing to celebrate, will never be more than a nice story.
The first comes from our Old Testament reading and is captured in the saying: “Feel is not Real”. A good example is a golfer who may feel he is swinging the club, gripping the club or flexing his body in a certain way, but a video reveals he may not actually be doing so. The awareness that his, feel is not real, can be a prelude to learning a new and better game. If you’re ever feeling far from God, either he’s abandoned you or you left him, the same phrase applies: Feel is not real. God is never far from you. You can break his heart, but you can’t make him stop loving you. You simply can’t sin big enough to overwhelm his greater ability to love you and to forgive you. When you turn you back on Him he is still there. Turn around and he’ll still be facing you and loving you......even if you feel he’s not.
At least that’s the message of our first reading. Israel had come to believe that because of their sin, God had abandoned them, and they believed if they did hear from God, the message would be one of punishment. But instead as we see in this section of Isaiah, that God responded with a soothing song of comfort! Comfort, O comfort my people says your God.
It’s like God was tying yellow ribbons around every tree, or spray-painting “Please come home, all is forgiven,” on the highway overpass coming into the city. And, in case we miss the ribbons or the overpass sign, God sent his son Jesus to tell us in person.
The second point is that despite the depth of God’s love for us, we don’t have to accept it. Just as we have freedom to stray from God, we also have the freedom to continue to stay away. Even when Isaiah offered the Israelites in Babylon, a powerful word of comfort and invitation to return, many still chose to stay in Babylon rather than return to the promised land.
That may seem incredible, but its really not. Most of the exiles had been born in Babylon. The land of Israel was only a memory of their parents. It was easier for them to cling to what they knew than to venture out as Abraham did into an unknown land, an unknown future.
But we can’t judge them too harshly. How many of us cling to what we know, to familiar habits, or places, or jobs, or relationships, or beliefs, – or whatever, simply because they’re familiar. Even if these things are keeping us from allowing God to really enter into our lives, we cling to them because they’re comfortable.
And that’s why the Baptist’s message of a repentance that leads to the forgiveness of sin is so important. To hear it and to respond to it, is like responding to a video of who we really are, and being loved into a whole new way of living. John knew that sin was... the feel that wasn’t real, and that unless we recognize, admit, and repent of our sin, we’ll never leave Babylon. We’re going to stay where we’re comfortable.
And then, rather than really experiencing God’s love and presence in our lives, it will be as though he never came at all, and the feast we’re preparing to celebrate, will never be more than a nice story.
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