Worrying

Besides, after 40 years many of those who were dragged out of Israel have died, and we are the children or grandchildren who have never even seen Jerusalem.

All we hear are the old stories about how grand it was once upon a time.”

The exiles had another complaint: My Lord has forgotten me.

It had been a hard and long 40 years, and few really remembered Jerusalem.

They had forgotten the nearly 400 years since Solomon's time during which their nation had gone from bad to worse.

Many of them had long since forgotten God and adopted the gods of the place where they were now living.

It was really nervy of them to complain about the Lord God whom they had abandoned.

It was convenient of them to forget what had happened during that 400 year span.

They had taken the position that their mind was made up and they didn't want to be confused with the facts.

They were stewing in their own juices of self-pity.

Could they celebrate? No way!

Our parish, or indeed most any parish these days, is not a stranger to troubles.

Some of our number are caught in debilitating diseases that destroy body and cripple spirit.

Others are caught in intolerable family situations in which no good solution can be seen.

Others are imprisoned by the expectations which are placed on them, living according to a role set by another.

All of us need a word which frees, a word of hope.

That is what Isaiah intends to share.

In one of the most tender images in scripture, God says through Isaiah:

Can a woman forget her nursing child?

But even if they should forget, yet I will not forget you.

Young parents quickly discover how important are those moments right after birth when parents and baby need to be together.

The bonding that takes place then is a part of the tying people together into a strong family.

That is the kind of image that Isaiah calls before us.

God's relationship with us is bound together not by our strength, for we are as helpless as babes to accomplish that, but by God's own love for us, which is more tender than that of new parents.

To further illustrate the depth of God's concern, Isaiah turns from the tender image to one which we may see as gruesome.

He would have known how slaves had been branded with a mark of ownership.

He would also have known that persons sometimes chose to be branded with the name of their god.

But here, God is said to have branded his own hands with his people's names.,

so that he would be constantly reminded of those for whom he cares.

That is a forceful image indeed!

It is made even more meaningful when we recall the time when God so graphically and in precisely this way showed his love to us...

when our Lord Jesus Christ stretched out his hands to be marked in suffering upon the cross.

Our worries, our concerns, our troubles seem insurmountable to us,

but the Good News of this day is that they are call caught up within God's concern.

This is Good News which we need to share among our own number and in a hurting community and world.

Every member, visitor, council member and pastor needs to hear it.

It will help us keep things in perspective: that we are not abandoned or left to our won devices.

God's love is stronger than that of any parents; he reminds himself of us constantly.

We may be masters at fretting and worrying,

but that is exactly what the good news of the day is inviting us to lay aside in favor of the better things which we can do:

Sing for joy, heaven and earth, For the Lord has comforted his people, and will have compassion on the afflicted.

There is the call to each of us individually, and to all of us together, with the promise of God to back it up. Amen.

Please note: The preceding sermon is provided as a resource for the thought, prayer, and meditation of the members and friends of St. Mark's. It is the residue of a verbal event, and thus it does not have academic footnotes and other details that would be expected in a written document. The writer gladly acknowledges the prior thought and work of many Christians before him.