Love Song [Baptism of our Lord C - Isaiah 43:1-7]

 The Rt. Rev. Jeremiah Williamson

Isaiah 43:1-7

 

Love Song

St. Matthew’s, Latham

 

This is a love song for a devastated people.  Isaiah is writing to a nation in exile, a nation that was traumatized, violated, and displaced; a nation of broken hearts and shattered lives.  The people felt lost and they had lost hope.  But in their darkest hour, it is this prophetic word that finds them.

 

“Do not fear.”  But they were afraid – of the nightmares in their past, of the painful present, and of the uncertain future.  They were afraid.  But God wasn’t.  And so this is where God started: Do not fear.  God understood that they were scared; God always knows.  And so like a Creator speaking a new reality into being, God whispered peace to their trembling souls; God held on tightly to their shaky hands, until they steadied.  Because God knew that a word of comfort and blessed assurance was what they needed to hear before they could hear anything else.  And God had more to say.

 

Like, “You are mine.”  In that place of exile, the people, understandably, felt abandoned.  Like so many of us humans, they wanted God to protect them from all the bad things in this world, from pain and from sadness.  But life is not like that – and it never has been.  Sometimes life hurts.  But pain is not proof that God let us go.  Because God never lets us go.  The people thought they had been abandoned, but they weren’t.  Because they belonged to God – always and forever.  God reminds them of that in this prophetic proclamation because the pain made them forget.  And so God looks them in the eyes and says, “You are mine.”

 

And it was not ownership at a distance, and God didn’t want them to think that.  And so God added, “I will be with you.”  God said that because in that brutal season, the people felt alone, like they were stranded in an impossibly vast sea – because they had been cut off from the familiar things of life that brought them security and comfort, like home and family and Temple.  It felt like they were floating and untethered, lonely and alone.  But they could never be alone, it was impossible, because God would never leave them – not in the midst of the dangerous depths, not in the shadow of the crashing waves.  God reminds them, because sometimes life feels lonelier than it is: “I will be with you.”

 

But they still felt, in that horrible space, that life was eating them alive, like they were being consumed by the encroaching despair.  God heard their desperate prayers, prayers shouted toward the heavens out of the depths of their despair.  And God spoke hope against the despair, a powerful hope designed to protect them from the forces of evil and the onslaught of anguish.  It was a hope that filled them with breath and gave them the strength to meet each weary day.  The hope didn’t take away the hurt; it just helped them believe that the hurt wouldn’t last forever.  

 

And they hated the hurt, and they were glad that it wouldn’t last forever.  But sometimes, despite God’s best efforts, the people were stubborn.  And so sometimes, on the really hard days, the people pushed back against grace and wallowed.  And on those days they allowed themselves to believe that they deserved it, like they deserved all the bad things that had happened and were happening.  God was offering them grace and mercy.  But, all the while, the power of evil was planting bad seeds – the little, persistent thoughts that made them doubt that they were loved or even loveable.  Those thoughts were stubborn and destructive.  And they were so difficult to displace.  And so, to those people in exile, downcast and heartbroken, God speaks the most explicit and beautiful word.  God says to them, “You are precious in my sight, and honored, and I love you.”  God said this to people who were not at their best; they were pretty ragged; they weren’t even wearing their make-up.

 

You see, the people to whom Isaiah prophesied, ancient Israel, were convinced that they were alone and lonely, forgotten and forsaken.  They were convinced that they were beyond the reach of love.  They were convinced…but they were wrong. 

 

Because God never left them alone.  God was always with them.  They were always on God’s mind and always in God’s heart.  And God loved them – with an impossible, eternal love – a love from which nothing in the world could ever separate them.

 

A love from which nothing in the world can ever separate us. 

 

This is an old song. But one that God will never stop singing.

 

So, “Do not fear.”  I know that sometimes you are afraid – of the nightmares of your past, of the painful present, and of the uncertain future.  This world can be scary.  God knows that.  And still God tells us to not be afraid.  Like a Creator speaking a new reality into being, God is, right now, whispering peace to our trembling souls.  And in this scary world, that could be enough.  But God has more to say.

 

Like, “You are mine.”  It is something we need to hear because we are assaulted in this world by bad things and the bad things people do.  And we wish that God would just protect us from cruelty and from pain and from sadness.  But life is not like that.  I don’t know why, but sometimes life just hurts.  But the pain is not proof that God let us go.  Because God never lets us go.  Because we belong to God; we are marked as Christ’s own forever.  At the baptismal font, God looks at us tenderly and says, “You are mine.”

 

And, “I will be with you.”  Because this life can feel lonely.  Technology promises to connect us to the world but instead so many people feel increasingly isolated.  But God promises to never leave us alone.

 

Because God loves us with a ferocious love.  And that love refuses to give up on us.  That love refuses to let us go.  That love refuses to assign us to despair.  That love is God’s promise to us: “You are precious in my sight, and honored, and I love you.”

 

That “I love you’ is unconditional.  God loves us even when we are not at our best; even on the days we are ragged and disheveled.  God loves us when we are too sad and when we are sick with anxiety.  God loves us when we are burning with anger and on those mornings we just can’t face the world.  God loves us when we mess up and even when we are petulant. 

 

This is a love song for devastated people and broken people and nervous people and sad people and even for happy people.  It is for ancient exiles and contemporary Church goers.  This love song is forever bursting forth from the heart of God, filling time and space and eternity.  And it is for everyone, each and every person made in the image of God.  But perhaps most importantly, because we all need to hear this, this love song is about you.  You are precious in God’s sight and God loves you.