Tuesday, January 12, 2016

Epiphany 2 C - Isaiah 62:1-5

The people to whom these words are addressed have grown weary of hope. They were promised a return to Zion with singing but when they got home the only song they could sing was a lament and Lord knows they knew that song by heart. The burning sand has dried up the promised pool, the haunt of jackals is still just as dangerous and the ruins they will have to rebuild are inhabited by hostile residents. It will take more than a fairy tale ending to make Jerusalem hospitable to the prophet’s vision. And maybe that is how hope works. We might prefer a close your eyes click your heels three times and no place turns into home but the greater truth is that hope gets us to believe that not all the songs we will sing will always be in a minor key. And so the forsaken who have returned to a desolate land change their tune and start singing as those who are the delight of the Lord in a land that is married. But what if the prophet’s vision is beyond our ability to hope? Truth is all the visions of the future are beyond our ability to hope which is why God sings lead. For Zion’s sake I will not keep silent. 

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