Isa 43:14-44:5 Jn 5:30-47
Who Wearies Whom?
After the holidays, are you raring to go – or longing to go back?
Retired? Is every day a holiday – or a challenge to get through?
2nd Isaiah is writing to a weary people. Exiled. Putting down new roots. Living as aliens and strangers. Hopes dashed. Fears fulfilled. Just get on with it?
We often catch ourselves judging God – but this is a Trial v25-28 to remind us who is judge.
Franz Kafka wrote the famous book “The Trial” where the hero is consumed by an accusation and no one ever tells him what he is accused of as e gets completely absorbed by an impenetrable system. God is not like that.
Evidence of the past. Saved for the future. v16-21
Are the people accusing God of abandoning them?
“Look at your story” says God – I am the one who calls, rescues, saves, preserves, promises
But don't just look back – you have a promise to live for.
What is the evidence for God's love in your story? What is your hope?
Evidence of the present: A disinterested, diffident relationship? v22-24
I won't bother you. You don't bother me. Anglican?
You know that weary response “yeah, yeah, yeah, whatever...”
or “Very nice dear, now lets...”
or “Hmm, That's interesting but....”
Its when you sense that they have heard it all before and have decided to ignore you.
God says that the people have not called on him, have not wearied him with sacrifices.
They are not “God botherers” They are “God can't be bothereders”. Are we?
If God didn't care then that would be fine. But He does. And its not.
Verdict for the future: Are we Weary, Hopeless v25-28?
Those who sinned and failed have been punished.
But we, who have participated in or inherited their failure, are being forgiven.
This is the verdict: Guilty. This is the Sentence: Forgiven!
Now, do we have the heart to begin again? 44 v1-5
Though we were born into sin and hopelessness we can know that we are chosen, formed by God and known by him from before birth. More than that he stands ready to help us.
However hopeless it seems, he will transform our environment for growth.
Atheist to believer. Sick to well. Sinner to saint. Hopeless to hopeful.
Where everything seems dead and dried up – His Spirit will flow and bring new life.
In me – and in you. So...
if you are feeling weary in body, mind or spirit. If you are aware of your weakness.
Where things are driest. Where the very ground has cracked into a maze of channels. Where the surface has disintegrated into wind-blown dust. That's where the water falls. Little explosions of dust. Little craters of moisture that gather and find their way deep, deep into the deepest cracks. There to soften and heal. There to reincorporate the dust into solid, rich, moist fertile soil. There to awaken the seed that has been sleeping, waiting for this new life to spring forth.
Is this you?
“Look – I am doing a new thing”!
