Tuesday, March 1, 2016

Tuesday, March 1, 2016

Isaiah 42:5-7

Thus says God, the Lord,
   who created the heavens and stretched them out,
   who spread out the earth and what comes from it,
who gives breath to the people upon it
   and spirit to those who walk in it: 
I am the Lord, I have called you in righteousness,
   I have taken you by the hand and kept you;
I have given you as a covenant to the people,
   a light to the nations, 
   to open the eyes that are blind,
to bring out the prisoners from the dungeon,
   from the prison those who sit in darkness. 

To be human

This is an identity to be known and a mission to be lived.

For freedom you come to us, Holy One, opening our eyes to see and truly know the freedom that comes from knowing you.

From ancient times until now your messengers did not come to bind people’s hearts but to release them to become what you always intended … human.

To be human is to raise your hands and heart to the sky in gratitude for life; to open your arms in loving welcome to others; to receive the day with hope knowing all it holds is a holy gift to be opened wide-eyed like a child on Christmas morning.

To be human is to live with joyous expectancy despite disappointments and struggles because Love is and always has one more surprise.

The ancient prophet, Isaiah, spoke to a people in bondage, held captive by a foreign invader. But deeper still was the bondage that held their hearts and minds.

They were failing to hope that they would ever see and touch home again. Their minds could only conceive a life … a half-life … lived in bondage, far from the hills and streams, people and places where they truly knew, loved and worshiped you.

They had begun to settle for less than their full humanity because they failed to know your fullness, Loving Mystery.

You called them to be a people revealing what it meant to trust and serve the abundant heart of the One who stretched out the heavens like a sheet.

“Look up,” you said then … and now. “Look at the panoply of the heavens. Breathe the sweet air of earth and know: It is I who made them. The Love from whom they come … comes now to shatter the chains that bind your hearts and minds from the prison of fear and doubt, shame and guilt.

“I come that you may know the freedom for which I made you.”

Pr. David L. Miller