Wednesday, October 20, 2010

October 20, 2010 - Wednesday of Trinity 20 - Isaiah 55:1-9

“My thoughts are not your thoughts and My ways are not your ways,” says the Lord. No kidding! Was there any doubt that the Lord doesn't do things the way we do them? Was there a question that the Lord's thoughts aren't the same as ours? When we see someone who is sick, we want them cured instantly. The Lord may not do that. He may even let them die! We see problems and conflict and we want it straightened out right away. Sometimes it ends happily and other times it doesn't. Something goes wrong and we want God to make it all better, right now, whatever it is and often He doesn't do that at all. We pray and pray—our will be done—but then the Lord does something else! But here's the thing. Do we really want the Lord's thoughts to be our thoughts? Do we want His ways to be our ways? Do we really want God to think and act like we do? Do we want the Lord to pay us back the way we like to pay others back when they do something against us? Do we really want the Lord holding onto our sins the way we hold on to other people's sins, carrying grudges and looking for the right time to give them what they've got coming? What if Jesus put Himself first? What if He only acted as if He were the most important person ever? How could we be saved? What if God only liked us or paid any attention to us when we made Him happy? Thanks be to God His thoughts are not our thoughts and His ways are not our ways or we'd be doomed!

“My thoughts are not your thoughts and your ways are not My ways,” says the Lord. Our thoughts and ways are about how we can be like God. How can we be in charge. How can we do and fix everything ourselves. How can we get others to pay more attention to us and give us the attention we deserve. Our thoughts and ways put us first and God last. But the Lord's thoughts and ways put us first for our salvation. The Lord's thoughts are about how He can become one of us to save us. The Father's thoughts and ways are centered on sending His Son to save us. The Son's thoughts and ways are to take on human flesh and to suffer and even die to take away our sins and bring us back to God. Even though He is God, Jesus never considered Himself to be the big deal. Rather, His preaching and teaching and dying and rising are for this purpose: not Himself but us. You. Your forgiveness and salvation. Our Lord's thoughts and ways rescue us from our thoughts and ways for His only thought is to obey His Father and be your Savior.

“My thoughts are not your thoughts and your ways are not My ways,” says the Lord. Our thoughts and ways are to throw a party and only invite the people we like. Our thoughts and ways are to be glad we're in the church and look with raised eyebrows on others who aren't as faithful as we are. But the Lord's thoughts and ways are all about throwing a wedding feast to which everyone is invited! It is a feast with no cost and no price, a salvation with no strings attached. And where does the Lord invite us? To His feast of salvation. The celebration and delivery of His forgiveness in His church. Our thoughts and ways would make church all about ourselves but the Lord makes worship to be about what He has for your. Water and the word to wash away your thoughts and ways. Absolution to blot out your thoughts and ways of sins. His Holy Supper of Body and Blood to give you a meal you would never have thought of but which gives you forgiveness, life and salvation. Where we would make worship all about what we do for God, He has made life in His church all about what gifts He has for us.

“My thoughts are not your thoughts and your ways are not My ways,” says the Lord. Our thoughts and ways, soiled by our sinful flesh, turn always to ourselves. But the Holy Spirit, working through the gifts of Christ's Word and Sacraments works in us such a new life that our thoughts and our ways become as the Christ's own thoughts and ways as He lives in us. Here we begin to learn to say and do things we would not have before. Here the Lord teaches us new thoughts and new ways which seek the good of others first. Here we learn to set aside the sins of others so that our thoughts are not corrupted by grudges and revenge and hatred and our ways of anger and payback are replaced with gentleness, forgiveness and love. With the thoughts and the ways of the Christ in us, we learn to seek the good of others before ourselves and to help and support them in whatever ways they need us to. And there is yet one more thought that is the Lord's and not ours, for we so very easily give up and think we cannot do what it takes to live as Christians. Or we mess it up and think there is no way we can still be Christians. And there is the Lord's forgiveness, wiping out our sins and turning us in repentance and faith to Christ.

“My thoughts are not your thoughts and your ways are not My ways,” says the Lord. And thanks be to God for that! The Lord's thoughts are so much higher than ours and His ways so much higher than ours that His thoughts and ways save us. Rescue us. Forgive us. Renew us. Guide us. The thoughts and ways of God can all be seen in Christ in whom God's thoughts of mercy and pardon are made a reality in the forgiveness and life He brings. It enough, as St. Pauls says, to fill our hearts with melody to the Lord and to cause us to give thanks to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ! In the Name of Jesus. Amen.

No comments: