Living in the Spirit

June 28, 2022

Scripture Reading: Isaiah 66:10-14

Rejoice with Jerusalem, and be glad for her,
   all you who love her;
rejoice with her in joy,
   all you who mourn over her—
that you may nurse and be satisfied
   from her consoling breast;
that you may drink deeply with delight
   from her glorious bosom.

For thus says the Lord:
I will extend prosperity to her like a river,
   and the wealth of the nations like an overflowing stream;
and you shall nurse and be carried on her arm,
   and dandled on her knees.
As a mother comforts her child,
   so I will comfort you;
   you shall be comforted in Jerusalem.

You shall see, and your heart shall rejoice;
   your bodies shall flourish like the grass;
and it shall be known that the hand of the Lord is with his servants,
   and his indignation is against his enemies.

I voted early last week so all the fierce campaign ads interrupting my TV watching are of little use to me until the primaries are over. I tend to ignore any ad that does not report who paid for it. They are usually the nastiest, but I must say some of the actual candidates are stretching my patients. So, I am sure that environment open my eyes to recognizing what the first phrase in the above scripture is addressing

Rejoice with Jerusalem, and be glad for her,
   all you who love her;

Do we all love our country or, in the case of this scripture, city? Isaiah wrote his book probably around 740 to 700 BCE in the Kingdom of Judah. In 733 BCE, Jerusalem becomes a vassal (feudal lord) of the Neo-Assyrian Empire*. While we can learn much from the wisdom of our faith ancestors, their way of living was far removed from ours. People, however, are people whether in 733 BCE or 2022 CE. We adapt and change, taking steps forward and backward, in whatever situation we might find ourselves. We have developed over these thousands of years to the extent that we as individuals in a democracy have the right to vote for our leaders. I cannot imagine how the residents of Jerusalem in 733 BCE might understand that, although the residents of Ukraine right now might have a better feel for how they felt. We must not take our rights for granted. We must take the time to review the candidates for the area in which we vote. Try to sort out the truth from half-truths and pure fiction. We must not be driven solely by hot button issues that have little or no impact on most people. We must look for candidates that have all their constituents’ interests at heart, not just their chosen few who support the candidate’s ideas that do not take into account all the people they represent.

Prayer: Lord, guide us in our choices as we vote for people who care about a compassionate world. Amen.

*https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_Jerusalem

All scriptures are quoted from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright 1989, 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights are reserved.