Tag Archives: Relationship to God

On Eagles Wings

Ordinary Time
January 30, 2018

Scripture Reading: Isaiah 40:21-31

Why do you say, O Jacob,
   and speak, O Israel,
‘My way is hidden from the Lord,
   and my right is disregarded by my God’?
Have you not known? Have you not heard?
The Lord is the everlasting God,
   the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He does not faint or grow weary;
   his understanding is unsearchable.
He gives power to the faint,
   and strengthens the powerless.
Even youths will faint and be weary,
   and the young will fall exhausted;
but those who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength,
   they shall mount up with wings like eagles,
they shall run and not be weary,
   they shall walk and not faint. –Isaiah 40:27-31

A bald eagle was found shot in a field recently in Oklahoma; a crime as bald eagles are an endangered species. I think killing any animal just for the sport is wrong, which seems to be what happened here. I do not think I have ever heard of anyone eating eagle, but this dead one was left to rot in a field. Eagles are hunters themselves. They know well the life of soaring above the earth searching for food to nourish their bodies.

Isaiah in our scripture today uses the eagle as an example for us to follow as one who needs nourishment to continue our life journeys. While we too require sustenance for our bodies, we also require nourishment for our souls, and that comes in our relationship with God.

What does it mean to wait on the Lord? Certainly, when we take something to the Lord in prayer, we need to be heedful for a response. I, however, believe that God is ahead of us all the time waiting for us to catch on and catch up to what we need to do. Our waiting involves being still and attentive enough to see the paths that God has set forth for us. God runs with us every step all the time.

Prayer: Lord, open my heart and my mind to your guidance so that I can run and not be weary. Amen.

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.

Worship from the Heart

Lift up your heartsLiving in the Spirit
August 1, 2016

Scripture Reading: Isaiah 1:1, 10-20

Hear the word of the Lord,
   you rulers of Sodom!
Listen to the teaching of our God,
   you people of Gomorrah!
What to me is the multitude of your sacrifices?
   says the Lord;
I have had enough of burnt-offerings of rams
   and the fat of fed beasts;
I do not delight in the blood of bulls,
   or of lambs, or of goats. –Isaiah 1:10-11

The word “worship” is defined as both a transitive and an intransitive verb. A transitive verb requires a direct object, and intransitive verb does not. What was the object of the sacrifices made by the Israelites? Isaiah intimates that God is not experiencing the Israelites worship as being directed at God because it does not acknowledge what is meaningful to God.

The sacrificial offerings required in the Israelite’s worship were extensive. Some, designed to atone for one’s sins to God, interpreted an individual’s offering as being meaningful to God resulting in cleansing from sins. Other sacrifices brought thanksgiving to God based on a progressive system where someone with more wealth offered a bullock and someone with a lower income, a lamb. Mary and Joseph offered two pigeons in a purification ritual shortly after Jesus’ birth.

While it might be easy to set aside what might be considered outdated, archaic customs, the lesson for us is important even though the acts of worship may be different. If our relationship with God based only on external rituals have no relationship to our inward commitment, it loses all meaning in its transmission to God.

Prayer: Lord, let the words of our mouths and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you*. Amen.

 

*Adapted from Psalm 19:14

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 American. Used by permission. All rights 
reserved.