A God For All Peoples – Isaiah 56:1, 6-8

A text – Isaiah 56:1, 6-8

56 Thus says the Lord: Maintain justice, and do what is right, for soon my salvation will come and my deliverance be revealed.

⁶ And the foreigners who join themselves to the Lord, to minister to him, to love the name of the Lord, and to be his servants, all who keep the Sabbath and do not profane it and hold fast my covenant—
⁷ these I will bring to my holy mountain and make them joyful in my house of prayer; their burnt offerings and their sacrifices will be accepted on my altar, for my house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples.
⁸ Thus says the Lord God, who gathers the outcasts of Israel: I will gather others to them besides those already gathered.

A reflection:

When I read these words from late in the book of Isaiah, the one book besides the Psalms that Jesus seems to quote the most, I cannot help but think of God’s mission to the whole world that God loves so much. God wants to include anyone who would seek a relationship with God, anyone trying to remember how God has told us to live (and the way Jesus showed us to live). Jesus included the Samaritans, even though Israel excluded them. Jesus included women, even though Jewish church leaders excluded them. Jesus healed and was kind to lepers, the blind, and the lame (even though church leaders could argue for days about who had sinned, they or their parents, that these people were deformed in some way).

Remember how angry Jesus was with the moneychangers in the Temple? Remember when he quoted verse 7, above, then? “‘My house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples,’ but you have made it a den of thieves!” he cried. They were charging exorbitant rates to change the money of foreign people into Temple currency to buy sacrificial animals, and then charging a lot for the animals, as well. It was a crime against foreigners, the very people who were trying to live as God commanded, whom God was welcoming. No wonder Jesus overturned tables! Human beings were doing exactly what God did not want them to do: taking advantage of the stranger instead of welcoming the stranger.

When God comes to us, God doesn’t promise a faithful, solely one-on-one relationship with us. God promises a faithful God-on-everyone-who-calls-upon-God relationship. That should come across as good news for us, not bad news. Why? Because that means that God includes people who make questionable choices, people who think they can do it all by themselves, people who are judgy about others: us. Given that God is happy to welcome foreigners who join themselves to the faithful followers of God (think of foreigners to mean any sort of “others” – immigrants, non-Lutherans, those whose gender is not like people we think we know, even people who are hostile toward us), we ought to get used to seeing these folks and welcoming them, too. They are going to share the heavenly banquet with us. Let’s get to know them now, no matter what it takes to make that happen.

Lord God, Thank you for loving us. Thank you for including people who have made stupid choices, who have been careless and short-sighted, like us, but who call you Lord and trust your mercy. Help us to remember that our lives and actions are made up of many challenges, and you love us through all of those times and choices. Amen.