Friday, February 20, 2009

Alleluia one more Sunday


This weekend, we will hear the words of Isaiah:


See, I am doing a new deed,
even now it comes to light; can you not see it?


I read these words this morning during my Adoration time. (Yes, I peeked ahead to Sunday's OT reading.) And I thought about the entire passage and Isaiah's prophecy.


It seems that God works this way a lot. He says what He is going to do. And often, we don't believe because it doesn't happen in the way we expect or in the instant we had hoped it would occur.
For example:

He speaks to Joseph of old, in a dream. Your brothers will bow down to you. But it doesn't happen immediately. His brothers sell him into slavery. He is mistreated and misused by Potiphar's wife. He rises in the ranks. And when he least expects it, his brothers come to Egypt to ask for pharoah's help - and they bow down to the one who speaks for pharoah. . . not realizing that this is their brother.


He speaks to Moses, I am going to free my people. But it doesn't happen immediately. They go through plagues and Pharoah saying no again and again. Then they have to pass through the Sea. And then they wander forty years. Then they have to cross Jordan. And then they have to "take the land".


Again and again, God says what He will do.
You will have a child. You will be set free. You will inherit a land. You will be my people. You will know the truth. You will have peace.


And because He is God (and we are not), He does it in a way that we cannot envision and in a moment we don't expect.

I sat there at about a quarter to four this morning and I read these words. See, I am doing a new deed, even now it comes to light; can you not see it? Isaiah spoke hundreds - thousands - of years ago. But He spoke of a New Covenant. A Messiah. The Hope of Israel. He spoke of one who would take our sins, doing for us what we could not do for ourselves. And we would be able to come to Him. Sit with Him. Enter the holy of holies.


And in that moment, I raised my eyes to the Eucharist and I knew that I was seeing the fulfillment of Isaiah's words.

This new thing that God has done. . . can you not see it?


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