The Ways of God – March 20, 2022, The Third Sunday in Lent

Isaiah 55, Luke 12:1-3, 22-34
March 20, 2022, The Third Sunday in Lent

I’ve always loved this chapter in Isaiah.  And whenever I read it, I always hear a certain choir anthem in my head!  “Ho, everyone who thirsteth, come to the waters, and you who have no money come and eat.”  Do you know that one?  It’s a great anthem, and it always reminds me of the first part of this, which is about the abundance of God’s kingdom.

But then there’s the next part, which is the part I just read.  “Seek ye the Lord while he may be found.  Call upon him while he is near.”  And notice how the Old Testament writers loved to write in these repeated phrases.  And when you know that, you start to see them all the time!  “Seek ye the Lord while he may be found.  Call upon him while he is near.”  This part of the chapter is about seeking to understand God.  And I believe that’s what Isaiah was trying so desperately to tell the people throughout this book.

Here’s what he says in verses 8 and 9.  And I believe this is the heart of his message.  Speaking on behalf of God, as the prophets always did, he says, “’For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,’ says the Lord.”  Again, those repeated phrases!  And that’s what we’re thinking about today, “The ways of God.”  “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.”  Throughout this whole book, Isaiah has been trying to give the people God’s perspective on life.  And he’s been saying that “The ways of God” are different than our ways.

Maybe you remember the words of Isaiah 40.  They’re very familiar.  “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.”  Those are great words of encouragement, aren’t they?  (And maybe you’re noticing those repetitions!)

Well, maybe you remember how that passage starts out.  “Have you not known?” he asks.  “Have you not heard?  The Lord is the everlasting God, the maker of heaven and earth!”  They had forgotten that.  They had forgotten God’s power.  And they thought he had forgotten them.  And like often happens with us, they were focusing on their way of seeing things, and they couldn’t conceive of what the ways of the eternal, creator God were like.  Isaiah was trying to remind them of that.

Jesus was trying to give that same perspective throughout his ministry.  In our reading for today from Luke, we hear echoes of some of the Jesus’ words from the Sermon on the Mount.  In verse 22, he says, “Do not be anxious about your life, what you shall eat, nor your body, what you shall put on.”  Then at the end he says, “O ye of little faith!  Do not seek what you are to eat and what you are to drink, nor be anxious of mind.  For all the nations of the world seek these things.  And your father knows that you need them!  Instead, seek his kingdom, and all these things will be yours as well.”

That always sounds great, doesn’t it?  Like Isaiah, Jesus wanted the people to be mindful of the abundance of God’s kingdom, and his power.  He wanted them to know that Gods ways are above our ways!  But sometimes that’s hard to remember, in light of all the worries of the world – their world and our world!  And there’s a lot of anxiety in our world right now, isn’t there?  We’re all anxious about the war in Ukraine, and our hearts break for the people there!  And we’re anxious about how it touches our world.  We’re anxious about the higher gas prices and inflation, and who knows what else!  I know I feel a certain amount of anxiety about all that.  And I’m sure you do too.

And all of that just adds to the anxiety we’ve been feeling about the pandemic.  And that’s been two years now!  It’s given us all a lot to think about!  And I don’t know about you, but it seems to me that there are a lot of similarities between our time and the 1920’s and ‘30’s.  Think about it!  The Spanish Flu, the upheaval in Europe, Hitler’s expansionism – even racism is being talked about a lot!  It’s kind of chilling how similar kinds of things are happening today!  And it’s almost 100 years later!

And yet, even in the face of all that, Jesus says, “Do not be anxious about your life.”  “Seek first God’s kingdom.”  And if he had quoted Isaiah 55 at that moment, I wouldn’t have been surprised.  Because it would have fit right in with this!  And I’m sure he knew Isaiah’s words, by the way!

If you think about it, it is too easy to get caught up in all the anxiety of our world, isn’t it?  We see troubling things in our news all the time!  And it’s scary!  And it isn’t so easy to think of God’s kingdom and his ways, when so much out there seems so ungodly.

I know there are times I find myself thinking, “If God is in control, I’m just not seeing it!”  Maybe you do, too.  And when I think that, I have to tell myself that that’s probably the time when I’m seeing God’s perspective the least!  When I think like that, and when the worry creeps back in, I have to try to remember these wonderful uplifting and comforting words of Isaiah, these words about God’s abundance.  I need to remember what he said about God’s ways being higher than our ways.  And I need to remember Jesus’ words, “Seek ye first the kingdom of God.”

This is Lent.  And as I’ve said, Lent is a time when we look at ourselves and try to see where we stand in relationship to God – in comparison to God.  And as we do so, I believe one of the most important things to see, about where we stand before God, is that our ways are not his ways.  Our thoughts are not his thoughts.  And Lent is a time when we try to see God’s ways and think God’s thoughts!

And that’s not easy!  We have so much on our minds these days.  There are so many things that concern us.  And we’re so used to our seeing things and doing things our way.  We’re so used to our way of thinking.  And it takes practice, it takes discipline, to see things God’s ways.  And Lent is a good time to do just that.

So, with Isaiah, I say to you again, “Seek ye the Lord while he may be found.  Call upon him while he is near…”  “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are my ways your ways, says the Lord.  For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts higher than your thoughts.”

Prayer

Eternal God, forgive us, for like the people of old, we forget your perspective.  We see things only through our own eyes, and often they don’t make sense.  Help us, as we seek you, to find you, and to know better your ways.  Help us, as we call upon you, to know that you are near, this Lenten season, and always.  For we pray in our Savior’s name, and for the sake of his kingdom.  Amen.