Lent 3 C Isaiah 55:1-13 If you are thirsty

These words from Isaiah are often quoted.

⁸For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways, says the Lord. ⁹For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. 

Usually when we don't understand something, a person will quote this to make us feel better. 

It  does not make me feel better.

If they were used in the context they were meant they probably would have encouraged me. 

Seek the Lord while you while he may be found. 

He was found. 

He was found by the Exiles in Babylon. Even when they thought he had stayed behind in Israel. He was found. 

It was in the pain that they found that God could be found. 

And when they found him, they burst into song.

Tuesday of Holy Week Isaiah 42:1-9

Songs of the Suffering Servant echo across the ages, through dark times and light, through hope and despair, we hear the sound of the Servant.

It is Tuesday. In two days he will eat the Supper. In three days he will die. In four days he will descend. In five days...well, we don't know that yet, do we?

Let us wait. Let us ponder the suffering of not only Jesus, but all of those who suffer in Jesus' name.

Monday Holy Week Isaiah 42:1-9

"I am the Lord, I have called you in righteousness, I have taken you by the hand and kept you; I have given you as a covenant to the people, a light to the nations, to open the eyes that are blind, to bring out the prisoners from the dungeon, from the prison those who sit in darkness." Isaiah 42:6-7

Everything for which we hope has come to pass in Jesus Christ. Yet now we ponder, we hope, we wish he would be the powerful warrior prince. Monday. All our hopes are tied up in one Man. But the chief priests and scribes seek to kill him. What will Jesus do? Will He show them He is God?

Everyone who thirsts Lent 3 C Isaiah 55:1-13

"Eat what is good" Now that is a good quote for Lent!!! Have you ever seen the movie, Chocolat, in which a woman opens a candy shoppe in a Catholic village DURING Lent?

Ok, I will confess I gave up sugar and wheat for Lent. So far so good...only one lapse into Mardi Gras (Pink Swirls, I was weak)...I'm finding it easier than the year I gave up Ebay.

Back to Isaiah, this text is about feasting on that which we did not earn--a beautiful picture of God's grace. In a bad economy, no one gets a "free lunch." We work our fingers to the bone for pennies and hope we have enough at the end of the day to feed our babies. I feel guilty that I long for wheat and sugar when there are so many starving for any food in this world.

So may the God who provides manna in the wilderness and quail from nowhere, and water from rocks provide for us. May those who have plenty, give, and those who have none, receive. Amen.