What We Have Even Now
Sexagesima Sunday
10 For just as rain and snow fall from heaven and do not return there without saturating the earth and making it germinate and sprout, and providing seed to sow and food to eat, 11 so my word that comes from my mouth will not return to me empty, but it will accomplish what I please and will prosper in what I send it to do.”
12 You will indeed go out with joy and be peacefully guided; the mountains and the hills will break into singing before you, and all the trees of the field will clap their hands.
13 Instead of the thornbush, a cypress will come up, and instead of the brier, a myrtle will come up; this will stand as a monument for the LORD, an everlasting sign that will not be destroyed.
Isaiah 55:10–13 [CSB]
I will read the last part first…the result, the consequence…of the first part:
12 You will indeed go out with joy and be peacefully guided; the mountains and the hills will break into singing before you, and all the trees of the field will clap their hands.
13 Instead of the thornbush, a cypress will come up, and instead of the brier, a myrtle will come up; this will stand as a monument for the LORD, an everlasting sign that will not be destroyed.
Isaiah 55:10–13 [CSB]
This is even now…
No, it is…as we DO have a little of it…
We do…and it is too bad when we don’t think so…when we deny it…when we listen to any voice that says it isn’t so…when things blind us so that we cannot see it.
Nonetheless is it true. Now and forever. Some now and all forever.
It began in a manger… and was established in this odd and never thought of place…
But then this lonely shoot began to bud, then flower as if on just a bit of bare rock… and it was… it was called Calvary…
…then it began to multiply…first right there in Jerusalem, then Judea and Samaria…and then into the uttermost parts of the earth…
This is also the beginning…the start, where it begins for us…
…from blood and in water…and then in our pilgrimage…here…
…through the valley of the shadow of death…until our Lord and Savior makes death dead–the last enemy to be removed forever.
Removed even from our lifeless bodies, where the seed is left to wait. Death is defeated, but …not completely taken away…yet.
Now is the time of Grace. This is the time of the Church militant…that is, the time we still have to fight sin, death and the devil…our flesh, the world, and the kingdom of darkness….
But as they flee before the Lord who leads the way through…
We are not fighting for victory. That has already been won by Jesus. We are clearing the ground…and the air…on our way home.
For now we see from afar. We hear the distant song…
Faith in Him whom we follow knows this to be true. His Words enable to see in this dim place…to hear amongst the cruel noises…the hopeless cries…
And then…all of a sudden…along the way we see a crack in the clouds…and there are those mountains that will soon sing and shake to participate in bringing in the new order of a new creation.
Or it may be a special day…when all is quiet…and suddenly the sweet air brings the accompaniment to that high and exulted singing…the trees remind of us of what is to come.
That singing is not as it will be…this clapping is not but a slight rustle…
But it is all in hope…a hope because we have been given this hope…as creation knows who has come and gives it to mankind…
So creation waits…
Even if here and there…and only in practice a little…and to remind us of these, His Words…giving us a glimpse…even if ever so slight…
You see, I am showing you the results first, because we need to see what reality looks like–what it should have been…what it should be like…what it is to sound like…and what it will be like again.
It is so now…by Word of Law–God’s law, but it has to be yet enacted fully. It has been declared to be so, but many yet have to believe the Words. They need to hear, know and believe before they can have the result for themselves.
And so, as we pray in the prayer that our Lord has taught us: THY KINGDOM COME…
Yes…God’s Kingdom comes of its own self, but…
We pray in this petition that the Kingdom come among us also.
And it has come…and it has come here. You are here because of this onward march…this invasion of and in your life by God Himself….as He widens…and lengthens…the restoration of all things…
One person at a time. Family by Family. Until there is nowhere left that is enemy territory…until there is no one left to be captured and turned back from the enemy to our Lord.
This Old Testament prophet’s text is about the coming of this Kingdom of God in, by and through Christ…
And it has come…and is still here…at work…moving…into the kingdom of the devil…an invasion force…light into the dark…color into grayness… green into the dry brown…gladness and singing into the groans of pain and suffering…fruitfulness to the barren…life into death…
I show you this first because we have to be reminded of what it actually could be like, lest we believe that what we have seen–the darkness…bitterness…horror…pain…the loss…betrayal…and death…lest we accept this as the only reality… lest we surrender again to our enemy.
I tell you this because we need to be given hope…expectation…longing…in that which we do actually have now…
From what we have already been given…and have heard…and yet…forget…doubt…and let go of…
No! The Kingdom of God is among us. Here and now. IN this very place…in your very lives. Today.
Why can I say this? Because He–our Lord says so.
And what He says…well…listen to what He says about what HE SAYS:
10 For just as rain and snow fall from heaven and do not return there without saturating the earth and making it germinate and sprout, and providing seed to sow and food to eat, 11 so my word that comes from my mouth will not return to me empty, but it will accomplish what I please and will prosper in what I send it to do.”
What God says, happens. What He declares is SO. What He promises is given. This is death to life, because of Grace from His Mercy that Forgives all sin—that sin that caused death and the wilting of creation.
This has been defeated and with the resurrection of Jesus is being pushed right out into the outer darkness forever. Never to return. Heaven on a new earth eternal. And eternally to be lived by us and all creation, now renewed.
This is the result and the reason–the purpose God sent out His STRONG WORD. It will be done on earth, as it is in Heaven. Because the Strong Word is Jesus. And He has done it.
His is the Name, that was made for the Lord…
And that everlasting sign is the sign of Jonah and the sign of the cross–our sign now too–our eternal mark—His Mark on us…the mark of the Crucified One who is alive…making us alive…making us alive with Him forever.
Amen.
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