December 4

Isaiah 1.10-12, 16-20

¹⁰ Hear the word of the LORD,

you rulers of Sodom;

listen to the instruction of our God,

you people of Gomorrah! 

¹¹ “The multitude of your sacrifices –

      what are they to me?” says the LORD. 

“I have more than enough of burnt offerings,

      of rams and the fat of fattened animals;

I have no pleasure

      in the blood of bulls and lambs and goats. 

¹² When you come to appear before me,

      who has asked this of you, this trampling of my courts?

¹⁶ Wash and make yourselves clean. 

      Take your evil deeds out of my sight;

      stop doing wrong. 

¹⁷ Learn to do right; seek justice. 

      Defend the oppressed. 

Take up the cause of the fatherless;

      plead the case of the widow. 

¹⁸ Come now, let us settle the matter,

      says the LORD. 

Though your sins are like scarlet,

      they shall be as white as snow;

though they are red as crimson,

      they shall be as wool. 

¹⁹ If you are willing and obedient,

      you will eat the good things of the land;

²⁰ but if you resist and rebel,

      you will be devoured by the sword. 

                        For the mouth of the LORD has spoken.

As I sit and write this morning there is new fallen snow.  Looking pretty as we sit inside and look through a window.  Looking miserable as we take to it with a shovel.  Looking so light and fresh, yet so wet and heavy this morning.  But there is a refreshing look to the snow on the ground.  And it lies in contrast to the way things looked a few days ago.  Mostly bare fields in the country-side.  Dormant grass in our lawns.  The leafless trees.  All now covered with a blanket of snow.

This has also been seen in the gracious work another did because I was a bit careless in our last Lord’s Supper.  I put a bit of a stain of wine into the white table cloth that was on the table.  And it was shown to me yesterday, clean; looking like new again.

We see these images of the work of God in our lives.  Promised in the words of Isaiah centuries before Jesus was even born.  Words that were a promise to the people in their lives then, to the lives of the people walking with Jesus, to our lives as we walk with Jesus now.  God works a cleansing in us. 

God restores us to the way we were meant to look, as the cloth was cleaned of the stain I put on it.  God renews us with his cleansing grace, as he covers over the imperfections of our doings with the land as the snow covers and brings beauty for a season.  God restores us to being his people, even as we are still at work to stop the sinning, only beginning to help the ones in need around us.

See God at work in us.  Join God in the work he does in us, around us and through us.  God has spoken, and his words are of grace and acceptance.

Song – Be Still, for the Presence of the Lord

Prayer

Faithful God, your promises stand unshaken through all generations.  Renew us in hope, that we may be awake and alert watching for the glorious return of Jesus Christ, our judge and saviour, in whose name we offer our prayers, Amen.