By Paul Keim, professor of Bible & religion
Scripture: Isaiah 25:6-9 (NRSV)
Darkness, with the promise of light. Illness, with the promise of healing. Despair, with the promise of hope. Empty arms, with the promise of embrace. We wait. We watch. For the forces that have held us hostage in exile are being defeated, and the remnant prepares to return. Still reeling in the clutch of captivity, heads turn, ears tingle, nostrils test the air. Freedom is afoot.
And there on that precious mountain, a feast has been prepared for us, for ALL of us. YHWH bids us come and dine. There the burial shrouds that we have worn will be discarded, the shame of our vulnerability removed and our tears wiped away. And most delicious of all, Death itself, the great Swallower, will be swallowed up. Life will find a way.
Just a year ago, in the face of an impending pandemic, we scattered from our schools and places of work. Scarcely time to elbow-bump our goodbyes to colleagues and friends, we entered a domain of isolation and fractured fraternity. We learned to Zoom from home to classroom, to meeting, to interview, to conference, to court, to worship. We’ve learned to cope, kind of. But too much screen time leads to scream time. Sleeping or waking we see faces in boxes and faces in masks. We draw near and keep our distance. It has been a Lent-like journey of waiting. Like flat earthers we have carefully avoided what looked to be the edge of an abyss. But beyond that refracted horizon looms a feast of health, hope and healing. Deep darkness, with the promise of boundless light.
Scripture: Isaiah 25:6-9 (NRSV)
On this mountain the Lord of hosts will make for all peoples a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wines, of rich food filled with marrow, of well-aged wines strained clear. 7And he will destroy on this mountain the shroud that is cast over all peoples, the sheet that is spread over all nations; he will swallow up death forever. 8Then the Lord God will wipe away the tears from all faces, and the disgrace of his people he will take away from all the earth, for the Lord has spoken.
9It will be said on that day, Lo, this is our God; we have waited for him, so that he might save us. This is the Lord for whom we have waited; let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation.