September 17

Today is Rosh Hashanah. For my faithful rabbis who help me with Torah and all sorts of other questions, I wish you a blessed and sweet New Year.
Here is a blog post from Black and White, a Jewish blogger who has some really good thoughts on New Year, new you.

OT -- Isaiah 25:1-28:13

Joe B had an incredible sermon today. Don and I both agreed afterwards that we thought it the best sermon he has ever preached to us. If you want to skip ahead to the sermon only, it is at minute 33. You will, however, miss Jim Wingate, our organist playing a MAGNIFICENT rendition of Samuel Barber's Requiem at the beginning and a lovely, lovely singing of Fairest Lord Jesus which has to be my second favorite hymn of all time and better be played at my funeral!! Morning is Broken is first on my list. The service would have been complete if we had sung that.
Joe B is reacting to the awfulness of Libya attacks on our embassy and the general uprising by Islamic radicals over an inflammatory internet movie.

I am not sure why I stayed in the Presbyterian Church after I grew up. I certainly have my fair share of doubts and dislikes of both Christianity in general and Presbyterianism in specific. I didn't go to church after I left home except for Christmas and Easter with the folks. But at some event that Nathan needed a chaperone for his youth group, I met a cute boy, a little younger than me, who I wanted to date. Back to church I went even after we quit dating. And I have been an active member ever since with the brief period of three months when I left one church for another.

Isaiah speaks to this 'belonging' in our scripture today.
26:10 "Though grace is shown to the wicked, they do not learn righteousness;
even in a land of uprightness they go on doing evil
and regard not the majesty of the Lord."

It is hard for me to understand why 'righteous' people do evil things in the name of their religion. Oh, I get the evil thing doing. I surely, surely do my fair share and more. But I have NEVER and this I do say emphatically, NEVER done it because my religion told me to do. This is why I despise Ezra and Nehemiah. I just wouldn't behave that way. Oh, I am mean. I am exclusive. But God did not TELL me to be mean and exclusive.

And maybe this is the problem I am having with my lovely Isaiah. Yes, once again, I had only read the 'nice' parts. The hard stuff, the destruction, the doom, yeah, that was left out of my Sunday School curriculum.
In the passages we are reading now, EVERYONE is headed for the bottom of the barrel. Part of it is because the Assyrians were a force unheard of in their time. Egypt did its share of conquering but Assyria would sweep into a section of the world, lay waste to everything in its path, remove the inhabitants for slavery and forced labor and replace with Assyrians who would takeover with their culture and religion.
However, most of it is because everyone is getting the squash because the Israelites have been unfaithful to God and THAT I think is unfair.
But Isaiah has an answer to that as well.
27:11
When its twigs are dry, they are broken off
and women come and make fires with them.
For this is a people without understanding;
so their Maker has no compassion on them,
and their Creator shows them no favor.

Ouch.