Lay Down Your Cloaks

Luke 19:28-40

There is nothing more impressive than watching Air Force One fly through the sky. I attended the Army/Navy game at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia when my cousin was a cadet at West Point. The pre-game festivities include both marching bands playing and parading with all the pomp and pageantry you would expect from these elite musical ensembles, a group of army paratroopers parachuting into the stadium and an aerial flyover by each branches’ respective aerial units. But none of this compared to the sight of Air Force One flying over the stadium on its approach to the airport just a few miles south of the sports complex. Wow! That’s the President of the United States up there. It was awesome. It’s something that I will never forget.

I watched a special on the National Geographic Channel that talked about all the things Air Force One can do and all the work and preparation that goes into keeping the President safe and secure as he travels. It is quite a complex operation. Getting the president from place to place is a bit like planning the Normandy invasion: It involves hundreds of man-hours, millions of dollars and tons of hardware, making your last plane trip look like a cakewalk by comparison.

Even before the president takes off, Secret Service agents and local law enforcement at each destination are hard at work for days or, sometimes, weeks or months, interviewing and screening people who will be close to the president. They analyze primary and alternate routes through the city and sweep the site of the meeting or rally for any security problems. If the destination is a foreign country, coordination with the host nation requires even more planning and rehearsal to ensure the president’s safety.

On board Air Force One, the president and his entourage travel with all possible security precautions in place. It can travel 6,800 miles without refueling (which can be done in the air when needed). Air Force One also contains multiple electronic and material countermeasures to ward off an aerial attack. Everything is appointed with comfort and workability in mind. The president’s cabin suite is located near the nose of the plane and has couches that fold out into beds, complete with blankets monogrammed with the presidential seal. It has 80 phones on board with 238 miles of communications cable with internet and satellite links. There are well-appointed workspaces and conference rooms, a cabin just for the press corps, a full-time surgeon with a medical room containing a stocked pharmacy and operating table, and two kitchens with a staff of five chefs who are able to serve up to 100 meals per seating. The media calls it the “flying White House”. Talk about flying in style.

There are actually two identical jets that can serve as Air Force One. Both planes are flown to destinations so there’s always a backup. Accompanying them are at least two massive Air Force C-5 cargo planes that contain the armored presidential limousines (a primary and a decoy) and accompanying support vehicles for a motorcade, including a fully stocked ambulance. Sometimes, the presidential helicopter, Marine One, and other auxiliary aircraft are also ferried to a long-distance location on one of the cargo planes. The cargo planes land well in advance of Air Force One to begin assembling and staging all the necessary vehicles to be ready the second the president steps off the plane.

After the president gets into one of the armored limousines, the motorcade moves quickly on a designated route accompanied by Secret Service and local law-enforcement vehicles and helicopters. Often the route is changed at the last minute to thwart potential ambushers. After arriving at the site[i], the president’s personal Secret Service detail sets up a perimeter before the president steps out from the car and, perhaps, waves to the crowd. He is then quickly whisked through an alternate entrance and into a secure holding area before the speech. All this is planned down to the second. The speech itself is the easy part.

If it takes all that for the president of the United States just to go make a speech, what did it look like for the King of Kings, God’s chosen ruler of the whole world, to make his grand entrance at the beginning of the most important week the world has ever known? Luke and the other gospel writers give us a window into the travel arrangements that were needed when Jesus came into Jerusalem and into an environment that was anything but secure.

First there was the reason for the trip. The President is invited to visit with dignitaries, give speeches and attend meetings. Jesus is not invited to come to Jerusalem. There is no summit meeting scheduled with the temple officials, who had no doubt heard about Jesus’ teaching and healing. No town-hall meeting was set up with the Pharisees and Sadducees on the pressing issues of Torah and purity practice that Jesus had controversially circumvented or modified. Like the surprise visits former President Bush made with our troops in Iraq, Jesus comes to us unexpectedly.

Second, there was the type of transportation. In the first-century Roman world, emperors always made their arrival in a city with a great deal of pomp and circumstance. Elite troops carried Roman standards or banners — the equivalent of the Presidential seal and the big, bold letters on the exterior of Air Force One. The emperor himself entered the city riding on a warhorse, the ancient forerunner of a jet, or in a chariot, which acted like an ancient armored limo.

Jesus does it much differently. Forget the pomp and circumstance, the banners and the grand entrance; Jesus arrives on a humble donkey, a colt for that matter. A small animal carrying a large man: seems ridiculous, right? It’s a far cry from the amazing flying machines of our time or the war horses and chariots of ancient times. But to the people gathering around to watch Jesus’ arrival, the mode of transport was perhaps even more symbolic than Air Force One is to us. By riding into Jerusalem on a humble donkey, Jesus was making a very specific political statement and messianic claim, echoing the prophet’s imagery in Zechariah 9:9. Instead of a display of power and might with armed security and fighter escorts, this King comes in “humble and riding on a donkey.”

Third is the crowd that gathers. The Secret Service carefully plan and prepare every movement of the President to insure his safety and security. They are well-trained guards whose only purpose is to keep the President secure. They are the best of the best. The Secret Service works well in advance to secure every place the President is going. Jesus’s disciples were sent ahead as “advance agents” preparing for a “royal” entrance.

The crowd accompanying Jesus was as humble as his transportation — a ragtag collection of disciples and by-standers laying down their cloaks in the road, which was the ancient equivalent of rolling out a red carpet. This wasn’t an ordinary king, promoting his own glory and flaunting his symbols of power, but a king for fishermen, tax collectors, prostitutes, demoniacs, cripples and any sinner in need of redemption.

The religious elite certainly understood what Jesus was doing by arriving in the city this way, unannounced and unauthorized. Rather than joining the cheering supporters, they stage a protest, evident in verse 39. Eventually they will realize that Jesus’ security detail was pretty slim, and they would make sure that Jesus left the city on their terms, wanting him to stagger, not swagger, carrying a symbol of defeat and death.

Palm Sunday is a great time to assess our preparation for Jesus’ arrival. We have to remember that the King arrived the first time humbly, being born in a manger, and then began his final week on earth by riding into a city on a laughable little donkey. If our King comes to us so gently and humbly, how might we follow his example and prepare for his return? Would we be prepared? One way to prepare ourselves is to choose sacrifice over security in our daily lives. I met a young man many years ago who was having a kidney removed. He was a star athlete in school. He loved basketball the most and was hoping for an athletic scholarship to go to play ball in college. Now he couldn’t participate in the things he loved to do. Turns out his mom was very sick and needed a new kidney. The young man was willing to sacrifice something he loved to do, play basketball, in order to serve his mom by donating his kidney to his mother. Another way to prepare is to live a life that places the needs of the poor ahead of our pursuit of wealth. Every time one of us chooses to give of ourselves to the church, whether it is with money, our time or our gifts, we affirm God’s mission in the world to help the poor and those in need. Mother Theresa spent a lifetime caring for the outcasts, the sick, the untouchables, rather than pursuing a life of wealth and ease.

If Jesus were to arrive in our congregation today, how would we welcome him? With what stories would we entertain him? With what songs and shouts would we praise him? What would you be proud to show him (or ashamed to show him)? Would you recognize him for who he is or, like the religious leaders, would you mistake him for someone else because his humility doesn’t fit the paradigm of a leader? Lay down your cloaks for your king, your savior has arrived.





Sources:
1) The New Revised Standard Version Bible 

2) Bob Kaylor, Senior Writer for Homileticsonline.com and Senior Minister of the Park City United Methodist Church in Park City, Utah.

3) William Barclay. The Daily Study Bible Series: Gospel of Luke (Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1975).

Historical Amnesia

Isaiah 43:16-21

I am a student of history. It was part of my major in college along with political science. Human history is filled with great drama, stories of heroes and heroines, the rise and fall of leaders and nations; from the earliest known civilizations in China and the Middle East to the rattle and hum of the global economy of the last century; from the oldest manuscripts in the earliest known languages to the newest technology with its own computer languages: history keeps on rolling with one event leading to another.

I believe our history informs who we are. You’ve heard it said that, “Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” History helps us develop our identity as an individual on this expansive planet. Our past informs our present and our future. I am a Nowack. It’s what connects me to my ancestors, to the generations that came before me. I am also a Berglund, a Godlewska, a Pospisil, even a Cohen. Their beliefs, morals and values were passed down to me through the years, whether I knew it at the time or not. Many of you know where your families came from. It could be from another state like Ohio or California or (God forbid!) New Jersey. Or it could possibly be from another country, such as Germany, Sweden, or Mexico. There are many of us here who can trace their lineage back to the founding of this congregation in 1850. We have inherited a set of ethics, a set of morals and values to guide and inform who we are.

Our God is the God of history; the alpha and the omega; the beginning and the end. He created us and he sustains us. God has spoken and worked through the generations that preceded us bringing us to where we are today.

We need to know our own history, our church’s history, and how the past has influenced our present day. But are there things in the past that cannot inform us in the present time? Are there areas of our lives that the lessons of the past do not address? What can we forget? What must we remember?

Our text this morning is a great one about newness and joy. The Hebrews are in exile in Babylon as punishment for their unfaithfulness, waiting for what God will do next. God is on the verge of doing such a mind-boggling, outside the box new thing that’s never been done before; there are no models or examples for this impending act of grace to be found anywhere, and even the one model that suggests itself has to be turned on its head in order to match.

Isaiah fears that Israel will want to return to the past, re-live their traditions going back to the Exodus story and of David and Solomon and more. And in going back to this tradition, they will find themselves living in the past. If they do, they may miss out on the new thing God wants to do. So he writes: "Do not remember the former things, or consider the things of old."

But wait a sec! Are we not supposed to look back at what God has done in the past? Isn't it strange that Isaiah asks us not to remember the past right after invoking the story of the exodus? Does nostalgia cripple us in some way? What about the commands to "remember" that occur all throughout Scripture?

The counsel of Isaiah to his people, and God's counsel to us, is that we need to remember the past without fixating on it. If it becomes a habit of the mind, it becomes a form of spiritual escapism and forfeits the calling God has placed upon us. He only takes them to the exodus for perspective. Pharaoh had changed his mind on releasing the Hebrews, so he and his army chased them down onto the shores of the Red Sea. But God split and held back the waters so the Hebrews could advance. (Exodus 14, Isaiah 43:16-17).

God saw. God heard. God saved.

These things were true for their ancestors captive in Egypt, and they were still true in those days while God's people were captive to Babylon. God sees. God hears. And God saves. But how God would see, hear and save would change, is changing, and will always change. This is the way God rolls. God is always doing a new thing.

So while the Babylonian captives should remember that their God was a rescuing God, they weren't to anchor their expectations in only what God had done before -- as though what God had done before is all that God can do. If you fear losing our past, you aren't going to see what's right in front of you. Or you're not going to see WHO is right in front of you.

Have you seen this in a friend who pines away over a past romance? Meanwhile, he or she totally misses the amazing person he or she interacts with every day. They lose out because they're way out -- in the past.

Or think about the young adults who head off to college maintaining a relationship with a girlfriend or boyfriend back home. They have one foot in their hometown and the other foot at college. They are not fully connected into either community. More often than not, this relationship serves as a safety net because we are afraid of the unknown and cling to what we do know. Anybody who has ever found themselves in this situation would agree that 98% of the time these relationships don’t last. They realize they don’t want to miss out because they’re way out in the past.

In his novel A Light in August, William Faulkner reflected that "Memory believes before knowing remembers."

At the cultural level, that means that the mullet haircut won't ever be cool again and acid wash denim was bad the first time around. When you see people stuck living in the past, you want to snatch them out of their Camaros or their Mustangs and drag them into 2013, or at least up to 2001.

Even Moses fell victim to living in the past. When the Hebrews were parched in the desert, God told Moses to strike a rock with his staff -- it gushed drinking water (Exodus 17:5-6). When they thirsted and complained again in Numbers 20, Moses was to speak to the rock before the people. Instead, he bashed it with his staff -- twice this time. Drinking water still gushed, but it was called a distrust of God (Numbers 20:12). Moses was looking for God to act in the same way he did in the past -- and for that, he would never enter the promised land. If we fear losing our past, we aren't going to see what's right in front of us. Or we're not going to see WHO is right in front of us.

The 211th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (USA) made use of this passage from Isaiah when they proposed a new vision for church growth in the 21st century. The theme was: "Here these words ... Hey, I am doing a new thing ... Do you get it?" This was followed by a number of bullet points, including:
The church must give up reproducing the past. Doing the same things harder, faster, and smarter won't grow churches. 

The report then went on to explore the "new thing" of church, seeing the church moving from the dry wasteland to spiritual waters; moving from negative attitudes to hope, joy and openness and giving ourselves away to a ministry that proclaims God's love and grace.

This is where the church gets hung up. This is where we get stuck. We love our history. We love our traditions. We love doing church the way it’s always been done, usually that means the way church worked back in the 1940s, 50s & 60s. The middle of the 20th century was a great time for the Protestant church in the United States. The economic post-war boom brought about big changes to communities across our land. The suburbs grew and expanded around major cities and towns. With it came families with lots of children, the Baby Boomers as we call them now. Families joined churches, attended services and went to Church School because of their belief and faith but also because it was the cool thing to do. It’s what was expected. If you build it, they will come. A retired minister I know told me that his first call was in a small church that had expanded rapidly in size to the point that there were 1000 children in church school. But over the last 40 years or so, a lot has changed in our church and society. More and more people are not attending church services, especially the younger generations. The influence of the church on our society is shrinking, it’s diminishing. To be religious in the eyes of our culture makes you a hypocrite. The “spiritual but not religious” percentage of the population is growing the fastest while our churches continue to hemorrhage members.

In the light of this seismic shift in our culture and society, we cannot stand by and let it blow right by us. It was writer George Will who once said, “The future has a way of arriving unannounced.” In our case, we can go kicking and screaming into the future or open our hearts and minds to seek out what is God doing in this place. We cannot allow ourselves to get nostalgic with our traditions. It will tie us to our past stifling our alertness to our present day realities, our responsiveness to new opportunities, and the potential for growth into yet-unrealized possibilities for ministry.

We must reflect upon questions such as: Where is God leading us? What is the vision God has revealed to this church family?

Scholar Geoffrey Grogan captures the tension in Isaiah 43: "We are meant to reflect on the past with gratitude and stimulated faith but not allow it to stereotype our expectations from God."

God is sending us a clear message. You ain't seen nothing yet! Get your eyes off the rear view mirror and back onto the road. The best is yet to come.

Makeover Madness

2 Corinthians 5:16-21
Luke 15:1-3, 11-32

A little boy was overheard talking to himself as he strutted through the backyard, wearing his baseball cap and toting a ball and bat. “I’m the greatest hitter in the world,” he announced. Then he tossed the ball into the air, swung at it, and missed. “Strike One!” he yelled. Undaunted, he picked up the ball and said, “I’m the greatest hitter in the world!” He tossed the ball into the air. When it came down, he swung again and missed. “Strike Two!” he cried.

The boy then paused a moment to examine his bat and ball carefully. He spit on his hands and rubbed them together. He straightened his cap and said once more, “I’m the greatest hitter in the world!” Again he tossed the ball up in the air and swung at it. He missed. “Strike Three! Wow!” the boy exclaimed. “I’m the greatest pitcher in the world!”

Your attitude determines how circumstances impact your life. The little boy’s circumstances hadn’t changed, but his optimistic attitude turned a potential negative into a positive.

Attitude is a powerful thing. It will make your heart cold filled with devils and dust or it can be a source of energy to engage the world around you in a positive, loving way. Attitude is an important part of a healthy, positive, faith-filled life. Your attitude will determine how you live: joyfully in the freedom of Christ or miserably wallow in the depths of loneliness and despair. "Your attitude is like the aroma of your heart. If your attitude stinks, it means your heart is not right."[1]

Author and preacher Chuck Swindoll says that, “Attitude is more important than facts. It is more important than the past, than education, than money, than circumstances, than failures, than successes, than what other people think or say or do. It is more important than appearance, giftedness or skill… I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 90% how I react to it.”

Every once in a while, we need an attitude adjustment and a spiritual makeover to keep us on the right track; like when a car needs a tune up. The parable of the Prodigal Son is a great example of this; a parable about the power of love, forgiveness and joy to transform into a new creation in Christ, if we chose to accept it.

There were some attitudes needing a makeover in Jesus’ day: those of the Pharisees and the scribes. Their arrogance reeked of disdain and contempt for those not as important as themselves. Their attitude was a sense of entitlement of the admiration and respect of the people.

I don’t like the attitude of the younger son. First impressions are lasting impressions, you know. He’s callous, rude, and offensive. He goes to his father and says, “Dear Dad, Drop dead! With love, your youngest son.” According to Jewish custom, the younger son received 1/3 of the inheritance which was usually received at the father’s death but which had been divided at an earlier time (1 Kings 1-2). That’s what is expected. For the younger son to demand his inheritance before his father’s death was irregular and cold-bloodedly offensive. “It’s my life. I know what’s best for me. Get out of my life. I want what’s coming to me.” His father willingly complies with his request and a few days later the boy is gone.

We all know what happens next: the dissolute living, squandering all his money with nothing to show for it, a major economic downturn hits the country with famine everywhere. No money and no resources: what will he do? Where will he go? Surely he has some job skills he can use to get a job of some kind, but times are tough. There’s not a lot of opportunity out there since the famine started and the housing bubble burst. Where is he? There’s a farm on the outskirts of town. Look for the big red barn, to the left of the barn is the pig pen. He’s in the pig pen eating with the pigs, living with the pigs, acting like a pig. It’s the only job he could find. How embarrassing! The shame of it all! No faithful, devout Jew would be found dead near a pig; it’s not kosher, they’re unclean. I can hear someone in Jesus’ audience whispering, “He’s abandoned his religion; he has trampled on everything his parents taught him.”

For an addict of any kind to want to get well, they must first lose everything and hit rock bottom. Sitting in the pig pen with the pigs, the younger son finally comes to his senses. When he’s finally slowed down enough and stripped down to the core of his being that’s when he begins to remember. He remembers the carefree days of his childhood when there was plenty of food to eat, parties to attend, playing soccer with the other kids in the neighborhood; even his father’s servants lived better than he is right now. He has a change in attitude. So he heads for home.

He’s coming home because he’s hungry; he’s hit rock bottom. You get down and out, I don’t care how much pride you have, sooner or later you’re going to come home. When you hit the wall, you’re going to come home. When you hit bottom, you’re going to come home. It’s not like it used to be; sit at the dinner table and discuss whether you’re going to the see the opera, or go to see a Shakespearean play, it’s a matter of, is there anything to eat? He needs a bed and a bath and a meal. That’s why he’s home. We all come back when it gets hard enough.

On the cover of your bulletin there’s a work of art by Rembrandt of the return of the prodigal son. The three main characters are all there. The younger son falls to his knees at the feet of his father in his tattered clothes, missing a shoe; his bald head resting on his father’s chest. The father, dressed in fine clothes with bold color, bends over with his arms outstretched upon the boy’s back. They are open hands, hands that wish to embrace rather than repel, comfort rather than terrorize, show mercy rather than judgment. The older son, standing to the side, in fine clothes like his father’s, with a beard and hair like his father’s, keeps his hands together one wrapped inside the other.

What a contrast of attitudes between the father and the older son! On the outside they look almost exactly alike, but on the inside, their attitude, couldn’t be more different. The father: love, compassion, forgiveness and joy. The oldest son: judgmental, callous, and disparaging. Which would you prefer?

The father has come out of the house to greet his son. “But while he was still far off” is a strong indicator that the father had been watching and waiting for his return, expecting his return. And as a parent runs to meet her son returning home from war, the father runs to him, put his arms around him, and forgives him.

And there’s going to be a party, a huge party. It will be the social event of the year. There will be wine, the fatted calf, and DJ Paulie D will be flown in from the Jersey Shore to provide the music. There will be dancing and singing. The whole town is invited. It’s going to be awesome! Why? Because our God is a merciful and compassionate God who loves all the earth and everything in it. Why? Because when one sinner repents it is celebrated with the angles in heaven. Why? Because “this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found” (Luke 15:24).

While working in the fields, the older son hears some noise coming from the house. When he finds out it is a party for his younger brother’s return, he refuses to attend. He’s jealous, angry and resentful. He doesn’t consider his brother to be his brother. I remember wishing for that as a kid after fights with my younger brother. The father comes to him, pleads with him to come to the party and be a part of the festivities. His self-righteous, pompous, holier-than-thou attitude is evident in his response to his father. Why the attitude? Because he wants the praise and glory for the things he’s done on the outside, his good works, following orders, holding the line, maintaining the status quo and more. But his heart isn’t right because his attitude stinks!

So what are we do make of this very powerful and familiar parable? We all need a spiritual makeover. We all need a spiritual makeover because each of us, like the younger son, is fallen, a sinner. How often do we put ourselves ahead of God and others? How often does our selfishness get the best of us? How often do we think we know what’s best for us? We are need of redemption by the grace of God in Jesus Christ, if we chose to accept it.

We all need a spiritual makeover because we are the elder brother: arrogant, judgmental, and stuck in our ways. We cling to our tried and true ways of doing things; wishing that someone would simply acknowledge our faithfulness, if not with a “fatted calf”, then at least with a “young goat”.

We all need a spiritual makeover because we are forgiven by a merciful and gracious God, but don’t always live as a forgiven people. I pulled into a parking spot yesterday right next to a car that had just pulled in a moment earlier. As I am pulling in, the back door of the other car swings open and quickly closes. In my mind I’m thinking, “Why don’t you look before you open your door next time?” A short time later, in a different parking lot, D’Anna swings open her door right in front of a car pulling into the adjacent space. The incidents reminded me of what it means to live a life of grace and forgiveness with the world.

The parable of the Prodigal Son, or the parable of the father, offers an alternative perspective. It is a view from the kingdom that is often not acknowledged, much less seen clearly. Here, in contrast to “the way things should be,” mercy rescinds justice, abundance trumps anger, and wayword children of God are welcomed home by loving parents. This is the overwhelming scandal of grace, which is cause for great rejoicing.




[1] Facing the Giants by Alex and Stephen Kendrick (Sherwood Pictures: Albany, Georgia, 2006)

Feed Me! I'm Starving!

Isaiah 55:1-9

              It's no secret that we are becoming a nation full of unhealthy people. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than a third (35.7%) of Americans are obese. Carrying an unhealthy weight leads to all kinds of related conditions like heart disease, stroke, diabetes, and cancer -- in other words, most of the leading causes of death. In 2008, the medical costs related to obesity in the United States were estimated at $147 billion, or $1,492 more per obese person than a person of normal weight.  And yet, despite the constant warnings in the media and the pleading of doctors, obesity rates continue to rise. In 2000, no state had an obesity prevalence over 30 percent, while in 2010, 12 states exceeded that threshold.[1]

Many health insurance companies, including Highmark Blue Cross Blue Shield through the Presbyterian Board of Pensions, have decided to take another approach, however. Rather than merely continuing to pay the mounting costs, these companies in partnership with doctors and nurses are attempting to help people manage their health, not only through cost incentives favoring preventive actions and massive doses of information, but also through the personal attention of a "health coach."[2]

How does the "health coach" work?  The patient fills out an online health assessment based on an annual physical, including blood work. The company provides an incentive for people to get the exam and fill out the assessment by lowering deductibles for those who do so. The patient fills out the online form using the data from the exam. Any red flag numbers that come up are brought to the patient's attention and he or she is then offered the services of a "health coach," usually a registered nurse, who will be in contact with the patient by phone to help the patient manage the problem and make changes. 

The health coach talks with the patient to understand his or her condition and then helps the patient set goals for living a healthier lifestyle and/or managing a chronic disease like asthma or diabetes or a host of other conditions. The health coach checks in with the patient on a regular basis, offering tips and encouragement for maintaining better health through things like nutrition counseling, weight-loss strategies, how to take medication effectively, and advising about appropriate exercises. The patient isn't required to have a health coach or listen to his or her advice, but for those who want to find a way out of their current health situation, the coaches are a valuable resource.

It's hard for us to make changes in our lives strictly by our own will power. The Bible says that the spirit may be willing, but the flesh is weak.  Health coaches are different from coaches for sports with all the screaming, whistles and pushups, but their technique can be no less effective. All we need is someone to keep us accountable, to build up one another knowing that better and healthier lives are ahead if we're willing to put in the hard work of taking charge of our own health.

A health coach, even if he or she is only on the other end of a phone line, can make a huge difference in the life of someone who's struggling physically. One recent study by The New England Journal of Medicine revealed that patients with health coaches were able to lose five times more weight than those who tried to lose it on their own.[3] A health coach can work for you, too.

What's true for our bodies is true for our spiritual lives.  They are closely linked.  Health coaching for the soul is as helpful and necessary as the coaching one might get from a medical insurance company, except in the case of spiritual coaching we're not trying to cut down or cut back, but rather trying to fill up on God's spirit and provision for our lives. 

God speaks to the exiled people of Judah through the prophet Isaiah in a way that sounds a lot like a health coach talking with a suffering patient.  The people are living in exile in Babylon because of their sin, their sin of unfaithfulness to their covenant with God.  Isaiah insists now that that sin is now a thing of the past and that Yahweh their God and the God of all creation, is about to do a new and liberating thing in the life of the people Israel and in the life of the world. (Isaiah 42:5-9).  And because of this new thing that is to take place as a result of God’s grace, the people and the whole world are to rejoice.  Yahweh is a God of mercy and grace.  You could say Yahweh’s got the whole world in his hands and the future of all humankind will be one of justice and peace under Yahweh’s rule.

God is advising them on strategies that will restore their spiritual health and relationships with God as he prepares to lead them back from exile in Babylon. The people have long been dehydrated and starving as the consequence of their sin and banishment to a foreign land. Now God gives them some nutrition counseling about how to be nourished again. 

"Ho, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters,".  God made this promise to Noah during the catastrophic flood many generations before.  As God did then, God promises to continue to sustain and be with them (54:9-10). God now invites his thirsty people to "come to the waters" and drink deeply of God's love for them.

Spiritual dryness can become a chronic condition for the people of God if they do not come to the "living water" and drink deeply on a regular basis (John 4).  As any health coach will tell you, drinking at least eight, 8-ounce glasses of water a day will benefit you a great deal. Regular and sustained disciplines of prayer and engagement with God's word will also sustain the thirsty soul. God invites us, as he invited the people of Judah, to come and drink deeply and be refreshed by his love and his promises. 

God urges us to get off the fast, cheap and easy spiritual diet and instead come to the free and abundant banquet he offers through his amazing grace. This isn't food you have to work to be able to afford, but rather the gift of a gracious and loving God (55:1). Indeed, Yahweh identifies the problem with the people's health: They are spending their money on cheap, undernourished alternatives and working hard to sustain a spiritual diet that won't satisfy them (55:2).   They were starving spiritually on the diet of slavery in Babylon when God says to them, "Listen carefully to me and eat what is good, and delight yourselves in rich food" (55:2). That "food" is the richness of God's own word and promise based on God's covenant with David (55:3). As rain falls upon the earth bringing forth seeds that grow bread for us, so God's Word goes out and sustains his people if only they will come and eat. It's a word that is never "empty" but always accomplishes God's purpose (55:10-11). 

So God urges us to change how and what we eat. So much of our diet, both physically and spiritually, comes packaged as sugary-sweet and enticing empty calories, whether it's on the shelf at the grocery store, the dollar menu at McDonald’s, the video store or the virtual store. We grow fatter, dumber and sadder the more we consume the junk of our culture. It’s so much easier to go through the drive-thru at Sonic or Burger King than it is to take the time to plan and prepare a nutritious, wholesome meal.  We become lazy and lethargic.  We prefer the fast food fix over our long-term health and happiness.  We prefer the easy stuff that’s slowly killing us over the hard stuff that will keep us healthy.

God urges us instead to fill up on bread that sustains -- the Bread of Life, the manna from God that is there to nourish us daily. It’s the bread that enables us not only to be healthy, but to share ourselves by helping others as “assistant spiritual health coaches”. Jesus once said, "My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to complete his work" (John 4:34). We should embrace the same diet!

If we're going to make that change, however, we know that we will do better if we don't try to make it on our own. We need our fellow Christians to help us in community, and we need to embrace God's offer to coach us through prayer as we make the change: "Seek the Lord while he may be found, call upon him while he is near ..." (55:6) suggests a sense of urgency; a sense of carpe diem.  The time is ripe for repentance and for restoration.  And that’s why we come and seek the Lord at this table and participate in this meal Jesus has prepared for us; a meal that is capable of sustaining life and hope; a meal that is free and without cost for all who seek it.  It is illustrated in the words of one of our favorite hymns, “Guide me, O Thou great Jehovah, Pilgrim through this barren land.  I am weak, but Thou art mighty; Hold me with Thy powerful hand.  Bread of heaven, bread of heaven, Feed me till I want no more; Feed me till I want no more.”[4]

God is, after all, the expert whose "thoughts are not [our] thoughts, nor are [our] ways [his] ways" (55:8). If we're going to be healthy Christians, we need a Coach who knows the best way to make us whole!

---

[1] http://www.homileticsonline.com/subscriber/btl_display.asp?installment_id=93040732

[2] http://www.homileticsonline.com/subscriber/btl_display.asp?installment_id=93040732

[3] http://www.homileticsonline.com/subscriber/btl_display.asp?installment_id=93040732

[4] Guide Me, O Thou Great Jehovah. William Williams, 1717-1791; trans. from the Welsh by Peter Williams and the author. Music: John Hughes, 1873-1932  CWM RHONDDA, Meter: 87.87.87.  v.1.