From the lectionary texts for this week, Isaiah 25:6-9.
Hear the word of the Lord:
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.
And 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.
Then 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.
It 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.
The voice of Isaiah brings word of the remarkable hospitality of God. Does the miraculous work of Jesus (John 2), where he makes water into wine at the wedding feast, fulfill this promise? Partially, but not perfectly. Even that marvelous move for hospitality at Cana did not completely bring the promised hospitality of which Isaiah speaks so longingly. How could it while we are still in this broken world? When Jesus says, “Woman, my hour is not yet come,” Jesus seems to be saying that it is not yet time for him to host the great celebration meant for the end of all time. It still isn’t time for perfect hospitality.
So we stand in tension. On one hand, we believe that the kingdom of God will, in the fullness of all time, bring the perfect and amazing banquet in heaven itself, presided over by God himself. At this table there is no exclusion, no pain, no disgrace, no death. There will be providence, peace, and salvation.
On the other hand, we believe that our job as messengers of the kingdom is to offer hospitality to a broken world today. Just because we can’t do it perfectly doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t try to do it better. So while we ought to expect that we can and will be more perfectly hospitable, we need to guard our hearts from the false expectation that we are going to do this perfectly in this life. We will not.
We are in the middle. Before, hospitality did not seem so important. In eternity, it is God’s way of welcoming his people into perfection. Now we are challenged to offer the best that we have, and to forgive when what we receive inevitably falls short of flawless. We have to wait; Isaiah tells us so twice: “we have waited for him, so that he might save us”; and “This is the Lord for whom we have waited.”
We can afford to be patient because God will keep God’s promise. God will not allow that patience to go unrewarded; when the time is right, those who have waited will receive from his hands what only his ways can produce: well-aged wine.
Grace and peace,
Ron
