My thoughts and your thoughts
Dear church,
My thoughts and your thoughts, they can differ quite a bit, depending on the subject. That’s how it is in human relationships. It can be painful. It can be inspiring and educational. It can be surprising. Sometimes we learn the hard way how different views can be among us, views about life, God, the world, politics, relationships and all sorts of topics. My thoughts are not always your thoughts - and vice versa.
It’s even like that in our relationship with God, says one of the greatest prophets of the Bible. In the 55th chapter of Isaiah, the prophet channels God in a brilliant passage. “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord. “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.”
One might easily interpret this as God putting the people of Israel back in their place, making sure they know who is in charge, making them aware of the huge spiritual distance between heaven and earth, telling them who is the boss after all. But that’s not how this statement is meant. In fact, if these chapters of Isaiah communicate anything consistently about God’s thoughts, it’s that his way of looking at us is more kind, more forgiving, more gracious than we tend to be towards ourselves and toward our friends and closest family members. “My thoughts are not your thoughts,” God says. What does this mean?
This passage encourages us to have faith when we can’t see how things might possibly turn out alright. Sometimes we look at challenges and we just can’t fathom how they could possibly be overcome. Do you know what I mean? Sometimes it’s not as simple as… you have a toothache, well go to the dentist. Sometimes it rains problems and no umbrella on earth can catch it all. That’s how the situation was for Israel collectively in those years of Exile in Babylon when they did not see a future for themselves. That’s how it is, I imagine, for people in Venezuela at this time, after years of dictatorship, dependency on the oil economy and now devastation after the earthquakes. That’s how it is for people in Haiti, I imagine, with violence, corrupt leadership and so much instability rocking the island. Is there a way forward? It’s hard to imagine. And not only that, I know some individual people in and around our congregation for whom this kind of dead-end feeling is just as true. They are facing problems that they have no idea how to solve.
In those times and situations, our faith can save us from despair, our community can give us hope, the Word of God can be a lifeline. “My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord. We may not see a path in front of us; our thoughts may be negative and pessimistic and we may feel that we have good arguments to back up our pessimism. We can prove that life is a mess. But, God says, “My thoughts are not your thoughts and my ways are not your ways.” It’s a reminder that human vision is limited. We can’t see around the corner.
This passage in Isaiah 55 has one of the strongest messages about the power of God’s Word. I have seen parts of this passage displayed in Christian homes as a daily reminder, a faith incubator. “As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.”
Why do we pray? Because we believe that the Word of God can penetrate the barren parts of our lives, the deserts of despair, the ground zero of our being, water the ground and bring forth new life! Why do we pray? Because we put our trust not in mere science, although we respect science, but we trust in the force behind all science. Why do we pray? Because there is a mystery behind all matter that people have known since primordial times and have evoked to connect with life and health. Why do we pray? Because Jesus modeled prayer as a way to invite the power of God into our lives.
“My thoughts are not your thoughts,” declares the Lord in Isaiah 55. The Swiss theologian Karl Barth, had this to add. “This much is certain, that we have no theological right to set any sort of limits to the loving-kindness of God which has appeared in Jesus Christ. Our theological duty is to see and understand it as being still greater than we had seen before.” We are encouraged to think bigger about the grace of God. Our thoughts, our faith tend to be on the small side. We must learn to trust God; and trusting, we bear fruit, as Jesus famously said about the crop produced on fertile soil: a hundredfold.
Have faith! Amen.
