Friday 9 September

Isaiah 20:1-23:18

I love this so much.  I imagine Isaiah was going about his daily prayers.  Maybe he’d just read a little bit of the Torah, had bent his head forward and mumbled a few lines about his family when the Lord thundered his name; “Isaiah”.  The humble, obedient prophet would no doubt have responded with “Speak Lord, your servant is listening”.  And so God did speak.  And he said something that I have everyday begged him not to say to me - “Get up, get naked, and walk out onto the street”.  It doesn’t say how Isaiah responded.  I suspected he fell off his stool and lay in the dust, head spinning with the dizzying consequences of this command.  Maybe he went back for a little clarification - “O Sovereign Lord, can I just confirm that when you say ‘naked’ you do mean that I can keep me undies on don’t you, O Great One?”   No response.  “You see the thing is I’m a little embarrassed about the size of my jubbly and it’s not really the done thing to waltz around in the nuddy in this part of town.”  Still no response.  Isaiah has a choice.  Will he prioritise obedience or self-respect.  Will he try to rationalise away the word of the Lord or will he do what he believe is required of him.  If he was anything like me he would have taken a good long while to weigh it up...  And then Isaiah lifted himself off the floor, he let the sackcloth slide off his shoulders and walked slowly towards the door.  He bared his butt to the nation.  He exposed his shame to every person.  For three long years.  Isaiah showed that our shame can lead to God’s glory.  Our shame is momentary but His Glory lasts for ever.

2 Corinthians 11:1-15

Do not despise the day of small things.  I think that is a reasonable application from this passage.  When Paul went to Corinth he lowered himself, he made himself small and meek and didn’t charge people to listen to him.  He didn’t go as a trained and dynamic speaker but probably just plopped up with a simply-expressed desire to get them into the bible and to pray for them to be filled by the Spirit.  This gospel stuff isn’t fancy.  But it sure has got some power to it.  The trouble is that we, like the Corinthians, are a little bit of a sucker for ‘the next big thing’ for alluring marketing and hyped-up presentations.  We can’t stop ourselves thinking that God, if he really is God, can’t be as simple as this.  And so we look for people who flatter this false sense of excitement.  We want to get a chance to meet real on-fire Christians.  We would be honoured to get to meet a Super-Apostle.  But the trouble with this, the real trouble with despising the day of small things and always looking for ‘super-apostles’ is that we can do small things while super-apostles disempower us.  The true excitement of the kingdom is not that somebody else astounds us with their extraordinary knowledge and skill but that we get to do stuff that really makes a difference. Each and every follower of Jesus can do simple little things that somehow transform the world.  This is the simplicity that exists at the far side of complexity.  This is the brilliance that exceeds that of the superficial prancers and posers who make us feel dumb.  Our brilliance is that of Jesus who did not consider equality with God something to be gripped on to but who humbled himself even to death on a cross.  We should celebrate the day of small things.  For our God made small things powerful.

Proverbs 22:7-16

The generous man... shares his food with the poor.