At the Florida WELCA retreat yesterday, we had a great Bible study of Isaiah 55. Our Bible study leader is in her last year of seminary, and she reminded us that the passage that we would study is part of the return from exile passage, with its vision of what the return home would look like.
She read Isaiah 55: 1-13 to us and asked us what we jumped out at us. Then she invited us to share with our neighbors.
I zeroed in on Isaiah 55: 2:
"Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread,and your labor for that which does not satisfy?
Listen carefully to me, and eat what is good,
and delight yourselves in rich food."
I talked about the passage as asking us what satisfies, what do we really need? One of my groupmates is a science teacher, and she talked about the water cycle, about how the water needs to work its way through the ecosystem, particularly the water table, before it gets recycled into rain. My other groupmate heard the passage as speaking to life decisions she's contemplating.
Our Bible study leader talked about the value of imagination. We can't defeat the forces of empire and exile if we don't know what's on the other side. Imagination helps us dream and imagine and prepare.
She concluded by asking a tough question: are we the exiler? Whom have we exiled? What systems have we supported that are responsible for exile? She asked us to consider our churches with this question, and I wonder how many people will do that. Even churches that are officially welcoming can be offputting in ways that they don't understand. It's hard to see ourselves through the eyes of the other.
It's one of the essential questions of our sacred texts: how do we return us all home from exile? I suspect that the answer might be found in the answer to why we spend our money on that which is not bread.
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