Pastor's Corner: The way things ought to be

1-2 Wilderness and desert will sing joyously, the badlands will celebrate and flower-Like the crocus in spring, bursting into blossom, a symphony of song and color. Mountain glories of Lebanon-a gift. Awesome Carmel, stunning Sharon-gifts. God's resplendent glory, fully on display. God awesome, God majestic.

3-4 Energize the limp hands, strengthen the rubbery knees. Tell fearful souls, "Courage! Take heart! God is here, right here, on his way to put things right. And redress all wrongs. He's on his way! He'll save you!"

5-7 Blind eyes will be opened, deaf ears unstopped, Lame men and women will leap like deer, the voiceless break into song. Springs of water will burst out in the wilderness, streams flow in the desert. Hot sands will become a cool oasis, thirsty ground a splashing fountain. Even lowly jackals will have water to drink, and barren grasslands flourish richly.

8-10 There will be a highway called the Holy Road. No one rude or rebellious is permitted on this road. It's for God's people exclusively - impossible to get lost on this road. Not even fools can get lost on it. No lions on this road, no dangerous wild animals - Nothing and no one dangerous or threatening. Only the redeemed will walk on it. The people God has ransomed will come back on this road. They'll sing as they make their way home to Zion, unfading halos of joy encircling their heads, Welcomed home with gifts of joy and gladness as all sorrows and sighs scurry into the nigh. (Isaiah 35:1-10 The Message Bible)

What a lovely picture of natural peace and stability Isaiah paints for us. We hear so many predictions of ecological gloom and doom that we pine for such good news. It is a picture of shalom, a picture of health and peace for humankind, the animal world and the earth. It is a picture of verdant land and joyful people.

Shalom is "the way things ought to be," or God's will done on earth as it is in heaven. Shalom, in this view, is nothing less that the creation-wide realization of God's intentions for all things. This vision of all things in right relationship is itself rooted in our understanding that God is a God of relationships. God is not solitary, nor is God isolated or distant from creation. We humans are who we are only in relation - to God, to other people, and to the nonhuman world. We are embedded in a complex web of relationships that include all creatures.

The God we worship - Father, Son, and Holy Spirit - is the Lord of all creation. God created all things in love, and that same God of love is making all things new through the redeeming work of Christ and the sanctifying power of the Holy Spirit. The Shalom of God extends to the entire creation.

At present, everything is not the way it's supposed to be. God's good future has not yet come, for sin still has its way with us. Relationships are broken. People are alienated. The world groans for redemption. And so we ache for that time and that place when all will be set right, when what is misshapen is remade, when those who are estranged are reconciled. We ache for places of peace and communities of justice, for people of compassion and times of delight.

What does this aching look like? What does this actually mean for how we live the good life on God's good earth? It means we take seriously and joyfully the implications of our faith in all we do. It means we lean into that good future of shalom by asking some hard questions. And it means we act with creativity and courage to make real God's reign of shalom in our local communities. This earth is God's world of wonders. It is a place filled with hope and promise by the God who crafted it, sustains it, and lovingly works to redeem it. This is our joyful vocation - to love God; to care for that which God loves; and to seek shalom - the flourishing of all things.

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Pastor Michael O'Hearn

Hi-Line Lutheran Churches