Our Personal Return From Exile

ISAIAH 60

When I mentioned that we were taking our family holiday in Poland this year, I saw people looking curiously. 

Why, of all the countries in the world, would you want to go there?

I’m only just realising that one of the reasons I wanted to go was to understand more about its wounded past and the way it was travelling towards a more positive future.

Instinctively, I am drawn to the places and the people where the motifs of crucifixion and resurrection have become imaged.

Occupied by the Nazi regime, put under the domination of communist rule.

The wounds are fresh and deep in Poland – yet as we strolled round the beautiful city of Cracow, you could feel the freshness, the peace and the security of a way of live that was becoming settled again, of Easter morning dawning after a long Good Friday.

As if the people had been in exile for long, dark years – their true selves buried underground – and now, in spite of a fragile Government – they were at last blinking into the light of a new day.

I then discovered the Old Testament reading set for this evening as being about a similar process. The return of the people of Israel from a more physical exile in Babylon.

The vision of Isaiah 60 is given whilst the wounds of separation are still fresh and deep.

 I then wondered about this healing ministry and that which causes us to be here this evening and I wondered if the whole thing was about recognising the parts of our lives that feel disjointed, pulled away from the place where they ought to be, driven underground.

The places where suffering and fear cause us to feel at a distance from one another and far away from God.

In fact, that we know our own exile.

In this chapter we find words which signal something of the way out of it and  which could begin through the prayer we offer each other tonight.

I discover a thread of important words running through the first 14 verses of the chapter.

Arise. Come. See. Bring. Build up. Beautify.

Arise – this was the command Jesus gave to those who sought healing from Him. We’re flat out. Unable to stand or do anything by our own strength. We need to feel his hand reaching out towards us. We need to summon up the little faith we have. We know this only too well and its hard for us. But immediately we take his hand there is a shining – for in allowing God to meet us at our deepest point of need – the glory of the Lord is risen upon us

Come – you’re set on your feet not so that you can immediately go your own way again but for a purpose. Although you are still limping, although there is still fear in your heart – your healing is so that you might follow where the Lord is leading you – although your wounds are so fresh and deep – there for the touching – there is a brightness in your rising to which many will marvel.

See – Jesus opened eyes in his healing ministry, not just to prevent people from stumbling over rocks and stones, but that they might look into the face of God. Our vision is to be widened so that we can discover where God is in our fractured world and glory in the riches behind such perceptions.

Arise. Come. See. and now, bring.

Bring out the gifts and the riches you never knew you had. That which has been buried away in exile in side of yourself. That which you had been taught was of no use. That which you had cause to no longer value. Bring it out so that you may serve God with such an abundance.

So build up – the holy city had become a heap of ruins during the exile, its walls and temple had reached the state of tumbledown. Where to begin the task of putting things right? We look around at our lives, those within our families and our neighbourhood. We consider the wider picture of gun crime and children at risk, of wars without an end in sight and we feel disempowered about it all. We want to help to rebuild but where does that begin for the likes of us?

In recognising the treasure we all have – in sharing the riches we all deep down possess, and here’s the rub, knowing them as God given.

For the problem with the exile is that he or she had forgotten what came from God in the first place.

Build up and beautify. That is where all this is leading. Towards the shining forth of the glory of God in us and in our community. “I will make the place of my feet to be glorious” – where he has trod, he will leave his mark.

“Let me see thy footmarks and in them plant mine own” – here is the great cry of the disciple unsure of what to do next.

To become beautified by the grace of God.

Here is where the kingdom of heaven, takes shape in us in ways we could never imagine

Arise. Come. See. Bring. Build up and beautify.

There is a trail to bring us from the place of our exile – to the place of knowing our incorporation into the kingdom for which Christ prayed.

This service is a refreshment place for those making progress along the way.

It’s a place to get back on track if we have turned aside for too long.

It is a moment for any who might have wanted to begin the return but knew not how to start.

R  16.09.07

PRAYERS FOR THE HEALING MINISTRY BASED ON KEY WORDS FROM ISAIAH 60

Arise – we pray Lord that you would meet us this evening at the point where we feel at our weakest. We bring to you the physical pains which prevent us from standing upright. We bring to you our fragile faith which makes it so hard for us to grab the outstretched hand you hold out to each of us.

Come – We thank you Lord that you call each one of us to your service and we pray that in these healing moments we may know ourselves to be more fully equipped for this purpose. Guide our ways, Lord God, that we follow in the path you are setting out for us.

See – We praise you for the wonderful world you have made. May we never be distracted from the beauty around us. Help us to see your holy presence shining in those we meet day by day and help us to minister to those from whom the image of your glory has become distorted.

Bring – we offer to you the gifts we have that they may be used in your service. Give us the discernment we need so that we might know what it is we should best use to reveal your love in the world. We thank you for the blessing we know have been given to us in this life, forgive us when we have missed the moments of grace.

Build up – we remember the needs of the wider world and where cities and the lives of those within them have been torn down, give strength to those who build up – both the confidence of the people and the well being of struggling nations

Beautify – may your kingdom be made know in us Lord God we pray. Draw us all closer to you. We pray for those who face the end of their life on earth and those who have passed recently into your nearer presence. May they shine with the light of your heavenly glory.

Lord of the exile and the displaced – bring us from the far away places in which we sometimes find ourselves, physically, mentally and spiritually and by your healing touch bring us at last to the place where we should be.