Tear Open the Heavens
(Katie Callaway)
“We must be the ones tearing through all of the fences, gates, and walls that separate our world from the compassionate, justice seeking, radically inclusive Christ-child we will soon find in a manger.”
What obstacles do you see in our world that separate people from this compassion, justice, and inclusivity?
Isaiah 64:1-9
O that you would tear open the heavens and come down,
so that the mountains would quake at your presence—
as when fire kindles brushwood
and the fire causes water to boil—
to make your name known to your adversaries,
so that the nations might tremble at your presence!
When you did awesome deeds that we did not expect,
you came down, the mountains quaked at your presence.
From ages past no one has heard,
no ear has perceived,
no eye has seen any God besides you,
who works for those who wait for him.
You meet those who gladly do right,
those who remember you in your ways.
But you were angry, and we sinned;
because you hid yourself we transgressed.
We have all become like one who is unclean,
and all our righteous deeds are like a filthy cloth.
We all fade like a leaf,
and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away.
There is no one who calls on your name,
or attempts to take hold of you;
for you have hidden your face from us,
and have delivered us into the hand of our iniquity.
Yet, O Lord, you are our Father;
we are the clay, and you are our potter;
we are all the work of your hand.
Do not be exceedingly angry, O Lord,
and do not remember iniquity forever.
Now consider, we are all your people.
This episode was written and recorded by Rev. Katie Callaway, the co-pastor of First Baptist Church in Savannah, Georgia. It was produced by Rev. Jim Keat. Background tracks include Button Mushrooms, Miss Moon, and Daphne by Podington Bear.
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