a final feast

Good morning friends,
Today's readings is a beautiful passage from Isaiah that gives us a vision of God's future redemption of the world. We don't know when God will bring history to its completion, but the images we get of that completion remind us that in the end things work out beautifully. Those images remind us that God can bring new life our of death and peace out of trouble. Knowing that the end will be wonderful gives us courage to live our faith now because we know that the suffering and hardship that are so widespread now will not have the last word. In that way this vision of the end is like the resurrection; death will be swallowed up forever and God will wipe away all our tears.
May that hope give you courage and joy in your ministry today,
Sam

Isaiah 25:6-9

6 On this mountain the Lord of hosts will make for all peoples
a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wines,
of rich food filled with marrow, of well-aged wines strained clear.
7 And he will destroy on this mountain
the shroud that is cast over all peoples,
the sheet that is spread over all nations;
8 he will swallow up death for ever.
Then the Lord God will wipe away the tears from all faces,
and the disgrace of his people he will take away from all the earth,
for the Lord has spoken.
9 It will be said on that day,
Lo, this is our God; we have waited for him, so that he might save us.
This is the Lord for whom we have waited;
let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation.