My Thoughts Are Not Your Thoughts

25th Sunday of Ordinary Time - Isaiah 55:6-9 

Seek the LORD while he may be found,

call him while he is near.

Let the scoundrel forsake his way,

and the wicked his thoughts;

let him turn to the LORD for mercy;

to our God, who is generous in forgiving.

For my thoughts are not your thoughts,

nor are your ways my ways, says the LORD.

As high as the heavens are above the earth,

so high are my ways above your ways

and my thoughts above your thoughts.

Isaiah 55 is the final chapter of a subsection of the book, chapter 40-55, often referred to as Isaiah’s Book of Consolation. In the verses immediately before our second reading, the Lord calls those who hunger and thirst to come to a free banquet that will draw them into covenant relationship with him. In this passage, the Lord speaks to us of undeserved mercy and the divine logic that underlies it. The next several verses that follow the end of our reading talk about the great power of God’s word to effect his wishes. The overarching message here is that the Lord’s logic of undeserved mercy is an exercise of his power and is meant to draw us into a relationship with him. 

Many of us struggle with the Lord’s mercy. We tell ourselves that God loves the holier people more than me. We can think we have gone too far down this road to turn around. How many times have you heard someone say something to the effect that they cannot darken a church door because the building will collapse on them? Even many of us church-going types have a twisted idea that God will love me and forgive me, but only up to a point. If I cross that point then I am out of the range of his mercy, and he is just mad at me. That is how we often think because that is also how we often function. It is really hard to forgive someone unconditionally. We struggle to wrap our feeble little minds around infinite and undeserved mercy. In a certain sense, it is a mercy that is not fair. It does not line up with our actions. The Spirit speaks directly into that reality this week when he says very clearly, “My thoughts are not your thoughts” because “my thoughts [are] above your thoughts.” 

When it comes to mercy, God does not use human logic and calculus. He loves you in your sin (and too much to leave you in it) and forgives you before you ask (asking for mercy is the act of receiving it). Do you believe that? Are you shocked by that? Because of the Lord’s immense love and mercy toward me, I should do everything in my power, relying on his power, to “live in a manner worthy of the call [I] have received” (Ephesians 4:1). I owe it to the Lord to strive to be worthy while recognizing that no amount of unworthy living on my part puts me beyond his reach. That is good news! In fact, it is news to many of us and many of our peers. Lots of us hold a caricature of God in our minds, just a character in a familiar story from an old book. But the God who actually exists loves us and wants to forgive us even before we ask for it and especially when we do not deserve it. 

That living and true God calls out to us today: “Seek the Lord while he may be found, call him while he is near.” Turn to him while you still have time. You have not wandered too far away because there is no such thing as too far away. You probably need to be reminded of that, and there is likely someone in your life who also needs to be reminded of it. Will you remind them?